LO4: Evaluating content, audio levels and flow of the final production (D2)

ThrowBack Thursdays is a radio show that focuses on playing early 2000's songs that resonate and create nostalgia for their 18-25 female audience, the late night timing of the programme is purposefully planned to enable the show to target the large student population in Sheffield.

By specifically playing music from the 2000's era I think this gives the programme a really unique selling point and perfectly targets the audience who know these songs well however don't necessarily hear them on a regular basis that they would do with pop songs played on flagship breakfast shows. 

The show is hosted by two girls who are both in the target audience age range, by having the hosts of the show being so similar to the target audience this allows them to be extremely relatable, this is also enforced by the topics spoken about and the informal language that is carried throughout the show. By having the hosts address the audience as 'hun' or use colloquial phrases such as 'omg yes that sounds amaze' gives a very relaxed and natural conversation appearance, this informal peer to peer language was placed to create friendship styled interactions between the hosts and the listeners and create atmosphere of a very friendly and supportive community.
I think the chattiness of the hosts throughout the show really helps establish the target audience and the atmosphere of positivity and friendship throughout, this I think is entertaining and relaxing for the audience to listen to as well as creating a very strong and loyal listenership due to the personal interactions.

In planning for the show I tried to ensure that all topics that the hosts spoke about flowed and resonated with the listeners either on a location basis or by their interests, I think the angle of the conversation between the two hosts was informative for the audience and if any listeners were new to Sheffield i'd like to think they learnt about upcoming Sheffield events such as Tramlines or local business such as Meadowhall.
However if I was to write the script again I would reduce the number of songs as I think as the hosts were getting into speaking on the topic they would have to introduce a new song and this I think interrupted the flowing conversation between the hosts making it quite jolted throughout in that respect.

As researched in LO1, we have established very clear conventions that are present in nearly all radio shows these being elements such as news segments and adverts.
In ThrowBack Thursdays it features a 20 second news feature however this I think is one of the weaker points of the show due to the news articles spoken about aren't very relative to the audience or their interests.
The headlines that were spoken about were very political or serious and even though this is common for news headlines and does still deliver an aspect of surveillance for the listeners, I think I could've focused more on news that would've been more relatable to the audience in according to their geographic location or their interests e.g speaking about more Sheffield based news or university strikes.

Another convention I followed very closely was the station jingle, a jingle is a way to audibly represent a brand, by having key sounds and linked phrases that are played in often intervals people know what station their listening to and what kind of show they expect to hear.
I wanted my jingle to include my slogan which indicated the type of music that would be played, the phrase that was used was 'Back to Back ThrowBacks', the repetition of the word 'back' not only signifies the period that the music is from but also connotes a non-stop stream of music that will be played.

As part of our programme I ensured to incorporate often interactions with the audience this was done through social media and phone calls, by having this constant interaction with the listeners it allows their input on topics and geared towards their interests and opinions.
This is a strong convention in radio as it allows a range of opinions and topics to be shared this keeping the show entertaining and not all directed by the hosts as this can come across as too structured throughout, often phone-ins are used on more dialogue led shows such as TalkSport.
To add a competitive element into the programme the audience had the chance to win a Tramlines ticket if they could correctly name a 2000's song and artist, by giving the audience this chance to win tickets to such an infamous Sheffield event not only promotes the festival but supports independant businesses in doing so this being a positive attribution and fitting the brief set by Sheffield Live.
Overall I think this is one of the best sections in the show, the tension created by whether or not the caller will guess correct enables the show to be super entertaining and adds an intellectual puzzle (Rick Altman) for the audience to enjoy as well as the hosts dialogue and music being played.

The overall audio of the show is one of the biggest concerns that I feel surrounding the show, due to the Covid-19 circumstances that occurred during the point of filming it left me having to use an Iphone instead of the sound booth originally planned.
I think this is quite clear as in some sections in particular you can hear that one of the hosts is holding the phone and is therefore a lot louder and drowns out the second host, I tried to combat this by splicing the dialogue and lowering or heightening the volume in accordance but this wasn't viable to do the whole programme.
However despite the hosts audio being unbalanced I think the overall show does sound well created, the varied volumes of the layered audios e.g the bedding music, adverts and jingles creates a continuous flowing programme that is enjoyable to listen too.

LO4: Final Radio production

LO4: Offline edit (P5)

LO4: Editing and reviewing content (P5)

Voice/Clip Distortion

Intercom Voice SFX 

In my Meadowhall advert that is showcasing the well-known Sheffield shopping centre, I have added an intercom effect to the narrators voice, this helping the listeners visualise the location of the advert and bring a sense of relatability.
To add the intercom effect to the clip I selected the file and then through the essential sound folder I then selected the dialogue presets, through this I then selected the 'Over the intercom' effect.
This effect enhances the product as it allows the audience to visualise themselves in the location that the advert is promoting and therefore it gives an element of escapism to the audience this proving more effective for advertisement purposes as it engages with the audience through relatability due to it being a recognisable sound.

Added Echo

As well as adding an intercom effect to the narrators voice I wanted to enhance this effect further so therefore proceeded to add an echo to really highlight the distortion of the narrators voice.
To do this I proceeded to select the file and then using the bars above I selected effects and then Echo and Delay, after selecting this effect I am giving a large range of variables that i can change and adjust to get the desired echo.
Due to the intercom already giving the narrators voice a slight delay and echo the effect I was looking for was quite minimal but clear, this is shown in the screenshot demonstrating the changeable levels.
By adding the echo personally I can hear a big change in the advert as the effect is more emphasised and prominent against the upbeat and cheery bedding music, I found throughout the editing process its important that an equilibrium is constantly maintained between all audio volumes as if a sound is drowned out it immediately looks unprofessional.

Telephone distortion SFX

In the third section of the show, we host a call in where we speak to a listener at home, in this section a lot of SFX and distortion effects were added to make it realistic and follow conventions that you would see on stations such as Heart or Capital.When our guest Nat speaks I have placed a dialogue effect that makes her voice appear as if she's speaking on a telephone even though the clip was filmed with everyone in the same location.

To create the phone effect I firstly spliced the conversation so I had Nat's response in its own clip, once splicing all of Nat's answers I then selected through the essential sound folder onto the dialogue presets and found a telephone effect, this adds a high hum and an echo like you'd hear if you were speaking to someone on the telephone, this really allowed the clip to follow conventions and appeared much more realistic. By showing this clear contrast between the hosts audio and the callers it allowed the audience to understand the roles each voice had and makes the programme easier to follow.

Audio Levels and effects 

Fading audio

In the show i have added a lot of fades throughout to many different audio clips e.g songs, SFX and bedding music, by adding this effect I have created a show where the audio is more blended and cohesive.
In the earlier versions i had not begun to add these fades and found the audio was very jolted and had clear stop and start points where new audio had begun, this was especially apparent with the songs that were being played as part of the show as i had only included 20 seconds of the song this normally meant that where the song had been spliced it was mid-song if I hadn't added the fade it appeared very jolted and confusing for the audience.
To add the fade, I selected the clip and then used the headings at the top of Audition named 'Clip' and then proceeded to chose the fade out option.
By adding this effect I found a huge improvement to the show as it allowed the programme flow a lot more smoothly, as you can see in the screenshots I not only used this effect on larger clips such as songs but also found it helped with sound effects. In the Showroom advert the narrator begins by shushing a chattering sound effect, by fading out the chattering effect after the narrators 'Shush' it allows a natural die down of the chattering volume making it a very organic response.


Audio Levels 

Due to the Covid-19 situation that occurred mid filming the show most of the sections had to be recorded on a iPhone instead of in a booth with a professional standard microphone, because of this I did have to do a lot of editing in Audition with the audio levels as one of the hosts was sat closer to the Iphone microphone.
This technical issue was overcome by changing the audio levels on certain clips, I used this technique heavily with my bedding music clips too due to these clips needing to be very low volume to not drown out or distract form the hosts voice. You can see this in the screenshot below which depicts the pink file format, all file formats have a volume bar which is in yellow, dependant on how high the bar is how loud or quiet the clip is.
The yellow bar in the bedding music is really low as it needs to be just background music in comparison to the hosts voice.
Whilst editing the hosts contrast in volumes this was a slightly longer process as I had to slice the clips into the different dialogue between each host and then lower or higher accordingly.

DeHummer

As well as some of the audio being contrasting in volume another recording fault that I had to fix was dehumming files.
In some clips such as the Meadowhall advert I found a loud buzz of background noise, this appeared very unprofessional and contrasting to the rest of the clips which were clear and crisp . I found that the hum was further amplified once the intercom effect was added and this meant that I had to add the Dehumming effect to level out the audio track.
To add the Dehumming effect I used the menu at the top of Adobe Audition and selected effects and then went onto select noise reduction and restoration and this allowed me to select the Dehumming effect, by adding this element I was able to remove all the background buzz and allowed the listener to focus on the narrators voice more due to the background hum now being removed.
It was important that all throughout editing I ensured that the audio of the clips was up to professional standard, obviously this was slightly more difficulty due to the Covid-19 situation however I felt that by having a good knowledge of the Adobe Audition Software I was able to use effects such as the Dehummer to make the best programme possible.
By having the highest possible quality of audio this follows the conventions of a professional radio station such as Capital or Heart as they will have extremely advanced equipment in the booth to provide the best programme possible to their audience as this will denote their popular status.

Organisation

File organisation 

In editing my show it was important hat I had a very organised file system so i wouldn't lose any important files and this would also make the process a lot quicker and more efficient whilst editing. 
You can see all the separate files that I have created this meaning a clear seperation between audio files and their content.
In my opinion the most important folder is the versions folder this was where I saved all my earlier versions, by having multiple copies of the show in different stages allowed me to not completely lose all work if my computer had technical issues.

Track Organisation


As well as having an organised filing system I have also been organised during editing on Adobe Audition.
In audition i have purposefully separated my tracks to be only for certain audio, as you can see all tracks are labelled dependant on what they contain. I tried to create the file so the tracks had main dialogue between the hosts on the top layer as this was the layer I was working on the most, my bottom track was my bedding music due to that being continuous throughout and therefore didn't need much tweaking

LO4: Evidence of setting up equipment and recording (P5)

Here are some images demonstrating me recording and editing the show, as you can see I used voice notes to record the show this allowed the sections to be saved as files and made them importable into the software.

Here are some images demonstrating me editing my show, I used the software Adobe Audition on a MacBook Air.

I didnt plan on recording the show on a phone and did originally plan on recording it in a booth however due to Covid-19 circumstances this made the most sense and made the best quality programme

LO4: Meeting minutes/ Production plan (P5)

LO1 meeting minutes 

LO2 meeting minutes 

LO3 meeting minutes

LO4 meeting minutes
















Production Plan 

LO3: Justifying codes and conventions (D1)

In creating my radio programme it was important that we kept up codes and conventions observed in radio shows analysed in LO1 to make the programmes realistic and recognisable for the audience. In LO1.
In the programme we were sure to include a news bulletin, this news flash appears half way through the show to demonstrate conventions of surveillance that are normally seen in programmes, we list several headlines of the day and further accompany the news section with associated sound effects these normally being chimes or a alerting sound created to switch the audiences attention into a more serious and formal mode of address. This was particularly important in our show due to the contrast between the informal code throughout that resembled a strong peer to peer language to then switch very suddenly to a more formal and informative address.

Another convention we have placed in the show is a jingle, this short audio clip is played roughly 10 times throughout the show, the frequent playing of the jingle demonstrates normally a change of content this either being an advert, a song or dialogue between hosts. By frequently playing the jingle it constantly reminds the audience of the programme and station that they are listening too as well as the change of content, this being a very recognisable convention for the audience due to the frequent use in all radio shows.
The branding that the jingle achieves is really important as its instantly recognisable for the audience especially for large regional shows such as Capital or Heart, the jingle conventionally has the programme name or slogan alongside alerting sound effects to make sure it stands out for the audience throughout the programme.

During the dialogue between the hosts i have ensured that its very informal and we have a strong peer to peer address, this I have purposefully created as it will resonate with our 18-25 female audience, by hearing the informal chattiness of the hosts this will create a sense of relatability as the fun lighthearted conversations are probably very similar to theirs with friends.
This is a very popular language convention used by many station hosts as it makes the programmes more fun to listen too and allows humour to be added in easier, this we see with Amanda Holden and James Theakston on Hearts flagship breakfast show.

In the programme we do have frequent adverts, this being due to Sheffield live being a community radio that is non-profit it does use radio adverts to support local business' as well as fund further radio productions. Due to this I will be having conventional radio adverts that target the 18-25 year old audience as well as the topics mentioned in the show.
All adverts are targeted at a Sheffield audience and are mostly independant businesses this fits into the Sheffield live ethos as well as targeting the audience geographically this creating inclusion in the show.
The adverts that are played on the show follow conventions such as deliberate sound effects to make the adverts stand out and paint more of a visual picture for the audience seen as radio is purely audio, this is shown as an example in our Meadowhall advert which is edited to have an echo/tanoy effect this creating a shopping environment connotation to the audience, by adding smart special effects adverts this is a convention as it offers the listeners an element of escapism.