July 1999 RAP
July 1999 Highlights
Feature: It Cannot Be Done!
By John Pellegrini
He (not his real name) was a nice guy; he was just out of his league. He
was in charge of a department in a particular company that handled part of
the billing. He got along fine with just about everyone on the staff. Except
there were occasional lapses when things weren’t billed correctly. However
those were small mistakes, and things were usually taken care of in the
proper order, and everything was all right. Then, the company started
getting busier. More orders began coming in. More contracts were purchased.
And his department was making more mistakes. Invoices weren’t sent out, or
sent with colossal mistakes that cost the company huge amounts of money.
Products weren’t being delivered because orders weren’t being processed
correctly, if at all.
Interview: Tom Richards, B101.1/WBEB-FM, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
By Jerry Vigil
There’s no denying that some of the most stimulating production comes
from today’s somewhat "unrestrained" formats like Rock, CHR, and even
News/Talk, but if any format is going to win, top-notch production has got
to be part of the formula. For Philadelphia’s A/C giant, B101.1/WBEB-FM, the
importance of production was never a question—not when it came to equipment,
and not when it came to personnel. With over 20 years in radio, WBEB
Production Director Tom Richards has been keeping the station on top of its
production game for the past seven years. He has been the voice for hundreds
of radio commercials, narrations, and industrial presentations with clients
such as Chancellor Marketing Group, Panasonic, Honeywell, Ensoniq,
Smith-Kline Beecham, and Seiko. He also narrates "First Flights with Neil
Armstrong" on cable’s History Channel. Like the station itself, Tom has won
numerous awards including AIR Awards from the March of Dimes and "Best Major
Market Radio Commercial" from the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters
for three of the last five years. Sit back for an informative chat with Tom,
and be sure to check out Tom’s demo on The Cassette for a taste of A/C
production at its best.
Technology: Audioactive Production Studio From Telos
Systems
USER REVIEW - By Jim Kipping
There are a few good tidbits of wisdom that I have been given over the
years. Don’t spit into the wind (thanks Jim C. this is SO true!), there are
no free lunches (unless you bought last time), and, of course, as my father
once told me, "Never pet a burning cat" (okay, I just made that one up—just
kidding. I love pets). Ladies and Gentlemen of the production class of 1999,
if I could offer you one piece of advice. USE AUDIO ACTIVE PRODUCTION
STUDIO!!! It won’t cause skin cancer, and it doesn’t leave you smelling like
Cocoa butter.
Q It Up: The RAP Network Speaks - The Home Studio
By Jerry Vigil
The Home Studio, once a dream for most, now a reality at incredibly
affordable prices. Get a napkin and get ready to drool over some of the
studios outlined in this month's Q It Up column. No doubt, some of you have
taken the home studio to the max, and aren’t through yet.
Once again, we had some great response to this month’s question, and will
present the responses in two parts with part two in next month’s August
issue.
Q It Up: Do you have a studio at home? What is it equipped
with? (If you have a computer-based workstation, what audio software are you
using? Also tell us about your computer—CPU type/speed, hard disk size, RAM,
and sound card. Include any other information you feel is pertinent.) What
plans do you have for new gear in the near future? Feel free to add any
other comments you might have.
Radio HED: Case, Typeface, and White Space
By Jeffrey Hedquist
These 3 simple script formatting hints look too simple to have any
effect, but they’ll help save you time, money and face. And I learned them
from our print-oriented colleagues. Amazing.
Feature: The Virgin's Nightmare of Consolidation - Part
1
By Craig Jackman
I’d been reading it in the business papers and the trades for years.
Consolidation, the dirty word of the industry where fewer owners mean more
work, fewer jobs, and unreal stock options for those who already make too
much money. I’ll admit it. I was sitting smugly in my little studio thinking
that it would never affect me. After all, the people that owned my station
were all upstanding members of the community. We all were proud to be the
last locally owned station in a major market in Canada. Then they changed
the rules on us. After much lobbying by the CAB (Canadian Association of
Broadcasters), the CRTC (the Canadian version of the FCC) decided to lift
ownership restrictions. So now, instead of owning just one AM and one FM per
market, the limit was raised so that in general you can now own 2 and 2. As
soon as that came out I knew that CHEZ-FM Inc. (CHEZ-FM Ottawa/CFMO-FM and
CJET Smiths Falls) was too juicy a plum not to be in a larger corporations
gun sights.
...And Make It Real Creative
By Andy Capp
Maybe we’ve given time too much power with the words we choose when we
have a task at hand. Doesn’t deadline sound a little too negative, as though
you are damned whether you finish on time or not? ASAP feels like the name
of some incredibly secret international agency, bent on world ruination by
caffeine overdose. Even the words "Time Management" imply that Time is an
unruly beast that must be tamed, without so much as a second out of line,
before it overtakes us and inflicts its evil, such as making your car
payment late.
The Monday Morning Memo - Say It Like Flowers
By Janet Thomae
I’m obsessed with an outlandish flower peddler that I like to call Johnny
Flowers. He’s the reason I drive through the town’s most miserable,
congested intersection on my way home from work each day. If there are rules
to selling flowers...Johnny doesn’t follow them.
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