I was flipping around stations this morning and of course found stations voicetracked. First I heard the "Best of the Rob Ryan show" on the BUZZ. If thats his best, Houston we have a problem. I heard a promo being ran over the intro of a record into the vocals. It sounded small town at best. Then I switched to KILT FM where the Hudson & Harrigan countdown was under way. I don't know how many times I heard a intro of a song completely buried under the music and could not understand a word they were saying. I'm embarresed for radio in Houston. If anyone from another major market was in town listening to all these mistakes, they must have had a really good laugh. Another reason live will always beat voicetracked.
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ONE MORE REASON VOICETRACKING SUCKS!
- Thread starter iused2bsomebody
- Start date
iused2bsomebody said:
That's not voicetracking.... "Best of" Saturday and Holiday shows have been around for 50 years.
iused2bsomebody said:
Well whatever you call it, its still prerecorded and it sounds terrible. You would think someone would listen to it before it airs and make sure everything is ok. My point is that without a live person in the studio to catch these kind of mistakes, large market radio like Houston is being reduced to small town sounds.
iused2bsomebody said:
Most "Best of's" are edited and run by a board op; if anything, I would suspect the board op was inexperienced and trying to be overly tight on the board work. With voice tracking, it's easy to establish when cuts come in and when they segue to the next event... including whether they cue the next event under the cut or end cold... most best-of shows do cold ends so they don't hit the songs or the stops wrong.
In other words, this could be avoided if the show were voice tracked. But it sounds like this was a live screw-up, not a prerecorded one. :
Here was a nice screwup ...
Around 11 a.m. yesterday on The Arrow, Kelly Ryan comes out of a song and says "That was Supertramp here on 104.7 The Mix ...", then goes straight into a promo re. Steve Fixx or something Arrow-related. I give her credit for recovering quickly; never even sounded like she realized she screwed up.
Then in the same break, a traffic report was played with someone named Sarah, who ended with "This is Walton and Johnson on 93.7 The Arrow, KKRW Houston."
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Around 11 a.m. yesterday on The Arrow, Kelly Ryan comes out of a song and says "That was Supertramp here on 104.7 The Mix ...", then goes straight into a promo re. Steve Fixx or something Arrow-related. I give her credit for recovering quickly; never even sounded like she realized she screwed up.
Then in the same break, a traffic report was played with someone named Sarah, who ended with "This is Walton and Johnson on 93.7 The Arrow, KKRW Houston."
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Perfect example. Kelly Ryan is "voicetracked" on the Arrow and other stations. I've heard her doing traffic on KTRH and the BUZZ while her voicetracked show was running on the Arrow. In regards to a board op screw up. I would bet you that neither the BUZZ or KILT FM ,where I heard the mistakes, had a live person in the control room. They are both being run by computer.
iused2bsomebody said:
Probably 90% or more of stations around the world are "run by computer" as digital storage systems are used from New York City to Burkina Faso. Most of these systems can sequence audio elements, whether in sets put together by someone in the studio or preprogrammed from a merged music and commercial log. There is nothing ingherently wrong with a computer doing the manual work. If the bits and pieces are properly trimmed, the sequence bursts put down right, etc., it can make a good show better as the manual work is not a disctraction.
Generally, the computers do not make mistakes. The people putting things into the computer can and do... the errors are human.
Agreed Fred, that what you put into it is what you get out but again my major point is with a live person working ,these kind of mistakes would not occur unless your live person simply doen't know what he or she is doing. Saying again that live is always better than voicetracking, anytime, anywhere!
S
soloflyr1
Guest
Just my 2 cents but these situations are caused by one of two things that is wrong with radio these days.
1. Cut staffs which means that some overworked person either didn't have the time to do the job right when inputting the info into the computer or at least to check & make sure it was segued right.
2. Some underqualified, underpaid body was left at the controls with the responsibility of playing the segments in order & keeping things tight.
Either way the sucky product is the result of cost cutting by bean counters who believe any monkey can do the job regardless of how little you pay them. Yes it is just pushing buttons but does require someone with the proper attitude & maybe just a little bit of desire to be good at what they do.
When was the last time you heard a cook at McDonald's profess their pride & love for their job?
There are still some people hanging onto their radio dreams through part-time positions & for the most part they haven't had their desire to put out a good air product completely squashed by the powers that be. But there are a lot of short order cooks who are just occupying the stool in the studio so they can continue to get paid the same money without all the grease splatter.
Too many talented, hard working people have been let go to save a few pennies while the upper echelon of management increases their own salaries & bonuses. For the kind of money they waste on the people in the corner offices that only excel at kissing their bosses butts they could staff a winning team in the studio's.
1. Cut staffs which means that some overworked person either didn't have the time to do the job right when inputting the info into the computer or at least to check & make sure it was segued right.
2. Some underqualified, underpaid body was left at the controls with the responsibility of playing the segments in order & keeping things tight.
Either way the sucky product is the result of cost cutting by bean counters who believe any monkey can do the job regardless of how little you pay them. Yes it is just pushing buttons but does require someone with the proper attitude & maybe just a little bit of desire to be good at what they do.
When was the last time you heard a cook at McDonald's profess their pride & love for their job?
There are still some people hanging onto their radio dreams through part-time positions & for the most part they haven't had their desire to put out a good air product completely squashed by the powers that be. But there are a lot of short order cooks who are just occupying the stool in the studio so they can continue to get paid the same money without all the grease splatter.
Too many talented, hard working people have been let go to save a few pennies while the upper echelon of management increases their own salaries & bonuses. For the kind of money they waste on the people in the corner offices that only excel at kissing their bosses butts they could staff a winning team in the studio's.
Amen!
soloflyr1 said:
I totally agree with soloflyr1!!! I couldn't of said it better if I said it myself. Amen!!!
iused2bsomebody said:
however, I've made mistakes (tons of them) LIVE on-air...and there's no fixing them. when VTing, I have the option to fix the mistake.
VTing only sucks if no care is taken. and VTing a good hour may take an hour to do: great for time shifting if nothing else
D
downthedial
Guest
AMEN!! I once loved this business. Now, I've left it for a writing career. I've been much more successful in my writing career than I could ever be in radio these days.
Another who doesn't understand voice tracking. But I am always amused by those who are so busy looking at what somebody else is doing and having a field day with it until they suddenly figure out that the voice track is not, but a person is really doing the program. Then they have to back peddle and let others know that it's not all canned as they thought. One way they accomplish this is by saying, "On this Monday", "For a Tuesday", "Happy Hump Day", all through the week. What can I say? It's funny to see such a one get caught in her own loop while trying to navigate through a maze of mirrors.
Except then they take a sick day here, a sick day there, the doctor this, the doctor that, got their boyfriend to jump on the merry go round, on and on and on.
Except then they take a sick day here, a sick day there, the doctor this, the doctor that, got their boyfriend to jump on the merry go round, on and on and on.
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