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Voice Tracking
- Thread starter Retro
- Start date
Retro said:
If the voicetracking is done well, you won't know the difference, unless the jocks who do their shows live routinely take phone calls or chat about stuff going on at the station or in the city at that very moment. If the station is a typical, tight, read-the-cards-and-don't-ad-lib-or-you're-gone operation, the average listener (i.e. non-radio geek) will never be able to tell the difference.
If any of you have Sirius XM, listen to The Loft sometime. That channel is 100 percent voicetracked, but it sounds amazingly live. The only giveaways are no mentions of current events and requests (for the morning "wake-up sets") taken only by e-mail -- and never played the same day, usually two or three days later.
No mention of time or temperature is a giveaway.
BoredModerator said:
I've heard VT'ed shifts with the time given as "xx minutes past the hour." Some VTed stations run prerecorded weather forecasts and omit the temps. I wouldn't be surprised if there are stations that fake the temps; I remember one in Syracuse that did back in the '70s on its live shifts -- subtracting a degree or two to report the alleged temp in a northern suburb, adding one or two for the towns to the south. How hard would it be to look at the predicted temps for a given time period and just stick them into the voicetracking, adding or subtracting every hour?
BoredModerator said:
Outside of morning drive or news formats, time and temp isn't something you're getting from live jocks either. Just not something that most listeners rely on from the radio anymore.
CTListener is right about voicetracking, if it's done right, you can't tell. And the only way you can tell is if the tracker says something incredibly stupid that's a giveaway to those who know the industry; at that point the listener just thinks the jock is an idiot! As for phone calls, Jackson Blue is tracked and he still airs calls. And most Sirius/XM stations are tracked, not just the Loft.
Retro, you mentioned in the original post you knew Magic was tracked last night but then you said you wonder when listening to the radio is it's live or not. How did you know Magic was tracked?
Retro said:
Hahaha! I thought something happened last night on the station and you weren't sharing!
Retro said:
WBMX doesn't VT any of the full time shifts (mornings/middays/afternoons/nights), ever. We're also live & local for every weekend shift, save one. Pretty rare stuff, I guess, looking around the country.
WERS is live 24/7, even holidays and overnights. Pretty rare for a non-comm in any market, never mind a commercial station. Of course, when your airstaff is unpaid you can afford to have them on. On the flipside, when your airstaff is unpaid, it's amazing that someone will come in on New Year's Day morning!!
WNTIRadio said:
WHRB is live overnight, definitely have heard WMFO and WMLN having pow-wows in the stuio at nightmiddle - i mean takin callers, having lively discussions as if its 3pm. . a few AMs are really fantastic for late night energy
of course if im up that late im praobly on 80 meters, its more entertaining than FM
An unexpected benefit of working for a smaller company is the requirement that someone be here in the building 24/7. As our stations are housed in 3 different locations, I have live jocks 24/7.
Go ahead and call on a Sat overnight @ 3AM...An actual person will answer. You may even hear your call on the air!
We do run House Of Hair...
The concept of having live weekends is simply awesome. And with the job market being what it is, I actually have guys with PD experience pulling weekends.
Yin/Yang....
Go ahead and call on a Sat overnight @ 3AM...An actual person will answer. You may even hear your call on the air!
We do run House Of Hair...
The concept of having live weekends is simply awesome. And with the job market being what it is, I actually have guys with PD experience pulling weekends.
Yin/Yang....
I am live & local on the overnights but that will probably be coming to an abrupt ending very soon as Cumulus slices & dices the former Citadel clusters .. and it's a shame really, it was always a perfect shift for newcomers to hone their skills (not that are very many newcomers to the biz these day)
So NeanderPaul, once I get the axe, you got something out there in AZ for me on overnights? (lol) Ron Valeri will give me a stellar reference. BTW, thx for accepting the friend request on FB last night.
So NeanderPaul, once I get the axe, you got something out there in AZ for me on overnights? (lol) Ron Valeri will give me a stellar reference. BTW, thx for accepting the friend request on FB last night.
F
faderraider
Guest
WATD In Marshfield is live and local....always a live jock,or board op and alot of the time news people around the broadcast house......
Come to think of it, what sounded odd about the voice tracking was it was the overnight shift and the announcer said "Songs you know that will not embarrass you in front of your clients." Huh? Usually it is songs you know that will not embarrass you in front of your kids" instead. Or something like that. :
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