Well, I certainly haven't been maintaining my blog. The last month and a half in school, work, life in general has kept me pretty busy. I hope I haven't lost the two or so followers that I do have (my mom would probably read my blog but I think she can't get past seeing the computer as an electronic game of solitaire).
The basic broadcasting course at Bellevue College is done. In that time, I managed to get the support of my teacher after nailing my mock broadcast final. She said she would help me prepare an audition tape and recommend me to KBCS. Good. The networking angle paid off. I ran into my initial correspondent at the station who suggested I take this course a couple of days ago. I told her about the success I had in the course and she said she would be a sponsor of sorts with my program. Awesome! Now the new humps.
Wednesday was the last day of the quarter at school. I was in the lab trying to make a model of what my show would be like as well as the audition tape. An audition tape in radio is basically just the talking parts. Coming in and out of songs, bandnotes, station ID's etc. My idea and my teachers suggestion, was to do an hour long blueprint of the show and then edit the audition tape out of that. While recording the show, she had pointed out to me that I hold syllables for strange periods of time, my cadence is awkward and and my vocal tones don't always illustrate my emotions. I don't disagree with that. Anyone who knows me knows how I talk. I didn't think this would be too much of a problem since I was aiming to get an evening show at such a small station. Have you heard some of the DJ's on KBCS? Part of the beauty of community radio is that the DJ's just sound like people in the community. I understand her wanting me to sound professional for a first impression, even though I still feel the music is the selling point. So with precious little time before the campus closes down for winter break I start doing just vocal takes, making sure I pay attention to my delivery. After several takes I end up with a satisfactory audition tape. However, since the my time is overdue, I have to leave the model show down there. Stuck on the Vox Pro with no way to get it until January. It was a good show too! My objective in the selections is to keep everything old. I discovered recently that Chris Martin of Kinski has a program at the station devoted to out sounds that is a little too close to my initial idea but a lot of what he plays is modern. My show will be all oldies for the most part. It will also remain closer to a rock core and experimental aspects found within that context (eg. not as much noise or modern composition). Soon, I will be writing my proposal to the program director and seeing if we can meet in person. The fact that it's the holiday season is working in my favor, since he may not have time to meet with me until the new year, maybe I can get my show back by that point.
I'm also happy to say that I left the class with a more positive feeling about it at the end of the quarter. Some of those kids are really nice and we ended up being very supportive of each other. I got a chance to tutor some of them on the board and I was able to lend some records to them for their mock broadcasts. My instructor has been very nurturing of my talents but she seems to want to direct me towards a more conventional type of broadcaster. I've been encouraged to take the advance classes which is a lot more technical work, as well as writing copy for news. I might do it in the spring. First things first. I want my show.
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