I have a degree in broadcasting. I had lots of training and the college I attended is considered one of the best for broadcasters...and I have a passion for radio...still do to this day even though I havent been on air in a few years. After I graduated...I started becoming more aware of the radio stations that were out there. I soon came to realize that with all of the big name radio station companies buying up smaller ones...theres less and less real radio stations out there. Real meaning live radio.
One of the first things I noticed was one of the local country stations. After a song would play, I would hear his voice say "hot country 92 five," then a second or two later...he comes back on talking about this and that, doing his radio thing. I kept wondering why they did this...then I realized that the only reason one would do this is if he was broadcasting to a whole bunch of stations at once. For example...after that song plays...in my town, I might hear his voice say "hot country 92 five," but at the same time, in your town, you might hear his voice (pre recorded of course) say "Americas new country 103 seven"...etc. The only way that this is possible is via really good computer control at the stations across the country that particpate in this, along with a satellite feed.
If you listen to country radio, late at night, Im sure you have heard of Blair Garner. Blair is an overnight country radio host from midnight to 6 am (central time).
We still dont even know if the radio we listen to is live or pre-recorded...that is very hard to tell the difference.
How can you tell if your station is local or satellite fed? Easy, listen to it and try to find examples of locality. Is their call in number a 1-800 number? Probably satellite fed. Are you in a small town and your morning show sounds wayyyyy too good (ie...lots of monologue, lots of instant sound effects...etc)? That means their show is very scripted...not common in small towns. Most small town stations dont pay their Deejays enough to spend that much time scripting out their shows. When they talk...do they say something like "next up on 103.9, Bob Johnson with Howdy Mom."...or do they say "next up on todays hot country...Bob Johnson with Howdy Mom. On 103.9" See the difference?
The difference is that each radio station has its own frequency. Local broadcasters often say the frequency with their monologue...not as an after thought and a seperate sentence. With that in mind...dont try and think of their name...such as "todays hot country," because that could be part of the satellite broadcast as well. The guy in Denver could be saying "todays hot country" to many stations at the same time throughout the country. You need examples of locality...such as town names, street names, businesses, frequency numbers, call letters. These need to be IN the monolugue of the DeeJay, not as a seperate afterthought.
Why does it have to be in the monologue? Easy...If you hear the Deejay talking about road conditions or about an accident that just happened...then you know he is in that area. But if he says the frequency seperately, that very well could be in there as a computer audio clip. The computers can be programed to play local commercials for that station, and then it can broadcast dead air...but when it does...the satellite feed kicks in and broadcasts over the stations frequency for a certain amount of time. WHen the guy is done with his segment...the computers program says the time for dead air is over and that it needs to play the next segment...which is that very same guys voice...saying the station call letters or frequency.
*computer plays song
*song ends
*computer goes to next segment - 1 minute of dead air
*satellite kicks in and deejay comes on across the country saying what that song was...and talks about whatever he wants to for the next exact minute
*computer winds down to end of 1 minute of dead air...prepares for next segment...guys voice saying frequency and call letters
*guy stops and says "todays hot country"
*satellite feed ends
*computer kicks in and plays next segment "103.9...WBOB"
- In all...sounds like this...."(song ends) That was Nickoli Petrenkov with his song...russian country lovin...here on todays hot music. Niel Diamond is on the road again doing some more touring...isnt he dead yet (laughter in background). Anyways...next up we have Yolanda, George, and the crashed windows with their song "what would I do without beer" on todays Hot country.........103.9, WBOB"
Ive seen satellite feeds work both ways. Sometimes the satellite feed itself is a style of music and has its own name such as "todays hot new country", so they very well might use that in their monologue, that happens. Another thing that happens is the satellite feed just providing the content, and then the local station plays the name of the station "what would I do with out beer.........only on The Pond...KWET"
Now Im not sure how the satellite feeds work exactly. Im imagining that the local stations have the music songs on file on their computer, but I wouldnt be surprised if that was fed by satellite either, just for continuity. The latter would leave only local ID and commercials and such on the local computers.
Another satellite feed is a radio show that some of us might have heard...its John Garabedians Open House Party. His show is broadcast around the world. If you are in New york, you hear it; and if you are in San Fran...you hear it as well. The same guy...saying the same things. BUT, his show is also intertwined with local stations so that when he says "Spears up next with 'oops I did it again'"...
it sounds like "did it again....on todays new mix KNEW" in New York....and "did it again....on The bays top 40 station...WBAY"in San Fran. He might be live...but his show is very edited (to the exact second, at least) in order to match up with local computers that play his voice to tie in with the satellite feed.
Driving through Detroit Lakes, MN....I sometimes listen to a country station there. At the end of every hour...the music cuts out and BOOM, a legal ID pops in and starts off the next hour. This isnt something that a normal radio station operator would allow...having his music be cut off constantly. Im thinking that its because the stations computer is not up to synch with the satellite feed and looses a few seconds here and there and by the end of the hour...it is behind schedule and when the satellite feed comes in with the legal id...the computer resets its timing and is ready to go for the next hour.
Now...with that said, your radio station might actually be real...meaning the people are in that town. The radio station itself might pre-record everything. (ie...MOST radion stations record their music to the computers and use nifty broadcast equipment to play the songs and commercials, liners, station ID's...even prerecorded segments. How do I know this? I myself worked at a radio station that did this. The station was a volunteer run station and while the Deejays were live on the weekends, it was hard to get people to come in during the day. So...in the evening...I would go and record to the computer a program from Greg Laurie (pastor at harvest.com). I would record his program for airplay the next morning. Then after that, I would record the weather announcements for the evening, overnight, early morning and morning. After that, I would then record my overnight show. I would place in two audio clips each hour to make it sound like I was there....something like "Newsboys here on Real Radio 90.1. Broadcasting across the range and around the world on our website...forecast is coming up in a few minutes, but up next we have PFR, Audio A, and starting off the mix, a little bit of Jars of Clay with their latest song Stained Glass Windows, only on Real Radio 90.1"
We went down to a festivial in Illonois and were able to preprogram the station to play all the music and commercials for that entire week we were gone. In reality...one can program a station as far out as they want. If you owned a station and had the right equipment, you could come in one night a month...work and program the computer all night long...and have the station run itself for the entire month. When I was in broadcast school, we had a indoor radio station where we could be heard through some pa systems. This was a mock up of a nice sized radio station. We had a few booths to program music and record our segments....so much so that they could blend in and fade out with the music. I could with the wave of a computer mouse...record a point in the future so that I knew exactly what it would sound like.
I listen to an 80's station down here in LV. Star 102.7 fm. Its a great station...and I dont even normally like 80s music...but they seem to play music that doesnt suck. Anyways, in the morning, I listen to their morning show and I hear a clip of Mike O'Brian from Hollywood. This might not seem strange, but we have live people (the Deejays) interacting with a pre-recorded segment from Mike O'Brian. What the guy does is pre-record his segment as he has scripted it out...pretending to talk to the show hosts...then he puts in breaks so that they can comment on them, as if they were actually talking to them. He puts in breaks and never seems to comment on what the hosts say in return...and when he does comment...it doesnt seem like the morning show hosts said a natural thing...sounded like
they were reading from a script. IE:
"and get this, Bob petrenkov was once again caught stealing booze"
(five second break for hosts comment)
hosts - "again? that guy should just open a liquer store"
Mike - "yeah really...anyways, enough of that...in the jackson trial..."
Im old fashioned...I like doing everything live. When I had my specialty (Christian Metal) show on saturday nights...the only time i used the computers was to play the legal ID's, my shows introduction, or short liner clips that were part of the show. Outside of that...I played everything off of CD's. I like it...I liked being in control of everything that was broadcast. To me, part of the fun of radio is knowing it is live and people are actually talking to me as they speak. Unfortunately, stations are looking for ways to cut jobs and save money...and automation seems to be doing that fairly well. Have you been able to tell the difference?