Evaluation

Brief
My brief for this unit of study was to create two radio advertisements and a 30-minute
breakfast radio show. In order to complete this, I worked in a group which consisted of
myself and my peer Charlie McCool.

How have I recorded sounds?

Radio Advertisements - Myself and Charlie recorded our radio advertisements by hiring out
a Zoom recorder from the college media technician, we did this by filling out an equipment
hire form by filling in a day and time of when we would rent out the Zoom. After collecting
the Zoom, we found a silent, isolated space to record our radio advertisements which was
free from disturbances such as fellow students entering the room, noise outside etc. When
we had all materials prepared to record, we chose a folder location to save our recording
and pressed the record button which has a red dot in the centre to indicate recording, then
pressed it the second time to start actual recording. Myself and Charlie recorded, utilising
our radio advertisement scripts. When we wanted to end our recording, one of us pressed
the square button which immediately ends the recording. We listened back to the recording
to ensure we were satisfied with it, and then saved our recording into a place on the college
computer using a lead.

Radio Show - Once me and Charlie were ready to record our radio show, we went into the
radio room located in the media department at college. We organised ourselves by putting
all our recordings into the colour-coded carts on the computer in the radio room such as
radio advertisements music bed, songs, jingle etc. When we had done that, we started
recording by pressing the red circle button which starts recording where we began using the
radio mixing desk where I adjusted the green, red, blue and yellow faders which controls the
volume of the recordings in each cart on the radio computer when they are played. We also
used the first two black faders which controls the volume of the two microphones that are in
the radio room. I used mic one and Charlie used mic two. We used the microphones for our
speaking parts of the show where we simply talked to it in close proximity. Charlie also
pressed the green play button, located on the X keys box which airs the recordings of the
radio advertisements and music in order of carts i.e. green first, then red etc.

How easy was it to use sound?

Radio Advertisements - When myself and Charlie first began recording our radio
advertisements using the Zoom recorder, we found it difficult to mitigate background noises
of the room we were recording in e.g. echo noises, chair movement etc. Me and Charlie also
found an issue of where we spoke too close towards the microphone, which resulted in our

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recording sounding too aggressive, buffery and distorted. We also had to stop recording a
couple of times, as we experienced either loud students walking past the room we were in,
or someone walking in us whilst we were recording. These noises contributed to it being
more difficult to record sound for the radio advertisements. On the other hand, we tried
hard to ensure that we were organised before recording, having all materials we need such
as radio advertisement scripts before we were recording to ensure there was minimal
disruption whilst recording as possible, e.g silence whilst following script and paper
shuffling.

Radio Show - Whilst we were recording our radio show, during our first few attempts of
recording the actual show, we found it quite complicated, as we realised that sound levels of
our microphones were either too low or too loud which made us have to restart our
recordings various times. We found it difficult to use the faders, because it took a
considerable amount of time to figure out the balance of the volume being either too
sensitive or too quiet which impacts the sound quality of our whole radio show. Me and
Charlie also found difficulty in how close we should speak to the microphone as we were
always conscious if the audience would be able to hear us or not if we were either too far
away or too near. Fortunately, myself and Charlie had many rehearsals which eventually got
us used to the mixing desk but had other problems along the way, such as being unsure of
which microphone was whose which impacted our ability to record as we wasn’t sure if we
could hear sound coming out, when we listened back on our recording. We also realised that
volume of the songs was too loud at times but didn’t cause us to re-record.

What problems did I encounter?

Radio Advertisements - When we recorded our radio advertisements using the Zoom
recorder, we faced various problems when recording them such as not meeting the timings
of how long the advertisements are scheduled to be which meant that they were longer
than planned. The sound level of the recording occasionally became distorted and too loud
in terms of our voices which had a negative effect on the radio advertisements. When we
edited the advertisements, we managed to lower the volume of our voices using the Adobe
Premier Pro software. During the recording of the advertisements, myself and Charlie
tended to stutter and make mistakes whilst recording, which either resulted in us having to
edit the mistakes out, or re-record the advertisements. Overall, the most common issues we
faced were the sound issues, and mistakes made technically, such as the positioning of the
Zoom recorder and ourselves (me and Charlie), and verbal mistakes such as speech errors
and pause for thought.

Radio Show - The problems we faced during the recording of our radio show varied. Myself
and Charlie tended to speak too closely to mic which caused the volume to become
compressed and slightly deafening for people listening to the show. The volume I set for the

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coloured carts which stored the jingle, songs, advertisements and music bed so they are
ready to be played became far too loud in some parts of the show when the songs for
example, were being played. I overcome this, by slightly decreasing the volume of the songs,
jingle, advertisements which improved the overall volume for people listening to the show
for a long period of time. I also experienced a problem where I didn’t have the songs and
radio advertisements in the carts ready to be played which resulted in a brief delay in the
progression of the radio show where myself and Charlie had to apologise for the delay and
technical difficulties we were facing. This problem could have been prevented by me being a
little more organised by having the audio recordings in the cart ready to be played, prior to
me needing them. Myself and Charlie overcome this by placing the songs and radio
advertisements in the carts before we needed them to avoid this problem again. Another
problem we faced was that we (me and Charlie) would occasionally stutter and make speech
errors when we were doing our speaking parts of the radio show. We overcome this by being
more relaxed when we were having conversations with one another, taking our time which
meant we felt less pressured to speak more quickly in order to tackle time constraints. The
final problem we faced was that we always felt conscious of our timings of each topic we
discussed throughout the radio show, in order to overcome this, we decided that we would
talk for the as long as we needed to in order to make our show feel and sound interesting,
engaging and high-quality.
How I used the radio desk

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Radio Advertisements – For my radio advertisements, I used the radio mixing desk to play
my advertisements, and alter the volume of the advertisements when they were playing by
using the coloured sliders to either increase or decrease the volume. I also controlled the
black faders for when the radio advertisements were playing as in order to not catch us
speaking in the background when the radio advertisements or any other audio materials was
playing, it was my responsibility to put the faders at the very bottom of the volume
spectrum in order to turn our microphones off. This allowed the radio advertisements to be
played without any background noise interferences.

Radio Show – For the radio show, I used the faders, sliders and microphones throughout the
entirety of the radio show. I used the faders on a regular basis to consistently turn on and off
me and Charlie’s microphones so that our voices could not be heard by having the mic
button light up as red when radio advertisements, the jingle, music bed and the track list
was being played. When me and Charlie did our speaking parts of the show, the faders were
moved up in order for the audience to hear our microphones. This was done by the
microphone button turning white. We also used the green play button when we wanted to
play our track list, jingles, radio advertisements and music bed. I moved the microphone
faders to the perfect volume when it was our time to do our speaking parts of the show and
immediately started playing the music bed where the volume was strictly controlled as soon
as me and Charlie began speaking again. My other responsibilities were to control the
volume of the other carts on the radio room computer, e.g the tracklist, jingle etc.

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What do I use the desk for?

Radio Advertisements – I used the radio mixing desk coloured sliders which was either the
green, red, blue or yellow one for the radio advertisements to control the volume of the
advertisements for when they playing live to the audience of the show. I also use the black
microphones to turn them off for when the advertisements are being played. I also used the
coloured sliders to turn them off for when the radio advertisements were no longer playing.

Radio Show - I used the faders, sliders and microphones throughout the entirety of the radio
show. I used the faders regularly to consistently turn on and off me and Charlie’s
microphones so that our voices could not be heard by having the mic button lite up in red. I
also put the microphone faders up in order to enable me and Charlie to do our speaking
parts throughout the entirety of the radio show. I also used the multi-coloured sliders to
control the volume of the all the audio recordings stored in the carts on the computer in the
radio room for when I needed the volume to be louder and when it needed to be lower.

How did I change the sound level?

Radio Advertisements – Premier Pro – I changed the sound level for the radio
advertisements through having the ability to lower the volume bar for me and Charlie’s
voices, when we spoke through the Zoom recorder using the editing tools on the Adobe
Premier Pro software. Using the volume control tool on Premier Pro made our voices sound
less loud and allowed background music to be implemented for the advertisements as well. I
also used the coloured sliders as stated above in the radio desk section, top control the
sound level.

Radio Show – The desk – I changed the sound level for the radio show using the microphone
faders and the multi-coloured cart sliders located on the radio mixing desk which allows you
to either higher or lower the sound of the recordings e.g. songs. I also used the microphone
faders to control the sound levels of me and Charlie’s microphones, and to determine when
our microphones needed to be turned on and off.

Timing of Advertisements

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Advert One – For my first advertisement which was about the Christian Union enrichment at
Priestley College, I used my timing to make my advertisement sound upbeat, intriguing and
inclusive to all. I did this by asking questions to Charlie that sounded natural by attracting
him to the enrichment that promoted the enrichment to all students, regardless if they were
Christian, practiced a different faith or had no faith at all. The advertisement had sound
effects that symbolised this inclusivity. The interrogative questions I scripted to ask Charlie
brought humour into the advertisement as well.

Advert Two – The second advertisement, which was themed around the History Society
enrichment, also based at Priestley College had timings that immediately engaged the
audience by featuring some of the most historic moments of British History through sound
effects such as Women’s fight for the vote in the 20th Century and World War II. The
advertisement was designed to target students in the college who have a passionate interest
and love for history which the timings made the advertisement feel exciting and worth
listening to. Towards the middle of the advertisement, the timing of the instrumental version
of the song ‘Waterloo’ By ABBA was the best to utilise as a music bed, as it history-inspired
and has a constant jovial tone which improves the overall quality of the advertisement,
creating the perfect timing.

Assessing my products and evaluating how successful they were

Radio Advertisements – Overall, I believe my radio advertisements were great-quality and

illustrated the hard work I put into both of my radio advertisements. I believe both of my
advertisements sounded exciting, informative and directly expressed its purpose and
message to their target audience. I have good faith that the music I picked fit in well with the
theme of the enrichment, the information given was enough for students to make their
decision on whether to attend and that our voices didn’t sound tedious, theatrical and
non-exciting.

Radio Show – Overall, I believe my radio show was fun, informative and energetic, delivering
to a target audience of students who attend college and where we discussed topics that was
relevant to students interests, hobbies and the general lives. The radio show played songs
that catered for all students’ favourite types of music, the overall tone of the show was
informal, relaxed and eye-opening for the audience and topics and concerns of students was
touched upon which felt respectful and understanding of some students who felt the voices
were being heard. The aim we both wanted for the radio show was to be open and
welcoming to all students, regardless of their background.

Pros – Radio Advertisements

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The pros of my radio advertisements are varied, such as that they are engaging to the
audience by them sounding enthusiastic, humorous and intriguing, grabbing the audiences
attention. The choice of music I picked for my advertisements were reflective of the theme
and message of the advertisements which made them sound really well. The conversation
that was recorded in the radio advertisements were naturalised and sounded realistic, not
scripted and fabricated which could negatively affect the audiences impression of the
advertisements. My radio advertisements had a clear message and purpose put forward
towards the audience, highlighting the key information about the enrichment in the
advertisement and the purpose and benefits of the audience attending the enrichment. The
slogan I used for both radio advertisements was clear and effective as it was designed and
thought carefully to attract and interest the audience.

Pros – Radio Show

There was numerous pros of me and Charlie’s radio show such as, throughout the entirety of
our radio show, myself and Charlie maintained a constant informal and relaxed tone in our
voices, the topics we discussed and the type of songs we picked out to air on the show to
the audience in order to make our show enjoyable to listen in to. The radio show included a
great choice of music which we were confident the audience would highly enjoy listening to
and was fitting to our generation such as pop music. The discussions me and Charlie had on
the radio show where we talked about various topics e.g places to hangout at college were
informative and detailed, giving the audience our opinions and beliefs in a short period of
time which sounded passionate and intriguing. The entirety of our radio show was recorded
without any form of scripting, meaning everything we said was on the spot and from our
own thinking.

Cons – Radio Advertisements

The cons of my radio advertisements varied, such as that the speed that me and Charlie
were talking at when we were recording caused it to be too fast paced, meaning our voices
were at times hard to understand, particularly Charlie’s, who is normally a fast paced
speaking person anyway, but was even more fast paced for the recording of the radio
advertisements. The fast pace also at times caused stuttering in our speech and
pronunciation, luckily some of the speech errors could be edited out but some could not.
The length of how long the radio advertisements was alone was a con as we feared
afterwards that the audience may loose attention when listening to the advertisements due
to them being quite long. There was several microphones errors whilst we were recording

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such as it becoming distorted and aggressive when me and Charlie may possibly of gotten
too close to the microphone, making it unenjoyable for the audience at some points.

Cons – Radio Show

The cons of mine and Charlie’s radio show were different throughout such as, the sound
levels tended to be too high occasionally throughout the show, mostly at the points when a
song was played where it was much louder than it needed to be, making it not enjoyable for
the audience listening to the show. There was also the occasional delay in songs being
played, creating an awkward silence for the audience which me and Charlie need to erase by
speaking and apologising to the audience for the technical difficulties we were facing. There
were also some points of the show where we would both speak far too closely into the
microphone, as we wanted to ensure that we could be heard by the audience but in fact
were too loud for them. I also realised after finishing recording the show, that we completely
forgot to cover one or two of the topics that we were scheduled to discuss that we
somehow missed out when we followed our running order and points for discussion which
acted as visual aids for us, when we were recording.

What would I do differently next time?

Radio Advertisements – I will learn from my past mistakes when recording my radio
advertisements by being more conscious of how long myself and my groupmate are
speaking for in order to avoid the radio advertisements being too long in time length. I will
also try to speak further a distance from the Zoom recorder microphone in order to
minimise the amount of microphone noises produced and ensure that the place we record
will guarantee no disruptions are made when we are recording the advertisements. I will
also take more time when speaking to ensure less stuttering and speech errors are made for
the radio advertisements.

Radio Show – Next when I record another radio show, I again will learn from my past
mistakes by ensuring my radio show is not too long in time length, so that the audience’s
engagement and attention span can be maintained and upheld through continuous
interesting conversations being discussed but maintained at the same high-quality level as
the original radio show. I will also learn to be better organised during the recording of the
show, by having all required songs, jingles, music bed and advertisements stored in the carts
on the radio room computer so they’re instantly ready to be played. I will also ensure that
myself and future groupmate are slightly further away from the microphones in the radio
room, so that the sound levels sound less aggressive and distorted.

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How are my products like professional products?

Radio Advertisements – My radio advertisements sound similar to the advertisements

you’re hear on the more established and well-known radio stations e.g. Radio X, Classic FM
etc. The naturalised conversations we conducted, the music we used and the message we
aimed to put across sounded the way other advertisements you hear on the radio or on TV. I
also followed the codes and conventions in order to produce high-quality radio
advertisements. This was fulfilled by me following the Broadcasting Codes set out by Ofcom
to make the radio advertisements inclusive, safe and age appropriate for the target audience
etc. Legislation was also abided by in order for the radio advertisements to sound good to
the audience.

Radio Show – My radio show sounded just as realistic and alike as the most popular,
well-known and established radio shows such as BBC Radio One Breakfast shows and the
Radio X Breakfast Show with Chris Moyles. We conducted our radio show the way other
shows have historically done so e.g. following a running order of topics and timings, having a
point for discussion as a visual aid to support us, track list to play and having a presenting
style which was informal, relaxed and most importantly entertaining.I also followed the
codes and conventions in order to produce a high-quality radio show. This was fulfilled by
me following the Broadcasting Codes set out by Ofcom to make the radio show sound and
look inclusive, safe and age appropriate for the target audience etc. Legislation was also
abided by in order for the radio advertisements to sound good to the audience.

Skills Development

Throughout my time recording my radio advertisements and radio show, I have gained
various skills which are vital in order to deliver high-quality, authentic, entertaining media
products, i.e. radio. The skills I have developed are; communication skills from working in a
group and my tutors, groupwork which requires effort from everyone involved in order to
succeed and progress, editing skills using Adobe Premier Pro editing my radio
radioadvertisments by adding a music bed and sound effects, practical skills using the Zoom
recorder for my radio advertisements, jingle and interview with Principal James Gresty, the
radio mixing desk in order to record my radio show by controlling the volume of my music,
microphones, jingle and advertisements etc. I also developed written work skills by creating
an effective running order and points of discussion which supported me and guided me into
creating a high-quality radio show that sounded real and different.

What skills will I continue to develop

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I will continue to develop my skills in group work by working on future projects with peers in
the future, editing new pieces of work such as future radio shows I record and doing editing
in my spare time, practical work such as recording longer and more unique radio shows
compared to the one I did previously and using my communication skills for the foreseeable
future in order to succeed working in the radio industry as a future career aspiration. This
will be done by me communicating with professionals that either work, have insight or past
experience of working in the radio industry.

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