A familiar voice of the past is back making some noise on the radio… If you were tuned into Detroit radio in the 1980s, you remember WHYT, 96.3 when it was first launched with “the hot rockin’ FLAME throwing” format. You could listen to the station for an hour or so at a stretch, before you were either out of breath, or just tired of the same songs over and over which were repeated more than twice a day. Holding down afternoon drive was the hot rockin’ flame throwing J.J. Walker! I thought J.J. was great on the air back then too. It had to be some sort of athletic event to even survive that format. J.J.’s style was reminiscent of the jocks of the late 1960s and early 70’s that were on the AM band, and he fit like a glove on WHYT. In fact, his voice was the only one I remember from that station. J.J.’s claim to fame was locking himself in a studio and not coming out until “whatever.” I don’t remember what the outcome was, but one thing we DO remember is his name and who he was in this market. Guys like Steve “Super” Cooper, “Truckin” Tom “Cookin’” Kent (on WOMC Friday nights), and Ted the Bear Richards were all part of that era from which is style emerged. Those of us who were growing up them loved them all. WOMC has made an effort to bring some of them back, stopped calling themselves an oldies station all while doing what it had to do to survive in tough times. WOMC couldn’t give us “Ted the Bear” long term, and since his short tenure at WOMC, landed close to his home town at a station in Myrtle Beach, SC. Nonetheless, his voice will be forever associated with his long rein at the beloved CKLW, “The Big 8” of the past. J.J. Walker reminds me a little of Ted Richards, but that’s not why I remembered who he is. Ted has a little bit of a southern, folksy down to earth approach all while being high energy and upbeat at the same time. His voice would basically growl the call letters with an urgency, each letter being distinctive. Every vowel was important the way he delivered it. Timing in and around the music was flawless, and those rare times it wasn’t he was human. He was funny on WOMC. He was HIMSELF. J.J. is kind of an urban version of Ted. That is intended as a compliment, because I think they are both great talents in their own right individually. It is hoped J.J.’s stay at WOMC will be a long one, because we need some of his kind of excitement and high-end radio in this town. Welcome back to the hot rockin’ FLAME throwing jock. - Bob Burnham Reliving old demo tapes “970 WKHM” Jackson, Michigan By Bob Burnham The 1980s pretty much saw the end of the first phase of my broadcast career. As I gradually sift through the remnants of those years, a flood of memories always comes back if the tapes are still playable. This article is not necessarily about the tape itself, but the memories it brought back. I worked afternoon drive at WKHM-AM in Jackson, Michigan. It was a “full service” station with CBS network news, and the sister station to the rocker on FM, WJXQ or Q-106 (which later moved its license to Lansing). As much as I can remember, back then, former WDRQ Detroit jock, Jim Ryan was the P.D. for both stations and the AM soon shifted to a satellite-fed news-talk format, but it was “full service” when I was there and I was replaced by a satellite-fed program. Full service back then meant live talent, a little music, a lot of personality, and short features. But people like me were not cheap to have on staff at a struggling AM. Automation technology except for huge mechanical monsters -- that were a nightmare when they malfunctioned – had not arrived or were not desired at this station at that time. In recent years, I did not think any tapes remained of my WKHM shows, but surprise! This demo produced in mid-1982 consisted entirely of aircheck excerpts from that station alone. I even did my own sponsored sports segment on this tape (which was part of the aircheck). There were no interactive listener bits on this tape and I don’t remember doing any at this station. Painting a picture of the studio, I just remember these huge seven foot wire cart carousels in the corner of the studio where all the music and spot libraries were located. The studio and equipment was fairly nice. It was a slide-pot board (NOT rotary). The AM talent had to take transmitter readings for both the AM and FM, even tho there were always live jocks on the FM. That always seemed to me to be unfair because the AM log was always much busier than the FM, at least for the daytime hours. But the FM was the money-maker and the AM was struggling. So let us higher-priced guys do extra work for the “kids” on the FM rocker. The AM carried some long form style network programs like CBS Radio Mystery Theater, but for the most part, it was local live talent and music "all night long." The two stations were independently owned at that time by the Patten Broadcasting Company, and the building was located toward the back end of a residential area. The AM site is still there so far as I know. You had to drive through the city of Jackson to reach the station. The AM transmitter and towers were on the same site as both the AM and FM studios at that time. The demo tape itself was nothing special hearing it today, except I noticed I had a “pace” or a patter that was identical to what I used in at WAAM in Ann Arbor. The music format (Adult Contemporary) was similar as well. It is hard to explain what that style was like, how we developed it and after a while, what made it so much fun. People I worked with and in some cases, trained in the Ann Arbor days were names like Jeff DeFran and Ken Kal were part of some of that “fun” and obviously like me, turned some form of radio into lifelong careers. I didn’t really spend enough time on the air in Jackson (at least up to that point) to develop any friendships at the station. Mike Vaughn was on the FM (formerly of WDRQ), but I didn’t really get to know anyone else. I plugged “Lynn Essex with music all night long” on WKHM, but sorry Lynn, I don’t remember much about you. I was still living in Ann Arbor at the time and listened to your show on the way home and that was about it. For the most part, with that format, you could be yourself and work in your own bits. That was as long as you wrapped it around everything that was in the log, didn’t forget to take required transmitter reads (required every 3 hours back then), worked in all the live and network news and sports, didn’t miss any sponsor tags, and made sure to plug other features on the station or whomever was on after you. That plus play lots of music and knew it well enough to nail every post (manually back then usually without count-down clocks), and usually talked over both the ending and the intro of each song. That was what (as I called my show on this tape) the “Bob Marshall Atrocity” was all about. I was also “The World Famous Bob Marshall” which was a joke in itself, because these were regional radio stations which meant they covered the county and not much beyond and up to that point, had not yet tinkered with syndicating myself or others. Yet those stations had a substantial and very loyal local audience many years before the internet. I had a style that was a compromise between fast-paced like “hit-radio” CKLW-style and WJR style of THAT era. I was not an overly-hyped fake-sounding jock. What was on the tape sounds pretty natural, but upbeat. Like I said it’s hard to explain, but all of us on the station sounded that way – and similar but “different.” It’s a style you can’t really teach. You can only learn it by listening to others and developing your own version, but it is mostly extinct today. It WAS INDEED personality radio and whatever was on my mind that day whether they were in the news or just observations driving to work – they would go on the radio that day. If you were a “sponge” to everything going on (and I do mean everything), you didn’t have to do as much show prep. Sometimes, I’d just get lazy and just “wing it” but sometimes it’s those shows that are the ones that represent your best work, because it’s you being YOU. Yet there are days when NOTHING would be going on, or your mood was a little down. Show prep in that case, IS a lifesaver and sometimes listener calls responding to that would also turn the show around. In my case, I had a bit of an alternate radio persona going on, but regular listeners soon figured out I was a regular guy underneath that patter and wouldn’t hesitate to call me up. I never did a remote for WKHM, but I did many for WAAM, both as the Air Talent and as the Engineer on-site. And in Jackson, I took many transmitter readings for those guys on the “FM side.” Before the Jackson days, my most memorable remote was the 4th of July fireworks at the Ann Arbor Airport, from “Rollin’ Radio,” a fully equipped studio built in the back on a GMC motor home. The back end where the talent sat was all glass with a full sized audio console, the technology of the time, cart machines, etc. The chair was bolted to the floor. I remember that very well because it was a little uncomfortable, but we would spend a week in Rollin’ Radio for events like the Ann Arbor Art Fair. But having fireworks explode in the sky overhead and people come by and say things like, ‘Wow, that’s Bob Marshall in there!” like it was some kind of big deal. I’d have to step outside and meet some of them as kind of a local mini-celebrity. At least one other person from the station was on hand. It really wasn’t a big deal to me at the time, but it actually was. It was my life at that moment, like it was in Jackson and elsewhere. The fact I can recall so many details, especially hearing old tapes (after so many years have passed) in itself is significant. Who doesn’t like “fame” even if it didn’t include fortune much beyond an extra $50 Talent Fee when we were on-site (That fee was cut in half by the time I ended up getting laid off). Today, I have much more work to do and much more to accomplish. I won’t be doing the “Bob Marshall Show” tonight or next week, but you never know. The tape included sort of a “saying goodbye” which P.D.’s always frown upon and usually take the talent off the air before they can, but I was lucky. “Thank you Jackson for being good to me. Perhaps again our paths will cross. Stick around for Lynn Essex with music all night long right after the news…” That’s it! If management was listening, they didn’t complain. I had learned long ago to always behave as a professional. It wasn’t “just a job.” Dynamic Range in Radio, Audio and Life 09/11/2009
Dynamic Range in Radio, Audio and Life What is It? (THE BASICS) A PRIMER FOR NON-TECHNICAL PEOPLE PART 1 (First glance under development 8/17/07) By Bob Burnham Every so often I’ll dig out and share an article that has been in development but hasn’t been published officially anywhere yet. This posting is the start of a very long piece. I have spent a lifetime studying the work of those audio people smarter than me and listening to audio of all types. This piece is my attempt to digest what I have grasped over the years and put it into an easier-to-digest form. In this article, I have gone to some pains to make what could be to some a boring and deep topic at least a little more understandable and less boring to most people. When to beginning broadcasters it SEEMS like we’re a little TOO nit-picky running good “levels” in the studio, this discussion will hopefully add some insight and some verification that there is actually some wisdom behind our pre-occupation. At one time, not even a teenager yet, I wondered why songs coming out of a home stereo never sounded quite the same (or as “good”) as they sounded on the radio. As I would soon discover, radio stations limit their dynamic range before feeding it into their transmitter. It is done for several reasons which will be outlined momentarily, but for whatever reasons, it actually made the music SEEM to sound better. The transients that might otherwise be distorted anyway, were squashed. The bass that might otherwise interfere with clarity were controlled, the characteristics of the drum sounds and air talent voices were modified in such a way that made them seem more powerful. What was that mystique? It was AUDIO compression and sometimes the audible side-effects which maybe we shouldn’t like, but we do. As humans, we all prefer our day-to-day activities to proceed as smoothly as possible, with as little conflict or obstacles as possible. When we travel, we prefer our flights leave as scheduled, our connecting flights synch up as scheduled and our hotel room to be ready when we arrive. When we go to a restaurant, we don’t want to get into an accident on the way, for a table to be available when we arrive, our server to greet us and bring our food on a timely basis and for it to be of reasonable quality. Hopefully they will accept our payment without incident that seems fair and reasonable for what was received. We want our lives to progress in a constant flow with no rough edges, sort of like the waveform of a standard FM broadcast. What happens within that restricted range of modulation that is within the realm of “acceptable.”? (For the non-techies the waveform looks like a straight pipe with a bunch of “squiggies” inside). That’s probably what we would truly prefer, but it doesn’t always work that way. This is because life itself could probably be described as analog. We’re not bits and bytes, and life may be more like the waveform of a standard AM broadcast. We each live in our own little module of existence that constantly changes. We interact, create more of us, or “things” or thoughts or modify the things around us. As analog creatures, we also create analog sounds, which for various reasons, we deem to be valuable enough to transport, modify, save or distribute. The accurate transmission of those sounds so as to maximize the effectiveness of the listening experience is at the core of what this article is about. It could also be why we can actually be emotionally affected by the way a radio station SOUNDS. That is if that sound is close to or even resembles what our idea of great sound is. Maybe the content is part of that reaction as well. In terms of sound, dynamic range is the difference between the softest sounds and the loudest sounds. WHY AUDIO COMPRESSION IS A GOOD THING IN BROADCASTING In broadcasting, it is necessary to limit the dynamic range to make it easier to listen to in a typical listening environment, to stay legal, have a “presence” on the dial and be competitive. If someone is punching across the dial and yours is significantly lower in volume than the competition, you will not be the station where they stop. In a casual setting, this boils down to audio levels that are consistent. You would think in a digital world, where dynamic range should be everything and classical and jazz music purists who don’t want the dramatic portions of their music damaged, a simple protective peak limiter should get the job done. In reality, IT WOULD get the “job” done, but the station would NOT be competitive. Back in the studio, someone who is just learning the fundamentals of broadcasting is told to make sure levels never exceed a certain point on the metering, but always averages ABOVE a certain level. When the song ends, the voice should not “blast” the metering into “the red.” This would be uncomfortable to listen to, aside from the fact it is considered “unprofessional.” Further, if the peaks go beyond the digital threshold, a truly harsh burst of distortion would be the result. Historically, in the earliest days of broadcasting going back to the 1920s, there was actually an engineer who sat in master control at a radio station whose primarily job was to “ride gain” and make sure the transmitter was not over-modulated. Using his best guess, his job was to ANTICIPATE what was coming next and be ready to compensate for that modulation peak that potentially, could actually damage the transmitter. Various devices were developed in later decades that automatically took care of that and eliminated the job of just “riding gain” and can even “look ahead.” Such equipment will actually react much faster than a human. Most of these devices, however, do work (and sound) much better if they are fed what’s known as a “good level.” In a sense, digital processing is even more forgiving (as long as one doesn’t get to close to their absolute peak), but the garbage-in garbage-out mentality is still a good one: If it sounds bad going in, it will sound equally bad coming out. In a practical Production environment, the “On-Air” grade of processing is not used nor is it even desired. For that matter, your basic low cost wide-band processor is usually not use in a Production environment, either. In other words, one should get the basics down first. Don’t rely on technology to fix carelessness or sloppy board work! As already noted, in the Production studio, consistency of levels is, in fact, the key. In the music industry, not only consistency, but balance (both tonal and mixture of vocal and instruments) AND overall loudness (at the final mastering stage) becomes a factor. Again, “limited” dynamic range boils down to the quietest sounds are made louder, and the loudest sounds are made quieter. You can’t understand audio compression without grasping this concept first. Also, don’t confuse DATA compression (such as what is used for mp3 music files) with AUDIO compression. There are various reasons as to why AUDIO compression could be called a good thing in certain applications. Listening environment is a factor. When driving a car, natural road noise means when listening, you would have to crank up your radio during quiet passages. Except you may have noticed that you DON’T have to when listening to radio because radio stations limit their dynamic range – at least the popular music stations. A classical, jazz or public radio station will probably be more conservative with their processing. With certain musical applications, limiting dynamic range is considered a very bad thing. There can easily be too much of a so-called good thing. Music loses its impact when over-processed. HOW LIMITED DYNAMIC RANGE INCREASES STATION COVERAGE On the plus side, in the analog world of AM broadcasting, a station will have greater effective coverage with a higher average modulation level. This is because as the distance from the transmitter increases, so does the noise. A station with higher (i.e. LOUDER) modulation will be more listenable at greater distances because the listener will not have to turn the volume up on their receiver as high as on a poorly modulated station. When listening to a weaker AM station, when a listener has to turn the volume up, they also turn the volume up on BACKGROUND noise that is inherent to standard analog AM broadcasting. The general public is not tolerant of a noisy, scratchy listening experience, and you won’t find many people listening to shortwave radio or distant AM stations these days. But maintaining higher average modulation is still a consideration for lower power broadcasters operating on the AM band today. COMING UP IN PART 2: COMPACT DISC CHARACTERISTICS & “NORMALIZING” © 2007 Robert R. Burnham Bob Burnham is a broadcast engineer in the Detroit area. He is rea A shout out for Nicoles Chihuahua Challenge 08/12/2009
A SHOUT-OUT TO WCSX’S NICOLE SALEM… Instigator of “Nicole’s Chihuahua Challenge” Nicole is one of our amazing Specs Howard grads – you might call her the traffic person with an edge. In an effort to help a worthy cause,she combined her love for animals with what she does for a living. This web page explains it best: www.wcsx.com/content/2009_07chihuahuachallenge.asp As part of Deminski & Doyle’s WCSX morning show, she started Nicole’s Chihuahua Challenge as a result of the hundreds of dogs taken in by the Dearborn Animal Shelter. These animals lives were saved as a result of authorities shutting down the home of a Dearborn “animal collector.” Hundreds of the animals removed from the home are now being housed by the already-bursting-at-the-seams Friends For the Dearborn Animal Shelter. Medical care is expected to run several thousand dollars before the animals can be made available for adoption. Nicole and Shelter personnel explain further on the video posted at the site noted above. A tax deductible donation can be made by Pay Pal through the shelters’ website or check. Although operating under contract to the City of Dearborn, 80% of their operating costs come from donations. www.dearborn-animals.com/ Area veterinarian, Dr. Cheryl Good, (board member and long-time benefactor to the Dearborn shelter) and her staff at Dearborn Family Pet Care are also treating some of the dogs at this time. www.dearbornfamilypetcare.com/ Besides reporting traffic on the radio (as part of D & D’s show), Salem, in recent years, has led an interesting life: She has done everything from offering T-shirts featuring her pet rat (also on D & D’s show) to being one of the 2008 finalists in (sister station) WRIF’s Rock Girl contest. Perhaps this will be one of her most successful ventures! Aside from her personal success as that traffic person with an edge, we wish much success to her Chihuahua Challenge cause (to which YOU can contribute) and grateful for the efforts of the Friends For the Dearborn Animal Shelter. - Bob Burnham "FROM THE SHOWROOM WINDOW..." 08/10/2009
“From the showroom window” Bob Burnham Last year I had the chance to help out WGPR’s John Mason and his crew when they did their morning show live from Motor City Casino’s Radio Bar. These are good people on a great station! John is also the announcer for the Detroit Pistons basketball team. The chant “DEEEEEEEE-troit… basketball” was started by John. He spent 18 years as WJLB’s “Mason in the Morning” with a few other stops before arriving at Detroit’s WGPR-FM 107.5. "The Radio Bar" was one of my independently produced techie projects outside of the Specs Howard School. WGPR is one of the very few remaining independently-owned stations in Detroit. I don’t know if it’s true, but my experience has been these type of stations are staffed by some of the most passionate people in radio who love what they do, and while their may not be in the top five ratings-wise, they have a fiercely loyal audience. The fact is I’ve been a fan of WGPR for a long time. At one time, they also had a TV station – channel 62 – which was later sold to CBS and became Detroit’s CBS affiliate when channel 2 switched to Fox. My favorite show on WGPR-TV was the afternoon dance show, “The Scene,” hosted by WGPR Radio’s (then) afternoon drive man, Nat Morris. The stations decidedly had a limited budget, but the broadcast talent were the best! They each had a catch phrase. On the TV show, Morris would ask the dancers “Are you ready to throw down!?” And they would reply “YES WE ARE!” Morris: “What can I say? Enough has been said… let’s take it away to our opening spread.” One of the first times I saw “The Super Scene” (“on the television screen”) was while enjoying frozen fish sticks at a friends house. On radio, the Nat Morris’ commercials were legendary. One of my favorites was for Manhattan Coney Island…. With KC and the Sunshine Band’s “Get Down Tonight” in the background, you would think Morris was actually enjoying a coney island when he cut that spot. It made you hungry just listening: “Manhattan has come to Detroit! It’s the best coney island in town with 100% pure ground beef, chili, mustard, onions. It’s soooooo goooooood I can almost taste it now <sounds of smacking lips! <quick pot up of music>…” After Nat Morris, Foodey Rome started his show. One night I rolled some tape airchecking Foodey’s WGPR show completely random and caught the biggest radio party I had ever heard. That’s the way it was. Station ID….”…from the best radio sounds in town…doesn’t have to be, but it is… Double-Hue-GPR Detroit!” Sponsored time check: “ <gong> At the tone the correct eastern daylight time will be <Foodey: let’s make it 7:22 on WGPR> <gong> …the time has been brought to you by Old Pro Clothes. If you want to save your dough, see the Old Pro, Robert Taylor, Old Pro Clothes. THAT is the sale place!” The rest of the show would be Foodey, dancing and singing along with the tunes. His favorites would be followed by catch phrases like “Like that sound, like that sound, like that sound!” or “Aw, mercy! I just can’t GET enough!” They were obviously playing actual records at a live remote “from the showroom window of Quality Discount Furniture.” They would commit what would be a broadcast sin at any other station. Foodey would pick up the needle and start the record over live on the air, singing and dancing the whole time. Eddie Kendricks, one of the original Temptations (who passed away in 1992) had a solo album out at that time called “He’s a Friend.” I would later visit Kendrick’s record shop (operated by his brother) in the city and buy my own copy. The title track, “He’s a Friend” was featured repeatly by Foodey during one of his legendary broadcasts. “The soul continues to roll, doubling up on the action…heh-haa! This is steady Eddie, Eddie Kendricks…and he’s a Friend of Mine!” Foodey would proceed to half recite, half sing all the lyrics to the record over the music. Then finally when the record DID end and he decided he’d played it enough… “When one ends, another very quickly begins, doubling up on the music, Yours Truly, Foodey, live and direct from the showroom window of Quality Discount Furniture. It’s the home and king of easy credit that’s right EEEEEEEEEEEEEE-ZZZZZZZZZ… credit. If you can’t get credit at Quality Discount Furniture, then you can’t get credit – heh-ha! – it’s a simple as that…..” Next is a laid back commercial for the Chi-Lites appearing live at “Henry’s Lounge, 7645 Fenkell” (which is still in business today as Henry’s Palace). It was apparently a live read or at least a live ad lib by Foodey with a mellow Chi-Lites tune in the background: “…aww, it’s a show you don’t want to miss, with Eugene, Squirrel, Marshall, Doc…the Chi-Lites… 18 year olds are always welcome and there’s always plenty of free fully attended, lighted park-KING.” It was delivered by Foodey’s incredible and expressive Voice of God, both literally and figuratively, that few African Americans on the air could touch to this day. The Chi-Lites were not a Motown act, but were from Chicago, but had major mellow hits like “Oh Girl,” “Have You Seen Her” and later “Toby.” WGPR’s programming and especially Foody Rome in the early days were major influences to me along with all the great top 40 rock jocks on at the time on CKLW, and the original WDRQ. Often without thinking, I would actually borrow one of their catch-phrases on the air myself ("Foodeyisms"?) At least once, I managed to slip that Eddie Kendrick’s tune on the air myself long after it had dropped off anyones charts. I soon knew all the lyrics and could imitate Foodey’s memorable performance on the radio. We were such big fans of Foodey that a skit was used on the air featuring “Brother Clarence” answering a series of nonsensical questions in a manner we thought Foodey himself might. Some of us would even slip in the “Foodey scream” Radio is SUPPOSED to be fun. That’s why I got into it, and never really left. Such antics, however, would hardly be tolerated on radio today, as there are few broadcasters and programmers remaining who have roots in the early days. But at WGPR, the spirit is still there today. Thanks, WGPR for entertaining us the way you have. And especially thanks to Foodey, Nat Morris and Mason. website: www.wgprdetroit.com THE SHACK and T.D. 08/07/2009
THE SHACK & T.D. Bob Burnham The last time I wrote about local Detroit radio, there were good things happening. Unfortunately, some of those good things turned sour. Nobody ever said things were easy for anyone, no matter what business they’re in. But I do tend to always twist things around to try to find a positive side, or at least a humorous side. When I was 12, I build a 2-story “Shack” in my parents backyard, complete with heating and cooling, lights, built-in-the-wall radio, intercom system and fully carpeted and cozy. It had a “back-up” power system consisting of a bank of 6 dry cell batteries in case some one accidently on purpose pulled the main power plug. I called this structure “The Shack” because that’s what it was!! Once upon a time, between radio jobs, I briefly worked for Radio Shack (really!). We called it Radio Shack. Now Radio Shack is changing their name to “The Shack.” “Our friends know us as ‘THE SHACK’ says their website. NONSENSE. It's like PINE KNOB MUSIC THEATER...how many people call it DTE MUSIC ENERGY THEATER? MY SHACK really WAS literally a SHACK filled with radio, where I listened to all the great talent who were on the air back them. Some still are: Dick Purtan, Warren Pierce and a host of others. “THE SHACK” of today (the store that is) is a retail outlet that sells whatever electronic gadgets seem popular. To their credit, they sold the first affordable home computer – the TRS-80-- that used a cheap audio cassette player to store data. Floppy discs and hard drives still had not been invented. But for the store of today, what a dumb idea – taking the RADIO out of the SHACK. Radio can’t be THAT dead, can it? What would happen if Burger King became known as ‘THE KING’ (reminds me of their TV commercial character that creeps everyone out). Well, I wouldn’t eat there, that’s for sure. Sometimes management gets some quirky marketing ideas that don’t quite make sense. On the plus side, it DOES get attention and any kind of attention is better than being totally ignored. But when it causes forced lay-offs, it’s obviously a bad thing. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen to our friends at THE SHACK. Maybe I’m wrong about THE SHACK, but I still wish them the best. There has been many times they saved my day (in real radio) by having some odd-ball part in stock. Even if they don’t sell HD radios and their employees don’t have a clue as to what HD is, they remain one of the few survivors of the electronic and appliance stores that used to be around. R.I.P. Lafayette Radio Electronics, Allied, Burstein-Applebee, Highland Appliance, Ollie Fretter and most recently, Adray Appliance. It’s been fun, but at least we still have THE SHACK. SPEAKING OF RESTING IN PEACE…. A shout out to a long lost pal in radio, Tom Patterson, A.K.A. Tom Donovan, A.K.A. Tom Deyh. We knew him best simply as “T.D.” Tom and I worked at a few stations together, and he was quite a character. He was a Specs Howard graduate of the 1970s, and worked in radio in Traverse City, Flint and to a lesser degree, in the Detroit area at stations including WTCM and Southfield’s WSHJ. Apparently, during the past few years, he became quite ill. He passed away August 2nd at the young age of 53. Tom’s “Uncle Louie” was Oakland County Executive, L. Brooks Patterson. Tom and I had been out of touch for 20 years. I have a tape of Tom then at age 22, hosting a live talk show. I know this because Tom was flirting with a young female caller on the air and they compared stats as they quizzed each other. What a character, but a character in a good way looking back on those years. “T.D.” was actually pretty good on the radio, at times emulating WCSX’s John O’Leary (whose show he was a fan of in O’Leary’s WABX days). Thanks for the memories, Tom. Your promo for the Car’s first album on your infamous “Weekend Feature Segment” will never be forgotten. Everyone thinks of me as strictly a techie guy. I work alone a lot of the time being that “guy”, but once upon a time my full time work was writing and producing radio spots and following that up with an on-air show. I am an audio tape pack-rat (slowly converting everything to digital). I have copies of most of the work I did throughout my career. Once in a while I’ll discover something that is astonishing. “Wow, I produced that WHOLE THING by cutting and splicing reel to reel tape!” How did I get that level of quality using such primitive equipment? I was very detail oriented. I made sure the heads of the audio equipment were meticulously clean (that was important in the analog days). But I also always made available as much time as required to get the results I wanted. I remember many nights I would spend four, five or maybe six HOURS producing something that ran for 10 minutes or less. The end result was a natural “high.” I would pull whomever was on-air at the time into Production studio, and they would want to be a part of whatever I did next. Thus began a long running 5 minute feature, “The Misadventures of Fred Heller, Boy DJ,” a just-for-fun bit that was the culmination of a friendly on-air feud I had with our drive time guy. I wrote speaking parts for most of our on-air staff, Chief Engineer, Operations Manager, sales and office staff – and every one of them had fun doing it! But I had the MOST fun, because I put the sound effects, music, and all the right edits in all the right places. Producing these bits was not a job requirement, but let me tell you, with all that editing practice, after a while, I could nail down complex spots in half the time of most others….and that SOUNDED better. I wanted to be The Best on staff at what my title was: Production Director. There were no digital editors of any kind. Most Production studios at that time consisted of two Ampex 2-track reel to reel decks, some cart machines, two turntables and maybe a cassette deck. That’s it! CD’s had not yet been invented. When you cut your spots, you would usually cut them live to tape – I would usually have the music running at the same time and mix it in one process. There’s a big advantage to that because you can shape to delivery to the tempo and emphasis in the music. Sometimes I would knock out a spot in one take, music and all! After you gain vocal experience and practice, you never stumble. So doing a multi-voiced production, especially back then, it was literally like being a circus ringleader AND performer. Certain things you could build in modules then tighten up with editing. But when the tape rolled, YOU ROLL! To an extent, this applies today, but too many people would prefer to edit together multiple takes, add the music as an afterthought, and electronically adjust the levels afterward. I have actually heard spots on the air that are WAY OVER-PRODUCED. They will have a million little distracting sound effects, voice filters, over-bearing music that is not even appropriate. The spot is actually annoying to hear. One thing I taught myself in the reel-to-reel days was to produce high energy but TASTEFUL spots. Nobody and I mean NOBODY in the general listening audience is going to be impressed to hear your voice bounce from left to right, sounding like a telephone or a big echo chamber, then with an explosion at the end. But if you use your voice inflection ALONE to determine the whole attitude of your spot – perhaps even do multiple versions – (then LET OTHERS HEAR IT – if you can’t decide which one is best) you will have a commercial that WILL SELL for the client. Better still, that client will want YOU to cut their next spot. Delivery is another thing I worked very hard at besides editing – to be The Best. Having a deep voice doesn’t matter as much especially today. It’s how you use what you have, and being natural, down-to-earth or whatever suits the mood of the spot. A final note is to be detail oriented. The most common mistake I see students at Specs Howard making is rushing through the work and being sloppy. Levels are either too high (which ruins the spot), or too low (which may make it hard to listen to), or poorly balanced. The spot should average at the same level from beginning to end (never clipping). Every part of the spot MUST be equally balanced as to levels, and that is best accomplished by manually making sure the levels are perfect going in. I have helped people “fix” demos who will say “Well, I didn’t have time to re-do this or that…” and the levels are SLAMMED into the red, then next segment, the level may peak at minus six. There is no excuse for this. There is no way to “fix” over-modulated spots. Harmonic distortion or digital clipping (whichever comes first or both) can never be fully removed, and even when they are “improved” it is impossible to make it sound as good as if the levels were set correctly in the first place. Furthermore, in some cases, it takes more time to improve sloppy work than simply re-doing the spot from scratch. If the equipment is not cooperating, or working the way you expect it (such as preventing you from loading ‘perfect’ levels), then you must ask someone who has more experience with it. We have saved students of today from learning the obscure art of cutting and splicing – editing “old-school.” In return students must become familiar with the demands of digital editing…. That is if the want their work to be The Best… or at least not sloppy and the final product is as good as they are capable. There are too many spots on the air today that are poorly done. Quick reads or multi-voicers that sound like they are from a bored person reading a script are waaaaay too common. By putting some ZING into YOUR delivery WITHOUT sounding phony or forced, you can cut spots that are far more effective. With enough practice, it may actually help land you that next job. I am grateful for the many people I worked for and with who let me “do my thing,” back then and now, whom I consider the best in the business. You can’t do YOUR best without being surrounded by people to lend morale support who have an equal or better non-compromising attitude. Sometimes it’s a tough-love situation, but no one said life was necessarily easy in such high profile fields. You can learn radio, television, film and graphics from many different sources. If you want the best, come to Specs Howard where I hang out every day. You can even pick my brain in person if you want. If you go radio, I might even show you a few audio tricks I have up my sleeve. Just don’t bring me your over-modulated spots! -Bob Burnham July 31, 2009 Ed McMahon 07/20/2009
Celebrity deaths. Ed McMahon…. “Yessssssss!” Keep an Open Mind, Column now in RBR 06/22/2009
I'm now also writing for Radio-TV Business Report (RBR). |