Tonight's Lesson - 012810

As mentioned on a recent AudioTweet, here is what we cover at the beginning tonight's lesson:

• Quickly review recent blog posts.
• Each student will be asked to respond to the question, "In your opinion what is good radio?" Answers will be written on the board by a student and recorded with the Edirol digital recorder.
• Go over Chapter 2 from the text. As mentioned on the invitation that was sent to your gmail account to share the document, I will as students to respond to and discuss each of the outline points I've listed. Students will be selected to respond if none volunteer.
• Discussion and demonstration of adding a music bed to your to voice tracks as will be required for upcoming lab assignments.

I regret that I was not able to get the Handout prepared for the next lab assignments. Fortunately, I can copy and paste my notes here:

--- begin pasted note ---

LAB HANDOUT WEEK 3 - BTMM 2771 - SPRING 2010

* PSA with audio bed

* Self-intro with audio bed

* 3-5 minute introduction of a classmate (an amusing story from the person's past, something unique about the person, talk about the stuff in the person's back-pack, talk about the person's music collection, talk about the person's schedule at TUJ or adjusting to life in Japan)

I will need to also provide a list of links to some different music for download sites such as:

* http://ccmixter.org

* http://freesound.org

* DC's site that he mentioned to Scott T. (should be on his twitter stream)

This should be a pretty straight forward assignment. I might then ask them to listen to a passage from Bob Fass or Joe Frank and comment upon it.

There was one other thing I was just thinking about but it has since slipped my mind.

Oh yes, a bit of talk about the final project and timeline. I will need to name a date by which they need to submit their proposal for review and discussion. Between then and now, I'll set up a document which they can put down who they are thinking of looking in to and what angle they might take in their analysis.

--- end pasted note ---

The remainder of the lesson time will be devoted to student production. I will meet individually with students to discuss your earlier lab projects.

Untitled Video

Recent tweets about a TU main campus grad named Ariella Furman, who's making a real name (actually a virtual name: Ariella Languish) for herself in the world of VirtualWorld film making (machinima), led to a brief chat with her in Second Life. We talked about the exciting project in Prof JJ Aucouturier's CyberMedia class.

As some of you might have heard, TUJ's CyberMedia class is trying to help a Philadelphia based hip hop artist named Legrand make a virtual world debut in Second Life. While describing the Legrand in Second Life Project to Ariella, she generously offered to assist in any way she can.

She also shared a link to hip hop machinima she produced:

Untitled from Ariella Languish on Vimeo.

Does any of this have anything to do with this Introduction to Radio class and possible term projects? I don't know, you tell me.

Danny Howells on SoundCloud:

I'd heard about SoundCloud some time ago but never spent the time to figure it out. DC's twitter post about CitySounds led me to rediscover SoundCloud. There might be some stuff happening here that would be worth considering for term projects.

Danny Howells BBC Radio One Essential Mix 2007 Part 1 by Danny Howells


Thanks DC.

Station Organization and Term Project

In thinking about the person or organization you're going to research for your term project, please keep the station organization chart from the textbook in mind. You might be able to find an individual from the sales or management side of the industry who is actively engaged in social media. Alternatively, you might also find producers, engineers or Program Directors (PDs) who are "online."

As for ways to find such people, I'd suggest spending some time scanning through some of the Twitter "radio" lists that can be found on my twitter profile page. Follow someone you find interesting and pay attention to what the tweet about over the next week or two. As an idea for your research project begins to take shape, try to contact the person by email, comment on his/her blog, or via twitter.

Another way to find people would be to search through the "Featured" and "Popular" sections of AudioBoo. Many radio professionals in the UK and USA can be found there. You might also check to see if there are any radio related tags.

iPadio is equally popular among radio pros. There are also a great many public service type organizations using iPadio for communication within the organization and to the general public. See what you can find.

I will soon be posting the due date for your project proposal (around the second week of February). Before then, I'd like you list people or organizations you are considering on a Google Document I will soon create and invite you to share.

Finally, can you think of other ways to find people or organizations for the term project? If so, please leave a comment. Or if you have any questions about the project please leave them as comments or send me an email.

Two Questions from last week

1. What are my objectives for the course in having students learn about the role of a radio producer and about the emergence of social media?
2. What does the term "good radio" mean to you?

As you'll recall, I posted the two questions above on the board during the last lesson.

I believe I answered the first one - more or less - in my earlier AudioBoo post (see previous blog entry). Hopefully we'll be able to discuss the matter more fully in class after you've had a chance to hear my thoughts.

For the second question, I'd like to invite students or other readers to respond in comment form.

You're Invited

Everyone in class has been sent an invitation to join this blog as a co-author. Please accept and follow the instructions. Details will be provided in class.

Speaking of Bob Fass

A documentary is currently being made about Bob Fass's 50 years career in radio. The project can be followed on twitter @radiounnameable.

Quiz 1 - Student Questions via iPadio

A pdf of student responses to questions 6 and 7 from Quiz 1 is available for download. The recording above covers question 7. We will discuss question 6 in class on January 26, 2010.

Here are links to the people I mentioned while trying to answer the "interesting podcasting personalities" question:

1. Joe Frank - Assorted recordings available as podcast
2. Bob Fass - Radio Unnameable on WBAI
3. Doug Lain - Diet Soap Podcast
4. James Howard Kunstler with Duncan Crary - KunstlerCast

Perhaps we should try to compile a list of inspirational personalities as a shared Google Document. Would anyone be willing to one up and share it with the class? How about for 3 "blue points"?

Syllabus Quiz Details

The syllabus quiz has been moved to January 21 (Thursday). Here is how the study guide is going to work. I would like each student to prepare one question based on your careful reading of the syllabus (True/False, Multiple Choice, or Short Answer). Please send me your one question and the correct answer.

Additional Details:

• From this list of 12 questions, I will prepare a short quiz (7-10 questions)
• Any questions received before noon on January 19 (Tuesday) will be included in a study guide to be handed out in class that day
• The first five students to submit questions will receive a modest amount of extra-credit (blue points)
• Deadline for submitting your question is January 20 (Wednesday) at 6:00 pm
• Students not submitting a question by then will get a modest amount of negative extra-credit (red points)
• If enough questions to create a challenging quiz are not received, the instructor will prepare a 15 page essay assignment in its place.

I look forward to receiving your quiz questions.

Hello World

In addition to the basic Hello World greeting, I'd like to share a brief outline for this evening's lesson:

1. Talk about Twitter and the Haiti earthquake. Mention Twitter search, trending topics, lists, and MediaHacker. Also mention protected tweets.
2. AudioBoo- talk about and demonstrate making a gravatar account. Talk about using tags and subscribing through RSS
3. Handout for next three lessons (the link should give you a pdf version of the handout).
4. Lab time to do Brown Fox activity.
5. Reading for next week : 1/19 Introduction and chapter 1, 1/21 chapter 2 (I will prepare discussion outline and questions for January 19th and 21st classes).

By the way, did you hear my AuidoBoo for tonight's lesson? It's basically is the same as what's listed above.