E-mail comments to the Editor

Download the complete PDF of this issue

Talk Radio LIS: A Case Study

Jim Grubbs

Abstract

Keywords: CD Audio, Cool Edit Pro, Multi-track Recording, Radio, RealMedia, Recruiting, Scripting, Windows Media Encoder

This paper examines the concept and implementation of Talk Radio LIS, a simulated radio program used as a recruiting tool for the Liberal Studies Online program at the University of Illinois at Springfield. This study examines the steps necessary to create such a program. Discussion centers on finding voice talent for the production, effective integration of program elements, working in a multi-track digital audio environment, and making the program available on the Internet using one of several encoding schemes. Suggestions for future, more elaborate, projects based on these concepts are also included.

Introduction

Creating and maintaining an effective online classroom is a formidable task. But what happens when the goal is to promote an entire online degree program?

This paper presents a case study of Talk Radio LIS, a simulated radio program designed to enhance recruitment for the Liberal Studies Online program at the University of Illinois at Springfield. LIS Online was the first undergraduate completion degree program to be offered entirely online in the University of Illinois system.

The degree program went "live" in Fall 1999. Prior to going online, the program created an attractive web site to enhance recruitment efforts. As the program grew, this site also became a resource for students, faculty, and our educational partners statewide and across the nation.

2.0 Method

2.1 Simulated Radio

The concept for Talk Radio LIS is pretty straightforward. The goal was to create a streaming audio file to be linked to the LIS program web page that sounded like a call-in radio program. A target length of fifteen minutes was chosen in order to allow enough time to answer a significant number of questions without losing the listener's attention.

In retrospect, some listeners and reviewers have likened Talk Radio LIS to a radio infomercial - a label that is appropriate since the program "sells" the LIS Online Program.

2.2 Script Preparation

In the case of an actual talk radio program, there is little or no scripting involved. The primary content of the program is interactive and isn't known until callers contact the show to ask questions or express opinions. The host responds and serves as a moderator for the discussion. Commercials, news, jingles, and other programming elements round out the show and give it a true professional broadcast sound.

The challenge with this project was to capture this same spirit in a scripted production so that it could be produced in an efficient manner. Rather than relying on the ad-lib, the words for both the callers and host alike needed to be created before the recording process began.

The scripting process began by creating a series of questions for callers to ask. The LIS program had previously created an FAQ (Droegkamp, 1999) that served as the basis for this list of questions. The host's response was written to respond to each question, but in a manner designed to sound non-scripted.

Once the script for the host and callers was created, additional materials were written that serve as interstitials - things like station promotions, newscasts, drop-ins (jingles) and other program elements.

Finally, music was selected for several portions of the program. Royalty free "buy out" music was used in order to comply with copyright law.

2.2.1 Repetition of Basic Information

A basic principle of marketing and, to a lesser extent, education, is to make sure that the most important information gets repeated frequently without "over selling" the product. In the case of Talk Radio LIS, the most critical information included the toll-free information number, the program's e-mail address, and the URL for the LIS program web site. The method for including these items was varied in order to keep the information fresh.

2.3 Analog Production

2.3.1 Recruiting Voice Talent

The author provided the voice for the talk show host. The next challenge was to locate a group of people to recreate the role of callers to the talk show. Several possibilities were considered including: use of LIS faculty and staff, recruiting both current and former LIS students, and the use of an outside talent pool.

The most realistic approach would be to use current and former students in the program. The difficulty in an online program is that students are located throughout the state and, indeed, the country. Because their roles were as telephone callers, it seemed possible that this plan might work - using a coupling device to record students directly off the telephone. Unfortunately, trying to coordinate such an effort turned out to be a nightmare. It was also difficult to schedule on campus faculty and staff, though that remained a viable option.

In the end, I opted for using an outside talent pool. I've worked with these individuals on other projects and they were all willing to donate a small amount of time for this venture. It took less than five minutes for each individual recording session. The sessions were done "on location" for the convenience of the talent donating their services.

Rather than record from the telephone, the decision was made to record in person using a high quality microphone and a simple portable cassette recorder. The result was a reasonably full-fidelity recording using simple equipment. This decision ended up providing several benefits.

It was a simple matter to apply a narrow band filter to make the voices sound like they were on the telephone. Additionally, the voice talent was asked to record other program elements that would be used during the production to give it a professional sound. These elements need to be full-fidelity - something that would not be possible with a recording made over the telephone.

2.3.2 Gathering Realistic Program Elements (Jingles)

One of the elements of the final product that gives the production a realistic and professional broadcast sound is the inclusion of commercially produced radio jingles. The author owns the rights to use several jingle packages originally created by the PAMS Jingle Company of Dallas, Texas. These are generic cuts (without call letters) but in the same style as those used by such radio giants as WLS, Chicago.

2.3.3 Local production of programming elements (use of effects)

There are really a number of smaller productions within the main production. While the commercial jingles went a long way in creating the desired sound, since they were generic, additional programming elements were needed that were specific to Talk Radio LIS.

Using the voice talent available, simple teasers, station breaks, call in invitations, and other elements were recoded as described earlier. They were turned into production elements for the show by combining voices and applying effects using digital, multi-track recording techniques.

2.4 Digital Production

Digital production was accomplished using the author's Windows OS PC based recording studio. The equipment includes a modest personal computer system (a 500 Mhz Dell with appropriate sound card), several professional grade microphones, and analog mixers.

2.4.1 Number of individual elements

With each portion of the fifteen minute being recreated, the final product consisted of well over one hundred individual elements. Some of these were combined into sub-productions so that the entire element could be handled as a single WAV file. For example, there is a montage of student comments that was treated as a sub-production and then incorporated into the final mix. One of the many advantages to digital, multi-track, recording is that timing can be adjusted as needed without affecting the original sound file. Elements can be timed and manipulated as needed in order to create the desired effect.

2.4.2 Multi-track environment

Cool Edit Pro was employed as the production software. The multi-track environment of the program provided virtually unlimited flexibility in the manipulation of individual audio elements. A wide range of filters and effects are available within the program. Among the ones used to produce programming elements were: flanging, chorusing, reverberation, and a number of different filters.

Multi-track recording in any form takes a level of expertise that must be learned and practiced over time. Cool Edit Pro makes the learning curve relatively easy, but a project like this one is not a good one for someone just learning the program's features.

2.5 File Creation/Preparation

To ensure the best quality master and archival copy, the final mix down of the program was created as a 44KHz WAV file (CD quality). Cool Edit includes several features to ensure that a final mix is normalized and as distortion free as possible.

2.5.1 RealMedia versus Windows Media and other formats

Unfortunately, streaming, CD quality audio is not a format that will work with typical dial-up connection speeds. A decision had to be made concerning the final form the streaming version of this program would take.

The choices included: RealMedia, Windows Media, MP3, Liquid Audio, and several other lesser-known compression schemes. While there are a number of internet radio stations providing MP3 streams, the relative quality versus bandwidth requirements are no better than other, more common, formats.

Extensive testing for earlier projects has led this author to conclude that the overall sound quality of the Windows Media format is slightly better than that provided by a RealMedia stream of similar bandwidth. Each compression scheme creates its own "artifacts" - unwanted sounds. The final decision to create a RealMedia stream was based on several factors. The de facto standard at UIS for streaming media is the Real format. Since there was no significant advantage in using a different format, it seemed logical to stick with the RealMedia format (Real, 2002).

2.6 Network Streaming

With the selection of the RealMedia format, a final decision was made with regard to two related but different streaming methods. In order to stream RealMedia files with all features enabled, the content file must be served by a PC running RealServer. This allows implementation of "SureStream" - a technique that allows the server to stream the same file at several different bandwidths simultaneously.

The downside is that access to the RealServer is controlled by an administrator, requiring files to be submitted manually. Without running a separate server, there's no way around that.

Since the early days of the format, Real has also supported a protocol known as HTTP streaming. As long as a web server has the proper MIME type enabled, anyone can stream RealMedia files using this distribution method. In order to allow LIS program faculty and staff to control the file, this is the method selected for distribution.

This allows for the file to be accessed "on demand" as long as the listener has a recent version of RealPlayer.

2.7 Audio CD Distribution

An audio CD master was also created so that CDs could be created for circumstances where the intended audience is more likely to listen if provided with a standard audio CD. Normal CD mastering techniques were used.

3.0 Evaluation

Once completed, Talk Radio LIS was previewed for the LIS program faculty and staff. Based on their recommendations, the final product was incorporated into the LIS program web page. The program was also reviewed by the UIS Provost and received his praise as well.

Listening with a critical ear, I do feel that the recreated call-in questions might have been performed to sound a bit more natural. Perhaps some additional give and take between the "host" and the "caller" would add to the realism of the recreation.

4.0 Summary and Recommendations

Duplicating this type of project for any sort of promotional purpose should be well within the range of most educational institutions. There is a great deal of room for creativity. For campuses with a broadcasting curriculum, getting the students in those programs involved could add to the production.

4.1 Full-time Radio Station

An idea under consideration by the author is the creation of a full-time, automated, radio station so that the program content for Talk Radio LIS is more dynamic. Software to automate program elements is readily available at modest cost.

For a full-time operation, a great deal more programming is required. The easiest way to fill the time is with music. Unfortunately, without resorting to a library consisting entirely of royalty-free music that can be a relatively expensive proposition. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (U.S. Copyright Office, 1998) is still being interpreted in regards to Internet radio stations.

4.1.1 The Sesame Street Model

The format of such a station would be based on what has been referred to as the "Sesame Street Model." Sesame Street, as originally conceived, used a basic principle that ended up working very well. A typical commercial television program designed for a 30 minute time slot actually only contains 22 minutes of program. The other eight minutes are commercials. Sesame Street provided 22 minutes of entertainment (though, arguably, educational entertainment) and eight minutes of "commercials" - but in this case, the commercials were alphabet and number drills and, later, vocabulary and other language skills.

As envisioned, a full-time LIS Radio station would provide a similar amount of entertainment per hour with the commercials related to information on the LIS Online program.

4.2 Conclusion

This paper has presented a case study of Talk Radio LIS at the University of Illinois at Springfield. It makes the case for the value of a simulated radio program as a recruiting tool for online programs. A review of the necessary steps for creating such a program, including: finding voice talent for the production, effective integration of program elements, working in a multi-track digital audio environment, and making the program available on the Internet using one of several encoding schemes were discussed. Suggestions for future, more elaborate, projects based on these concepts were also presented.

References

Droegkamp, J. (1999). LIS Student Handbook. University of Illinois at Springfield, Springfield, IL.

Real. (2002). Real System Authoring Kit. Retrieved February 20, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.realnetworks.com/resources/smil/downloads/authkit/index.html

U.S. Copyright Office (1998). The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Retrieved from the World Wide Web: http://www.loc.gov/copyright/legislation/dmca.pdf

About the Author

Jim Grubbs, Assistant Professor of Individual Option, University of Illinois at Springfield, holds a Ph.D. in Communication and Culture from Indiana University. He is also a former Faculty Associate in the Office of Technology Enhanced Learning at UIS.

Jim was one of the first online instructors at the University of Illinois at Springfield and has taught online continuously since 1997. His background includes extensive work in the broadcasting industry and as a telecommunications/network engineer with Ameritech.

He has developed online courses using traditional web pages, WebBoard, and Blackboard courseware. Jim specializes in finding work-arounds for limitations in commercial courseware. He is well versed in Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX operating systems. Jim is the recipient of multiple grants for online development from OTEL and the Liberal Studies Online program at UIS.

In addition to his academic work, Jim, along with his brother Jon Grubbs, consult with both commercial and not for profit clients, especially those wishing to incorporate streaming technologies as a part of their web presence.

Contact: mailto:grubbs@uis.edu, http://people.uis.edu/jgrub1, http://jg3.com/

Author Notes

My thanks to the faculty and staff of the Individual Option, Liberal Studies, and Communication programs at UIS who have contributed to my growth as a scholar and educator in innumerable ways.