Radio - Final

Logo 1

Logo 2

AUDIO 

RADIO VIDEO

Music

Quenneville, J. Schofield, D. (2014). Often. [Performed by The Weeknd]. On Beauty Behind the Madness. [audiofile]. retrieved from YouTube

Cantrell, J. (1992). Would?. [Performed by Alice in Chains]. On Would?. [audiofile]. retrieved from YouTube

Radio - Critical Self Reflection

Me, Gemi, Elang, and Baskara worked together to produce a 16 minute radio segment. We

were issued this project in the end of term one. This project involved us making three things:

a 15-minute radio segment, a logo for the radio station, and an advertisement segment to be

featured in the radio. We were able to split our tasks to maximise efficiency, so I was

assigned to create the logo, the rest were assigned to create the advertisement segment,

and we all worked on the 15-minute radio segment together.

How does your project use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social

groups or issues?

Our radio is a morning segment targeted towards a younger audience between the ages of

13 to 17. Therefore, we conform to the conventions that exist regarding media products

made for that particular audience group. The conventions regarding media products targeted

towards a teenage audience would mainly be music and the latest and most trending news.

Therefore, we decided to consult our audiences directly by sending out a questionnaire to

further represent our audience better. We used the music that is trending and still respected,

such as hip-hop and rock music, and also presented the latest news. Because we are a

morning segment, we also try to discuss issues such as weather that may aid these kids in

their commute to school. Our radio show reinforces stereotypes about teenagers, such as

including slangs in their everyday vocabulary, hence the radio show name ‘No Cap’. As

Steve Neale has mentioned in his Genre Theory, it is great to give the audience a hint of

what your product is about, in this case it would be the name ‘No Cap’, but also be different,

which is why we decided to become a rock and hip-hop radio station, an unanticipated pair.

How does your product engage with the audience and how would it be distributed

as real text media?

Our target audience are 13 to 17 year old high school students who would like to listen to

stories and songs that are currently relevant and talked about. We know that because our

team consists of four 16 year old males and if you know anything about a homogeneous

workplace, they tend to produce negative stereotypes that may be harmful, as mentioned

by Stuart Hall in his Representation Theory. To combat this issue, we decided to hold the

aforementioned questionnaire, consisting of questions regarding matters such as favourite

music genre, number of hosts, stories to tell, etc. Since this is a morning segment targeting

high school students, our stories and news are all related to those things. One example

of such a story was when we interviewed a student and asked to share his plan for his

future career and university choices. Another is when we were discussing weather, which

would help inform them about what they might expect on their way to school or at school.

We have decided to choose this specific age range because we belong to this age group

and therefore find it easier and better to produce a media product that reflects our views

and wants. We know what our peers want better than any other people from other walks

of life. I believe that our radio fits all four categories in Bulmer and Katz’s Uses and

Gratification theory, we will have people who listen to our radio as a diversion to relieve

their stress from school, we might also get guests into the radio who audiences might see

as a role model which fits personal identity, the similar age and interests will produce a

connection between the audience and hosts, and finally people who listen to just observe

the news and affairs of school and the world, or surveillance.

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

Before this project, I have not touched any editing software in over a year. This project gave

me an opportunity to rekindle back with these softwares. We were also very fortunate to be

given a short but informative introduction to sound equipment by a teacher, and were also

given the ability to use the radio room. Although we ran into a problem which did not give

us the time to use the room and utilise professional equipments to produce a higher quality

radio show, it was still very educational regardless. Another production skill that I improved

in is in teamwork, where despite the drawbacks we experienced, through good teamwork

we were able to overcome them.

How did you integrate technologies into this project?

We used a wide array of softwares and hardwares to produce the project. The recording

process took place on Discord, which allows us to go into a group call and record our voices

there. To edit and splice the audio together, we used the online audio editing website

Soundtrap, a free but professional-like site. To design our logo, we used the Adobe Illustrator

software. Aside from the editing and recording softwares, we also browsed through YouTube

to search and find various sound effects, background music, and the music we were going to

play for the radio. To conduct the survey, we used Google Sheets. We are very blessed to

have access to these technologies, without them, we would have to resort to lower quality

mobile editing softwares, or possibly even abandoning several ideas.

Radio - Editing

 The editing process involved the online free-to-use website, Soundtrap. Despite being free, it allows its users to edit audio in a more professional environment and provides us with multiple templates and presets to use . We thought that this abundance in in those audios would greatly would greatly help us in making radio jingles and as background music.

Soundtrap

The majority of the radio editing was done by Gemi

Radio - Logo Research

LOGO RESEARCH

Because we are a hip-hop and rock radio station, I decided that it would make the most sense if we try to incorporate elements from both genres, and splice them together to form a logo. I searched for rock band logos and hip-hop groups.

So far, I quite like the Foo Fighters' logo due to its simplicity and I could replace the FF with YB. Another logo that I find interesting is Rolling Stones' tongue logo. I like the fact that it does not have any text, yet its so recognisable and is immediately associated with the band

I want to incorporate elements from both genres to form one logo, and I think the Quiksilver logo does a great job at making a clean logo from having two sports, surfing and snowboarding, and combining them into one logo

I decided to combine a top view of a baseball cap and a guitar sound hole

I then started sketching a combination of both elements and created this

I started designing and came up with this

However, I wasn't satisfied with the results so I researched more logos. I found The Who's logo to be good but a bit too simple, so I drew inspiration from the roundel-style logo.

I then developed this logo

I consulted my teammates and my group unanimously voted to use this logo and ditch the old one.

Radio - Radio Room Tutorial Summary

 

After listening to the audio teacher's brief explanation about audio for podcasts and radio, we learnt a few valuable information needed to record audio for our radio.

There are two types of microphones, but the one used for radio/podcast is the dynamic microphone. Dynamic microphones are best used in podcasts and radios as it does not pick up background sound. The microphone has to be attached via cable with a sound interface, which itself will be connected to your device. If we wish to record our radio in the school's radio room, we will use those equipments. However, if we decided to record elsewhere, we will resort to using our phones to record. The audio teacher showed us a technique of recording audio using our phones, which is to use one phone as a microphone, and another as a camera. In the end, the audio and video will be edited, where the audio from the mic phone is overlayed and synced on the video. This is done to ensure that the quality of the audio is great as using the same phone to record audio and video results in a poor quality audio. Of course, we wouldn't be recording a video so a second phone acting as video recorder would not be needed.

Radio - Progress

 

Through out the project, we have made multiple changes due to various reasons. We encountered problems such as missing radio equipments in the radio room, which resulted in us having to improvise and resort to other means of recording, such as using the communication application Discord. The radio logo also made a complete change when we all were unsatisfied and unanimously decided to make a completely new logo. We sent the draft of our radio audio to Mr. Nick, where he made lots of comments and remarks, such as problems with the jingle, or a lack thereof, and suggestions for different lines to say and sound effects to use.

Radio - Survey

 

SURVEY RESULTS

The survey results tell us a lot about our audience and it also influences the radio heavily. The most popular genre was pop, however, we thought that it did not reflect our preferences, so we decided to go for the next two most popular, hip-hop and rock. The majority of participants claim that they mainly or only listen to the radio in the car, on the way to school, or from school. Therefore, we concluded that our radio show will receive the most audiences in the morning, and so we decided to be a morning radio. A bulk of participants also responded that they multiple hosts as opposed to a solo host.

Link to survey

Survey

Radio - Research

  

Before we start producing and recording the radio, it is essential that we do our own research about it to familiarise ourselves. I have done my part in research by listening to the radio more.

I typically listen to the radio when i'm in the car. The station that I mainly tune in to is the Hard Rock station. Contrary to its name, it does not play hard rock music, instead, it mainly plays pop and hip-hop. This is probably done because the bigger they got, the more diverse the genre has to be in order to target the most audience. It should also conform to the trends and most popular music of the time.

I recently just experienced a problem where I do not have access to the internet at home. This means that I cannot consume much content online to not deplete my limited supply of mobile internet. Therefore, I used this opportunity to listen to more radio. I listened to Global Radio's Radio X, Gold FM, and its live playlists. Another thing that I learned about the radio is that it almost never only play one type of music; its content depends on the time of day. The music and the host's tone is slower and softer at night, as opposed to daytime where the music and host is considerably more energetic, lively, and louder.

I started listening to another radio station, Black Cat Radio, to expand my radio knowledge and further familiarise myself with the sounds of radio.

However, this type of research where I merely observe other radio stations is not enough. I also need to understand my audience and be aware of what sort of content they want us to deliver. In order to collect that information, our group decided to create an online questionnaire and release it to our target audience (13 to 17 year olds).

Radio - Diary

 

Week 1

This week, we reviewed target audience, which would be helpful for our radio project that we started on Friday. My radio team consisted of me, Gemi, Elang, and Baskara, So far, we've only completed the radio survey which will help us decide what radio we will be producing. 

Week 2

This week, we discussed about stereotypes, and reviewed about various theories in media studies. We also continued the radio project.

Week 3

We learned Levi Strauss' binary opposite theory and Roland Barthes' 5  narrative tbicodes theory. Our radio group started making jingles. We explored different ways of making one, from looking for free websites, to watching youtube tutorials, however, to no avail. So we then resorted to making our own jingle from scratch using the website Soundtrap.

Week 5

This week we started recording the radio. Because we couldn't get our guest to speak to us face to face, we decided to interview him over Discord. This Friday, we started researching for a logo. We will also start recording the rest of the radio after lunch.

Week 6

This week I started designing the logo.

Week 7

This week, we worked on the critical self reflection, however, I wasn't done with the logo so I decided to delay my critical self reflection to focus on the logo first.

Week 8

This week is the last week to work on the blog, as Friday is the due date for the radio. Fortunately, we were done since last week so we weren't in a rush. The final results are compiled into one blog post and aside from that, we also improved our blogs.

Radio - Introduction to Team

 

My team consists of me, Gemi, Baskara, and Elang.

We all have decided that we are willing to be hosts of the radio, however the hosting job will be finalised after the survey results show us the audiences' desired number of hosts. In the meantime, I will be doing the news segment, Baskara and Elang will do the advertisement segment, while Gemi will make the radio jingles. Gemi will also be mainly responsible with the radio editing.

Links to their blogs

Gemi

Baskara

Elang

Radio - Brief

 

In the beginning of term 2, we were assigned a project, a radio project. This assignment required us to create a 15-minute radio segment consisting of a maximum of 3 songs, a logo for the radio, and include an advertisement segment to be a part of the radio.