Radio Program Title: Heart2Puso

Time Slot: 09:00PM-10:00PM

Topic: Falling Out of Love

Resource Person: Mina Balandra and Andy Chiboli

Pre-Production

The pre-recording stage was dedicated to planning. It is important to initially establish the following:

Audience

As a child raised in the '90s, the radio was one of the primary source of entertainment in our household. My siblings and I would listen to FM Stations and my parents usually tune in to AM Stations. In this activity, I wanted to specifically target the young adults, age 20-30. Thus, an FM broadcast was more fitting. After the the targeted audience has been identified, the next step was to determine what appeals to these individuals.

Topic

Since I am clear about the profile of the listeners, the next step was to select a topic that they can relate to. I decided on the Topic of "Falling out of Love" because this age range is the peak of building strong and lasting relationships. Thus, it will not only be a topic that they can relate to but more importantly a topic that they will be interested in.

Aside from the topic itself, the presentation is also critical. I want the listeners to learn from the discussion but at the same time, I want them to be entertained. So instead of the regular Q&A interview set-up, I decided to turn it to an advice show where I can ask questions relating to the topic but at a more specific context.

Resource Person

Since I work with a lot of young adults, I selected two people from work who have had the opportunity of helping others by giving good advice on relationships. I have full confidence that the speakers would be able to give a sound advice on the topic. However, I gave them the list of questions in advance so they have time to reflect on it. Our breaks was used for the radio program production. By giving them sufficient time to prepare, the discussion will be smoother and quicker.

Interview Set-Up

Since the interview will be conducted in the office, I had to identify the best area to conduct the radio show. We have a lot of meeting rooms in the office but not all are conducive for recording. I chose our Conference Room because of the existing sound absorbers that was available. I did a test recording using the Macbook Pro and result was satisfactory.

Production

The Discussion

The radio show was not perfect but the discussion was smooth. There were a bit of bumps along the way but can be resolved in post production.

Before we started, I set the expectation with my guests that I will be polishing the recording in post-production. I wanted to put them to feel at ease so that they do not feel pressured about perfecting the interview. I also wanted to eliminate multiple takes as we have limited time. We had a lot of bloopers while recording but we just continued from where we left off.

The Recording

Since we were a group of three, I positioned the Macbook (recorder) at the center. As the host, I was at the middle and each participant was sitting in each of my side. As a result, my voice is sometimes louder than my guests.

I used Quicktime as my recording software as it is easy to use.

The recorded interview turned out to be above expectations based on my standards. Ambient noise was minimal and the natural reverb of the room helped achieve a more than satisfactory output.

Post-Production

Background Music

Music is essential in any FM Radio Program. As such, I searched for the background music that will match the personality of the show, the topic, as well as the mood of the discussion. 3 tracks was used - Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, Kiss the Rain by Yiruma and Lonely Together by Rita Ora.

One of the challenges in using background music was timing, amplitude and fading effects. While music was an integral part of the show, I had to make sure that it does not over power the discussion.

Sound Effects

Sound effects was not necessary but I added a few to give it a more realistic radio show vibe. It did not only help achieving this effect, it also helped give the show a bit of humour especially since the topic is an emotional one. Aside from the usual sound effects (cheering), the song "If the Feeling is Gone" by Kyla was also used to set the mood.

Editing

Editing of the recording was essential as we did not do multiple takes. The editing of the recorded interview was limited to cutting out some conversations and bloopers. Other than that, no other enhancements was used.

Software

I used GarageBand as my Digital Audio Workstation as it is very easy to use. I used only the basic options of the application (Adding Tracks and Automations) as I am still familiarising myself with the other enhancement tools.