Jun
26
Radio does TV
June 26, 2007 | | Leave a Comment
Before the Internet and Web 2.0…before computers…before teaching…I met my first love…Radio.
I spent three days re-discovering the radio industry with the staff of Delmarva Broadcasting Company in Wilmington, Delaware. I participated in an externship program sponsored by the University of Delaware and the Delaware Business/Industry/Education Alliance. My job was to take what I learned about DBC and find a way to integrate this information into my English curriculum.
During my time with the folks at WDEL and WSTW, I was struck by several changes to the industry since I last set foot in a radio station (1992).
• Radio news reporters cover breaking stories with their microphones and camcorders. I watched a reported sit at a computer and use off-the-shelf video editing software to prepare a report for WDEL’s daily webcast. She used the audio portion of hers reports for the radio newscast. I sat with Lee St. John while he put the finishing touches on the webcast and uploaded it to the site. Here is the newscast. You can view older webcasts at Blip.tv
• There are no turntables or tape decks in the studios. All the music is programmed and resides on a hard drive. The air personality (they still call them disc jockeys at this station) touched a screen to play a song or a commercial. I did notice a CD player in the FM studio and CDs populate a small space along the wall. But these discs were for back-up. If the system should crash, the DJ would still be able to play music until the engineers fixed the problem.
WDEL News Studio
• As a result of the vision of President/CEO Pete Booker and the tireless efforts of Andy, Jason, Nancy and others, the company launched GraffitiRadio.com to serve the-under-30-crowd living in this market and to attract listeners from all over the world. This station broadcasts, locally, at 93.7 and on an HD receiver at 93.7-2.
I found the meshing of radio, an old technology, with the new technologies of HD and the Internet a fascinating prospect.
According to Mr. Booker, the company is not in the broadcasting business. It is in the content business and will deliver that content through various outlets.
