Chapter 1: So what is radio, and how does it work?
From Community Radio - User Guide [http://web4all.in web4all]
To many of us, the first time we listen to the radio can be a magical experience. The prospect of using a device that seems to be an illimitable source of so many different kinds of music and programmes is a stunning concept, and many of us struggle to come to terms with it. One of the trainees at a workshop I conducted, who came from a small village in a remote part of the country, told me that the first time he saw and heard a radio, he spent a lot of time debating whether he should open it up and release all the people inside it. He didn't - but as he will attest to, the experience is one to which we grow quickly accustomed - even addicted. Few of us stop to ponder about the process by which the sound we are hearing is captured, joined, corrected and sent out to the little box in front of us. How does a programme get made and go on air, anyway? To understand this, it's important to have an overview of the entire process of radio broadcasting. We'll start by looking at the broad picture, and as we go further along in this manual, we'll have a look at each of the processes and equipment involved in greater detail.
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Radio broadcasting: The processes - and some terms
The process of making and broadcasting radio programmes combines teamwork, creativity, punctuality and technology. It often involves a number of people working in tandem and with reference to each other; and it's an intricate process where every part of the chain has to work correctly for the programme to be of good quality and for it to reach the listener on time. From a holistic point of view, radio broadcasting includes five discrete processes:
- Research and pre-production (ideation on the programme, and preparing for the production)
- Production (Recording or gathering the sounds that will be included in the programme)
- Post-production (Editing, or selecting the best portions of the recorded sound, and assembling them together in a logical and coherent fashion; and finalizing the programme)
- Transmission/Broadcast (Sending the programme out over the airwaves, so that your listeners can listen to it on their radio sets)
- Feedback (Getting your listeners' opinions and inputs on the programme that was broadcast, so that future programmes can be improved.)
Let's have a closer look at what exactly each of these steps involves:
Research and pre-production
As with most things in life, the process of radio broadcasting begins with an idea - and research. The idea can be based on your observations (say, problems with the water supply in your area) or a recent event (say, someone in your area winning a dance contest); or on the basis of a need felt by the listener group or 'audience' that you are addressing (say, you receive a request to make a magazine programme on local events). The research (often called formative research, because it helps 'form' the programme) involves the process of reading any background material that is available on the idea, along with meeting people within the community who know more about the issues that need to be included in the programme. Once you have gathered all this information, you start identifying the specific people who you would like to interview or record for the programme, as well as the other sounds that you will include in the
programme to give listeners a feel of the places and people who are presented in the programme. The last step in this process, of course, is deciding the logistics of the production - that is, the setting up of appointments, deciding when to record your interviews and sounds, and deciding on and arranging for the equipment that will be required.
As we shall see, this is the least technological of the four steps, as it primarily requires only your notes, paper, pen - well, a computer if you have access to one a telephone (or other means to contact people)…and time. At the end of the preproduction process, one should ideally have:
- A complete outline script for the programme (if it's a fictional programme, like a radio drama, then this will include the final dialogues for all the characters; if it's a documentary or magazine programme, this will include a reasonably detailed outline of what you expect the interviews to be like, along with references to the sounds you will be recording);
- A run down sheet, which is a production schedule, and gives a day by day and hour by hour definition of when, where and what you will be recording;
- A time frame within which you expect to complete the recording and the final programme. (This last may often not be completely in your hands, especially if you are broadcasting on a regular basis - in which case, the day and time each programme needs to go on air, every week, is really how your schedules are decided.)
Production
This is the process of actually recording the voices and sounds that you will need to make the programme - and this is where the technical part of the broadcasting process really begins. We use a variety of devices and material to record or store the sound we are gathering, so that we can arrange it in the way we like later on.
For more on recorders and microphones, see Chapter 4: Field Recording Equipment on Page 63
The recording process follows the schedule and script that were developed during the first step. During this process, we ensure that the sounds we are gathering are recorded at good quality - that is, following the technical parameters that we need to store the sound in a way that mimics the original sounds as closely as possible - and in a way which allows us to use and discard portions of it. We also keep checking to ensure that our recordings are relevant to the script for the programme.
At the end of the production process, typically, one should have:
- A completed set of audio recordings and source materials (including archival material, if required, and sound effects);
- A field log sheet, which gives details on the audio recorded on each cassette tape/disk used at the field recording stage. A good field log sheet will give you a preliminary idea of the recordings you have managed to obtain.
- Notes on how to rewrite the script, based on your outline script and on your assessment of which recordings are good enough to be included in the final programme.
Post-production :
Post production starts with the process of listening to the recordings we made during the production phase, and selecting the portions that we would like to keep in the final programme. (The usual though not entirely recommended - practice is to record as much material as possible within the time and resources that are at our disposal, so that we have the luxury of selecting the best sections.) This process, called logging, should result in a list of the relevant sections that you will refer to while editing, which is the term for the process of selecting and ordering our sections of sounds. Editing is the main part of the post production process, because this is where the raw material that we have gathered is shaped into the logical and orderly form suggested by the script we have written.
For more on editing equipment, see Chapter 3/Section II: The Production Studio on Page 57
When the editing is complete, the music (if any) selected and the arrangement finalized, we 'mix' the sound. Mixing involves the adjustment of the loudness of the various sounds we have incorporated, so that the programme is clearly audible, comfortable to hear, and feels seamless. The last step of the post production process is the mastering of the programme, where we store the final edited and mixed version of the programme in a way that allows us to broadcast or transmit it.
Broadcast/Transmission :
The final step of the radio broadcast process involves using the transmission equipment to put the programme 'on air'. Essentially, this means combining the sound of the final mastered programme with a radio signal and broadcasting it (sending it) through an antenna that allows the combined signal to reach across space to your listeners' radio sets, where they can hear it.
For more on transmission equipment, see Chapter 5: Transmission Equipment on Page 69
The process of transmission is nearly instantaneous, which means the listeners can hear the programme almost exactly at the same time as it plays out over the transmitter. It also involves a precise technological process of controlling and refining the radio signal that is broadcast, so that listeners can listen to it at a specific setting on their radios, which is how one identifies a radio station. (90.4 MHz, say, or 102.8 MHz).
Feedback :
Our work doesn't stop once the programme goes out over the airwaves, of course - we also need to understand what our listeners think about the programme and whether they understood it or not. When you are standing face to face with someone, it is relatively easy to judge whether the other person understands what you are saying (and what he or she thinks about your programme) from their expressions, their responses and their body language. But when the listener is unseen, as happens when using electronic media like radio or television, we have to evolve processes that let us obtain regular feedback. This usually involves mechanisms like a postal or email address that listeners can write to; or a phone number or website where listeners can leave their comments. It also means you have to look regularly into these comments and inputs, and revise your programmes accordingly. The radio station can also increase listener inputs and interactivity by creating phone in shows where callers can call a 'live' number and be heard as part of the broadcast.
For more on phone in equipment, see Chapter 3/Section I: The Broadcast Studio on Page 46
Listeners' letters programmes, where selected letters received are read out over the air, and request programmes, which offer listeners the opportunity to request music or specific types of programming, are also an important way to incorporate feedback.
| Radio waves: A brief look at some important concepts
Before we move on, it's important that we understand some basic concepts about radio - and radio waves in particular - so that some of the terms we will be using as we move further make sense. (Some of you may remember this from your physics classes in school!)
The ripples start at the point where the stone hits the water, and spread out in concentric circles from that point outwards. Simply put, the energy the flying pebble possessed at the moment it hit the water surface has been converted into the up and down movement of the water particles, which have now formed WAVES. So a 'wave' is an up-and-down or side-to-side movement of the particles in a medium, which we usually illustrate like this:  Radio waves are also similar to the ripples we see, except that they are not mechanical (in the sense of the water actually rising and falling): They are electromagnetic, which means they are actually rises and falls in the strength of a electrical-magnetic field around the point where the wave originates. (Visible light is also an electromagnetic wave - we don't really see anything oscillating or rising and falling, but we can perceive the light from an electric bulb perfectly well. In exactly the same way, when radio waves are emitted, we don't see any physical movement of any medium, but we can build electronic devices that can measure these waves and interpret them for us.) Radio waves are emitted naturally by radiant sources like the sun and by radioactive minerals like uranium as they decay. But we can also build artificial sources of radio waves - exciters or transmitters - that we can control and use for our purposes. Contd... |
There are three properties of a radio wave that we will be most concerned with in our work with radio:
 Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz); and where radio is concerned, more often in KHz or MHz, which are measures equivalent to 1000 Hz and 1,000,000 Hz respectively. (Now you know what FM 104.7 means - the 104.7 refers to the frequency of the station, 104.7 MHz, which is where we need to tune our radio sets to receive the station's signal.) Contd... |
Wavelength refers to the distance between two successive waves, as shown here:
 If you'll think about it a bit, frequency and wavelength have an inverse relationship, which means the greater the frequency of a wave, the shorter the wavelength; and vice versa. |
Linking the technology to the production
Back to figuring out where the technology part overlaps the stages of making a radio programme, then. Let's understand where the technology plays a part within each of these five processes we just saw:
1. Research & Pre-production: As we have seen, this is not a particularly technology intensive phase. An understanding of computers - especially the ability to write documents, and do research on the internet - could be the primary 'technological' requirement in this phase, as is one's ability to use a telephone to make arrangements, talk to people and set up the production phase.
For more on office computer equipment, see Chapter 6: Telecommunication & Other Ancillary Equipment on Page 86
2. Production: The very first part of the radio broadcasting system is the conversion of the sound we want to preserve into electrical energy, so that it can be stored (recorded). This is achieved with a microphone, a device that converts - or transduces - sound energy into electrical energy.
For more on microphones, see Section B: Microphones on Page 198
Once the sound is converted into electrical energy, we can not only store it and recreate the original sound from it a later time, we can make changes to it in a variety of ways: The audio signal, as it is now called, can be amplified, or made louder; it can be filtered to remove unnecessary portions of it - and most importantly for us, it can be edited and joined to other audio signal sections.
For more on recorders, see Section B: Field Recorders on Page 184
The microphone is usually connected to a device that stores the audio signal in a retrievable form. These devices, known as recorders, range from small portable units to very large and highly accurate models.
The electrical signal may be stored through a second process of transduction, in the form of analog or digital data on a magnetic medium (tapes, hard disks), digital data on electronic solid state memories (compact flash and secure digital cards), digital data on an optical medium (CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD disks), or even as a combination of both (minidisks or MDs).
3. Post production: The post production phase is still more technology intensive: Not only do we now have the audio signals recorded during the production phase (in one or more of several media), we may want to record more sounds to add to what we have already recorded: That means we have more work for our microphones and recorders. We may also use a variety of already recorded sounds from other source equipment - CD players, DVD players, cassette decks - that will also provide us more audio signals.
For more on CD players, see Section B: Compact Disc Players on Page 141 For more on cassette decks, see Section B: Cassette Tapes & Cassette Recorders on Page 134
Once all this is gathered together, and our selection of audio signals made, we will edit the programme on an editing console or a computer using suitable software that lets us pick, order and mix the audio signals.
For more on editing consoles, see Chapter 3/Section II: The Production Studio on Page 57
If we are using modern digital equipment to edit, the process may involve converting the audio signals once more from the format they were recorded in into digital data, which can then be manipulated on a computer.
For more on digital audio, see Section B: Analog & Digital Audio on Page 124
The final mix or master can then be removed from the editing console or the computer in whatever format we choose, and on our choice of media for broadcast. We may also use a variety of signal processors - mixers, filters, equalizers, limiters - at any point in this process to make corrections to the quality of the audio.
For more on mixers, see Chapter 3/Section I: The Broadcast Studio on Page 44 and Chapter 3/Section II: The Production Studio on Page 54
For more on compressor/limiters consoles, see Section B: Compressor/Limiters on Page 149
4. Transmission/Broadcast: Perhaps the most purely technological step of the entire broadcast process, transmission involves the combination of the final audio signal of our programme along with a radio wave of highly specific and identifiable characteristics; and the transmission or broadcast of the combined radio signal. The three primary items of equipment required to do this are a playback source to play back the final audio signal/programme (say, a cassette deck or a CD player), a transmitter to combine the audio signal with an internally generated radio wave; and an antenna that lets us radiate the combined radio signal into the air.
For more on transmission equipment, see Chapter 5: Transmission Equipment on Page 69
At the listener's end, this step requires the use of a radio receiver set - more often shortened simply to 'radio' - to catch or receive the signal we have sent out. The radio receiver allows the listener to tune the set to receive the specific wave that we have broadcast, and extract the audio signal from it.
The extracted audio signal, once again in the form of electrical energy, is then subjected to a transduction process in a loudspeaker or a headphone - devices that change the electrical energy back into sound, so that we can listen to it.
5. Feedback: Strictly speaking, simple feedback processes don't need any technology at all - the simplest feedback process is to ask listeners to write letters to the station! The technology part becomes important if we ask listeners to email or phone in their comments (in which case we need an internet connection and a computer); a telephone line or mobile connection (possibly with a recording system attached so that we can receive and store comments that are phoned in); and if we're ambitious, an adapter that lets us connect callers directly to the studio for a 'live' phone in programme where they can be heard or recorded as part of the programme.
So that, then, is a summary of the way the technology, the creativity and the teamwork that go into producing a radio programme go together.
Ready for more? Plunge on!
