Producing the weekly News
Producing the weekly master recording
We produce the weekly news in our own studio at Craven House, Victoria Road, Swindon. Recording and distributing each weekly edition is essentially a team effort. All the volunteers work on a rota basis which ensures a variety of voices and content are heard each week. The people heard on the recordings are supported by an equal number of backroom volunteers, without whom the organisation could not exist.
The producer is responsible for the content of each edition as well as its recording quality. The producer may be assisted by an editor and engineer, or may choose to do his own editing and engineering. At present there are 4 producers working on a rota.
Section 1: The News
The Swindon Advertiser delivers a complimentary copy of the newspaper to the studio each evening. The producer or editor selects reports, aiming to record approximately forty-five news items in the news section. The news selected reflects the balance of local news reported during the week. The news is recorded on Wednesday evenings, using a team of 4 newsreaders drawn from the rota.
Section 2: Features
This section is rather like the magazine section of a newspaper. It contains individual features, often of particular local interest plus regular features. The features are presented by volunteer contributors who prepare their own material. Regular features include, What’s On, Sport, Thought for the week, music, and listener’s letters. Other features have included recordings made on holidays in far-flung destinations, a visit to the railway museum in Swindon, Steam in the company of the curator, and many more. Some features are recorded and edited in advance, and then compiled onto the master with the regular items that are recorded on Wednesday evenings.
Copying and Distribution
On the Thursday morning another group of volunteers, the copying team, swing into action. The master recorded mp3 sound files are copied onto memory sticks and checked for sound quality. The memory sticks are then placed in individual wallets which are then delivered to the post office.
The postman usually delivers the memory sticks to the listeners on Fridays. Listeners then have the weekend to listen to them. They are asked to put them back in the post on the following Monday. The memory sticks are sent to listeners in plastic padded wallets. The wallets are sealed with Velcro strips. On the front of each wallet is space for a plastic label, which has the listener’s address on one side and the Association’s address on the other. A cut off corner on the label indicates which side is which. When the recipient has listened to the memory stick, he pops it back into the wallet, then turns the label over, seals the velcro end and drops it in a post-box for return to STAN.
Recycling Returned Memory Sticks
On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the post office delivers to us
the memory stick waletts returned by our listeners. Each wallet is logged onto the
computer, rather like a library system. One of the team will periodically
check the computer database. This will highlight any listener who has not
received or returned a memory stick for several weeks, and this can then be
followed up later. The memory sticks are formated (wiped clean) and reused.
Registered Charity No. 284665
stan@swindontalkingnews.org.uk
Telephone 01793-522511