Development of Radio Programs from Idea to Transmission - Essay Example

?Development of Radio Programs from Idea to Transmission   Essay December 22,   Introduction Radio is one of the most influential inventions of the 20th century. It has also been regarded, in some circles, as the most popular medium in the world. Innovations that followed the radio include mobile phones, television, Bluetooth and many others. Radio and radio resources constitute an important part of the auditory culture. This is due to their contribution in enhancing innovation and creativity and their interaction with other mobile media. Moreover, radio has greatly contributed to the growth of the contemporary auditory culture. Radio broadcasting entails wireless transmission of signals. The transmission occurs through space. The sounds are converted into waves through electronic radiation of frequency. This paper focuses on development of radio programs from an idea to its transmission. The paper will demonstrate the role that radio plays in the development of the auditory culture. Radio transmission entails recording and editing of data for broadcasting purposes. The data is transmitted in the form of signals called radio waves. For transmission to occur, there must be radiation of energy from the transmitting antennae. The energy is in the form of radio waves, which convey the information. The radio waves travel at a speed of 300,000km/sec, which is equivalent to 186,000 miles/sec. After travelling through space, the waves reach a receiving antenna and produce an electric voltage, which is then amplified. The amplification results in retrieval of the original information and conversion into an understandable form1. Transmission entails passage of sound waves through an oscillator to produce an electrical signal. The signal produced is of a given frequency, which is controlled by a quartz crystal. The signal is then amplified thousands of times to produce a radio frequency carrier. The carrier can be applied directly to antenna and be radiated in form of radio waves. Prior to the development of the antenna, the carrier was keyed using a telegraph switch. The transmission was done through short and long burst radio waves. The waves were representative of alphabets by Morse code’s dots and dashes. However, this kind of transmission features mostly in amateur radio. The transmission modifies into high-speed teletype and other faster modes of transmission such as space satellite, missile-guidance telemetry, and facsimile. During standard broadcasts, music or speech modulates the carrier. Achieving this involves several ways, which include superimposing the amplitude, a phenomenon referred to as amplitude modulation (AM). After the amplification and modulation of audio signals, it conveys to the antenna for transmission. AM modulates the signal, about 5Hz when the carrier frequency lies between 535 and 1,605 KHz. The strongest power output for any AM station is 50,000 watts. The varying of frequency involves a modulation process, a phenomenon called frequency modulation (FM). This results in fluctuation of carrier frequency by about 75 KHz. The frequency of the audio signal plays a major role in determining the variation of the carrier frequency. Even in the contemporary society, radio permeates several aspects of human life. Houses, public spaces, phones, and cars have receivers. Several devices feature designs with the ability of receiving radio. Although there has been extensive development in communication technology since the invention of radio, radio is far from being irrelevant. Indeed, radio has managed to survive critical challenges such as development of internet and other communication devices. Because of the development of modern technology, many sound places transfer music to the world. “…the global network of telecommunications whose musical arms have, with unprecedented rapidity, entered and transformed every social and cultural community in the world.2” However, radio stations remain the most popular medium in the modern world. People tune in to radio mainly to listen to music, which is often of diverse selection. Therefore, radio has played an important role in the development of other forms of media. “Composers and historians maintain that without CBC radio there would not have developed a community of music producers able to conceive of the possibility of making music.3” Therefore, radio station as a sound space plays an important role in the process of transferring sound.  In the initial stages of radio transmission development, “the output of the networks we choose to listen to seemed to be reflected in our choice of receiving equipment.4” Therefore, most people had to change their receivers in order to change the quality of the sound received. The transmitters had less control on sound transmission. The acceptance of Radio increased further. According to some analysts, “it both joins people together and reaches them where they are lonely.5” Radio as a medium, breaks the limitation of distance through use of waves. In addition, ‘radio achieves this rational irrationality by its ability to place together sound messages that are disparate in terms of their location of origin, their cultural purpose, and their form, in order to create a continuous enveloping rhythm of sound and information6.” Therefore, radio does not concentrate on mutual communication, so there is no possibility for it to select its audiences. In fact, radio is rather a company than a medium for listeners.  Even Apple, which considers itself monolithic, includes radio receivers in its digital entertainment devices. Though there was panic that internet would challenge the radio transmission and receivership, internet has improved radio transmission by providing radio operators with better transmission platforms that are free from geographical constraints. Listening entails appreciation of a sound environment. Radio and radio resources constitute an important area of auditory culture. This is due to its contribution in enhancing innovation and creativity and its interaction with other mobile media. Moreover, radio has greatly contributed to the growth of contemporary auditory culture7. The preparation, Production and Transmission of a Radio Program Preparing a radio program entails recording of voices and processing them to ensure they send the intended message to the listener. All the actions as well as settings have to be described using sound effects. For example, while transmitting, the locations where the scenes are unfolding have to be described using sounds. This entails portraying the sounds that characterize different setting to enable the listeners hear for themselves8. Therefore, radio transmission is more complex than television, which makes use of pictures. For a radio program to be effective the programmers must blend voices and sound effects to enable the listener relate to the different happenings. Therefore, the sound effect plays a major role in radio transmission. After recording the voices, they are processed by incorporating different sound effects to relay different messages. Moreover, the quality and levels of the sounds must be controlled through several microphones and inputs. In the studio, the processing of some radio programs involves the de-contextualization of the sonic environment making the activity acoustic. The editors, also referred to as directors in case of play recording listen and reevaluate the different sounds. The process involves pitch shifting, editing, sound filtering, modulation, and insertion of delays to produce different outcomes. While recording, the potential of environmental sounds is an important factor, radio listening is a secondary activity. This is because people tend to listen to the radio while performing other activities such as driving. Therefore, most people are unable to internalize the content of radio and most prefer stations that play music, since music does not require much concentration. “Technology has changed and will continue to change the way we listen to radio and also the way it is produced.”9 After several years of attempting to add reverberation to radio programs to make them sound distinctive, most transmitters seem to have given up. This is due to the space disturbance created by added reverberation. An example of such attempts was made recently by stations that broadcast hit music. They tried to alter the audio processing to enable it accentuate the upper midrange and treble frequencies to enable the resultant music cut through background noise. However, the attempts were not successful due to the different effects when the listeners used different receiving devices such as car radios and headphones. The compression and limiting used by some stations resulted in music that could only be listened to by individuals in very noisy environments. This modification was called brick wall but and made the music from devices such as CDs sound different when played by the station as compare to when played in home CD players. According to Sterne, “Radio is an alteration of space and structuring of time. It extends space if you are making music, shrinks it if you are listening. It both joins people together and reaches them where they are lonely.” The radio was thus adopted widely after its invention. Moreover, it continues to be influential several years late irrespective of the several modern ways of connection. Radio has played a great role in space redefinition and restructuring of time. This is mainly due to acoustic movement over distance10. Radio Listening Environment All the radio programs are prepared with an audience in mind. Audiences are influenced differently by the message from the radio. In the early stages of radio development, stations such as BBC focused on educative and informative programs and greatly ignored the desires of the audience. However, after Second World War, the stations that emerged were sensitive of the audience and provided dance and band music as well as other light programs such has comedy shows11. Radio was among the most revolutionary sound mechanism in the electric revolution. Through use of radio production, thousands of people are entertained. The production entails use of the acoustic environment. This has made the sound environment an important component of instinctive behaviors of humans. “Today, the soundscape in an industrialized society is likely to be comprised of much continuous sound that has no beginning or end but that drones on continuously.”12 Radio is one cause of the sophisticated soundscape, which makes humans unaware of the distinctiveness of aural existence. Therefore, the radio content is received in a soundscape with several other different sounds. The sounds blend and result in indistinctiveness. The radio sound has to contend for attention in an environment characterized by increasing number of aural distractions13. The spatial dimensions used in listening of radio have undergone great modifications. Initially, listeners had problem knowing how to operate radios and mainly used headphones. The listeners were mainly men. In 1920, radio wave receivers were integrated into a wooden box. However, the designing has undergone different modifications. The changes mainly occur in the 1950’s when transistors and cheap portable receivers were invented14. The Difference between Radio and Other Communication Media Unlike other communication media such as television, radio makes use of music, speech, and silence for communication purposes. The expression of worlds comes in voices. The selections of words used in radio enables the broadcasters to locate the station within the solid world. The kind of speech used in Television is less complex since the listeners can also see the presenters. In the case of radio, listeners have to create the visual image for themselves. This enables the listener to obtain further details, which go beyond radio transmission15. The blindness that characterizes radio is an advantage. In case of television, the views are able to see everything. However, there is nothing to see in case of media. This makes television viewers less imaginative since there are not obliged to envision things. Even in television, the viewers have to imagine some aspects such as smell. For example, even in TV viewers will be obliged to imagine of the happening if a comedian is visible but tells a joke. The difference between television and radio is on the extent of imagination whereby radio listeners have to imagine much. Radio tends to provide experiences that the outcomes base on unknown future. This is due to the use of present tense even in pre-recorded programs16. Another difference is on the continued use of studio in radio programming. This is unlike other communication media such as television, which have abandoned the studios in favor of open space. An additional difference between the radio and television is the ability of the radio to act as a secondary medium. The radio is available in different context, which allows people to listen to it as they attend to other things. For example, a person can listen to the radio and drive at the same time. However, television requires the viewers to be present physically to be able to follow the programs17. Role of Radio in the Society Radio wields significant power in unifying people. Listening to radio causes some special feelings for the listeners. In most instances, radio evokes emotions such as those of nostalgia in the audience. The nostalgia results from the ability of radio to evoke the past, which makes the listeners connect to their memories. Radio is able to combine sound messages dissimilar in origin, their cultural importance, and their form. It thus creates an incessant rhythm of sound and information. The listening epistemologies of contemporary radio audience connect to the social habits resulting from interactions. To communicate to the audience, radio relies on codes alone18. The codes include speech, music, silence, and sound. Therefore, “...Radio is defined by the need to compensate for its visual handicap.”19 This is because messages received through hearing alone are likely to lead to confusion. Use of framing signposts on the happenings helps the radio connect more effectively with the audience. Crisell describes the radio as “...a blind medium.”20 We cannot see its messages because they consist only of noise and silence.” This differentiates radio from other means of communication such as television. This is the reason behind the extensive use of aspects such as jokes to enable the audience create their own images. Therefore, radio plays a key role in shaping the culture of any society. Radio Programs as a Soundscape Another crucial concept of sound space is ‘soundscape’. Mentioned by Murray Schafer, ‘soundscape’ contains three key aspects. The first one is the keynote, which “created by its geography and climate: water, wind, forest.”21 These kinds of sounds are described as sound produced by nature. Then, the next kind of soundscape is signals, which means, “Sound signals may often be organized into quite elaborate codes permitting messages of considerable complexity to be transmitted to those who can interpret them.”22 Additionally, sound mark is the final aspect of soundscape, which “refers to a community sound which is unique or possesses qualities that make it specially regarded or noticed by the people in that community” 23.’ Soundscape refers to any study involving acoustics. Acoustics entails studying that which is heard and cannot be seen or touched. In Schafer’s definition, soundscape is the sonic environment. The acoustic environment is quite complex and comprises of the sounds and other factors that may enhance or destroy the effects of sound. Radio makes use of frame conventions such as certain sounds characterizing the start or end of programs. The audience has to familiarize itself with the different sounds to be able to understand their varying meanings. Conclusion Although there are numerous modes of communication and transmission of data, radio continues to play a key role in the development of auditory culture. Most communication inventions still incorporate radio receivers. However, radio serves as a secondary tool in most instances. Alternative technologies have emerged to transfer music to every nation and every individual. This has helped in the transferring of sound around the world more conveniently. Radio transmission entails reduction in the space between the broadcaster and the audience. Moreover, time is restructured since radio broadcasting entails use of present tense. Radio programming is able to combine the aspects of origin, cultural purpose, and form. This helps in creation of a continuous rhythm of sound as well as information. In the initial stages, radio studios showed designs that helped shun unwanted noise. All the radio programs are prepared with an audience in mind. Therefore, different radio stations design their programs differently depending on target culture. Radio listening has also undergone transformation from the initial stages when listening involved headphones to the current sophisticated devices. In the early stages of radio development, stations such as BBC focused on educative and informative programs and greatly ignored the desires of the audience. However, after the Second World War, the stations that emerged were sensitive of the audience and provided dance and band music, as well as other entertaining programs such as comedy shows. Bibliography Beanman, J, Programme Making for Radio, Taylor & Francis, New York, 2006, pp.58-70, 107-120. 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