If you produce audio content for online download and rebroadcast by “subscribers”, mainly radio stations, you may find this article of interest in providing the best service possible to support your product.
One of the first things you should do is imagine yourself on the receiving end of the content, the busy broadcaster that has to download your file then insert it into the operator assist or automation program. Not only do we want a good, well produced product, with excellent content and technical standards, we want it the expected length and on time. Consistency is important is scheduling, so if you want to be part of the schedule, you have to be reliable.
If you advertise your product as 25 minutes, the audio file should contain 25 minutes, even if you have to fill a little with your theme music. Longer is definitely a problem and will put station programming off schedule, or your product will get cut off before it’s finished. Some stations might edit the audio to fit, but I would not do that as then it requires hands-on for every file and cannot be automated. A short audio file, less time than expected, is somewhat more acceptable, but still not professional. If a programmer is expecting 25 minutes and gets only 24, he has to fill the missing minute. This causes extra work again, because each placement of the product into the on-air stream will need to be checked, again can not be automated.
We use a scheduler and format for our automation that allows scheduling extra music content per hour that is skipped or faded out in order to keep the the on-air content on schedule and in format. We over schedule music to fill for a missing product, but listeners usually notice and call the station asking “why is XXX not on?”.
Remember, as a busy broadcaster, the more we can automate, the more we can keep our expenses down, and have consistent programming, the better we sound and the more listeners we attract. Tasks start to fall behind when man power has to be used to fix up or track down content from producers creating an unreliable product. I always recommend to management the dropping content from producers that are unreliable and creating issues for automation.
It is always important to check the quality, content, and technical aspects of the audio file before making it available for download. The bad scenario is to publish your content, have many stations download it, then you discover and fix a mistake and republish it. You’ve just doubled the work load for everyone that already has your product. Additionally, since you probably don’t call everyone to announce your mistake, but you likely email a notice, some may not get the word about your bad file and it will get aired, creating embarrassment for them and you. (It only has to happen a couple of times before I suggest dropping the product from our lineup.) Even worse, if possible, is creating a situation where an FCC violation occurs because of your product. Most stations don’t have the time or the man power to review every minute of every program downloaded for rebroadcast. They are trusting the producer to understand the medium. (It only takes one FCC violation caused by an outside producer to get the product pulled from our schedule forever.)
To fit easier into an automation system, the content should be available to be automatically downloaded, preferably in a directly usable format, and inserted into the on-air stream or automation software. This means that your product should be broadcast quality and easily detectable by software as the next “episode”.
To this end, I recommend using an RSS1 feed of MP3 audio files. Each feed contains a single channel, which you could consider to be a single product. To properly be detected by automatic downloading software, each RSS feed should only contain the audio files of a single product. If you produce a 25-minute newscast, all the files in the feed should be 25-minute audio files, titled and time stamped appropriately.
If you also produce a 30-second promo audio cut, it should be in it’s own RSS feed, and published simultaneously with the main product, consistently named and time stamped to make an association with the main audio cut.
Other audio formats may be appropriate, rather than MP3. For example, WAV. It’s a matter of catering to the common requirements of most broadcasters. If you find you need to publish both MP3 and WAV formats, or even other formats, they should be available in separate RSS feeds. This way, a broadcaster can select and track the feed that fills his need.
Your content should not only be timely, it must be available on time. If you advertize your product as available for download every day at 9am, it must be available at that time. 9:30am might be too late for a 10am broadcast. If it’s late, a program director might be forced to scramble to fill the slot, or be distracted from some other important work to find out why the product is missing. Automated downloaders might try for 30-45 minutes to get a daily product before sounding an alarm or giving up. A lot of automation systems might not be able to load and insert into the on-air stream on very short notice. If you are late publishing, the station’s workload goes up, and your product gets on the “recommend to drop” list.
You might want to read these other articles concerning other problems that can be created by inconsistent and unreliable product publishing.
How to PODCast for Automation-Part 1
How to PODCast for Automation-Part 2
To Summarize:
- Imagine yourself a busy broadcaster, and put yourself on the downloading side of the equation to find problems.
- Ensure the technical and content quality of the audio file is correct.
- Ensure your content will not create an FCC violation.
- Ensure the length is as expected within a few seconds. It’s better the exact length.
- Keep all versions of products and formats in separate feeds.
- If you produce daily content, set a deadline time for making it available online, and never miss that deadline.
- Be consistent and reliable.
1Learn more about RSS feeds at Advisory Board and DeveloperWorks.
