Training and Volunteering
You might have heard of guerrilla film making before. That’s where a crew is given a theme for a film at short notice and given 24 hours to complete it. Well at Dundalk FM we are taking the idea onto radio and are looking for three presenters to be picked out of a hat and do a show each month. We have a prime time slot on the first Saturday of the month from 12pm to 1pm. The three presenters will know a month in advance that they will be working together but… they won’t know the theme for the show until 24 hours before hand. To be in a with a chance to take part in a little radio craziness email alanbyrne@dundalkfm.ie.
Notes from the Remote Broadcast Q and A Session 4 5.00 pm – 6.00 pm 14th May 2020 John Englishby, Dan Pope, Eimear O Kane, Brendan Coughlan, Cathal Cassidy, Alan Byrne, Cathal McCooey, Mary Rose Muckian, Philip O’Brien, Sean Callaghan and Padraig Quigley. We will run a follow up on Thursday 21st May 2020. Programming Congratulations to Dan on the quality and style of his recent AlphaBeats V show. Comment about recording shows on Zoom – Mary Rose. I find that conversation can be stilted and doesn’t flow when you are talking at a laptop or tablet/phone. The way to improve this is to use headphones and a microphone so the audio is more immediate and engaging. Equipment/Software Padraig told us how he upgraded a laptop by installing SSD RAM. We are applying for a grant to buy some podcast kits for presenters, in the meantime a €25.00 USB mic will bring your audio up to the level we hope that everyone will have. 320 Kpbs is the highest wav quality and is the recommended setting for when you are saving a show and sending it in. Eimear is acquiring a laptop:) Editing Thank you to Philip for his explanation of how he created a promo for the Alpha Beats Show using backing music, recording his voice directly to the DAW and the AlphaBeats whisper file. John gave a demonstration of the Joe Jackson Spotlight show he was working on and will organise to give Mary Rose a lesson on editing. Community Call Some presenters are interested in joining a team of researchers, presenters and editors for our COVID-19 Radio Series. Zoom meeting to be set up. https://dundalkfm.ie/covid-response-community-call-starting-in-may020/ Future Broadcasting Environment 8th June is when we will resume regular broadcasting whilst maintain social distancing. Only presenters – no guests. Until then there is a roster on who is allowed in and for what duration David Bellew will be at the studio some evenings to allow for zoom live broadcasts to take place. Next Week A guide to broadcasting from home by Padraig and a Reaper edit demo with John. In the meantime a free radio playout software you might like to try is Zara. You can download Zara here https://www.zarastudio.es/en/download.php Notes from the Remote Broadcast Q and A Session 3 5.00 pm – 6.00 pm 7th May 2020 John Englishby, Dan Pope, Eimear O Kane, Alan Byrne, Cathal McCooey, Philip O’Brien, David Bellew, Padraig Quigley and Mary Rose Muckian. Advice on Sound Desks/PC/Laptop Microphones If you are purchasing a new laptop then one with 16GB Ram with an i5 processor would be preferable for music editing and recording. When connecting a USB mic you might have to set the input level to high to get the best quality. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct5Z2921Bx4 – Zoom – How to record a separate audio file for each participant. Free Online Voice Recorders https://www.rev.com/onlinevoicerecorder https://cleanfeed.net/ https://zencastr.com/ Alternative to Zoom Video Chat https://hangouts.google.com/ Audio Editing Q and A What is the difference in audio quality between Wav and mp3 format? Wavs have a lossless quality are much bigger, by a factor of 10 and tend to be better quality and mp3s have a lossy quality and are sort of squashed down versions of the wav but still very good to most people ears. Mp3s are transportable more easily over email so you have to use a different platform something like Dropbox or We transfer, what we call F. T. P. file transfer protocol to get the wav files to your recipient. When you copy a mp3 it will lose a generation of sound so it will lose quality every time. For a great information guide, take a few minutes to review this Sound on Sound article about different file types, sizes and quality levels.https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/what-data-compression-does-your-music Most phones record in mp4 quality. This can be converted to mp3 using an online converter where you upload the mp4 file and then download the mp3 version. Pre Records Timings – once the complete shows adds up to 50 minutes, there is leeway to have 27/23, 26/24 or 25/25 minutes. Next Week: We will have a demo and Q & A on Audacity (Philip and John) and Reaper (David). Programming Spotlight – John is recording a Joe Jackson Spotlight. We will run a 3 hour live music show on a Friday evening for a station fundraiser in a few weeks time. Padraig will record a promo with Brendan for the 1957 show. Slane Concert Series – Cathal will do a test run with Pat Byrne using Zoom. The 100 Years of Music stings will be available to download on the show webpage. A new one hour show was mentioned by Cathal and he is looking for takers – it’s called ‘5 degrees of separation’ – one song leads to the next, to the next, to the next…. Community Call is a new 24 part series. MaryRose, Eimear, Dan and Philip have expressed an interest in helping to research, present and edit the show. Another way to do the series would be to focus on the sports clubs in town. RTE Doc on One – Presenters ChoiceOur documentary slot is at 9.00 am on Saturday and the programme is repeated at 5.00 pm on Sunday. If you want to pick a documentary from https://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/ and send in your choice, we will add it to the schedule. Choice By Presenter 1 A Solemn Undertaking Alan Byrne 2 Johnny Cashs Forgotten Tour of Ireland Caoimhe O’Malley 3 Don’t Go Far Paul Donnelly 4 Hidden Heroes of the Belfast Blitz Donal Carroll 5 Women of the Revolution Tara Mulholland 6 Prince at the Castle Michael Murray 7 The Man from Tallahassee John Englishby 8 Con Carey and the Twelve Apostles John Hennessy 9 One day you’ll understand Tony Banda 10 A Matter Of International Secrecy Marissa Lucchesi Notes from the Remote Broadcast Q and A Session 2 5.00 pm – 6.00 pm 30th April
Thanks to John, Consuelo, Danielle, Noel, Mark, Venus, Mark, Richard, Colin, Liana, Niamh and Hammond for your attendance at today’s Information Session. Our staff Padraig and Marissa will be following up to help you to record a one-off music show (choice of AlphaBeats, 100 Years of Music or Spotlight). Hoping to see you back with us when we begin our blended training in September. Alan Byrne, Manager. 1Info Meeting Slides 20200729
Above are our team of new radio volunteers researching their choice for the 5 Irish Tunes show – Dean Wright, Barbara McClure, Luka Stopic, Mary Gantley, Conor Clarke, Bruno Vilares and Róisín Ward Morrow. Seoirse McCann and Sean Callaghan called to share their experience of presenting on Dundalk FM and to encourage our new volunteers to join the September Radio Course. The links were recorded on the night, edited by Alan Byrne the next day and broadcast on Dundalk FM on Saturday 27th August – you can see the Running Order and listen to the show on the link below. From what we heard on the night, we are sure that we will be introducing new community radio programmes into our schedule starting in October. https://www.mixcloud.com/DundalkFMMixcloud/5-irish-tunes-new-radio-volunteers-information-night0220827/
Dundalk FM would like to invite you to come along to our Coffee Evening on Thursday 9th May from 7 to 8. We are a Social Inclusion and Community Development Radio Station that is run by community group representatives and individuals on a not for profit basis. The station has over 90 volunteers and provides Programming that reflects the experiences of people living in Dundalk. Employment and training opportunities for people in the area. Opportunities for small local enterprises to reach a local listenership. We have ongoing vacancies for Programme Presenters. Sound Desk Operators. News and Sports Journalists. So for information about your next step in community radio and to find out about our next 2 day Learn about Radio course, call into us on Thursday the 9th May from 7 at Dundalk FM Studios, Partnership Court, Park Street, Dundalk. Looking forward to seeing you then.
Dundalk FM are celebrating the FIFA World Cup 2018 by making a show about all the 32 countries going to the finals. We need some help and are calling for volunteers from the countries who living in Dundalk and the surrounding area to get in contact. You will team up with our community radio broadcasters to help research, compile and present a show featuring your country. If you would like to volunteer email alanbyrne@dundalkfm.ie.
If you would like to register your interest in joining Dundalk ‘s Community radio station, then all it takes is for you to email info@dundalkfm.ie with your name and phone number and we will add you to our distribution list. We run regular information evenings and training courses as you can see in below.
Dundalk FM would like invite you to a free Radio Documentary workshop on Wednesday June 23rd and June 30th at 7.00 pm. Open to everyone that has an idea for a radio documentary. We will demonstrate how to record and edit audio. For further info email kevin@dundalkfm.ie. All welcome. [podcast title=”Radio Documentary Workshop 27 May 2015″]https://dundalkfm.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/RADIO-DOCUMENTARY-WORKSHOP-MEETING-MAY7TH-PROMO-1.mp3[/podcast]
https://dundalkfm.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Town-Talk-Features-1-to-111.mp3 Spotlight Link to 5 Irish Tunes Webpage
