Career Trek: The Radio years

My Early love Affair with Radio

When I started high school, I thought I wanted to be an accountant. In Grade 10, I joined the A/V Crew and fell in love with the technical arts. In grade 11, I won a local radio contest and got to sit in on the production of a major market morning radio show—limo ride and all.
While the antics of the hosts, Jesse & Gene, had me in stitches, I was paying wrapped attention to Perry, the show’s producer as he flew around the studio, cutting audio tape, jamming commercials into cart decks, running the board, cuing the hosts, playing CDs and being the proverbial glue that held the show together. I was sold; THIS is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
Just over a year later, I started a closed-circuit radio station at my high school before leaving to pursue a degree in Radio & Television Arts at Ryerson (now Toronto Metropolitan) University. After graduating and working freelance for several years, I had enough material to assemble a small demo which I sent to a tiny radio station in North York, Ontario in the fall of 2005.
I had applied to be the station’s creative producer, writer, audio engineer and technical coordinator—in other words, the entire production department. The salary was less than a living wage today, but it was a start.

The Demo Spot

I was asked to produce a radio spot for CHRY’s People Powered fundraising campaign. Using my crude set-up at home, this is what I submitted.

After two interviews and my demo, I got the call. I wasn’t selected as the candidate. I was crestfallen and figured I’d remain in the freelance world a bit longer. Two weeks later, the phone rang again. The first candidate didn’t work out and I was offered the job. I took it and started my new full time gig as the Technical/Production Coordinator at what was then called CHRY (now Vibe 105 TO).

Amplifying the Alternative

This is a production demo I submitted for a national award in 2007. It didn’t win.

In 2005, the production facilities at CHRY were barebones to say the least when I walked in on my first day. Besides a slow computer and a Rode Broadcaster microphone, I had nothing—no headphones, no script stand, no licensed production music, no sound effects and no volunteer staff. My manager got the JAWS for Windows screen reader installed on my office and production computers for which I am eternally grateful. This one piece of software allowed me to independently work with advanced audio production software and keep a job for nearly 8 years.

At the time, CHRY’S sonic signature ranged from a noisy mix of over-compressed, reverberant and poorly equalized material to a few slickly produced jingle IDs that ran during station breaks. The overall aesthetic definitely sounded gritty, unfocused and very grass roots. I thought we could do better as a station and as a sector.

CANADA HELPS PSA

An example of the pro sound I brought to the station using tight compression, subtle effects and EQ, not to mention Talia, a stellar voice talent from Toronto.

The day-to-day was about managing the chaotic and often hectic worlds of radio spot production. I wrote, recorded, edited and mixed radio ads, promos, public service announcements, station IDs and other on-air material. My production philosophy was to produce high-fidelity material using the tools I had at my disposal—a computer with audio production software and a high-quality condenser microphone. I discuss my production philosophy in this post, but sufficed to say the station’s sonic signature evolved to being indistinguishable from major market stations with bigger budgets and more resources. We became equal players, sonically speaking with no difference in audio aesthetics when sweeping the dial.

Canadian Women’s Health Network PSA

The original version of this national spot was poorly recorded with a terrible VoiceOver and bad levels when it was sent to us from the NCRA. I re-recorded with an amazing voice talent, Jayde, who brought the spot to life.

Over the next eight years, the staff and I built CHRY’s production department to be recognized and envied nationally in the campus/community radio sector. Besides producing award-winning radio creative and refining the station’s sonic signature, I left a legacy of documented best-practices, policies, procedures and sage advice for the person who stepped into my shoes so we would never backslide into producing audio that made the listener cringe.

Award Winning Fundraising Spot

This spot campaign for our 20th anniversary fund drive won the award for creative Production from the National Campus/Community Radio Association in 2008. A fantastic voice talent, Greg, anchored the spot and gave us the “institute” vibe we were looking for.

How I Adapted

Thanks to a supportive staff and volunteers, great assistive technology and the chance to prove myself, I excelled as a radio producer who happened to have sight loss. Among my colleagues, I was known as the sound engineer or the producer and never “the blind engineer” or “the blind producer”. Many of our ad clients never knew their spots were being written, recorded and mixed by someone who couldn’t see.

As mentioned prior, I used JAWS to do everything on the computer. I ran  Sony SoundForge with custom JAWS scripts, Adobe Audition and a handful of VST plug-ins. My Audio Arts console was labeled with braille and other tactile marks which help me orient myself to the board. The station itself was small and easy to navigate, however the York University campus where CHRY  was located was immense and less accessible than my alma-mater. Having a great crew of staff and volunteers helped in incalculable ways when it came to miking up remotes or getting to station events.

Working as a freelance audio producer had its perks. I got to work on projects that were of interest to me, but my first full-time gig in radio helped me refine and hone my craft. I’m convinced that working at a radio station is the coolest job in the world. For me, every day was different with new challenges, amazing people and something new to learn every time I walked into work. I left the station in 2013 to pursue my first tech startup, TellMe TV, but I was grateful to be a part of something bigger than myself.

Feature on Jazz Singer Emilie-Claire Barlow

This was a full-length radio feature on Emilie-Claire Barlow, a wonderful jazz singer formerly from Toronto. This feature came about early in my tenure and was the first really long format piece I’d edited and mixed.