Internship Portfolio: Introduction

I worked for This Arctic Life for my internship over the summer. My internship time stretched from April 12, 2010 to July 20, 2010. Over the course of 3 months I learned many useful techniques through this job that will help me excel in the radio industry.

My regular set schedule brought me to Alaska Integrated Media building 3 times a week. All the shows I produced for This Arctic Life were broadcast from KUDO 1080 both live and streaming online from 2 to 3 PM. My three shows were also posted on thisarcticlife.com as podcast soon after airing.

On Monday’s, I produced Table Talk. For this show, Mindy O’Neall would schedule a local political figure as a guest on the show. I had the opportunity to meet some of the candidates running for local office such as Hollis French and Mead Treadwell. This show uses consistent introduction and ending theme songs every week; opening with Beatles, “We Can Work It Out” and ending with the same. The music coming in and out of each of the 4 segments for commercial break each hour would change, preferably depending on topic or mood, but they were often politically tied somehow.

On Tuesday’s, I produced Alaska Travelgram with Mindy O’Neall and Scott McMurren. This hour was dedicated to keeping Alaskan’s in the loop on great travel deals. This show opened regularly with a voiced over Frank Sinatra song and ended with “Fly Me To The Moon.” For the cue music coming in and out of commercials, I chose travel related music that related to conversation if I didn’t have a preset list. The show consisted of 4 segments and 3 commercial breaks. The music One of my favorite catch phrases from the show was, “When the airlines are fighting, the consumer wins.”

On Wednesday’s, I produced Gal Radio with Mindy O’Neall and her best childhood friend Jessica Duncan. This show was a lot of fun. It covered topics from books they were reading and wine they were drinking to problems best suited for their mother’s advice and miscellaneous tips and tricks for ladies. These shows always opened with Bonzo Dog Band, “Look Out, There’s a Monster Coming,” except for the one time the computer when crazy on me and they had to sing it themselves. That was funny. The playlist for commercial break music ranged greatly. I was allowed to pick whatever music I wanted but the hosts often requested favorites ahead of time.

Overall, for each show, I had a specific set of duties to carry out. First, here’s a rundown of my schedule during the shows each day.

START – 14:06

SEGMENT 1 (I’LL GIVE A 2 MINUTE SIGNAL AT 14:13 TO CUT TO BREAK)

STOPSET 1 – 14:15 (3:00)

SEGMENT 2 (2 MINUTE SIGNAL AT 14:28 TO CUT TO BREAK)

STOPSET 2 – 14:30 (3:10)

SEGMENT 3 (2 MINUTE SIGNAL AT 14:43 TO CUT TO BREAK)

STOPSET 3 – 14:45 (3:00)

SEGMENT 4 (2 MINUTE SIGNAL AT 14:57:50 TO END SHOW)

END – 14:59:50

FULL SHOW TIME WITHOUT BREAKS – 44 MINUTES 40 SECONDS

*Each morning, I was responsible for manually placing the commercials for each show in our designated time frame in the system. KUDO 1080 uses Nexgen for their programming. Each of the 3 commercial stopsets included 3 minutes of bought or traded commercials.

*I was in charge of creating the music playlists

*I produced each show from a miniature-sized board operator room connected to the KUDO studio.

*I recorded some guests after the show for special commercials I would later produce.

*Photography of exciting things happening during the show

Outside of my regular show times, I helped the company with sponsored events, photography and commercial production. Some of the events I participated in include the Sex and the City 2 movie release party at Bernie’s Bungalow, a ladies fly fishing course offered locally and concerts and events tied in with KUDO 1080’s sister stations at Alaska Integrated Media. I’ll specifically detail some of these events in the photo portion on of my portfolio.

Over the course of three months, I learned more than I ever could have anticipated. I now have a decent grasp of the Nexgen system used to program both shows and commercials on KUDO 1080. I’m more familiar with audio related programs such as Otz, Winamp and Audition. I used both Otz and Winamp for some of my playlists for music cuing in and out of segments. Audition was used to record each show for editing and podcasting later. I also used Audition to record and produce commercials. I feel confident in my soundboard operation skills after this whole stint. I got good at seamlessly exiting from show segments into commercials and vice versa as well as choosing appropriate music to lead in and out. I gained confidence in my radio voice as I was often asked to turn my microphone on in the sound booth and participate. I conquered the phone lines for the studio so I was sure I wouldn’t hang up on random callers or guests. I felt timid about commercial production at first, but my internship helped me gain momentum in production competency. Creating a 30 second spot is much less stressful or time consuming as it was when I started. While this might not seem like a glaring lesson, I learned that most of the people who seem intimidating from titles were as real as me. Meeting respectable guests from political candidates to musicians put relationships into perspective for me and opened a lot of great networking opportunities.

The only thing I think started wearing on me was the scheduled time I was working. And even then, 2 to 3 PM wasn’t a bad time, but I was coming back to work after my full time job starting at 4 AM regularly. I was pretty cranky by the time my internship wrapped up due to exhaustion and lack of free time. I also wish I had more time to train with the programs, but our show slot was so short, I often lacked the time to get in depth with them or couldn’t find anyone to teach me. However, I took the initiative to learn enough to pull off all the basic functions necessary to the shows. I feel like this internship in combination with my other job at Alaska Integrated Media has really ignited a passion for radio I never knew I had. I learn more than I imagined I would coming into it. I love production work and I believe with my enthusiasm, creativity, and ability to learn quickly, I can see myself making an outstanding career for myself in this field.