https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/ Station Tour Many listeners have sometimes wondered what it must be like behind the scenes of the local radio station. There's an air of mystery as to what it could all look like and what goes on. They have some idea, but are often quiet surprised to learn, after seeing for themselves what type of equipment really is used. I know from the times that listeners have come to see me, they tell me they expected to see a place bustling with people and about eight of them rushing around after me alone! They thought they'd see a massive music library brimming with records and CD's, only to discover it's definitely not the case at all. If you'd like to find out how a radio station is set out then read on, and believe me when you've seen one station you've seen them all, as most stations are laid out in a very similar way. So allow me to give you an exclusive tour around the premises, of a station I've worked at called Trax FM in Doncaster, and you can see for yourself what's going on at their end, while it's beaming out of the radio at your end. https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=40192678 40192678 WELCOME to Trax FM. Their Doncaster studios are situated on White Rose Way in Doncaster. This is reception. https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=40192663 40192663 Beyond reception is a corridor that takes you to one of the five studios within the building. The seating area you can see is for guests waiting to be interviewed, either by a member of news, or presentation. We're going through to look at the main office first. https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=40192664 40192664 The office area is always a hive of activity. The first desk you see, standing at the top of the office, is Creative Production. Scriptwriters dream up many ideas for commercials, which are heard on the station before they are finally mixed and produced, in one of their three studios. Eventually they're scheduled and played out on the air during programmes. Ahead of Commercial Production is the News Centre where the news team compile the hourly bulletins. There is a constant influx of news feeds and audio coming in from reporters based around the UK and the rest of the world. Beyond the news area is Sales. To the back right is the Managing Directors office, out of shot there's a Boardroom and a Kitchen. To the top right of this picture is the Presentation area. Here, presenter's will go through the national and local papers to familiarise themselves with what's happening in the world. Lots of ideas, and the construction of a programme are pulled together before the presenter goes into the studio, and presents it all to you. https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=40192665 40192665 A daily music play-list is compiled and printed here too. Most radio stations have a printed music log that presenter's work from, it's produced by an advanced computer programme called 'Selector'. This amazing piece of kit schedules the music for every hour of every day heard on Trax FM. It chooses from a wide range of thousands of songs, which before they're added are tested through market research, and then if a song tests well, it makes it on to join the many other popular songs in it's extensive collection. When Selector is run, it combs through its huge database to pick songs appropriate for that particular time of day for instance, it will choose some brighter and more uplifting songs around breakfast time and pick out the more laid back songs during the evening period. The system has a wide range of songs catering for the broad range of music the station plays, from the sixties right through to the noughties. The songs are all set up in different levels and categorised, so a good blend is guaranteed every single day. The database grows all the time as songs are constantly added. In the old days before Selector, presenters would merely pick and play their own music from CD's, during their show. Even though they'd pick some great stuff, letting a presenter choose their own music for four hours isn't always a good idea, as some strange stuff can appear. The problem is there's the risk that it can be far removed from the sound the radio station is trying to achieve. Having Selector choose the music you know it will be in keeping with the station sound at all times, and the listener will know exactly what they're going to get every time they turn us on. It's a bit like McDonalds, if you go and buy a Big Mac you know it's going to be packaged the same way and taste the same every time you go for one, that's why you keep going back for more! https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=40192666 40192666 Also in this part of the room and for technical fans are racks! Racks is the heart of a radio station, it's where all the radio station transmission equipment is housed. All this equipment is set up so the presenters and journalists don't end up talking to themselves. On the wall are logger tapes, they record what is being broadcast at all times, it's compulsory at any station. What you can see through the window are two of the Commercial Production studios, they are both identical. When the Commercial Production studios were built, it was underestimated how busy they would be so a further Studio 5 was created. https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=40192667 40192667 https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=40192668 40192668 This is the news booth, you can also send and receive audio feeds from other stations and sources here, and also in the three Commercial Production studios. Commercials and other types of audio are loaded onto the EncoDad computer, that's the system used by journalists, presenters, it contains commercials, jingles and thousands of songs! Everything is just on one computer! https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=40192669 40192669 Next door is the on air studio. When you listen to Trax FM in Doncaster, this is where it all happens. Everything on air comes from here! The desk has lots of faders, which have a different source on each. Generally there's a presenter microphone, guest microphone, two faders for songs, a fader for the news studio, commercials, a couple of telephone faders, a MD fader and two CD faders. Yes! CD's can be played if the computer system crashes, which can happen sometimes. The presenter drives this console during their stint, skilfully blending one source to the next, sometimes running two to three items at once, making it all sound as seamless as possible to the listener. Some visitors believed the presenter would be sat at the other side of the desk, while someone else operated the technology for them, but that's not the case here, the BBC and some national stations do have that luxury though. https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=40192670 40192670 The on air studio looking through to the news booth. https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=40192671 40192671 And here I am in my Trax days, sat in the air-chair at the controls of Trax FM's mammoth mixing facility! https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=40192672 40192672 https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=40192674 40192674 https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=40192673 40192673 Commercial Production Studio. They have two identical studios next door to each other. Here is one of them. https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=40192675 40192675 The Managing Director's Office https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=40192676 40192676 https://petermarsham.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=40192677 40192677