If you’re not using the newest generation of digital voice recorders, you’re working harder than you should. Olympus makes some great little models that start under $100.
I’m currently using the Olympus WS-100 digital voice recorder. The quality of the files isn’t FM, but it’s good enough for short listener sound bites. The best feature: it slides apart to reveal a USB plug that you can pop directly into any computer for quick file transfer. (Each file is saved as a .WMA which can then be converted to .MP3.)
The Olympus DS-2 costs a little more and requires a USB adapter cord for transferring files (included), but the sound quality is better than the WS-100′s.
I’d love to hear what you use for recording sound bites. Leave a comment below.
Jay Sokolow can fill out 100 online contest entry forms in an hour with the click of his auto-saved name and e-mail address.
He leaves the radio on at work, holding a phone to each ear duringbreaks, speed-dialing stations during giveaways. He won so many times on one show that its producers instituted a once-a-month win limit: They call it the “Jay Sokolow law.”
Other husbands might spend their free time golfing or gambling. To hiswife’s aggravation, Sokolow enters contests. Grocery store drawings, sweepstakes, trivia games, raffles, he enters them every day, except on the Sabbath — Friday night through Saturday.
Read more about Jay…
Male drivers in Shirley, New York, paid $5 for a topless car wash — but didn’t exactly get what they were expecting. Young women held up signs along a busy road advertising the car wash and told the drivers where to go. But hidden behind a big tarp were shirtless male firefighters who were washing the cars. Female drivers enjoyed the gag, though some male drivers felt they were getting burned. All the money went to local charities.
We say: Put your morning show stunt guy out one morning and have the the first ever “Jock Show Topless Car Wash.” Or turn it into a fun Saturday live stuntraiser at a busy intersection. Make sure you donate all the proceeds to charity. (Line up a charity in advance, but be sure they’re in on the joke.)
The cast of the 15th season of “Survivor” was announced today and it includes 38-year-old South Carolina talk show host Leslie Nease.
Power of 10 has turned into a hit for CBS. Some of the statistical questions Drew Carey tosses out are pretty interesting, and are available on the CBS website. If some of the folks on your show don’t watch Power of 10, tossing out the questions the day after it airs is a fun way to talk about a topical TV show.
Much of the U.S. is suffering through terrible heat. Have fun with it by giving away a prize every time one of your CDs “melts”. Use a digital editor to slow down the back end of some songs and then take the tenth caller when listeners hear them melting.
Four months after Don Imus’ derogatory comments about the Rutgers’ women’s basketball team shocked America, ABC News has learned he’s on the verge of a comeback deal. Imus’ attorney confirmed that he is being courted by major media outlets as reports of a possible return to CBS, the company that fired him, swirl. A friend of Imus’ said his return to radio could come as early as January.
More
From Forbes.com:
A Pennsylvania teacher resigned after winning a date with a porn tar during a satellite radio contest. The school board voted to accept Jaison Biagini’s resignation on Tuesday. While listening to the “Bubba the Love Sponge” radio show on Sirius satellite radio, Biagini won the trip last month to St. Petersburg, Florida, to meet with porn star Akira. Biagini, who uses a wheelchair, was interviewed on the radio show after returning home, and told a local newspaper that he was ridiculed for his disability and offended by how he was portrayed on the show. He also expressed concerns about his teaching job.
Looks like his concerns were well-founded.
Can you legally record calls that come in on your studio line? Do you have to inform every caller they may be recorded for broadcast? What about calls you make to others — can those be recorded? What if you call someone and get them on ‘tape’ saying it’s OK to record them — don’t you first need their permission to record them giving their permission?
Whew.
I came across a podcast on the Legality of Recording Conversations. While not complete, it’s a pretty good primer on the sticky subject of recording phone calls. For a better and more radio-specific lesson, check out Dan’ O’Day’s On-Air Phone Calls: Legal vs. Illegal.
Here’s a fun idea one of our InterPrep subscribers sent us. Each week for four weeks the station would put a list on its website of five things to be photographed with or next to, like a famous statue, a well-known sign, in front of a local mall. The first person each week to email photos of his or herself with those five things received a $100 gift certificate to the mall (the one that was on the list each week). He said it was unique added value for the mall, and a nice way to draw people to the station website.
You could also tie in with a local tourism office and have listeners take their photos next to local tourist attractions. Or, if you have a chain of stores in town, say a muffler shop, the listeners could be required to have their photos taken in front of each location for a decent size gift certificate.
Happiness Happens Month, Children’s Eye Health & Safety Month, Children’s Vision and Learning Month, Make Your Reading Be A Haven Month, National Catfish Month, National Inventors’ Month, National Toddler Month, Mental & Educational Wellness Month, Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month.
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