A Day in the Life : WSFM’s David Post

I have an incredible amount of respect for David Post. For many years he has inspired me with his audio editing creativity.

However it's his 'discipline' and 'attention to detail' that sets him out in front of the pack of my top radio production guys on the planet.

Postie now resides as Senior audio pro and breakfast producer for Jonesy & Amanda at WSFM, but as you read through his daily 'to-do-list' you quickly see that his role is broad and full of creative opportunity to shine.

Thanks so much Postman for taking the time and sharing an insight into 'The Day in the Life of a Radio Production Pro'.

Out of bed at 3.15am, at work at 4.20am

Get to work, make coffee, set up studio. I use my own MacBook Pro with Pro Tools 9, so it takes a minute to plug it all in and fire it up.

The show producers are already here, hard at work. Jonesy is in his office editing interviews (he cuts his own as he knows exactly what he wants) or reading the paper.

Amanda arrives around 5am and they go through the show.

The first things I do each day are a Classic 9@9 promo….just a daily voice track from Ron E Sparks with some music grabs. Then I do any imaging needs for the Edge 96.1 (they’re in the same building, and I help out with beds and intros etc).

Here's a sample of Postie's audio gear…

http://radiopromotips.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/WSFM-Breakfast-Imaging.mp3
or hear it here

5.00am

I spend 10 minutes gathering audio from the previous night’s TV shows. We have access to all audio from the commercial TV networks as MP3 files… it doesn’t take long to find and edit anything that’s needed.

Any sketch production/openers/competition segment production is started.

Jonesy and Amanda will sometimes voice things themselves, or I’ll do some for them. I can also belt out a bad jingle if needed.

5.30am

Showtime

Usually wrapping up any production needed for after 6am.

6.00am

Most days I’ll start on some WS imaging during this hour. Update promos for whatever promotion we have on at the moment. Refresh the news promo. Write some imaging for Ben Oxenbould (our voice guy for WS) or Peter Sumner (our breakfast voice guy).

There’s always stuff popping up that Jonesy and Amanda need at the last minute.

I’ll open and close dozens of Pro Tools session an hour trying to keep up.

7.30am

Start getting ready for Reaction Line. At 7.45am Jonesy and Amanda chat to our news reader, Sarah, about something in the news. Today was the breastfeeding debate. They solicit opinions from listeners and I’ll take calls in my studio, recording them directly into Pro Tools. The whole thing is cut into a 40” package, with a customized intro and bed each day, that then plays back in the 7am news.

Some days I finish loading this into NexGen 20” or 30” before they play it on air. Tight turnaround. No room for stuff ups.

8.00am

I’ll start grabbing bits from the show for promos and next-morning playback.

Our engineer, Joel, built his own system that records a clean feed from the studios whenever the mics are turned on. All accessible by FTP and extremely fast to sort and download. Breaks are edited for the daily podcast and promos.

8.30am

Make a playback bumper from a great bit from the show. It plays at 8.40 and is produced with an intro, bed and outro.

9.00am

Alex brings me a list of breaks he wants to use in “rewind” the next morning. These are segments that play overnight leading up to the start of the next day’s show. 6 segments (all edited earlier) loaded onto carts. I also use these to make the podcast. Cut promos together to run during the day.

I usually have podcast, promos and replay bits completely done by 9.15am

Rest of the day until 12.30pm

WS imaging. Meetings. Coffee. Meetings. Coffee. Coffee. ZZzzzzzz.

 

If you want to be featured in 'A Day in the Life' get in touch with Halesy here, everyone's welcome !!
 

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