Part 2s

Being somewhere in that age when certain brain cells seem to go haywire, it's kind of difficult to keep track about things that I should've made followthroughs. Thus, this entry.

Some days back, I did Subic Bay Hour part 1 and I was meaning to do part two of it, but I didn't actually have any idea when part 2 will commence. Being that the show is a weekly thing, I figured I shouldn't really write about it in parts unless I wanted it to have this long line of sequels just like the Rocky movie. So I guess from now on, I should refrain from writing blogs in parts.

Anyway, the show is starting to kick butt. After Administrator Arreza, we brought in SBMA Deputy Administrator Raul Marcelo for our second edition. We talked about how Subic Bay is faring as a tourist destination. The cool-talking, jock potential tourism honcho talked about details such as the return of the casinos in the Freeport (which is good actually since SBMA is targetting the foreign tourist and retiree markets), and plans of turning Subic into some sort of a movie location hub (have you seen the Marianne Rivera clip in youtube? Shot right here in Subic...bad-ass gurl, right?). Though it was a bit premature, "Sir Raul" also mentioned the return of the Ad Congress in Subic (with hopes of winning the bid again). Since Happy Louie was happily finishing up some chores before he leaves, BerniMac debuted as one of the show's anchors for Bay FM.

The following Saturday, we had as our resource person Ferdinand Hernandez, SBMA's "crush ng bayan" Senior Deputy Administrator for Operations. Sadly, I was operating over at Radyo ng Bayan so I wasn't able to join the fray at Bay FM. I could just imagine Atty. Hernandez' face grimace when the first salvo was a question about the recent drug bust here in Subic. Jeez. But being the cool and brilliant dude that he is, he answered it right on the dot. (Just so you know, it was the SBMA Law Enforcement Department that first cracked the op, not PASG...so there).

Last Saturday, we had our Labor Department Manager Severo Pastor talk about employment in Subic Bay. Again, with the station manager traipsing somewhere (hey, I needed the rest), BerniMac again anchored the show for Bay FM (Congrats! You are beginning to sound like an AM commentator already!), of course, with DJ Tommy in a supporting role.

I will soon upload excerpts from these editions soon.

And since I'm still into followthroughs, I might as well do now the long overdue part two of "A Dummy's Guide to Radio Lingo" which I wrote ages ago.

You know, I admit it but hey, I'm at that age right? So to save on time and energy, I will be referring you, interested radio geek, to an already published Radio Glossary by Corey Deitz in About.com.

For "A Dummy's Guide to Radio Lingo Part II," check it out here

I'm done!

You Might Be In Radio If...(excerpts from the original text)

Browsing the internet, I found this really hilarious article written by Corey Deitz over at http://radio.about.com/. As I was reading it I realized, yeah, I do some of those things in that list that qualifies me as someone who has been in radio for probably quite sometime. I figured I'd post it here though I sort of deleted some of the items which I probably cannot really relate to (well, the article was written by a U.S.-based radio executive) or something I'm not bound to do since I'm not really that a veteran of the industry. So, without further ado, here it is:

(PS. Some of the terms I defined are for the benefit of those who may not have any idea what the hell this list is talking about)

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you turn up the radio excitedly at the sound of dead air on your competitor's station.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you swear at the competition while driving when you hear a song they beat you to.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you've ever heard of a "cart" (a cart is a short term for cartridge... if you remember during the 70s, dashboards of jeepneys are stacked high with these old 8-track cartridges leaving drivers with almost zero visibility).

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you tell someone you plan to go to lunch "coming up next hour".

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you put up with it.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you find yourself talking to yourself all the time to see how you sound.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... two days off in a row is considered a "long weekend."

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you forgot what kind you music you like, but instead like songs because they sound good after the jingle.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you work on holidays.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you have copies of both the album version and radio edit.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you have recurring nightmares about bad airshifts filled with

dead air.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you interview the governor and drive off in a junker.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... at Christmas dinner, you backsell the Christmas presents, explaining that "Unopened ones around the corner, stick around" (Backselling refers to the DJ technique where the deejay announces the title and/or artist of the song he just played).

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... when the hotline rings you break into a cold sweat.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you begin to like the music you are playing even though you have been faking it for years.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you can run to the can, drop a load while smoking a cigarette and make it back for the last 15 seconds of a 4 min. song.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... every time you screw up the Program Director is listening and calls in to tell you how bad you are and he misses the 4 hours of dead air your idiot co-worker had.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you can recite all the spots in a break (spots are radio ads/commercials).

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... the equipment at your station decides to stop working properly and just go to hell on a holiday weekend when no one can be reached.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you recite IDs and sweepers from different stations just to annoy your friends (IDs are promotional audio production of the radio station. Sweepers are recorded production used in between songs).

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... when your at home and you answer the phone and give the station's call letters.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you answer the phone and tell someone they're caller #6.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you do an air shift in your dreams (Air shift is the length of time a dj works on air).

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... on a holiday weekend, you're the only one at the station.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you talk to friends in a "radio voice."

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you are well into your thirties and have been hit on by a 13-year-old girl on the request line (in the case of a male deejay, that is).

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you hate everyone's favorite song because it doesn't have an intro (intros are sometimes used as ramps or music beds by djs while they do spiels only up to the point when the first lyric of the song plays).

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... when you think of your fantasy girl or guy it is always someone in a band - not a movie star.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you don't know whether to introduce yourself at parties...with your air-name or your real name.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you know what temperature it is.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you make your friends listen to airchecks and they have no idea what you are talking about.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you don't assume DJs are attractive.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you hear your competition using catch phrases and you pull over to the side of the road screaming, "Thats mine Damnit!" - while your kids look at you as if you've finally snapped.

YOU MIGHT BE IN RADIO IF... you tell your wife/girl/boyfriend, "Coming up next hour we'll be hearing from the inlaws, plus we have a new dinner today you're going to really like..."

I need a friggin break.

A Dummy's Guide to Radio Lingo Part 1

If anyone wants to sound like a radio executive, its probably me. Being somewhat of an upstart, it dawned on me that I must know the language of this industry. Here now is my utterly desperate attempt at defining some terms which I use, simplistic my definitions may seem. If you read on...well, you'll know what I'm driving at.

Call Letters - Basically the station's identity. Here in the Philippines, FM stations usually carry the call letters "DW" and the next two letters having been assigned to the said station. With Bay FM, its DWSB, "SB" being "Subic Bay." (Reminds me of my days in amateur radio when my call sign used to be Falcon 95...)

Frequency - It's where you will find the station in your radio dial (duh!).

Stinger - Basically a produced audio file of a radio commercial or ad. This one I have difficulty defining. There are even stingers called floaters. Floaters, I think, are stingers a deejay plays as inserts during song intros for instance.

Music Bed - music a deejay uses as audio backdrop during his spiels.

Disc Jockey - aka Deejay, akaDJ, aka Pilot of the Airwaves (eww!); that dude who plays the music and talks to himself on the microphone while on air (and sometimes off).

Accounts - If you want your station to stay afloat, you need this. These are advertising accounts that pay the salaries of everyone in the station (and in the case of a government station like ours, money that enters the state coffers and can be felt and seen only in financial statements).

Advertising/Commercial Spots - Specific number of air time being sold to advertisers/sponsors. Usually, spots range from 15 seconds, 30 seconds to about a minute.

I guess these are all, for now. Excuse me while I wipe the blood off my nose.

For those who are seriously interested in broadcast terms and definitions, check it out here