Tag Archives: @MinifigNewsguy

MNG Newsradio Marching Ahead (March 12, 2023)

The annual all nighter happened for the third straight year, but without BCOP. I did the MNG Newsradio format, which is very loose, with very little stories and traffic and weather virtually within the 10 minute cycle.  The 12th was also my birthday but outside the time check… actually with EDT, my time of birth would be 12:10 EDT because I was born less than an hour before Friday the 13th! This time I would read traffic and weather reports. You heard the time check from 1:59 EST to 3:00 am EDT. It’s midday drive in the dark!

The audio was crap, because the audio workflow is currently being redone to have some form of preamp (of which is the reason why my audio has been lousy.) An external USB or Firewire XLR audio interface can do this without the expense of really ampfliers .

The Local news stories came from a couple Minibrick state TV stations, one was Channel 13 in Copenhagen and Channel 2 in Miniland so to build up a news operation.

Since I was in creative services on the TV side, I had some of the same cuts used on the radio side, but for station ID and other jingles I had a copy for the KNX News Package found on the Interwebz for the longest time, I cut some of the samples up for the top, :03 and bottom of the hour. Ironically the Axxcess Broadcasting’s sounder packages composed for at least of the 3 ol CBS owned radio stations in 1989, KNX used it the longest, and the same cuts for more than 15 to 18 years. KNX went through some rebrand in the late 00s and the remaining Axcess cuts were I think retired at that point.

IRL, another radio station had used the package, KRLD in Dallas in the 90s, whether CBS owned that station at the time is unclear at the time of this writing.

TBH as an East Coast brat, I preferred the KNX sound over the More Than Just the Headlines on WCBS

 

The @MinifigNewsguy Featured on #RiseAndShineOn7! (FINALLY!)

My ultimate gratification is seeing my work and have some credit, and be more heard than seen, but sometimes, it’s going to be seen over heard. Like photo of a sunrise in Prescott Park in Portsmouth a couple Sundays ago.

If you follow WHDH-TV’s Instagram, it’s mostly clips of stories but mostly the Rise and Shine photos of sunrises of towns all around the Greater Boston and surrounding states as well. I wished the station would wish their followers sunset photos too. I tried to have Julianna Mazza, the weekend anchor, weekday reporter this, because she and a lovely night photo of Boston last fall.

I love this feature from an imperfect “News Station” because the pictures they are so wonderful, the hazy sunrise I felt wasn’t enough for me, but someone 7 liked it. Other stations may do this but it’s got a corporate clusterf-ck feel to it.

I had just finished turning my Nikon RAW images to consumable JPEGs and exported Web-friendly formats last week. I originally posted it my Instagram on Thursday, and tagged WHDH’s Insta that also got bounced to Facebook and Twitter. Whoever at the station saw it was apparently on Facebook first, and then shared it on Sunday.

The way I knew, was I saw a notification on my Facebook the station tagged my Meta page, then saw it on Instagram, then on Twitter. It got a lot of attention. I tried to get seen in my November sunrise from the location. On Thursday, I tagged the station, that probably got more attention that way. Also, the pictures are seasonal in nature, so it’s not like the pictures are right after snow storms (like the one pictured.

It made be great start to the week!

 

 

How to do Radio News (even if you’re just reading to friends!)

I live with two folks, my mother and my grandmother. My mother tends to read stories and hobble around them.

When I do the BCOP Newswheel (the above clip begins after TechBeat at aprox 2:55:00), the format is a bit structured. In this vlog below, I explain how I had built a Newsroom Computer System using FileMaker Pro and run a simple database to catalog the stories, at the time they air and what to read on the air

Have an Informative Day… the Capital Region’s Newswatch Never Stops. More News is next.” – my :59:50 signoff message. 

Continue reading How to do Radio News (even if you’re just reading to friends!)