Meetings are held in the Nurses Education Centre at Kempsey District Hospital, on Thursdays at 5:30 pm

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1 Studio: , Office: , Fax: , Web Page: Sponsorship: Meetings are held in the Nurses Education Centre at Kempsey District Hospital, on Thursdays at 5:30 pm July Meetings Committee 3rd July Members 10th July Can t Do Your Program? You are reminded of your obligation to find a replacement presenter. If this is unsuccessful, contact Ray Wells Address All Correspondence To: The Secretary P.O. Box 200 West Kempsey 2440 The discussion of increasing the station s profile in the community was the topic for discussion at the recent meeting of the Management Committee. An underlying factor in all these deliberations was the need for all members to get involved in these activities. We will need the help of members in a variety of ways to make these projects work. The other bottom line of these deliberations is that we need additional funds not only to ensure that we can meet our running costs but also we need funds to replace our equipment which is starting to age. Should our licence coverage be extended into the South West Rocks area new equipment will be needed. Here are three areas we need your support. Celebrate the Macleay Saturday and Sunday September 20 th and 21 st On the Saturday the launch of our bumper/fridge magnet competition. We will need people to hand out bumper stickers and general information. On the Sunday we will continue with Saturday activities and broadcast the program and main features of the day. Shop Window Display. We need the assistance of some talented creative people to mount a display in the shop window highlighting the station s programs especially our breakfast programs. Regularly manning the shop. People are needed for a regular couple of hours per week to man the shop especially in the time when the bumper sticker competition/ fridge magnet promotion is on. If every member could do 2 hours per week then the burden would be easily spread. I recently had a phone call from a researcher with the Public Library in Canberra, Rob Willis, who is a regular visitor to the Macleay, was here in the valley with another researcher from the University in Bathurst carrying out a project at Bellbrook School. He is looking at recording a 15 minute segment with the kids from the school as part of an oral literacy project. I agreed that we would assist the project by broadcasting the finished product. What was interesting was his comment that while here they listened to Tank Radio and found it refreshing in comparison to some other radio stations they know and that presenters kept their egos out of their broadcasts. John Russell President In Your Ear - July Page 1

2 From The VP Both members, and listeners, frequently comment to me on the four minutes of silence that should have been the national news (but it was still in cue), the minute or two of silence that should have been the weather (but the wrong microphone was turned on), the presenter that has one, or maybe two, program sources (CD s, sponsorship, etc) running over the top of them while they are talking, or the guest that couldn t be heard because the guest microphone wasn t turned on. There is no excuse for any of those situations; they simply should not happen. Read on. Some of those examples happen on an almost weekly basis, and they happen for one simple reason that has nothing to do with a presenter s level of skill. They happen almost exclusively with presenters who don t wear headphones. Such problem situations are immediately obvious to a presenter when headphones are worn, and they can be corrected in a timely manner. As the on-air presenter, YOU are solely responsible for the image of the station at that time and it is your responsibility to ensure that we don t have dead air, that we do have the news and weather, and you don t have songs or other extraneous program playing over the top of yourself while you are talking. When any studio microphone is turned on the studio monitor speakers are turned off. This is done in every broadcasting studio to prevent feedback occurring. Consequently, the ONLY way a presenter can know what the station is putting to air whilst a microphone is open is to monitor using headphones. It is essential that EVERY time a microphone is open the presenter MUST be wearing headphones What you hear in your headphones will vary, depending on certain desk functions and this can be broadly grouped into categories. Normal. This is when program is going to air and no channel is in cue mode. You will hear the same program in both earpieces, and it will be exactly what the listeners hear. Cue. When any channel is placed into cue mode, the headphones are split. That is, the left and right ears will hear different program. The left ear will hear what is going to air and the right ear will hear the program being cued. The reverse will apply if you have your headphones on the wrong way around. Each earpiece has a separate volume control on the desk so you can achieve a balance between program and cue that suits you. The headphones should be the loudest thing in your ears to ensure that when you wear them, it s the headphones you are hearing and not something else. Every presenter who cues up the news will be familiar with the split headphones concept, which can also give an indication that you forgot to take the news out of cue to put it to air. In that situation you will have silence in one ear, indicating that the listeners are also hearing silence. Talkback. This creates a very interesting situation because at times during its use the presenter will be listening off the desk rather than off-air (the presenter normally listens off-air, from a special radio receiver installed in the tech room). The switching between off-air and off-desk monitoring is performed automatically when the delay mechanism is activated and is necessary so that the presenter hears the conversation in real-time compared with listeners who will hear the delayed conversation. With talkback, the only way you are able to hear a caller is through your headphones. Every presenter at every radio station is instructed during the training process about the need to wear headphones when a microphone is open. It is inexcusable that some presenters chose to ignore this basic, essential rule of radio which applies to volunteer and professional, alike. If you are one of those presenters who don t wear headphones, maybe now is the time to reconsider what you are doing to the reputation of the station, through avoidable blunders. Almost every program cycle, one or more presenters take a break, and so it is this time around. Retiring at the end of the current cycle are: John Mayhew - Finger Pickin Good Bluegrass, Garry Grey - The Grey Area, and Chris Richardson - Easy Listening I d like to take this opportunity to thank those presenters for their contribution to community radio in the Macleay Valley, and invite them to come back again in future program cycles. And as we say goodbye to some presenters we also say welcome, or welcome back, to other presenters. Joy Sebbens is coming back on Sunday afternoons with In The Mood, and new presenters Darren Molone and Peter Ball join us with their own programs. To Joy, I say thank you for being a returning presenter and, to Darren and Peter it s congratulations for completing your training and demonstrating you have the skills to come on board as new presenters. The program for the new cycle is on the web page. Ray Wells Vice-President In Your Ear - July Page 2

3 OPEN LINE UPDATE Could all presenters who added their name to the list of people interested please complete the following form during the month and place it in the box in the studio. Name Contact Telephone Number E Mail Address Could you please list the areas in which you wish to use the open line in your program? What day is suitable for a short 1 hour training program at 5.30 p.m. at the Nurses Education Centre? In Your Ear - July Page 3

4 On The WEB YOUR WEB SITE. Your web site is continuing to grow. Check out the Community Forum or the new What s On In The Macleay Or the Daily Dozen. There is also Tank, Local, and National News plus Local Weather. SEARCH ENGINE TIPS: Since it's beginnings the Internet has changed & expanded greatly - nowadays the country code domain name ending (eg. the.au after.com [.com.au]) will not define ALL websites for a country. Websites from a particular country will also not necessarily be hosted on a server within that country - they can be hosted anywhere in the world. Websites from Australia now have both Australian & International Domain Names - eg /.net /.net.au /.org /.biz /.info /.tv...and more. WHEN SEARCHING - Search 'The Web' - NOT - pages from Australia - that is if you don't want to miss a large proportion of the sites & possibly the information you are looking for. Because of the algorithms that most of the Search Engines use to determine a country's sites - when you search within your country you do not actually get all the websites from that country. Search 'The Web' and Use your Search criteria to refine your search. Many names - people, regions, town names, business names etc. are duplicated throughout the world so you need to use your search criteria to find what you are looking for. For Example - let's say your are searching for Accommodation in NSW Australia, in particular accommodation in Orange in the Central Tablelands, Central West of NSW. You could begin your search with Orange accommodation. This could bring you some of the results you want BUT there are regions called Orange in at least the USA and France. You can refine your search in a number of different ways - You could start with NSW accommodation or Orange Australia accommodation or Orange NSW accommodation. These searches will bring you more results. Others could be - central west accommodation: central west NSW accommodation: central tablelands accommodation: central tablelands NSW accommodation (there are several central tablelands/central west areas in Australian states) Within Australia where our postal addresses all include the state or territory abbreviation eg. SA, WA, NSW, VIC, QLD, NT, TAS - using the NSW in the example above will quite possibly bring more results than Australia. You can also refine your search to ensure that your results will primarily include your search terms. To do this you will use quotation marks - eg. "Orange Australia" accommodation or "Orange NSW" accommodation. This will bring up results that include the terms Orange Australia or Orange NSW Tips thanks to Have you visited your web site lately? There is new content every day! Your Webmaster Gary Stratton In Your Ear - July Page 4

5 Tank FM Daily Dozen DATE COMMENCING: 21 June 2008 Last Week This Week Song Artist Australian 1 1 My Imagination Amos Morris Yes Country 2 2 Rattlin Bones Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson 4 3 Long Live The Girls The TANK DAILY DOZEN is based on airplay by Tank Presenters, position on Country Tracks Chart as supplied by Country Music Services Group and position on the Australian Independent Radio (AIR) Yes Country Sara Storer Yes Country 3 4 Ready To Fly Amy Pearson Yes Pop 7 5 City Lights Jetty Road Yes Country - 6 Little By Little Chasing Bailey Yes Country Rock 6 7 All Gone Blue Dianna Corcoran Yes Country 5 8 Sweet About Me Gabriella Cilmi Yes Pop - 9 Slow Dancing At Midnight 8 10 For Cryin Out Loud Carter & Carter Yes Country Jane Kellaway Yes Country You Pick Me Up Pete Murray Yes Pop I m Doin Alright Adam Harvey Yes Country THERE IS A HEAVEN FOR VOLUNTEERS. Many will be shocked to find When the day of judgement nears, There's a special place in Heaven Set aside for volunteers. Furnished with big recliners, Satin couches, and footstools. Where there's no committee Chairman. No group leaders, no car pools. No bazaar and no-bake sales And not one thing to fold or mail. Telephone lists will be outlawed But a finger snap may bring Cool drinks and gourmet dinners And rare treats, fit for a king. Who will serve these privileged few, And work for all their worth? WHY...all those who reaped the benefits And NOT ONCE volunteered on earth. We hope for you, the very best always, thanks for all your help. Submitted by Rowan Bailey In Your Ear - July Page 5