Everything you hear on a radio station has been produced by someone. Learn how to use music, sound effects, and voice to build a complete piece of radio audio.

Audio Production

Radio stations produce a variety of audio content which help shape the overall sound and attitude of the station. HSRP students will produce:

Legal IDs: A legal identification must be run once per hour of broadcasting, as close to the top of the hour as possible. The legal ID must include, in this order, the call letters of the radio station and the city of license. For the HSRP, our station clocks include a legal ID near the top of each hour. Each participating school will record and air their legal ID(s) for the duration of their time running the station. Examples of real world Legal IDs

Station Imaging: The general term for the composite effect of multiple and varied on-air sound effects and voice that identify, brand and market a particular radio station. Examples of station imaging include sweepers, IDs, voiceovers, music beds, intros, promos, and jingles. The total effect of these on-air elements create an overall sound design, which positions a radio station and brand within the marketplace.

Public Service Announcements: Public service announcements are messages in the public interest aired by stations to raise awareness about important community topics.

Long-form Features: Human interest stories, typically in the form of a longer newscast. Not to exceed five minutes in length, these features are typically not of a “breaking news” nature, but instead spotlight a story that requires more time than is typically allowed in a “headlines” type newscast. Examples of features include human interest, interviews, informational stories, or personality sketches.

In order for your HSRP production to make it on the air, it has to uploaded properly.

Naming your audio production:

 Imaging/sweepers should use your high school as the artist and the title is whatever the students wish to call the production.  See example:

For PSAs, the club or organization should be the “artist” with your school in parentheses and the name of the PSA should be the title.  See example:

Uploading your audio production:

Students will upload all legal IDs, imaging, sweepers, and PSAs in three easy steps through your state broadcaster associations’s Audio Storage cloud drive. For the username and password to this drive, please refer to the “Instructions to Auto Import Audio” document sent to your teacher.

  1. Connect to the audio storage drive

  2. Open the “Auto Import” folder

  3. Drag and drop your audio into the correct folder for your piece of audio. In a few minutes, your audio will be automatically imported into MusicMaster and PlayoutONE for immediate use. Options include:

    • Legal IDs

    • Generic Imaging - general imaging that brands your HSRP station

      • “You’re listening to the High School Radio Project.”

    • Imaging <State> - station imaging that references your city, state, or general geographic area. Something “local.”

      • “Heard from Boston to the Berkshire Mountains and everywhere in between. This is the High School Radio Project.”

    • Imaging School - station creative that is school-specific

      • “Coming to you from Mr. Hillburn’s class at Millard West High School, this is the High School Radio Project.”

    • Public Service Announement

Software

There are many tools HSRP participants can use to produce audio including Audacity, a full-featured and FREE audio production software. We will provide some basic instructions to get you started, but feel free to use whatever you’re familiar with and comfortable using.

Learning Audacity

Get a quick tour of Audacity.

Learn how to build a piece of station imaging (works for PSAs, interviews, too).

To review how to pull audio from Benztown Branding, watch this quick overview video, and this more detailed video.

How to save your project and your final audio file.

Audacity: In-depth

  • A quick tour of selected features of Audacity. Take the tour.

  • Learn the menu bar of Audacity.

  • Get to know the Audacity toolbar.

  • Adding new tracks to yoru project. Learn more.

  • Quick reference guide to effects you can use in Audacity. Plugins are also available. Learn more.

  • Learn how to import an audio file into Audacity (for example, an MP3 music file), edit it, then export the result.

  • How to edit a narration to fit the pace of the background music, and fade down the music so your listeners can hear your narration. Learn more.

  • Simple instructions on how to repair a short recording fluff: a wrong word spoken, an obvious breathing sound or a cough say. Learn more.

  • You must use one of the Export commands to make an audio file for playing on your music player. Learn more.

Audacity has a robust tutorial section on their website. Feel free to dive in as much as you like. We have suggested a few tutorials to help you get started.

Google and YouTube are GREAT sources for tutorials on using Audacity. Don’t be afraid to search for the answer!

What is included in the HSRP Benztown branding packages?

  • music beds

  • sound FX

  • sweepers

  • branding

  • promos

  • drum loops

  • music hooks

  • drones

  • ramp loops

  • holiday/special event audio

  • voice samples

  • celebrity/artist IDs

  • listeners testimonials

Benztown Branding provides the world's most powerful imaging libraries with over 302,890 audio elements, updated and growing daily.

HSRP students can utilize Benztown to create their own radio elements like sweepers, promos, and PSAs and give their time on the station a professional sound (plus it’s a TON of fun)!

Your state broadcaster association will give you the credentials to log in to access the following areas:

Exploring Benztown

Take a short tour of Benztown Branding.

Get a more detailed tour of all that Benztown has to offer.

Remember: All of the audio elements found in Benztown are for HSRP use only!

 Copywriting

Copy noun: The main text used in an advertisement. The text could be a dialogue, a catchy punch line or a company’s dictum. It is an audio advertising message that aims at developing and retaining an interest of the target customer and prompting them to purchase a product or service, or to educat them about a topic within a span of time.

Radio copy usually means the script that will be read by an announcer or other voiceover talent when recording a commercial or PSA (public service announcement). Radio copywriting guru Dan O’Day offers seven steps to writing an effective radio ad: http://danoday.com/blog/2016/04/writing-30-second-radio-ad/

When formulating your PSA, keep these tips in mind!