THERE is a difference between deejaying on radio and from a nightclub. From the latter, one doesn’t need to labour much because revelers are more interested in danceable beats.
I will spare the identity of the DJ on a private radio station who played South African Kwaito music last week from 20:25 to 21:00 hours without saying anything.
The cadence of music he played was so similar that listeners could feel it was one long play song, 35 minutes of non-stop beat, without a rap and that was monotonous.
My conversation with this DJ later revealed that he actually comes from nightclub deejaying background.
Now, deejaying for radio calls for seriousness and professionalism because radio music entertainment is not supposed to be as ‘wild’ as that from the nightclub.
Apart from longing for lighter segments, radio fans also expect some kind of information, at least about the song or singer.
Even repeated vibe like “You are listening to radio XYZ, on 123 FM with me DJ Pinto on air,” would suffice.
I was once told that the first radio DJ who seriously vibe on air was Ray Newby of California 1906, then aged 16 years old, a college student, who apart from mixing music, greeted all his class-mates.
It is prudent for deejays to research on the music and singers they play on air. That way, they entertain fans with a professional touch.
May I take this opportunity to congratulate ZNBC’s DJ Dazzle, Herbert Mutabi and Lady MC, Marian Chigwedere for emerging 2013 best Male and Female Radio Deejays, respectively. Club Vegas DJ Creejay deserves praise also for scooping best Club DJ.
I further salute finalists, MIMI from QFM, KB from Rock FM and Kalwa from Hot FM for putting up a brave competition.
ZNBC
Kuteka (cookery) programme on the Ki-kaonde broadcast last Tuesday, February 21 sounded like was recorded from a hollow building with some kind of disturbing echo.
It was presented by Ba Irene featuring a man who explained a Kaonde recipe, the programme was not audible.
***
Late night conversation on ZNBC’s Radio 2 was aired at 19:30 hours last Sunday. I wonder whether that was late enough for that programme considering the heat of the topics discussed on that show, not good for young listeners who could be awake around that time.
PHOENIX
I ran lyrics of a song, “A beer with Jesus” two weeks back on this column. Man! My habitual drunk friends were so excited, declaring that was the only piece they enjoyed in that write-up.
The song was played by Chatewa Dominic on his Sunday Mellow madness of country music, at the request of one Daily Mail staffer Chapadongo Lungu.
Both Chatewa and Chapa are teetotaler good friends of mine. While Chatewa plays music on Radio Phoenix, Chapa’s musical side is phenomenal. “Beer with Jesus” song like I said is a confession of one drunkard who wished he could pour his heart out to Jesus.
TIPS
From the old school, we take a look at Gramophones and the gramophone record, even though Compact Discs (CDs) have replaced the records today.
Music on gramophone records made up a large part of the broadcasting day, and recorded mood music and sound effects featured prominently in much radio drama.
The gramophone was therefore an important item of studio equipment and the record library of any station represented a large investment of programme money. Records and gramophones needed to be treated with care.
The usual studio gramophone consisted of the following: a low friction turntable driven by an electric motor through a belt or pulley system to rotate at 16,33$ 45 and 78 rpm (revolutions per minute), a pivoted tone arm on a low-friction bearing, a pick-up cartridge with a gemstone stylus, an equalizer to adjust the frequency response playback curve to the record manufacturers’ recording characteristics, headphones or miniature loudspeaker for cueing, a device for lowering the stylus gently on the record surface.
In some studios, particularly drama studios, a bank of three or four turntables may have a sub-mixer for mixing the outputs of several gramophones before feeding into the control console.
Another device of great use in drama production was a facility for acoustic feeding-that is playing a sound effects record directly into a studio loudspeaker so that its output is picked up together with dialogue on the studio microphone.
Many effects sound more realistic when fed acoustically.
The different record speeds grew up over the years, the lower speeds becoming possible with the development of silent vinyl plastic surfaces.
Mood music and sound effects were generally still recorded at 78 rpm as this speed is easier to handle and cue.
Incidentally, one needed not overlook the possibility of playing 78 sound effects records at slower speeds to achieve unusual effects.
The playing stylus was very delicate and needed to be treated with great care as it was easily damaged. It was a small chip of gemstone at the end of a fragile cantilever arm. These gemstones were either synthetic sapphire or natural diamond.
The life of the diamond stylus was about twenty times longer than that of the sapphire. A sapphire stylus needed to be changed after between 150 and 200 hours of playing.
The playing time of a record depended upon the playing speed, the number of grooves per inch and the size of the record.
The standard 78 rpm disc had between 96 and 120 grooves per inch whereas the microgroove LP could have as many as 400 grooves per inch.
The correct stylus-78 or microgroove-Needed to be always be used. A standard 78 stylus is about three times as large as the microgroove stylus and will therefore damage a microgroove record if it is used to play one.
Similarly, great care needed to be taken in handling records, particularly microgroove records. The bottom radius of a microgroove was generally of the order of 0.0005 of an inch. It was highly susceptible to dust which could also lead to distorted playing.
The disc always needed to be kept in its dust-jacket and never left unprotected on the cubicle floor or stacked against a wall.
Particular care also needed be taken with microgroove records when making a jump cut- that was rapidly fading down, advancing the pick-up some distance and fading in again. A too-rapid lowering of the pick-up could pit the disc.
MULTICHOICE NEWS FLASH
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The President’s Man
Sunday March 2, 2014 20:00 | M-Net Movies Action (110)
When the First Lady is kidnapped, an aging Secret Service agent is called in to save her. He takes along a younger operative in the hopes of training him in the field.
Starring:
Chuck Norris as Joshua McCord
Dylan Neal as Deke Slater
Jennifer Tung as
Don’t miss Chuck Norris in these other great movies, too:
SundayNightMovie
Sunday March 2, 2014 20:30 | M-Net Movies Premiere (103) After being denied his dream job with the secret service, a young policeman, not wanting to disappoint his daughter, takes her on a tour of the White House.
While there, the building is seized by a paramilitary group. With the government in chaos, it’s up to the policeman to protect his daughter and the president.
Starring:
Channing Tatum as John Cale
Jamie Foxx as James W. Sawyer
Maggie Gyllenhaal as Carol Finnerty
G.I. Joe: Retaliation
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