NCRC 2010 - Day 2
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
The First Plenary for the NCRC 2010 in action.
Day two of the National Campus/Community Radio Conference 2010 and CIVL Radio is continuing to glean important ideas to cultivating a radio culture for the University of the Fraser Valley and the communities that we serve. With over twenty different campus and community radio stations, there are no shortages of ideas for this.
Today started off at 9 a.m. with four different panels discussing a multitude of topics. One was entitled “Working Together in a Scarce Spectrum” and the panel included representatives from Industry Canada, CBC Radio, the Nation Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA) and more. This topic is of particular interest to urban radio stations as the frequency spectrum is already heavily populated. Due to this, there is a lack of “real estate” on the frequency spectrum for new radio stations or the expansion of existing stations.
Attempting to address these concerns, Industry Canada suggested that the future of “radio has to be digital and can only happen with phenomenal cooperation” between government, industry and consumer demand. In the meantime, radio remains one of the last mediums to go digital in Canada even though it offers a potential solution for this problem.
In the early afternoon, there were four different panels again. At the “Writing For Radio” panel, Chris Straw of CBC Radio went into great detail about what makes good radio. Straw suggested that there are three principles that all programmers should consider when producing radio programs. The principles are that radio is intimate, evocative and fleeting. Intimate in that when the radio broadcasts, it is like having a voice in our head from the broadcaster and the listener is essentially on the receiving end of a close conversation. Radio is evocative because it paints a picture in our minds about what is happening and we see this based upon the details the programmer provides. Fleeting in that the exact moment the radio broadcasts, the message exists only for that moment other than what the listener is able to internalize.
Straw went on to suggest, “never underestimate the intelligence of your audience and never overestimate the knowledge of your audience.” Powerful words from a person who essentially develops existing programs and new program ideas for the CBC Radio.
We are looking forward to tomorrow and keep coming back here for more reports from the NCRC 2010 as the week progresses. Be sure to follow our tweets on twitter at www.twitter.com/CIVL_Radio.