Posted by David Huffman on Wed, Aug 24, 2011 @ 10:40 AM
We're gonna do it. Diving straight in, head-first, into our first ever twitter chat. And it is all going down on Wednesday, September 7th at Noon. Our guests will be the dudes from Tim & Jeff in the morning. They'll be answering your questions on morning radio and radio careers in general.
Ever participated in a twitter chat?
Here's what you do to follow along with #BeOnAirChat
- Open up either your Hootsuite, Tweetdeck (or whatever you use) and open a new column to follow along with the hashtag #BeOnAirChat
- If you use twitter directly from twitter's site, you can also login to TweetChat.com and search for the #BeOnAirChat hashtag.
- Once you're following along - you can sit back and listen or participate by retweeting others' tweets and asking questions of your own to #BeOnAirChat participants
- Try to keep your tweets relevant to the topic at hand. Being that anyone can post in a hashtag stream, sometimes things can get off-topic fairly quickly.
- For this first #BeOnAirChat, the @OCBOhio account will be asking a list of pre-set questions with Tim & Jeff answering. You'll be able to participate by responding to Tim & Jeff's answers or by interacting with other folks in the hashtag stream.
Those are pretty much some basics. If you're feeling up to it, go ahead and follow Tim & Jeff and the Ohio Center for Broadcasting on twitter.
Have Any Questions You'd Like Asked?
Currently, we are compiling questions to ask Tim and Jeff during the #BeOnAirChat and we would really love for most of the questions to be yours. Wondering what it's like to get up before 3 a.m. everyday? How do they come up with all their topics? Most of it will be fair game.
In the 30 minute chat, we hope to get through 10 questions.
Leave your questions in the comments below and we will do our best to make sure it gets asked.
Posted by David Huffman on Mon, Aug 22, 2011 @ 04:37 PM
So, yea - we're really lucky to have some pretty great relationships with talented radio and television personalities around the Columbus, OH area.
And even luckier that they are willing to take time out of their ridiculous schedules to stop by the Ohio Center for Broadcasting Columbus campus and pass some wisdom on to our students.
But it doesn't stop there.
Nope.
Lately, they've even been willing to go a step further and allow us to grab a few moments with them over video, interview-style.
Here is Nia Noelle of Power 107.5 FM in Columbus, OH. Nia is always a student favorite when she visits. Video below.
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Interested in a career in broadcasting?
Posted by David Huffman on Fri, Aug 19, 2011 @ 02:04 PM
By Jodi Franks
Ohio Center for Broadcasting
Cincinnati Campus
@producerjodi
Have no idea who Frederick Ziv is?
I’d give you the big “shame -shame finger” if you said no, but until recently, I had no clue who he was either.
Frederick Ziv was born in Cincinnati Ohio in 1905, and is considered “The Father of Television Syndication”.
Although he had a law degree, he opened an ad agency in Cincinnati, and partnered with product sponsors Procter & Gamble, and WLW Radio. During this time, they produced syndicated radio shows like Easy Aces and The Cisco Kid.
In 1949, Ziv opened his own television production company, Ziv Television Productions, and developed The Cisco Kid, Highway Patrol, I Led Three Lives and Sea Hunt. Now, these shows have to start sounding familiar to you a little, right?
By the mid 1950’s they were America’s leading independent producers, and Ziv was able to buy his own television studio instead of leasing them from Hollywood. During this time he realized how successful they could be syndicating reruns of their previous hits.
Unfortunately by 1959, due mostly to the quiz show scandals, networks began to take more control over what aired. Ziv, who never cared to become an employee of the networks, sold 80% of his overall company to United Artists Television. He sat on their board until United Artists started to phase out Ziv Television productions in 1962.
He spent the next 20 years lecturing on broadcasting and advertising at the University of Cincinnati.
If you get the chance to visit the Media Heritage Museum, located in the Voice of America Park in West Chester, Ohio, they have over 11,000 transcription discs and master tapes of Ziv’s 42 radio shows, plus several boxes of contracts, promotional materials, photographs, television scripts and notes.
It was unreal and “geeky amazing” to get to touch and look through such an amazing piece of broadcasting history.
It’s always good to know where you came from, and although the broadcasting industry looks nothing like it did nearly a hundred years ago. Frederick Ziv was a visionary, and his passion was surely no different than yours as you begin to realize your dream and mold your future while you’re a student with The Ohio Center for Broadcasting.
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Sources:
http://historyofbroadcasting.com/id9.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Ziv
Posted by David Huffman on Wed, Aug 17, 2011 @ 11:10 AM
Vocal Coach and Physiologist, William Messner gave a two hour seminar on how on-air talent can “Develop a Great Voice of Broadcasting”. The seminar took place at ICB’s State St. Broadcast facility on Thursday, August 11, 2011 and was repeated on Saturday, August 13, 2011.
Messner has decades of professional experience training professional voice users including: Singers, Actors, Radio Talent, Public Speakers, Teachers, Floor Traders and more.
In this highly informative presentation, Messner explains and demonstrates not only how the voice works – but how to get the voice to work for a career in broadcasting.
Through the use of demonstrations, exercises, audience participation, anatomical models and ultra-high speed motion pictures, participates learn:
- How their own voice works
- Why some voices sound great “on air” and others may not.
- What a great voice looks like in wave form
- What are the limits of audio recording for improving the “human quality” of their voice.
- Vocal exercises and skills to bring your voice up to “broadcast quality”
- How to eliminate and avoid career-ending vocal disabilities such as nodules and ulcers….
Messner’s background in this subject is expansive and includes not only training professional voice users how to avoid vocal disabilities, but also the vocal rehabilitation of those with potentially career ending disabilities.
During the 1980’s Messner perfected non-surgical techniques to eliminate all forms of abuse-related vocal dysfunctions, including:
- edema
- polyps
- contact ulcers
- nodules
Messner’s techniques were brought to the attention of Otolaryngology Department of
Rush, Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center. He was invited to lead a series of three research projects. Numerous patents with various abuse-related vocal dysfunctions were selected for the study. These were not ordinary subjects. Each had “completed” their traditional therapy and showed no improvement. Their nodules remained, leaving only surgery as their last hope for improvement.
For the study, each subject was offered the opportunity to work individually with Messner for twelve weeks, using his specialized techniques. With complete predictability (by Messner) every subject achieved full recovery. The need for surgery was eliminated.
More importantly, the cause of the pathology was eliminated – without which the dysfunction would have eventually returned. According to Messner, that is precisely what happens with most people who have surgery. The dysfunction returns, because the underlying cause (wrong muscles doing the vocal work, instead of the right ones) has not been addressed.
Messner’s unique techniques address the underlying cause – not the symptoms. When corrected, the body’s natural ability to heal itself - does exactly that. The nodules, ulcers, polyps or edema disappear – permanently.
Messner touches upon all these issues though this highly informative seminar. Messner also incorporates several minutes of ultra high speed motion pictures of the human larynx. Shot using a specialized film camera at 5,000 frames per second, seminar participants see the voice work in ultra slow motion. This helps them understand how their voice works (both correctly and incorrectly), how to “troubleshoot” why it might not sound its best on a given day and what to do to quickly improve their “on-air” sound.
For further information about this seminar or to have William Messner be a guest speaker for your school or organization, please call ICB at: (312) 884-8000.
William Messner
Messner@MasterWerkz.com
PHOTO CREDIT: JMRosenfeld on Flickr
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Posted by David Huffman on Fri, Aug 12, 2011 @ 06:04 AM
This week, WSYX 6 & Fox 28's Amy Lutz stopped on by the Ohio Center for Broadcasting Columbus campus to speak with students and grant us a lil' interview so we could pass on her super pro advice to those of you interested in a career in television.
Shortly after she left campus, we tweeted this video under our #BeOnAir hashtag, but then figured, you might want to read a little too, eh? People still do that, right?
Anyway, interview below.
OCB: What’s your best trick to a great on camera performance?
AL: I think that the easiest way to have a good on camera performance is just to be in it! You have to be so involved in what you’re saying and know what you’re saying, so that when you know the emotion you understand the story. Understanding the story helps you deliver the story the way it needs to be.
OCB: Best advice to someone wanting to get started in this Industry?
AL: Don’t give up. Don’t give up at all! I was ready to go back to school to be a teacher, filling out applications to go back to school and something popped up! You just can’t give up! You have to be determined to not let it get you.
OCB: Have a most embarrassing moment?
AL: I am always falling all over the place! I fell off my box once, it’s on you tube, terribly embarrassing, on live TV. I think one of the more recent ones… I was doing a cooking segment when the vent had stopped working. The chef was making some kind of pepper something. So all of a sudden I got pepper right in my face. So he essentially pepper sprayed me on the air. I couldn’t talk or breathe! I was choking, so I had to flag someone to come over, so that was pretty embarrassing even though there was nothing you could do about it.
OCB: Describe a day in the life of Amy Lutz?
AL: It starts pretty early. Some days I get up and work out before I go to work because if I don’t before, it’s harder to do it after. So on those days it’s 2am, I get up then go work out. I get ready and go to work around 3:45am. I start reading through my scripts I get my hair and makeup done then were on set at 4:30am. Tape a show from 4:30am to 5:30am then we are on the air from 5:00am-9:00am.
I get my first bathroom break at 8:25am, which is really exciting, after all those cups of coffee. At nine we finish and we post. So we meet every day, go over the stories and issues we had and then talk about the next day then were done usually about 10:00am/10:15am. Then I go immediately up stairs to work on Good Day at Noon so I am done there an hr later then on the set doing the noon from 12 to 1. After that we tape promo’s so I am usually home around 1:15pm/1:30pm, run or take a nap, then I get up and run again!..Then I go to bed at 6:30pm… So it really doesn’t change a whole lot; I am very scheduled oriented.
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Want to learn more about which types of careers training from the Ohio Illinois Center for Broadcasting can ready you for?
Posted by David Huffman on Wed, Aug 10, 2011 @ 11:21 AM
By Bill Natale
Illinois Center for Broadcasting | Chicago Campus
natale.b@beonair.com
Recently I received a call from Robert Henning, a friend and colleague that I have worked with on various crews including the Jerry Springer and Steve Wilkos Shows. If you go on IMBD.com (Internet Movie Data Base) you can see for yourself the distinguished career of Robert B. Henning, who has worked on numerous films and major video productions.
Robert Hennings, who I affectionately refer to as ROBODOG was in Chicago for a couple of days while on an assignment. He had a window of 3 hours open and wondered if I might want him to drop by the campus. Because he is one of the best in the country, I had asked ROBODOG to consider being a guest speaker a number of times, but his schedule and travel plans never seem to work out where we could set a firm date.
I immediately took ROBODOG up on his offer and we got the word out to all the classes that we would hold a seminar at 1:30 p.m. (when morning session classes ended) featuring Robert Henning, jib-operator extraordinaire. A lot of the students wondered aloud, “What’s a jib-operator?”
A jib operator is a specialized job in the world of video and film production. A jib operator is responsible for all of those cool, sweeping camera shots that you see in TV and film. It is a highly skilled camera operation that takes years of practice and experience to perfect.
That explains why many jib operators make six figure plus salaries…the good ones are very much in demand for football games, movies and the big production shows that showcase the span and depth of an audience or stage.
For a better sense of what jib operators do, check out Robert’s demo reel at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/RobDogProductions
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Posted by David Huffman on Mon, Aug 08, 2011 @ 04:25 PM
By Eileen Burns
Ohio Center for Broadcasting | Cleveland
burns.e@beonair.com
So you've got a killer resume and demo, you're a networking ninja, your
soft skills are impeccable, and maybe you've even got your foot in the door with a great entry-level position in the business. You've got your own place, you're making a name for yourself in the business, nothing can stop you now.
Except for the fact that you may still handle your money like you're a high school student living in your mom's basement.
Yeah, that's right, I'm going to talk to you about finances.
I see you dozing off already, but WAKE UP! Seriously, this will only take a minute and if you don't learn these few simple lessons, it can really come back to bite you in the. err, end. And royally screw up what started out as a very promising career.
The Very Basics Of Managing Your Money: What You Need To Know
Don't ignore your bills. Whether you receive your bills electronically or in the mail, figure out a system for keeping track of the due dates and pay them on time. Late fees can really add up, and they aren't going to help your credit score either. Set up an app on your phone to remind you about due dates or arrange for automatic debits if that works for you.
If you move, make sure your credit card accounts, cell phone, loan accounts, etc. have your new address. If you can't make a given payment, don't ignore or try to hide from the collectors, you will just end up with more credit problems, fees and interest that way. Talk to them and see if you can arrange a payment plan you can both agree on.
Create a budget. A budget really isn't that hard to do, and it can help you see where you may be overspending and causing yourself problems. All it really entails is figuring out how much money is coming in and comparing that to your monthly expenses.
Hint: If the expenses total is greater than the income total, Houston, we have a problem. Here's an easy online tool to help you figure out your monthly budget: http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/budget/
Cable TV and Starbucks are not necessities. If you've just started out at your first job, or are still in the process of looking for that big break, you're probably not making bags of money yet.
If you look at your budget and the expense column adds up to a larger number than the income column, something has to give. This is the time to cut back on all non-essentials. Perhaps you can find a roommate to help share expenses, cut back on entertainment and restaurants.
Might be a good time to perfect that recipe for spaghetti with beanie-weanies and stay in.
Credit cards are not your personal sugar daddy. It can be tempting to whip out that card anytime you buy something, especially when you're low on cash, but if you rack up more charges than you can pay off each month, those interest charges will pile up FAST, and you can very quickly find yourself in a hole you can't get out of. Credit cards generally have a very high interest rate, so avoid carrying a balance on your cards whenever you can, and if you are carrying a balance, you need to make more than the minimum monthly payments if you want to have any hope of getting out from under that debt.
If you default on your student loans, you WILL regret it. Not making payments on your student loans will put you in default, which could result in:
- wage garnishment
- loss of tax refunds
- loss of government benefits like social security and earned income tax credit
- puts a huge dent in your credit for years
- and forget about going back to school, because you'll be denied any more loans.
If you are having trouble making your payments, contact me (Eileen Burns) at the Ohio Center for Broadcasting Cleveland Campus and I can help you apply for a deferment or forbearance to postpone payments for a while and keep you out of default.
Once you default, those options go away though, so don't ignore your loans until it becomes too late.
Friend me on Facebook, I'm here to assist grads http://www.facebook.com/eburnsocb
If you really find yourself in a bad financial situation that you just
can't get through on your own, you can call United Way's 211 line, which is available in most communities.
They can connect you with service agencies that can assist you. http://211us.org/
Posted by David Huffman on Thu, Aug 04, 2011 @ 06:42 AM
Interview with Ohio Center for Broadcasting employee Sean McHenry, below. Sean took place in the 48 Hour Film Project in Columbus this past year. In case you aren't familiar with the project, here is a little blurb from the 48 Hour Film Project site:
Filmmaking teams from throughout the Columbus area successfully completed a weekend of filmmaking. Films were due on July 24th, and the last few minutes before the deadline saw filmmakers, operating on little sleep and lots of adrenaline, rushing to get their films in on time.
Interview below. OCB is Ohio Center for Broadcasting. SM is Sean McHenry.
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OCB: Did you know off-hand what your topic or plot for the film would be? Or was brainstorming for that part of your 48 hour process?
SH: No. Part of the charm and headache for us semi-pros is the idea that we are basically pawns in the game. We are given a character by name and occupation, a prop and a line of dialogue at the kick off meeting, then the hard part happens. From a hat we pull a genre randomly from the pool. There is a wild card default where if you really can’t work with the initial genre you pull, you can toss that in and ask for the wildcard, drawn by a random system also.
I joked with family and friends when I decided to enter that if I pulled the dreaded and much laughed about “Musical or Western” genre (combined or separate) that I would have to walk off the project. I am no vocalist and have no real ear for lyrics or melodies of my own making so… guess what category I pulled? Yep. I turned that in for the wildcard and drew “Drama”. That was better for my sensibilities and much easier to work with for me. Plus “Drama” is a huge wide open field.
OCB: For beginners that may not know how to scale their time, what would you say you spent most of your time on? Writing, shooting, or editing?
SM: That’s a tough one.
I have been involved in 3 of the 4 years here in Columbus for the 48 Hour Film Project in different aspects. Last year for example, I shot 35mm film for a friends team from 10am Saturday until about 2am Sunday morning, pretty much straight through. The film was somehow not usable the next morning so they had to reshoot it fast on video. I was unavailable at that point so others pitched in there to shoot it. That however is not normal because we shot film on that one.
If one is looking to win, I would say the bulk of the time should be spent in the writing.
However, I never go to win, I go for the thrill of not knowing what we will do and for the friendships. I think you spend the time needed up front and if you do it right, you write and plan the shots for what you have available to work with, so that part goes fairly quickly.
Editing can always be a nightmare if you don’t shoot all the shots needed. It’s easy to overdo in one area and forget about how long it takes to edit, and the dreaded rendering time.
OCB: Anything you would do differently?
SM: I loved being a part of it this year because I like being a different sort of bird. I and my 2 actresses shot on 16mm film that I processed in the basement Saturday night. I projected it and recaptured it on a DVX100B 24p camera for editing in my Avid Media Composer.
If I were to do things differently, I would have shot another roll of film for cut away shots. You can never have too many cut away shots to help close the gaps during editing. Reaction shots, wide shots of the room or set, ambient shots of things.
OCB: Paint an overall 30,000 foot view for folks that may be interested in this by describing the "Art of Writing, Shooting, and Editing" a film in 48 hours.
SM: Douglas Adams was quoted as stating that flying was intentionally throwing yourself at the ground, and missing. It’s a bit like that.
You hurl ideas at the wall, try to pick the ones that make sense at 2am, when everything inevitable sounds right, you get friends and family to show up at some foreign location about sun-up and try to get them to really act. After that you roll way too much tape and end up trying to edit it until it makes more sense than it did at 2am when you wrote it. In the end there are many great bits that come out of it from that spur of the moment thinking and decision making. It is a great way to test your cat like reflexes and ability to think while running and changing the script as it is being spoken.
The edit is the part that stings.
You have the needed shots and correct emotions from the actors or you don’t. I have witnessed many an editor come close to tears in this phase, including myself. Of course it doesn’t help that everyone is buzzed on latte’s and had 3 hours sleep either. I encourage everyone to try this or similar exercise.
You’ll be surprised what creativity lurks in the dusty corners of your mind.
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Sean McHenry 16 years with NBC as a studio Engineer, 8 years with major post production houses in Ohio as an Engineer, 5 years as an arts oriented experimental filmmaker using 8mm, Super8, 16mm, 35mm, HD and even a cell phone for video (which all covers less than a 1/3 of his experience and such).
Posted by David Huffman on Tue, Aug 02, 2011 @ 09:27 AM
How can I thank you and the staff at OCB enough?!
My journey in radio has been more than fun and it all started in 2007 when I started at the Ohio Center for Broadcasting. Looks like hard work and perseverance really pays off! I can't believe how much I have accomplished and where this adventure has taken me in these three short years since graduation from the best broadcasting program ever!
Below I have written a little note to current and future students to help be an inspiration and ensure that dreams really do come true.
Ohio Center for Broadcasting rocks, but it all starts with you. Your dream of working in the broadcasting industry can come true if you dedicate yourself to the 11-month program OCB has to offer.
I started my internship with Lincoln Financial Media with KKFN as quickly as I could and landed a part-time job after graduation in 2008 as a remote engineer. Putting in time at an unpaid internship can be hard and some days it was but it's all about your attitude and how bad you want it. It's a tough and competitive business to break into, so my advice to current and future students is to work hard, be patient, and set reasonable goals. The classes are challenging, but fun. You really get to experience it all, so be ready to dive in headfirst and get a first hand look at how a career will be in Radio and TV.
I now work for Clear Channel Radio in Wilmington, Delaware (Market #77) as a morning show co-host on WDSD-FM. The Ohio Center for Broadcasting will set you up nicely to succeed but you have to be willing to do what it takes and possibly work multiple positions. Not only do I act as a co-host, I do traffic reports morning and afternoon drive on all five stations in our cluster production work, promotions, and web design.
The dream job I always wanted is now my everyday life and I only have OCB and the people I have met along the way to thank. Never give up, believe in yourself, and keep that dream ahead of you. Anything is possible.
I wish you all the best of luck, I'll be listening :)
Christa Pogonyi (Christa Cooper)
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