Aldate can’t face listening in chunks larger than a few minutes, so
here’s what’s happening at the points where tuning in seems like a
bearable prospect:
9:35 – The automated DJ is on (isn’t breakfast when everyone
listens to the radio?). MGMT’s "Time to Pretend" is played three times
in a row before Aldate tunes out. It looks like automated DJ = same
song on loop. Even Aldate’s nan can work shuffle.
10:41 – MGMT’s "Time to Pretend". They must be earning a lot of royalties.
11:19 – MGMT’s "Time to Pretend". Aldate used to like this song.
12:04 – Midday has been and gone, and programming should have started. MGMT’s "Time to Pretend" is still going strong.
13:51 – Potential – people are actually talking. Not very
clearly, not very funnily, not very interestingly, but at least it’s
not that song. The words of one DJ are indecipherable. The other
sounds really, really bored. “We were just talking about exchange
students. Yes we were. No we weren’t” [crashing noise, fuzzing] “My
colleague just assaulted a microphone.”
15:08 – Nice/fun song. Aldate could actually envisage listening to this.
15:14 – Oh, wait a sec. It’s the same song on repeat:
16:31 – This pair ("Paul to Paul") seem to fancy themselves as Mark and Lard . The links are semi-planned but not utterly terrible. There’s potential. They’re nominated, too (see previous post).
16:36 – Wow! Was that? Did they? Yes, they used a bumper (=
jingle, basically) between two songs, and it almost worked. I say
"almost", because the bumper said "Pimping the beats to the Oxford
massiv – this is Oxide". Technically near-perfect though. I’m
beginning to like this pair
16:39 – I’m beginning to dislike this pair. They stopped Franz
Ferdinand mid-flow to continue their vaguely amusing Call My Bluff
rip-off.
17:06 – Discussion about Oxide awards. Apparently if the nominee/winner doesn’t turn up, someone else gets the award.
17:07 – "Did your mum used to wash you in Dettol?" – medium-quality banter.
20:12 – Aldate gets back from the pub to find an angry comment
from an Oxider who LIKES to EMPHASISE his POINTS by CAPITALISING every
SECOND word:
| DJ Oxide (which is server side) is down because we’re currently changing servers to accomodate listener figures (two is, shall we say, VERY under the total). The music therefore comes off a playlist CD, and yes, SOMETIMES (god forbid), it skips. How about instead of complaining in a blog barely anyone will real [sic], you e-mail the studio (or me, since you now have my e-mail address), and I can do something ABOUT it. |
Aldate WAS hoping THAT one OF the
VERY-more-than-two-listeners would email the studio first. Come to
think of it, it’s strange that they didn’t. Would someone at Oxide
please furnish Aldate with a graph of the week’s listener counts then?
Oh, and website hit data, if we’re going to have a full-on cock size
comparison.
Some trippy D’n’B show is on at the moment. It’s not half bad – nobody’s talking.
20:25 – That sounded scarily like a remix of the Mastermind
theme tune. Still no talking = good. Here’s a real Mastermind theme
cover:
20:48 – A comment on Aldate’s post from yesterday:
| As the station’s ex-Head of Training, I can reasonably suggest that you probably have no idea whatsoever how difficult it is to keep the station sounding professional. At its heart, Oxide is a conglomeration of volunteer DJs with little to no experience and almost no possible method of reliable quality control. Keeping that lot sounding good all the time is like herding cats, or perhaps nailing fog to the wall. Pick your metaphor. |
Nailing cats to the wall? Aldate completely accepts these points, and
this liveblog is a way of illustrating that the system is faulty.
There is a potential solution. Stop the costly, counter-intuitive and
dated streaming method and move to a podcast model. That way,
democracy will out, you can focus resources on particular shows, etc.
etc. etc. The benefits are endless. Discuss.
21:02 – Clowns appear to have invaded the studio, singing "I
love cock, I love willy" over "God save the Queen". There is no future
in… these guys’ time on Oxide?
21:04 – High pitched scream over GSTQ.
21:06 – They’re fast-forwarding through and skipping between
songs. There’s "quality control" (above) and "twat control". Both
appear to have failed here.
21:10 – They’ve stopped skipping through songs. Unfortunately,
they stopped on Dario G. But hey, that’s a personal dislike. PS
thanks BAZIL for THE clarification ABOUT what EVERY second WORD
capitalized MEANS.
21:16 – Saint Aldate rarely takes the Lord’s name in vain, but
GOD how long does this song go on for? At least the jokers aren’t
talking.
21:17 – Same song starts playing for a second time. But again, at least the jokers aren’t talking.
21:20 – Aldate reaches for the Neurofen. A real listener would have tuned out by now, surely?
21:25 – So does this mean that there’s nobody in the studio?
Mr. Scott – you seemed somewhat vexed that nobody pointed out the same
song going round and round and round and round before. Well, here’s
your alert. You’re making Dario G rich; in the name of quality dance
music, stop it please.
21:33 – Aldate has long since tuned out. Shout when the next show starts.
| The problem is really that there are a lot of DJs on Oxide (I hear over 100?). 100 reporters to the OxWell might go through an editor or two, but DJs broadcasting live can’t. I think a little competition wouldn’t harm things, though. Good suggestion. Maybe the Cherwell could start its own station to complement Oxide? |
Fair point, but maybe the problem is that they are broadcasting live?
Surely it would be more effective to supply an on-demand model, like
podcasts? That way quality could be assured, just as an editor
(theoretically) checks every page before it goes off to print.
That said, Cherwell considered podcasts as part of the website
relaunch, but it was basically decided that not many people would
listen to them unless they were really tightly produced. Podcasts suit
commuters mainly, after all. However, with a half-decent studio you
could make some impressive and relevant stuff – how about a show
discussing the plays of the week, for example? Or a documentary
strand, picking up where OxStu investigations leave off? Aldate won’t
elaborate lest he be accused of treason.
21:40
| Since our last server restart (8th May), we have had 5920 unique connections (this is unique to each IP address) |
As you can see, James Scott has kindly emailed Aldate some vague
listener figures (nothing specific, apparently, will be forthcoming
until he can get to the server). Mr Scott rightly mentions that
without knowing how colleges and OUCS run the show, we can’t interpret
this figure too closely.
However (and as howevers come this is pretty big), surely every
time somebody visits the Oxide home page and the automatic player kicks
in, that adds to the number of unique connections? So surely that
figure is just the number of people with Flash installed who have
visited the Oxide homepage in the last 11 days?
21:50 – Dave speaks out about Aldate’s Theory of Podcasting:
They’d open themselves up to potential legal action. Oxide walks a fine line as it is, legally speaking since they don’t pay royalties. Making music available for download as opposed to streaming is definitively illegal – OUSU wouldn’t dare even risk it. I’ve always advocated rebroadcasting some shows, as a "best of" Oxide’s content. I’ve also lobbied for a reduced broadcast week, perhaps eight hours/day, 6 days/week so we can cut out the dross. Of course, no-one wants to be the guy who makes that change, since it’s bad press to reduce hours (much like it’s bad press to reduce pages printed).
|
Do we really need a station playing music that can easily be found on
iTunes and other internet radio stations? Surely student
radio/podcasts should focus on celebrating upcoming talent? Aldate is
thinking of live performances and interviews, for example, neatly
packaged into manageable chunks – stuff that doesn’t present copyright
nightmares.
Other programmes can be documentary-style, or discussion panels on
anything from world news to Oxford news to Oxford drama. The whole
streaming/live thing should go, much as the print editions of the
student newspapers should probably go eventually.
22:18 – Aldate is on the phone but this sounds like a good show for music fans.
22:29 – Good music banter. The music thing is a stumbling block
for the podcast plan. In his paper days, Aldate would phone up
photographers etc. for permission to print a picture. Surely a band
would jump at the opportunity to have their song featured in a
(popular) student new music podcast? It just takes a little more
effort, which isn’t necessarily a Bad Thing.
22:40 – It’s been great fun, but Aldate has pagans to fight in the morning ,
so is calling it a day. A lot of useful points have been made and
there’s a lot to work with here and in the comments box – if you have
anything to add, put it below or email it to [email protected].
Night!
