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Planning a Radio Show

by Jon Cox

Photo by Jon Schleuss

So its no big secret that I’m starting a new radio show over at KXUA. My pitch for the show was something like “interview people on campus and off. Get all sorts of people in on it—students, business owners, etc…. Just showcase Fayetteville.”

That’s a pretty big plan, though. Not to say that I’m daunted. Excited, really. But it’s still a lot a lot of work to go through. I’m sitting on about two hours worth of interviews with the Mayor, Alderman Petty, and Alderwoman Lewis. I’m not quite sure how to edit it together, though. I’ve come up with a rough plan for how it should be organized.

I’m assuming that I’ll get a standard 2-hour KXUA slot. I want to try to fill this with two hour-long shows. They’ll be hard to produce but if I can get 5 or 6 done this summer then I can rotate those out as I make new ones periodically during the semester.

3 sections per episode:

  • Section 1 will be the main part, and will carry the theme. I’m thinking about 40 minutes. For my first episode this will be the interviews with the city government.
  • Section 2 will be part of my ‘focus on the city’ plan and will feature (hopefully) an interview with a local business owner, on how their business interacts with the students. I’m hoping I can get some good representation with Dickson and downtown. I’m seeing about 10 minutes.
  • Section 3 will be part of my ‘focus on the campus’ plan and will consist of interviews with kids and professors about whatever. Again, 10 minutes long.


    • What I’m debating is the order that these things should take. 20 minutes of Section 1, then Sections 2 and 3, then back to Section 1? 15, 10, 10, 10, 15? 40, 10, 10?

    Photo by Jon Schleuss

    2 comments

    1 Jon Schleuss { 06.08.09 at 00:34 }

    I think you should take a huge step back and look at your time commitments. The capturing, reviewing and editing processes are ridiculously longer than you can imagine. And that all depends on your ability to capture quality recordings.

    I think you should focus on something more like 5, 5, and 5. Or do a twenty minute each week and rotate it. Don’t try to fill up a block because it’s a block. You’re not paid and there is no one helping you.

    2 Jon Cox { 06.08.09 at 00:46 }

    Well my idea is to get a good few shows done this summer. I haven’t talked with TJ yet on what slot that I’m going to get, but everyone on exec board is excited about the show and supports it. If it’s like a normal KXUA block, then I’ll have two hours to fill. What I want is to make a few 1-hour shows this summer and rotate them out of my slot, while working on new shows during the school year.
    And technically I am paid, and I do have a volunteer production team.

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