Station Operations Manual

Renewing The Club Charter

Every fall, the charter for Future Broadcasters of America needs to be
renewed. This is a simple process but one that needs to be followed for us to keep
our access to the fundraising opportunities on campus.
The information forms and procedure can be found here:
http://www.grossmont.edu/campus-life/clubs-orgs/default.aspx, but heres a
summary.
1. Get five people to sign off as officers of the club (the five senior staff will
work fine)
2. Send in the Official Club Registration Form, part 1 and 2. Part 2 will require
signatures from the officers
3. Submit the signed Advisors Agreement, signed off on by Dr. Wirig.
4. Minimum two of the officers must take the in person or online registration
session and complete the online quiz.
5. Resubmit our constitution. The Student Affairs office should have a copy on
file
We need to attend the Inter Club Council meetings, which are held on the 1 st
and 3rd Tuesday of the month at 4 P.M. in the ASGC boardroom, room 60-207
on the second floor of the Griffin Center. We are allowed two absences a
semester. Only one representative is required each meeting.
Club Finances
Our finances are held by the ICC, and we need to withdraw them from the
Student Activities Window in the administration building, which is to the right
immediately through the quad entrance. When we hold a fund raiser, we need
to keep exact track of what we sell, whether it is tickets, cookies, pizza,
whatever. Each item and the amount need to be accounted for. There is no form
for the tally, just use a piece of note paper. Then, we turn the money and the
tally in to the Activities Window when we want to deposit it.

To withdraw the money, you need a withdrawal slip filled out with the
recipient of the check (this can be anyone, not necessarily the faculty advisor).
There is a section asking if the ICC has approved the funding. THIS IS NOT
NECESSARY FOR WITHDRAWL OF FUNDS. Its a good idea to keep the
ICC informed, but they do not need to write off on us getting our money for
club purposes. Choose to pick up the check, put keep in mind that only the
person whom the check is payable to can pick it up. Also, checks are picked up
on Thursday. If you turn in the request on Monday or Tuesday, it will likely be
ready by that Thursday. If you turn it in after Tuesday, it wont be ready until
next week. Once you get whatever you are withdrawing the funds for, you will
need to turn in a receipt to the Activities Window for book keeping purposes.
Keep a copy for our records, as well.
Samples of both of those forms are in the white binder in the break room
with the facilities request forms.

Facilities Request
Refer to the facilities request forms in the binder in the break room.
There is a sample form filled out, and several blank forms.

Technical Operations

Productions
This is just a small suggestion before starting the section on technical
operations. When someone is working on a production, they have priority. The
walls in the station are not fully sound proofed, and sounds bleed in. If a person
is working on a production, people in the break room need to be quiet. The
board operator should turn off the monitor speakers and keep track of volume
with the headphones only. This should minimize background noise on
productions.

SOT PROCEDURES
Setup
1)
Turn on the receiver, the hardware stack to the right of the computer
consisting of(from top to bottom) Protools mixer, tape deck, mini disk player,
and CD player. The power switch is the large red switch in the lower left
corner. When the receiver is turned on, the Protools mixer will be muted, the
mute button sitting on the bottom right of the mixer underneath the monitor
knob. Press the mute button to unmute.
2)
Set the levels of the tracks you are using, and unmute those tracks. For
SOT procedures, unmute tracks 7, 8 (ProTools tracks), 9, and 10 (Mini Disc
tracks).
3)

Ensure Main Mix is active

4)
Set the Gain dials for those tracks to 3 oclock (40), and raise the
faders for tracks 7 and 8 to right below the thick white line, or 0.
5)
Write up your news broadcast and note the Item Numbers (seen at the
top of the story write up) of the stories you are planning to pull audio for.
6)

Pro Tools Setup

7)
Open Pro Tools, open Radio Station Template. Click to Save the new
file, and overwrite any previous versions of it.
8)
Click the TRACK tab, and click Create New. Dont change the
settings offered, just click Create.
9)

Change the Interface to Analog #7 or #8

Video Prep

1)

Open Google Chrome

2)

Navigate to Newsource.cnn.com (username: GROS, password: dobra)

3)

Click See All Videos.

4)

Find necessary videos for sound bites using the Item Numbers

5)
Cue up the video track to right before the start of the section of audio
you will need
Recording
1)
In Pro Tools, hit Record (the red circle) on the track and then on the
control panel, then hit play on the control panel
2)

Back in Chrome, start the video

3)
Check in Pro Tools to see if sound is recording. If it is, the waveform
on the track should be rising and falling with the volume of the audio. If not,
trouble shoot to see where you messed up.
4)

When audio is finished playing, stop the recording in Pro Tools.

Edit and Render

1)
In Pro Tools, use Zoom In function (Right facing arrow directly
above the #5) to get sound wave to a point youre comfortable editing.
2)

Set cursor to SHUFFLE in the upper left hand corner.

3)
Using the Selector Tool (center cursor setting), erase the dead air
(long flat sections of the soundwave)
4)
Listen to the audio after editing out the dead spots to make sure it
doesnt sound to rushed or unnatural. If it does, undo and re edit.
5)

When edit is finished, highlight entire track (Ctrl+A)

6)

Under AUDIOSUITE, select Other, then Gain

7)
In the Gain window, select the speaker button in the lower left
corner to sample the audio
8)
reader

Adjust volume so the audio is loud, but not hitting the red on the level

9)
When volume is adjusted to your preferences, hit the Render button
in the lower right corner.
Record to Mini Disc
1)

Load mini disc into mini disc player

2)

Locate the No/Yes buttons (between analog knobs)

3)
Press the Edit (No) button. The prompt Erase? should appear on the
display. If it does not, turn the left analog knob slowly until the Erase?
prompt appears.
4)

Press Yes, wait for second prompt, and press Yes a second time

5)
Press Record on the mini disc player, then press play, and quickly
press play on Pro Tools
6)

When audio on Pro Tools is finished, press Stop on mini disc player

7)
To check mini disc recording, lower faders on tracks 7 & 8, and raise
faders on tracks 9 & 10 to the thick white line (0) level. Hit play on mini disc
player. If nothing plays, troubleshoot. If the audio clip plays, youve finished
your SOT. HOORAY!

RECORDING AND REMOVING AN AIR CHECK

Recording
1. Turn the Marantz system to the right of the computer screens on. The
power switch for the tower is located between the upper mini disc
player and the Marantz. The power switch for the Marantz is directly
above that.
2. Once the power is on and the Marantz is finished cycling on there will
either be a display of BLANK CARD or the total time remaining on
the memory. When you are ready, simply press the RECORD button.
3. When the RECORD button is pressed, the system will begin to
automatically record when you turn on either Mic 1 or Mic 2. It will

record whatever is being broadcast, voice, music, whatever. It will

stop recording when the microphones are turned back off.
4. If you want to begin recording on a second track, press the CANCEL
button. If you want to record a second track, just repeat steps 2
through 4 until you are done recording. Then turn off the Marantz.

1.
2.

3.

4.

5.
6.

7.
8.

Getting Recordings Off the Marantz

Log into the non-DAD computer
Turn on the Marantz. As the system is booting up, there will be a
short time where the display reads as Loading before going to
Reading. Quickly, while the display reads Loading, press the
MENU/STORE button on the Marantz, directly above the RECORD
button. If you press the MENU/STORE button after the display
shows Reading, you need to turn the Marantz off and start again.
HOLD DOWN THE MENU/STORE BUTTON UNTIL THE
DISPLAY READS I/O ONLINE. This is the indication that the
Marantz has gone from record mode to retrieval mode and you can get
your recordings from off the system.
On the monitor for the non-DAD computer, a prompt should appear
telling you a device has been connected and asking what to do.
Choose to open the system in Windows. When the device opens up,
click on the folder MPGLANG1. This will take you to the recordings
currently in the system.
Find your recording. It should be the most recent recording, but if
not, just listen to the recordings in the catalog until you find yours.
Rename the file and do what you need to do with the recording (copy
it, download it, send it to your Productions/News Director for
evaluation)
Close the device on the desktop.
Turn off the Marantz.

HOW TO USE CDEX, THE AUDIO RIPPER PROGRAM

Loading the CD in:

1)
Turn on the CD player by flipping the big red switch on the gear rack
into the on position.
2)
Take your CD and place it into the CD bay, which is located on the
lower part of the gear rack.
3)

Youre done!

Launching and Setting up Cdex Settings

1)

Launch the Cdex program, it has the icon of a cd and red EX

2)
Open the options tab and select settings, move to the Encoding tab
> Encoders window
3)
On the menu on the right side, look at the encoder drop down menu
and select Lame Mp3 encoder, and change the bitrate min and bitrate max to
320Kbps, change the audio sample rate to 44.1Khz
4)
After configuring the encoder, accept the changes and move back to
the main page.
5)

Youre done!

Metadata and Ripping the CD

1)
If youve followed part one, the album info should be in the list. If
none of the metadata is there, begin filling it in.
2)
Select all the songs you want to rip, mouse over to the tab Convert
and choose Extract CD tracks to compressed audio file The second choice.
3)

Youve successfully ripped the cd!

FAQ:
Q: I extracted the CD, but I dont know where the files went?
A: open up options > General > Directories and Files and the WAV > MP3
or Recorded Tracks tab will tell you where the files are dumped.

HOW TO SORT MUSIC IN THE DAD SYSTEM

Part One: Logging in
1)
Launch the 'DAD Primary Peer Mode', close the console command
window, and the DAD library window should open up. (It's big and white with
blue buttons)
2)
Click the blue button labled 'Setup', it should be in the upper right
hand corner.
3)
Find the button called Musdir/Logout, it should be in the middle right
side of the screen.
4)
The login screen should appear, the default name is DEF32, if not,
logout, then login with Username: Musdir, Password: Tunes
5)

Minimize the large menu box

6)

You've successfully logged in!

Part Two: Navigating the Library

1)
Navigate back to the main Dad system page and select the blue button
labled 'Library', It should be in the upper middle right portion of the screen.
2)
A large library of songs should appear, this is the music library
supplied by the Dad system

3)
You can sort music by pressing the group handlers near the top of the
window (cut id, group, title etc). There are also tabs for the genres of music on
the dad system, this will come up later.
4)
Songs that have not been catatorized are placed in 'Music'. Everything
else should be in their respective catagory.
5)
The search function at the top of the Library page (Big white button
labled 'Search") will help you find specific songs.

Part Three: Catagorizing Music (Juicy Part!)

1)
Navigate to the 'Music' Section of the library, these are all the songs
that have not been catagorized yet.
2)

Select a song and click the 'Edit' button on the bottom left.

3)
A separate window pops up, the black, blue, and red bar in the middle
is the waveform seekbar. This is what the song looks like in analogue.
4)
Scrub to the tail-end of the seekbar and click around where the song
ends, A 'T' should appear, this is the trim icon denotes where the song is cut off.
5)
Scrub the 'H' to the beginning of the song, this denotes where the song
starts to play. Everything between the 'H' and the 'T" will play. Adjust the scrub
bar as needed to get the important parts of the song.
6)
Click on the button in the same window that says 'Modify', A larger
window should appear, this is the song's metadata.
7)
In the Metadata screen, what we look at are the song's title, cut id,
artist, and album. Please confer with your engineer to find out which cut id's to
use for which genre of song.
8)
Fill and change all necessary information, hit the close and save
button on the metadata panel, save progress on the waveform seekbar panel
9)

You've successfully edited a song's metadata!

How To Make a Production

1)
Turn on the computer and open up ProTools. Select the Radiostation
Template and then save it and name it whatever you would like.
2)
Make sure the tower on to your right is on and TURN OFF THE
MUTE BUTTON.
3)
Set up a track for recording. Go into the file on the upper left hand
side and hit new track. For voice recording make sure its in Mono and for
multiple media use stereo.
4)
Set your levels on your microphone to make sure you have
information coming in through the system. Turn up your gain on the top of
where ever you may be recording. Example. Microphone 1 turn up the gain at
the top of Microphone 1. It is usually best to turn it to three o clock but might
need to go higher. Also make sure your Master Volume is up as well.
5)
Make sure your track is in Analog 5 or 6 for recording from the
Microphone and Analog 7 or 8 when recording through the computer.
6)
When ready to record hit the record button on the bottom left of the
screen AND on the track in which youre recording and start your recording.
When finished hit the space bar or the stop button.
7)
If you want to use music or something to complement your production
make sure you are in Analog 7 or 8, and hit the mute button which is
symbolized by the letter M on your other recording.
8)
When finished recording your other music or whatever is
complementing your recording hit the stop button.
9)
Make sure your levels of the music and your voice complement each
other well. If needed go to the Audio Suite option at the middle to right side in
the upper corner and then select the gain button. Using the hand icon select the

piece of recording you want to increase. When finished hit render and it will
change on your track.
10) Underneath your track there is an option that says Wave form. Select
that and change it to Volume. Using the hand icon use the volume up or down
to make sure your levels complement each other.
11) When finished with everything go to the File button in the top left
corner and go to Bounce To and then hit Disk. It will have an options menu,
change the format to MP3 make sure it is in interleaved by selecting that option
underneath the format option then select Convert during Bounce and hit enter. It
will take you to a naming area where you can name your production then hit
enter. It will then take you to an option on where to save your production. Then
hit save.

12)

You are now finished with your production.