"The Fortress

I drove back up to Marion last weekend and I listened to 1 hour of radio, then I listened to 1 hour of Ben Backer's show on Tuesday night.

Radio Lab: Day #9

I did my last radio show last night. All day yesterday, I was looking forward to to the show and going live. I got to the station later than I wanted to last night (7:45 p.m.), so I quickly tried to get my music lined up. I was frustrated because my computer was being slow and not letting me find my music. I finally started the show at 8:15 , but the station wasn't coming through live, but I got it to work around 8:30, but the music was slowed down and muffled like it was last week. My first hour I was forced to work with CD's and I just went into the other room and grabbed several. The hour consisted of Tait, Run Kid Run, and Steven Curtis Chapman. I started the second hour at 9:30 and was able to get my iTunes playlist burned to a CD. I started the second half with "Earthquake" by Family Force Five. I also played Hillsong, Relient K, Fm Static, KJ52, and The Fray. Since it is the end of the year it seems like a lot of people have been stressed out, so I played "Tunnel" by Third Day to remind people that there is a "light at the end of the tunnel". I also did a devotion with Pillar's "Rewind" and played a brand new (not yet released) song from Building429 entitled "Power Of Your Name". I wanted to play "Dirty" by Audio Adrenaline and talk about missions, but I ran out of time. My last song on The Fortress was "Deathbed" by Relient K which came in by request. I closed at 10:40 p.m.

Radio Lab: Day #8

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do a radio show last week. However, I was very glad to get back into the studio this week and do a show. On Wednesday (April 4th), I was able to do a show. I got into the studio about 5:15 and started preparing my music and making sure everything would go well. I started the show at 5:30 with a newer group called Rush Of Fools. I continued with Audio Adrenaline, ZoeGirl, and Third Day. I mentioned how next week was the Fusion Youth Conference and played a song from Sevenglory and a new song from Seventh Day Slumber. I love to play new music and talk about concerts that I went to. Last week, I had the opportunity to go to Cedarville University to see Shawn Mcdonald and Shane & Shane in concert. Towards the end of the first hour I played "Gravity" by Shawn Mcdonald and "I Miss You" by Shane & Shane. I began the second half of the show at 6:30 p.m. Since this past week has been Holy Week, I read scripture surrounding Jesus' death and Resurrection. Then, I played two songs (from iTunes "7 Essential Songs for Easter") concerning Christ's sacrifice and His how we should praise Him for this. Although the show went well, I had a few difficulties. First when I got ready to play "Redeemer" by Nicole C. Mullen, I clicked on the wrong song, so it took me a few more seconds to find the right song. Second, I tried to play "Show Me Your Glory" by Third Day, but it wouldn't play because I had taken my USB flash drive out of the computer. Third, when I played Shane & Shane, Natalie Grant's song was still playing off of her website. My final error was when I was playing "Easter songs". I meant to play "Can't Take The Pain" by Third Day, but I played the wrong song. I had to stop the song and play another one while I got "Can't Take The Pain" ready. I ended with that song at 7:30 p.m. In other news, I helped organize the music in Studio B. For the past semester and a half, all of the station's music (CD's) have been stacked in the studio all over the floor. I was able to go in for an hour on Thursday and organize some of the music on racks. On the way home from Easter, we had some road problems but I was able to listen to 1 hour of radio on the way home and 4 hours on the way back.

Radio Lab: Day #7

Over the past month I have listened to 5 hours of radio driving to Salem, Indiana and home. I am constantly listening to how smooth it all sounds and the transitions. Also, right after spring break I spent 2 hours listening and critiquing Ben Backer's recorded show. I also listened to Pam Litherland's show that was approximately 30-minutes long. Finally, this past Wednesday, I was able to listen to 1 hour of Ben's show live because the website kept messing up. What I was able to hear, I really enjoyed.

Radio Lab: Day #6

Yesterday I got into the radio station at 1:00 p.m and spent roughly a half an hour getting my music set up. I started the show at exactly 1:38 with Made To Love by Toby Mac which is #1 on the Billboard Hot Christian Music Chart this week. I also played The Fray, Casting Pearls, and Hillsong. All of these were artist's that I had never played on The Fortress. Also, half way through the show my friend Matt Bedwin shared the weather with us and a sports report on Bass fishing championships. A little more into the show my mentee/friend Chris Jones shared some news with us. It was nice to have them on the show to make it a little more interesting. I finished the first half of the show @ 2:35 and started the second half the next day at 7:27 p.m. During the second half of the show I played some new music from Everyday Sunday, and decided to showcase a different summer Christian music festival on the rest of my shows. This show I showcased the Ichthus Music Festival held in Wilmore, KY. The whole show was going great until the very end when I tried to play an Everyday Sunday song and it didn't play the first time. I also downloaded a new song to play and it started playing in the middle of another song. Besides those few errors, the rest of the show went great. I am really enjoying the radio station and am learning a lot.

Radio Lab: Day #5

I got into the station today around 5:30 p.m. and started looking for music. I was excited tonight because I found Billboard's Hot Christian Songs chart which I was able to play the top 7 songs. I started the show @ 6:03 with a newer artist named Ayiesha Woods. I was excited about the music I was going to play a several new songs and have a recap of the concert I went to over spring break. The first hour went really well and I was really enjoying myself. At the beginning of the second hour I played two newer artists Drew Cline and Nate Beals and the Back Alley Band. However towards the end of the show I made a mistake and my music stopped so I had to end my show a little early.

Radio Lab: Day #4

I got into the radio station at about 4:30 p.m today and started making a playlist for the show. Once I got my music selected, I began the show at about 5:20 with Me and Jesus by Stellar Kart. I was excited about today's show because I was going to do several promotions including the 2007 Fusion Youth Conference and the new Amazing Grace movie. I also wanted to play some Justin Mcroberts because he was at College Wesleyan Church this past Sunday. Midway through the show I had Amazing Grace (by Justin Mcroberts) queued to play on iTunes. I pushed play and it came up asking me for a password. I freaked out because I didn't know the password. I quickly played another song and apologized for technical difficulties. Although that made me mad, at the end of the first hour I was able to promote the youth conference. During the second hour of the show I had many difficulties including two songs not playing and some dead air. I will have to test my music before I record next time to make sure it all plays. At the very end of the show, I was excited because I was going to play two songs from Gotee Record's artists John Reuben and Relient K. I was closing out with Relient K on iTunes, but once again the song didn't play and there was silence, so I was forced to end the show abruptly without a closing song.

Radio Lab: Day #3

Well I skipped a week of doing a radio show because last week we had two snow days and I wasn't able to do a radio show. However, I did this week's show this past Saturday. I got into the studio 2:30 p.m. and spent an hour finding music. I began the show at 3:16 with Song of Melodies by Leeland. The show was going well, much better than the other show. I was doing well with fading in and out and didn't have any long pauses. However, mid way through the show I had two songs playing off iTunes and was going to have them play back to back, but the second song didn't play. I started freaking out trying to figure out why it didn't play. I quickly played another song, but I had a 5-6 second pause. After that fiasco, the rest of the show went well and I closed the show out at 5:25 p.m with Pressing On by Relient K.

Radio Lab: Day # 2

I went into the radio station today at 12:50 p.m. I started out the second half of my show with More Than Fine by Switchfoot. The show was going well and the music was sounding good . I was struggling with transitions and long pauses. As I continue to work at it, the show will sound better. Also, when I talk between songs, I need to know exactly what I'm going to say and make sure I say it. I was excited to highlight 3 new artists, Echoing Angels, Pocket Full of Rocks, and Betsy Walker. The last song I played was Goodbye by Audio Adrenaline and I closed the show at 1:51 p.m.

Radio Lab: Day #1

I got to the station today approximately 3:00 p.m. today and turned on the equipment to test it out before I started recording. I began recording at 3:20 p.m with my first song being Big House by Audio Adrenaline. I played two songs and then spoke for a minute or so. In the middle of the recording, I realized the lines weren’t fluctuating on the computer screen, and it didn’t seem that I was recording. I realized there was a button on the sound board that I didn’t push. The rest of the broadcast recorded and I finished at 4:20 p.m. I learned how to fade songs in and out and use the recording equipment.

Hello

Hi. I have a Radio Lab class this semester at Indiana Wesleyan University. I must record a show every week and keep a journal of all my involvement in the radio station. Eventually I hope to be on the air. I am using this blog to post my journal involvement that way I can write while I am in the studio. I also hope to put audio of my shows on here, but we will see if that works. If you are reading this I hope you enjoy my posts and hopefully listen to my shows. Thanks a lot! God Bless!