First of all, I’d like to preface this episode with information about choosing your own independent lifestyle.
What Is Lifestyle Design?
It may mean something different to each and everyone and it’s an idea everyone can adapt to. In my opinion, lifestyle design is where you choose the perfect way of how your life should be everyday. Planning your day the way you want it. For example in your ideal day you’d wake up and have Corn Flakes for breakfast, and then go for a jog because you like jogging then you might get back and do a little bit of work for yourself or work for a company you love from home. Whatever it is you can create your own lifestyle. I think it is a new trend that is emerging for the last decade since the internet has blown up and possibilities of connecting to people around the world has gotten better. Izabela thinks that lifestyle design has been around for quite a while as writers, painters or creative workers in general have always been able to work from home.
Radio’s Future
I remember how Rob Greenlee from Microsoft in podcast episode #66 described radio’s future as a local phenomenon. He was suggesting that there’s going to be local travel, news, weather on the radio with locally based output on FM or DAB. At the moment, Izabela accepts that there may be truth in this but stays open minded to it as we are not sure what could really happen to radio. We both agree that the main point of this is the ability of every DJ, presenter or host to work from home if they have decent equipment at home there would be no reason to go to a radio station.
Broadcasting In The Comfort Of Your Home
The biggest advantage of working at home is that you can work in your pyjamas and you can work at your own pace as long as you get the work done. Which is something I always wanted to do in my life. Generally the way people work in radio is to travel many times to get gigs. Though sometimes the reason behind this is the fact that not every DJ has the equipment or even the facility to record at home. However, let’s say you are young and you live in your parent’s house or perhaps you’re renting a room or sharing a room with someone and you don’t have the necessary space to broadcast which is a point to consider. To have a good quality show you need a quiet place away from street noise and the like. Izabela denotes that working at home may be ideal for some but not for everyone. From a radio business perspective, it wouldn’t be easy for all the radio presenters to broadcast at home as it would need massive structural changes in order for that to work.
Our Travels In Radio
Back in 2007, when Izabela and I met in Slough (UK) I was a DJ at a night club for the radio station I work for. Izabela’s friend got my number which I wrote at the back of my business card and willingly gave, you now know DJs have a stack of business cards with them. As the night progressed and Izabela had a few drinks she decided to text me. The reason of the story is how we’ve met while I was working in radio and how I continued working for a radio station during our first years together. My work in the radio station consisted of travelling across the United Kingdom and other countries. I’ve had radio jobs from Manchester to Australia then New Zealand. We had working visas in New Zealand, Izabela was a banker while I was applying for radio jobs like crazy. But then we decided to come back and moved into Kent and I started to work in London for talkSPORT from there I started to work in Sevenoaks. Literally our lives were thrown one place to the next just because I work in radio.
All those times we were running Music Radio Creative in the background but we were hoping that the big radio gig will happen. The moment Izabela and I realised that this is not what we wanted to do it was the moment when Music Radio Creative was born and we’ve put everything that we can possibly give into it. In general, we think that there are many people out there who moved from one location to another in hope that that next move is going to be that next big gig.
Radio Technology: Is It Possible To Run A Traditional Radio Station Remotely?
There are many great remote voice tracking software products where you can dial in and do your radio show remotely. I’ve had a look at some of those on our YouTube channel in the past.
On the other hand, Isle of Wight Radio in the UK have a system in place provided by RCS a huge radio automation company and they have software called iVT (Internet Voice Tracking). I disliked the fact it only worked in Windows and you had to use it in Internet Explorer which means I had to add a virtual machine on our iMac for me to be able to use it. It was great software as it allowed me to hear the intro, outro of a song, get the next song and talk it up, you can also hear the sweepers and the ads. Everything was there and I even had the facility to remotely record shows for the radio station from home. So the technology is definitely coming up for that kind of stuff to happen on traditional radio. However, I think we are not quite there yet.
On A Side Note: Fitbit
One of the biggest problems for anyone who is working from home is the fact that we are not moving. We are just sitting behind our desks. One of the things that really helped us was Fitbit or the step tracking device. Fitbit is a wireless-enabled wearable devices that measures data such as the number of steps walked, quality of sleep, and other personal metrics.
Technology And The 21st Century DJ Working Remotely At Home?
We didn’t really come up with a conclusion on this as we both have different opinions. That’s why we want to hear your opinion in the comments below.
I loved the Mike and Izabela combo! This podcast has really evolved nicely . . . love it!
Thanks Mike, you are too kind, we appreciate you as a listener to the podcast 🙂
It was ironically your topic was very timely . . . I had been a little weary about owning astreaming radio station and syndicated radio show today. . . In fact, I had just questioned myself after reviewing the my finances. The fact is I love VR2 and I need to count my blessings and keep my nose to the grindstone . . . Stay the course! Best to you and Izabela . . . Peace! Love! and MRC!
Agreed Mike, keep doing what you’re doing, we love VR2! 🙂
That would be “ironic”. Just that kinda day
LOL
First, FABULOUS to hear Izabella Russell in the opener – you are growing into a really well-rounded chat show.
This episode was fantastic and again, I have to agree with Izabella on this topic. A radio station is a business that must function as a cohesive member of the local community for the sake of local promotional & advertising opportunities supported by local businesses. In the US, local radio already exists with local talent – travel is not an issue.
More important, most stations (Largely managed by older males who are resistant to “New Media”) are not open to re-organizing their entire business model and financial structure , for obvious reasons (Although the old school model is clearly a path to extinction).
Side note: VO artists are typically freelancers, not full-time employees. Jockeys are on the payroll of a single broadcasting company, thus they are subject to the terms of their employment (Which implies a set number of hours/shift at the place of employment/station).
It would be great to hear more in-depth, concentrated episodes or a series around this specific topic.
Lastly, I ‘predict’ the future of MRC will become an educational interest providing instructional products/courses/guides for radio presenters who wish to transition from traditional terrestrial radio to new media. You can begin by compiling your best content and comments right from this blog 🙂
Hi Val and thanks for the positive feedback on this episode! I enjoyed reading your thoughts and the idea at the end for the future of MRC. An interesting one indeed 😉
I’m loving the chat between you guys – Izabela – love that you have an opinion and are willing to stand by them. Your interactions are making for some entertaining ‘radio’.
While I was initially going to disagree with you Mike, I’m now not so sure under one condition. The presenter still needs to live in the same community that he/she is presenting to. Then at home or station studio shouldn’t matter – expect maybe for interviews. Here in Australia – I remember a Perth talkback host moving to Sydney and then back to Perth and doing it from home. Ratings were shocking. Also our biggest (literally) and most controversial DJ was presenting to Sydney from Hollywood, however it had issues and he’s now back in Sydney.
Radio is about local, therefore a connection and a feeling for the local place is paramount – otherwise we’d just listen to podcasts and music subscription services (which I & a lot more people do)
Thanks for the discussion.
Really interesting thoughts Scott.
Thanks for listening to the episode (I know Izabela will appreciate your feedback too). Also, thank you for joining us on Fitbit 😉
I am amazed about your work and the quality of your work. I discovered you accidentally on youtube. There are so many tips I still have to digg into them, thanks for your doing ;o)
Greetings, Kai
PS: Great tip about fitbit, really need to get my hands on it.
Thanks for listening and commenting! 🙂
You have Izabela to thank for the Fitbit tip. She got me hooked into it too 😉
Hi Mike & Izabela, Enjoyed the show as always and thanks for the mention; I shall bask in the reflected glory for weeks to come 🙂
Thanks Richard and you’re most welcome! We appreciate you listening in to this episode 🙂
Hi Mike and Izabela, thanks for the mention in this episode. I’m ashamed to say that in my nearly 10 years of working in radio I always commuted about an hour to work. That’s not because I wanted to. I would love to have been able to walk to the studios but it just never turned out that way. Iza, it sounds like you were very patient with Mike (but you did get a full tour of the UK!). I also never knew how you two met so that was a fun story to hear.
Anyway I think there’s a lot of merit in presenters working remotely. So much of the struggle of local radio is that in order to make a profit you need to sell a lot of advertising . . . first just to cover the costs! A remote workforce would streamline what team is actually needed. That means the money can be paying for presenters rather than admin staff.
I’d also challenge the point about radio needing a studio. I think that’s just a mindset. So long as you are producing a decent output, engaging in the local community and you have a professional operation that’s all that matters. Most listeners will never ever see the studio of a normal radio station.
Maybe the time is not quite right for this yet but it’s really not going to be long.
Hi Ben, you’re welcome and thanks for the considered thoughts. It is true that radio is a fast changing landscape right now and when more radio station look to this “cloud radio station” idea as a reality, I agree with you, that output will remain similar (if not improve as the presenter can schedule their own day and have their own home comforts around them).
Who knows, if a medium to large radio station were bold enough to make this move, perhaps you and I would end up back “on the air” somewhere? 😉