Station Information

Mission Statement

KSFS Radio "Free For All" is an internet based radio station operated by the students of the Broadcast & Electronic Arts Department at San Francisco State University. We provide cutting-edge, free-form radio with varied programming including music, theater, talk, art, & information. The shows we stream seek to push the boundaries of what radio can be, but are always focused on our listeners. KSFS serves as a training laboratory for students and as a radio station for the university, the city of San Francisco, and our worldwide internet audience. We intend to be an integral part of the ongoing media (r)evolution and the myriad communities we serve, and to offer a dynamic educational experience for the students of San Francisco State University.

KSFS Website: http://ksfs.sfsu.edu

Ongoing Station Documents

Operations

  1. Events
    • current events
    • event checklists
    • how to create your own event
    • event ideas
    • chain of command

  • Promotions

    • mass e-mail templates
    • T-shirt inventory
    • graphic designs
    • promotional forms

  • Sales

    • How to make a sales call
    • Who to call / who has been called
    • sales history
    • fax templates & donation forms
    • station statistics

Station Documents

Programming

Production

These instructions need to be edited down and partially rewritten by the Programming Director and Production Director. No one else should remove information, only additions are permitted at this time. Thank you. --General Manger

The Production Department of KSFS is responsible for all the on-air spots at KSFS. (Basically, if music is not playing and the DJ is not talking, the production department is responsible for filling the gaps.) There are five basic pieces that can be produced for on-air play: show/station promos, public service announcements (PSA’s), basic underwritten commercials (BUC’s), event calendars and drops/Ids. The Production studios are equipped with Pro-Tools sound editing software to do the production at KSFS, however, it is perfectly fine if you wish to create spots at home or at another location and bring them in on a CD. As a part of the KSFS Production Department, you will work with the other departments and on-air DJ’s.

Requirements: The most important requirement for being a part of the KSFS Production Department is to know how to use Pro-Tools, or have adequate ability to produce the spots that may be needed throughout the semester. In the first few weeks of the semester, all those who need training in Pro-Tools shall receive it. (This is no big deal, it takes two hours at most and usually one training session is enough for you to demonstrate the usage of Pro-Tools.) During the training sessions, examples of produced spots will be provided, but I encourage you to be a creative and different as possible within the bounds of the KSFS production standards. (we need to list our production standards here).

Interest Areas: Below is a temporary list of some of the different production tasks KSFS may use: (any tasks we use, we need to provide examples for)

  1. SHOW/STATION PROMOS A show/station promo is a spot that promotes a particular show at KSJS or promotes that station itself. These are usually the most fun and creative to make since people like to exude their personalities and ideas onto them, especially the show promos.
  2. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT (PSA) A PSA is a spot that makes a helpful and useful announcement to the community. You can do one about drunken driving, blood donation, etc. But, a real treat is when some are done about a subject that is a bit unusual yet still relevant. For example, a PSA can be made about not driving through a flooded roadway or proper foot hygiene…the more specific the topic, the better!
  3. BASIC UNDERWRITTEN COMMERCIAL (BUC) AKA "UNDERWRITINGS" BUC’s are similar to commercial advertisements but have few very important differences. Look at the KSJS Production Standards sheet to read up on that. BUC’s are mainly informative pieces about companies and organizations that have donated money to KSJS. These are usually the least creative of what can be produced and have a much more rigid structure. No calls to action (avoid action verbs), No Qualitative words (ie "The best," or "The greatest"), no quantitative words ("Sale! 50% off," or "Only $9.95")
  4. EVENT CALENDARS Event calendars are an on-air list of concerts and events that are happening around town. The length limitations on these are much more relaxed, however, keep it under 2 minutes! The on-air calendars need to be updated much more often.
  5. DROPS/ID Drops are little spots, usually lasting a few seconds, that let the listener know what station they are listening to. It is fun to pull humorous quotes from movies and cartoons to make them sound as interesting as possible, ID’s are the same thing except, “KSFS. San Francisco” must be said in that order, to make it “Legal,” though we are not technically held accountable by the FCC sice we do not currently have a broadcast signal.
  6. LIASONS may also be needed between the production department and other departments. It would be this person’s responsibility to know and handle the production needs of any of the other departments at KSJS. This person will also need to relay any needs and production requests to the Production Director. (If there is not Production Director, then to the Program Director. This duty may fall to the responsibility of the communications department)
  7. TECHNICAL ASSISTANTS In the future, KSFS would like to set up DJ and remote broadcast equipment. If you are interested in providing infrastructure for these potential promotional events, let me know. This also provides major amount of hours and is a great compliment to being in the promotions department.

Primary Responsibility: If the Production Department is your primary department, please feel free to be involved in any of the other departments also. Most to the world done in the Production department is at the request of the other departments at KSFS. We produce what KSFS needs and wants on air.

Music

this should be written, and include all aspects of music

  • incoming mail
  • music reviews
  • cataloging music (& digitally imputing)
  • programming music
  • using CDs and returning them
  • discarding old music
  • send letters / making calls to get more new music
    • who do you call
    • who's the contact person
    • when did we last speak to them
    • example email
    • etc

Music sign out rules

  1. Music director must personally allow staff members to take home cd’s for review.
  2. Only 2 to 3 staff members may take cds home for review at a time. (er...why?)
  3. Staff members can only take 3 to 4 cds for one week to review.
  4. Music director must sign off each cd and who took it home in the music director book.
  5. Music director must sign off on each cd when it is returned.

Music director rules

  1. Music director must sign in every new arrival the week it is brought in.
  2. Music director must keep updated with label and promotion contacts via e-mail and phone.
  3. Soon to be retired Music Directors must turn over ALL label and promotion contacts to new director BEFORE end/beginning of new term. This is to avoid much unneeded confusion with labels.

Studio & Production Manual

Intro to Pro-Tools.

Idea 1. Pro-tools allows you to layer and edit tracks.

Layering tracks means you can put one track on top of another. That means you can put a track of your voice on top of song by lowering the volume of the song.

Editing sound means you can use pro-tools to edit recordings. Say you recorded yourself saying your station id, but you made a mistake. (Instead of saying KSFS Free for All, you said KSFS is not Free for All) You can use pro-tools to cut out "not".

Idea 2. Save all of your files in one folder

When you use pro-tools, you will create a project file and one or more audio files. You can think of the project file as a skeleton. It gives structure and order to the audio files, which act like the musles-without them the skeleton can't move, and your project won't make a sound.

If your music files and your project file are not in the same folder on the computer, pro-tools won't be able to play the file.

So please keep the audio files and the project files in the same folder. Think of it this way: the folder is the body. The skeleton and the muscles go inside, otherwise the project is dead.

Things that should be documented

  • scan current production room instructions
  • find online manual for consoles (what is the name of it by the way?)
  • take pictures of studio consoles, label pics with numbers, and upload to photo site.
  • number and list details of picture information.
  • where are the mics, and how do you get one?
  • how to do live in-studio performances, and live out-of-studio performances?
  • pro-tools research. find comprehensive online tutorials and videos.
  • how to "Normalize the studio"
  • how to set good levels
  • where to find station documents, and how to properly fill them out
  • station etiquette & rules
  • when does it get so bad that you should you call Jeff? Is there someone that you should contact first?
  • mic placement, and recording levels
  • what do all the other nobs do?
  • queuing a CD or other device
  • how to record your show to cd
  • how to play music from your laptop
  • how to set the loop
  • did I miss anything? add it here.
  • When working in the big production room the protools is set to analog 5 don't ask why.
changed May 15, 2009 delete history edit