All News All the Time Start of 4th Quarter . . .   Background:  In the first three quarters of this article, I've been describing WOBC as a hypothetical journalistic machine. As I imagined this machine in operation, I began to realize that it wouldn't be a lot of fun.  Correspondents would create their reports and insert them into the machine to be aired, but they wouldn't know the pride of having "their own show."  Anchors would update chunks of the newscast according to a rigid schedule, toiling on the assembly line in a news factory.  And the disenfranchised disk jockeys who used to be the heart of the station would be shut out entirely. I imagined half the staff quitting in frustration.  We were down to 50 volunteers. Therefore I came up with a new concept, using an old model from the real WOBC:  Oberlin Digest, a half-hour program that we aired at 11:00 each weeknight.  It started with a short newscast, but most of the half-hour was some news-type feature.  In radio terms, this is more of a "news-talk" format — not really "all-news," but maybe close enough to satisfy the imaginary benefactor's bequest. At the imaginary WOBC, we could let each Correspondent be the producer of his very own 20-minute weekly program.  We could even work a few disk jockeys back into the mix by bending the rules a little more:  we could just redefine them as Correspondents and redefine their shows as news reports on music ("Here's a new record that just came out") or as live-performance mini-concerts. But unless all the Correspondents merely played records, we couldn't create 300 different programs.  Realistically, the volunteers might produce up to 30 of these little weekly shows.  Each one would have to air not just once but at least 10 times.   November 13, 1989 The organizational chart shows 100 positions.  There are 49 Anchors to present newscasts, 22 Correspondents to report on their particular beats and prepare twenty-minute programs, 7 Hosts to present long programs, and 22 Managers to coordinate the station and maintain its facilities.  The average time required for each position is three and a half hours per week, although enthusiasts can spend far more. During the parts of the year when students are on campus, we will have a large staff of volunteers.  If we have 50 people, they will each be assigned two positions and spend an average of seven hours a week. During vacation periods, we will have a small staff.  In recognition of this, the station will sign off at midnight, and the duties of the positions will be reduced.  Managers will defer maintenance and make no long-range decisions, Correspondents will air reruns, and Hosts will host no shows at all.  If we have 20 people, they will each be assigned five positions and spend about ten hours a week. "Weeks" begin at 4:00 Sunday morning and are designated large staff or small staff according to the college calendar.  The schedule for 1990 shows four large staff blocks of 7 weeks each, alternating with small staff blocks of 6 weeks (winter term), 1 week (spring break), 16 weeks (summer vacation), and 1 week (fall break). The person appointed to a given staff position is not required to perform the duties of that position himself every week.  WOBC is a volunteer organization, and we understand that other responsibilities can take precedence.  But he is expected to make sure that the duties somehow get performed.  So if you can't cover that meeting next Tuesday, find someone to substitute for you. Now to details about the specific positions. Anchors The 49 Anchors are assigned to definite time periods, seven shifts on each of the seven days of the week.  Their job is to keep the station operating (they may be the only person there) while updating newscasts.  The usual newscast is "20&50 News," the nine-minute newscast that airs at :20 and :50 minutes after each hour. The automation order is as follows for a standard half-hour: 00:00 Disclaimer, if any "The following program was originally broadcast in April of 1989" 00:05 TWENTY-MINUTE PROGRAM On cassette 20:05 Disclaimer, if any "The preceding program . . ." 20:10 Time . 20:13 FIRST HALF OF NEWSCAST Updated every three hours 24:13 Time . 24:16 SECOND HALF OF NEWSCAST Updated every three hours 28:16 Time . 28:19 LAST MINUTE Breaking stories and scores, weather, temperature, goodbye; updated every thirty minutes 29:19 Promo stack 10-15 second promos for upcoming dayparts, played in order until 29:50 29:50 Station ID . 29:57 Time . Sometimes we need shorter newscasts.  After midnight, and sometimes during other hours, the programs are produced by Hosts and are longer than the usual 20 minutes.  Their formats will generally include about two minutes of news per half hour; for example, a break after each quarter of a football game.  As each break comes along, the Anchor will provide a fresh newscast, either live or on a cart. Correspondents With a large staff of volunteers, each working only a few hours a week, the newspaper or big-station "editor" system is impractical.  It would be difficult to have an editor always on duty to assign news stories to always-available reporters.  So we have divided up the stories in advance, by category. Each Correspondent is assigned a particular area of interest, say Oberlin College administration.  It's his responsibility to keep informed about what's going on in that area.  He can, of course, get other people to help him. If a given event falls into more than one category, for example a dispute between the College administration and the City of Oberlin, the Correspondents involved should confer on how to divide it up. The information gathered by a Correspondent is used in two ways. First, he prepares short news reports (roughly a minute) as scripts or carts and delivers them to the Anchor on duty to be included in newscasts.  If a story is important enough to run for a full day, the Correspondent should prepare at least three carts and a script, so that a new version can be aired every six hours.  Keeping in mind that "20&50 News" is updated approximately at 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, and 10:00, the Correspondent can specify when each cart should be used and can therefore use phrases like "earlier today." Second, the Correspondent produces a weekly 20-minute show.  This is done on tape a few hours or even days in advance, and can include longer versions of the stories, panel discussions, mini-documentaries, or other elements.  Each week's show can be on one topic for 20 minutes, or ten topics at two minutes apiece, or anything in between.  We encourage creativity. The Correspondent delivers a 20-minute cassette to the studio along with a couple of promo carts; he does not actually have to be present when the Anchors air his program.  The programs are scheduled for six-hour blocks, during which each show is played twelve times.  From 6:00 AM to noon is called "Morning," from noon to 6:00 PM is called "Afternoon," and from 6:00 PM to midnight is called "Evening."  From midnight to sign-off is the province of the Hosts and is called "Late Night." Here's the current schedule of when Correspondents' and Hosts' programs air.  My titles are generic; I'm sure that they can come up with better ones. SUNDAY MORN WORLD ISSUES Insight of local people, especially those who have personal experience with issues of global concern AFTR HUMANITIES Recent developments in social sciences, religion, literature, art, economics, etc. EVEN SATIRE Studio skits, satirical songs, stand-up routines taped in dorm lounges LATE AMATEUR BLUEGRASS PERFORMANCE Recorded at weekly sessions held on campus MONDAY MORN STUDENT OPINION A small panel discusses two or three current issues AFTR COLLEGE INSTRUCTION AND FACULTY Curriculum questions; faculty honors, grants, trips; new instructors EVEN STUDENT GOVERNMENT Activities of Student Senate and discussion of issues LATE TELEPHONE TALK Live call-in program, sometimes with a studio guest TUESDAY MORN OPINION OF LOCAL EXPERTS A small panel of faculty and other experts discusses two or three current issues AFTR CITY OF OBERLIN GOVERNMENT City services, Council politics, police blotter; also public schools in the city EVEN POTPOURRI Miscellaneous subjects, frequently oddball LATE SEMINAR AT LENGTH An edited version of a taped seminar, colloquium, conference, etc. held on campus WEDNESDAY MORN CITIES OF LORAIN AND ELYRIA City politics, services, schools, police reports AFTR VISITING EXPERTS AND ARTISTS Interviews with distinguished visitors to campus EVEN VISITING PERFORMERS Interviews and performance excerpts with outside musical artists visiting the Conservatory LATE TELEPHONE TALK Similar to Monday THURSDAY MORN OBERLIN COLLEGE ADMINISTRATION Admissions, finances, physical plant, calendar, library, and other topics; interviews with key figures AFTR LOCAL AND MAJOR SPORTS Public-school sports and major-league pro sports, with interviews and on-scene descriptions EVEN STUDENT LIFE ON CAMPUS Housing, food service, health service, regulations, minority issues, etc. LATE SEMINAR AT LENGTH Similar to Tuesday FRIDAY MORN CONSERVATORY STUDENT PERFORMANCE Interviews and excerpts of student recitals, group concerts, outside trips, etc. AFTR NEW POP RECORDINGS Music news and selected new songs, with special emphasis on non-mainstream labels EVEN OBERLIN COLLEGE SPORTS Interviews and event descriptions of athletics, sailing, chess, debating, jogging, etc. LATE TELEPHONE TALK Similar to Monday SATURDAY MORN SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES News of villages and townships in the multi-county listening area AFTR NEW CLASSICAL RECORDS Excerpts from new releases, with commentary; interrupted by Metropolitan Opera broadcasts in season EVEN SCIENCES Recent developments in physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, geology, etc. LATE SPORTS DELAYED BROADCAST An event taped usually earlier that day, usually involving a College team FLOATING HERITAGE History of the College and the area; no fixed air time because these programs are stockpiled for emergency use in case a scheduled program falls through Hosts After-midnight programs are nominally two hours in length.  But sports and seminars can be as short as one hour or as long as three hours, so our actual sign-off time will vary. In addition to their weekly after-midnight shows, the Hosts may sometimes produce live programs that pre-empt portions of the Afternoon or Evening programs.  These normally would be coverage of an important game, ceremony, debate, etc. Managers Not all of these positions are filled at the moment. Station Director Assistant Station Director Secretary to the Trustees Program Director Director of Journalistic Standards Chief Anchor Chief Correspondent Chief Host Chief Engineer Chief Technician Operations Manager Personnel Director Studio Manager Remote Facilities Manager Special Projects Director Promotions Director Archivist Business Manager Director of Development Community Relations Director Public Service Director Ombudsman   Background:  The preceding plan called for 21 new twenty-minute programs a week, each of them repeated continuously for six hours and then put on the shelf.  The "maximum time" before a listener heard a repeat and was encouraged to tune out would be only half an hour, and the "rejoin time" before he could tune back in and be sure of hearing something new would be a full 5½ hours. But if we didn't shelve a program after six hours but rather kept it in the rotation for a few days, the maximum time could be increased while the number of new programs required could be reduced.  And a listener would have several days to catch the program, not just a single six-hour window. In the early 1990s I charted several such rotation strategies.  Here are two, with maximum times of 3½ hours and 2 hours.  In both plans, a "program" is half an hour in length (actually about 25 minutes plus a newscast), and 14 such new programs would be produced every week.   Each of the 14 programs will premiere at 10 o'clock, either AM or PM on one of the seven days of the week.  It then will be repeated every 3½ hours for 3½ days, for a total of 24 airings. Thus if a program premieres at 10:00 PM Monday, it will air as follows: MON TUE WED THU FRI - 1:30 AM 2:00 AM 2:30 AM 3:00 AM 5:00 AM 5:30 AM 6:00 AM 6:30 AM 8:30 AM 9:00 AM 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM 12:30 PM 1:00 PM 3:30 PM 4:00 PM 4:30 PM 7:00 PM 7:30 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 10:30 PM 11:00 PM 11:30 PM At any given time, seven programs would be in the rotation.  At the conclusion of a given program, promotional announcements could be made for the other six.   Each day of the week, one program will premiere at 10:00 PM and another at 10:30 PM.  For special occasions, the two can be combined into a single hour-long program.  The hour then will be repeated every two hours for two days, for a total of 21 airings (since the station is not on the air from 2:00-5:00 AM). Thus if a program premieres at 10:00 PM Monday, it will air as follows: MON TUE WED THU FRI - 5:00 AM 6:00 AM - - 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM 4:00 PM 5:00 PM 6:00 PM 7:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM  9:00 PM - 12:00 AM 11:00 PM The hour that premieres on Monday will alternate:  for the first day, with the hour that premiered on Sunday;  for the next day, with the hour that premieres on Tuesday. Listeners can choose a given hour of the day, listen every day of the week, and not hear a repeat.