Eddie Carson - Radio Station Owner and Presenter

[00:00:00.000] - Martyn Brown

And on today's Vinyl Impressions Music Radio show, syndication Podcast, we have Eddie Carson, all the way from America. Eddie, thank you for joining us.

 

[00:00:11.560] - Eddie Carson

Hi, Martyn. Thanks for having me.

 

[00:00:13.530] - Martyn Brown

Let's go back to your beginning. I've been reading a little bit about you, doing a little bit of research, but can you take us back to the beginning of your broadcasting journey in 1984? And what drew you to the world of broadcasting?

 

[00:00:28.050] - Eddie Carson

Yeah, it was all the way back in 1984. Actually, when I started college, I was a broadcast production major. Started at the College Radio Station, just as a student, and the College Radio station was like a lab. You start with the basics, the intro to broadcasting, audio production, TV program production, things like that. I never thought I would be behind the microphone. I started just maybe to be a board engineer or something like that. But basically you got forced into it. That was part of the curriculum. You had to be on the air. So I got a little bit of a taste for it, and then just threw myself into it. So after a little bit, I became the sports director of the station, and about a year later, the program director. And I had my own show, a top 40 show. It was a top 40 hit station, and then they had specialty shows in the evening. So I had an oldie show with a partner. Mike Di Maro was his name, and that was on Sunday evenings from like 7:00 to 10:00 PM. And from there, let's see, I went to... Well, I did a dumb thing, and being only 19 years old, got an offer to be a disc jockey on a commercial station, a local station.

 

[00:01:49.850] - Eddie Carson

And so after a while, I dropped out of college because I got the job that I was going there for. I'm like, Why do I need any more school? Like I said, I was young and dumb, so I got the job. And about a year later, I got fired like every disc jockey does. But again, being young and immature, I maybe gave it a half heart of an attempt to get it to another station, and then just gave up after a while. Many years later, I just decided to try to restart my broadcasting career. So then I started this Internet radio station, and as we previously talked about, I started to play independent bands and artists, because actually I'm a drummer myself and playing in bands, local bands, got to meet a lot of musicians and playing with a lot of these bands and seeing a lot of these bands, they're really very good. And it's music you don't hear on mainstream radio, and they just don't get the chance to get on a major record label. That's what I want to do. I want to give them that chance, that exposure.

 

[00:02:59.560] - Martyn Brown

As a DJ then at your college's top 40 radio station, what are some of the memorable experiences or moments that did shape your early career?

 

[00:03:10.000] - Eddie Carson

I could tell you the first time I was ever on the air was as the sports director. And given that we did a 15 minute sportscast every day. And I remember listening to the previous show, The Host, and thinking, Oh, this guy sounds just dead, and there's no inflection in his voice, and man, I could do a lot better than that. When that mic went on for the first time, I didn't freeze, but when I played it back for the first time, I'm like, Oh, my goodness, I sound just like him. So I guess you could say it was a lot of stage fright. That's the first thing I remember. I don't know if there's really any experiences that stand out at the College Station. I remember... I'm sorry, go ahead.

 

[00:03:57.240] - Martyn Brown

Yeah, I was going to say transitioning then from a DJ to the sports director and eventually the programme director, what skills did you develop that helped you Excel in those roles? Because you've worked your way up the ladder, really, didn't you?

 

[00:04:11.480] - Eddie Carson

Yeah, just starting as a DJ. I'd never been in any supervisory role before, and again, I was 18, 19 years old, and so the people that you're supervising are your peers, and some of them were even older than you, which made for a little awkward transition into being the so-called boss. So he starts to develop, maybe as a defense mechanism, almost some people skills on how to interact with different personalities so you could get across to them what you need them to do without alienating them.

 

[00:04:54.120] - Martyn Brown

Tell us about your time at the local oldies in the new station. How did that experience differ from you say, college days? Was there a massive transition?

 

[00:05:04.330] - Eddie Carson

Maybe not massive, but of course it was a transition because now everything counts. It's a commercial station. The log that you go by, the format clock, it's got to be followed to the letter. Any discrepancies that happen in college just get chalked up to it's just he's getting experienced. Now you have to answer for it. If commercial doesn't get played, you're going to get a call from your program director, or even a general manager, and they have to do make goods, which cost them money. And then, of course, that doesn't go very well for you. So it was more intense, because especially if you're doing morning drive time, because that's when all the commercials get played, and it's play a song, play a commercial, play a song, play a commercial, and you're looking at the clock, and you have to back time it to make sure that you get everything in before the marker and the top of the hour news and things like that. So it was a little bit of an awakening.

 

[00:06:06.580] - Martyn Brown

I'd just say the least. So I believe you took a break to pursue other interests, but maintained your passion for broadcasting. How did you manage to stay connected to your first love during this time?

 

[00:06:22.440] - Eddie Carson

Mostly I did play in, like I say, a few bands. So it's not just broadcasting, but music in general. And I started to, after playing in the bands for a while, I started to record. I had some equipment. I had a old reel to reel tape recorder, some microphones and speakers. So I started setting up and recording not just the bands I was in, but going around recording other local bands, and then coming back and editing the audio. That was where I really had the interest in actually producing the music. And then later on, tried to do a little bit of voice-over work, and the editing came in there too, and then just producing, making productions out of the voiceovers into maybe just, I would call them skits maybe, and I was just doing it to practice, little productions. From time to time I was very into sports as well. I would do just practice doing play-by-play of baseball, football, hockey. I was actually the stadium advert for the college football team when I was at the at the radio station and sitting next to the broadcast guys that were doing the play-by-play, that started to interest me.

 

[00:07:38.470] - Eddie Carson

I found out that the one, the Color Man and the play-by-play guy, he used to practice by just taking index cards and writing plays on the index cards, and just get behind the mic and look and refer to them and start making up plays. And that's what I did. So just things like that just to keep broadcasting with me.

 

[00:08:02.440] - Martyn Brown

So over the past 10 years then, you've developed an interest in audio production, and recording, live music, voicing, editing products. So what sparked that evolution in your career? I know you've touched on it already, but was there a specific moment or was there a phase?

 

[00:08:19.030] - Eddie Carson

When I decided to try to get back into broadcasting, I won't say full-time, because I can't do it full-time yet. I would love for that to be my career period. I started thinking of other things to get into, like voice-over-work. So I actually met somebody through the radio station W-O-D-Y, I was looking for help on... Especially the technical aspects of it, because I was a old broadcaster. We used these things called records and turntables and cart machines and things like that. Now everything's digital, and I was a little out of my element there. So over the last about two and a half, three years, I've been talking to this disc jockey down in Georgia, and we've come up with these voice tracking shows, trying to produce shows just mainly through voice track instead of doing live shows, and then we render those and produce those as live shows. Right now, I'm focused on that and trying to produce more shows for my radio station.

 

[00:09:29.930] - Martyn Brown

I was going to say about the technical side, are you good at the technical side, or do you just leave that to somebody or something else?

 

[00:09:35.960] - Eddie Carson

No, I'm starting to get a pretty good feel for it now, not related to broadcasting, but I took a few IT courses later on, and that helps with the navigating around the computer. But the different platforms that you use to broadcast and the editing software, I'm starting to get, like I said, a better handle on that now. And once you... It's slow and tedious in the beginning, but once you do get a handle for it, or handle on it rather, then now it starts to become enjoyable. And I feel like I'm creating something now with these productions, and it just makes you feel good.

 

[00:10:16.050] - Martyn Brown

Okay, so while you're doing the voice tracking, is that because you don't say what you've just played, you don't say what's coming up, it just fits in, and it can generically fit in anywhere. Is that what you aim for? For us?

 

[00:10:31.410] - Eddie Carson

Yeah, part of it is what we do, we do like back sell and front sell songs as well. We just don't timestamp or date stamp it so that it can be used at any time. And then we've put a little, just a few eyes and ends human interest bits in here. Did you hear about the guy who was dumpster diving up in New York and found this and that and things like that? It's just maybe a little comedy bits here and there. And when you run them together, like I said, with the music and the bits and then maybe even some trivia thrown in, you come up with a full three or four hour show.

 

[00:11:09.620] - Martyn Brown

Yeah, I find it quite entertaining this morning. I always like to tune in to hear what's going on with my guests. And the show, I think it was a male-female presentation, and they mentioned some fun facts. And then next thing you knew, there was a movie coming out on human trafficking. Now that's a very but it was handled beautifully, and he said he's coming back in October to tell us about it. Then came some music, a nice stretch of music, and then some commercials. It wasn't overdone like we seem to do in this country, where you can't get from the advertisements. Nothing wrong with them as such, but when they're too off and too powerful, they go, Yeah, do you think I've had a to do into BBC? Well, there aren't any. But your show is very well balanced. So is that all done with this technology?

 

[00:11:58.260] - Eddie Carson

It is, and that's one of the syndicated shows referring to the John and Heidi show. That's correct. And yeah, it's John and Heidi Smalls. And that is a good example of voice tracking as well. I get the files from them and I insert them at certain spots in... Let's see, we do a four hour, no, three hour show with those files. And like you said, I try to space them out so you get that mix. And yeah, that's like I said, it's a good example of voice tracking, and that is what I was referring to. And my partner down in Georgia and I did similar, but more music oriented to classic rock stations.

 

[00:12:42.440] - Martyn Brown

Do you believe there should be a theme with radio stations, or should it be mixed and matched, or pop or something? Is there a.?

 

[00:12:51.850] - Eddie Carson

I build my station as the Indian Variety station. I don't think there's anything wrong with just the top 40 station, or a heavy metal station, or a jazz station, just having the one station. And like I said, it's not my full-time career yet, I hope it to be. I try to reach everybody has the variety. I build it as something for everybody. You're not going to get a listener 24 hours a day, but you hope to get a listener or several listeners in what they're interested in, whether it be the the jazz or the oldies or the country. So that's why I put that on the station's website, the schedule's there. You draw people to the site and they can say, Oh, yeah, I want to hear the Retro Rock Rewind, or Grunge garage, things like that. And that's what I hope to do, be able to provide something for everybody.

 

[00:13:46.490] - Martyn Brown

So how do you attract advertisers to the station, or do you just put it on the website and hope they come along?

 

[00:13:53.990] - Eddie Carson

Yeah, social media, Facebook, and Twitter. Unfortunately, like I said, between it not being full-time yet, I have a couple of part-time jobs that I do, like running a radio station really is a full-time job, and right now it's just me. So unfortunately, I can't be the program director, and the music director, and the sales guy, and the traffic and continuity. So as far as drawing people on, right now, it's basically just the social media. I would love to be able to go out and draw advertising, but it's hard to do by yourself.

 

[00:14:27.850] - Martyn Brown

I understand that totally, you would wear so many hats. So how do you keep in touch with your listeners? So if you get a group of listeners, they hopefully be regular. Is there any form you've got? Is there email marketing involved? Is there a request form? Is there anything you can help them interact with the show?

 

[00:14:45.550] - Eddie Carson

Yeah, on the website, I do have a contact form, and I've gotten a few emails with feedback, some requests. Every once in a while when I can, I get on there in Facebook or Twitter and say, the request line is now open, and I'll sit there and just wait. They could do that through Twitter, through Facebook, or email me directly, or through the contact form. I try to interact. I admit, I don't have a huge amount of listeners right now, but I do have some people to follow. I know on Twitter, I have over 2,000 followers. Now they don't all interact, but in Facebook, I don't really have those numbers. But anyway, I try to keep in touch with, try to do daily posts just to inform on what's coming up. And for example, on one of the past Fridays, that show was offering a chance to win, I think, the remastered tapes of Sid Barrett from Pink Floyd. I'd relay that to my listeners, tune in, try to have a chance to win a prize.

 

[00:15:52.750] - Martyn Brown

That's a good idea. I do like that. And some of our stations, they involve live music. And we were talking just ahead of the going live on the show that you like to promote unsigned bands that deserve so much exposure and that. Could you share some of the insights into the world of live music recording? What challenges and rewards come with this type of work?

 

[00:16:17.720] - Eddie Carson

You mean as far as me recording live music? Yeah. I would say when I go out and try to record bands, every time you go somewhere, it's a different venue. Sometimes it's just somebody's club basement. So the preparation is trying to get the acoustics, trying to get the levels. The bands themselves, they'll change their volume little. Guitar players, especially, they want to crack up that amplifier, but I'm with my headphones going, Oh, my goodness, you got to turn that down. And the needle is just pinning. And then the other challenge is trying to edit that audio. You're trying to maybe compress it, try to bring up some highs or mids and try to get just maybe you record for hours and they'll do 10 or 12 songs to get two or three songs that you could put out as singles. Just takes hours and hours of trial and error.

 

[00:17:16.010] - Martyn Brown

Wow. Yeah, I know there's a lot that goes, The listener here is an hour show, and I think it took you an hour to do. We have to put this together, have to produce this and that. So you're operating an internet radio station, W-O-D-Y, Odyssey Radio. It's a very impressive feat for sure, I've witnessed it. So what motivated you to actually start your own station? And what unique opportunities does the Internet offer for radio broadcasting compared to when you started in '84?

 

[00:17:47.950] - Eddie Carson

Just to try to get back into broadcasting, like I said, first I tried voice-over-work, and that was a bit difficult. It turns out there's a lot of people trying to do voiceover work, and we get these opportunities, and you see there's 50, 60 other people trying to provide for the same 60-second spot. So it's very competitive. I still tried to do it, but-.

 

[00:18:14.310] - Martyn Brown

Is it on Fiverr. Com or something, or is it more professional?

 

[00:18:17.750] - Eddie Carson

No, it's sites like that and similar ones. So I decided I just want to do it myself. So I looked into what it took to start a radio station, and as far as the internet goes, not being a terrestrial station, you're not governed by the FCC. You have a lot more freedom being on the internet. Sometimes if you listen to certain internet radio stations, sometimes I think too much freedom, because they could broadcast anything. They could swear, they can do whatever they want.

 

[00:18:48.890] - Martyn Brown

They're political, some of them, don't they?

 

[00:18:51.080] - Eddie Carson

Oh, boy, do they? Yeah, I try to stay away from that. Probably you might get a comment here or there on some of the syndicated shows, and at one point I did have a Paranormal show, and actually two at different Paranormal shows, and they go through current events and past events, and you might get a few comments here and there. But we tried to stay away from that. Like I said, a few comments here or there, some opinion, but just trying to drive home an agenda. Now that's not what I want to do.

 

[00:19:25.840] - Martyn Brown

I understand that. I'm going back to the voice tracking and music variety shows. It's one of your current endeavors. How do you approach bringing your personality and style into prerecorded shows? Because you've got to imagine your audience are out there, and how you're feeling when you're pre-recording it, it's going to be a lot different than if you were doing it live and it's happening.

 

[00:19:48.990] - Eddie Carson

Yeah, that's true. I wanted to get to make it feel like it was live, though. And one of the first things they taught us when I was in college was that don't think of it like you're talking to millions of people. Just one, just a friend, just you talking to somebody, because usually who's listening to the radio? It's usually one person in their car or at home, maybe a couple sitting around. So think of it that way. So I just try to bring like a one on one, like I'm talking to you. I'm just talking to you. I'm telling you what's happening. I give you maybe a little history of the song I'm playing, and when I do the bits, like I said, the dumpster diving or something like that, I'm going to try to make you laugh because it's just you and me and we're having a conversation.

 

[00:20:39.500] - Martyn Brown

That's lovely, yeah. Everybody's got different techniques and methodologies, but in the end, just remember, yeah, good point. You're talking to that one person. So many presenters say, Hello, everyone. And you feel that's them, that's not me. I do like this one-to-one thing. It's a good way of looking at it. One of the changes, how has the broadcasting industry evolved since you started back in 1984? And how have you adapted to these changes over the years? Because especially on the internet now, every six months seems to be different. There's something new happening, algorithms change and what have you.

 

[00:21:14.350] - Eddie Carson

Oh, yeah. Oh, that's true. When I first started, let's go back even further, when I was just a kid listening to radio, they used to call it Radio Theatre of the Mind. And you had a lot of live shows way back. I've remember one of the first things in broadcasting 101 was, they started us out with the old Texas Star Theater and the Golden Age Radio, the Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy on the Donamichie show, things like that, and everything was... It just seemed again, theater of the mind. I'm picturing these people talking and interacting with, a lot of it was live studio audiences, interacting with the audience, and everything was very professional. Over the years, up until now, it seems like in broadcasting, they can get away from, and I guess maybe because they think it's stiff, the professionalism to more of a comedic thing or even just like shock-jocks. I guess they're trying to make a niche for themselves. And a lot of the things, I even noticed it in television because that's in that curriculum I was in, it was incorporated. It was audio production, but also TV program production. I guess back in the '60s and '70s, when you look at a television show, the set is there for a reason, and it was supposed to portray a certain ambiance.

 

[00:22:51.330] - Eddie Carson

And then they started, I remember The David Letterman show was one of the first things I saw this happen, where they would pan up, like we're going to a commercial, and the camera will go up above the top of the set, and then you see all the lights and the girders and everything. And to me, it took away from the theater part of it. I'm like, You're not supposed to show behind the scenes. If it's a certain thing you're trying to project to the audience. Same thing with when they started putting TV cameras in radio studios. I guess it's neat here and there, but sometimes camera just sits on the person and I don't want you to see me, I want you to hear me.

 

[00:23:32.260] - Martyn Brown

That's what the whole idea is.

 

[00:23:34.420] - Eddie Carson

Right. So there's changes like that. I always wanted to bring back the live radio. I would love to have live radio shows. Itry to believe, Oh, Prairie Home companion, and the garrison Keeler, the author, and he had actually put a movie out about it. They were still doing it, live radio shows in front of a studio audience with complete sound effects, man, and everything like that. I would love to do it, but that would be a huge endeavor.

 

[00:24:08.120] - Martyn Brown

Yeah, a lot of the old BBC radio shows that we grew up with, they don't exist because they went out live and when the red light went off, that was it. It had gone, and if you missed it, you can buy albums now, with cassette tapes, it used to be, with some of the saved issues on it, and you could actually hear very badly.

 

[00:24:31.950] - Eddie Carson

Bad news.

 

[00:24:33.320] - Martyn Brown

Old radio shows, when they did literally put them out live and whatever was said, but it's changed so much, I agree. There's a lot of radio stations out there, and they only last for six or seven months, if that, and you don't hear from them again because they can't survive. So I was going to ask, what advice do you have for aspiring broadcasters who are just starting their careers in today's fast-paced media landscape? What would you say to them? How would it be best to start?

 

[00:25:04.940] - Eddie Carson

The first thing I would say is, you're going to come across, especially if you're like me who came from, lack of a better term, old school, there's going to be a lot of obstacles, things you haven't seen before. And I would say start slow. With the Internet radio station, it crept up on me. I was doing pretty much just experimenting, seeing how to go about it. And then I came across a platform that would actually do the broadcasting, and I went a little too fast. And before I knew it, I was on the air. I was pretty much just still testing things out. I'm like, Oh, my goodness, this is actually going out over the air. Of course, there was nobody listening to it yet, but so I had this functional radio station, but really no content to put out. I had a few songs built up in a library, but a few songs, so you could get ahead of yourself real quick. So I would say do a lot of planning first and do a lot of research, especially with the digital broadcasting, because like I said, I had no clue. I had to relearn a lot of things.

 

[00:26:14.010] - Martyn Brown

And really, you're growing confidence as you go along as well, and you learn to pace yourself. I know to a lot of new DJs talk really quickly all the time, and you think, Hang on, slow down, and it's nerves, a bit panicky. And they've got listeners, which is three more than they had last week, and they're probably gone the next week, but you've got them. Seeing those analytics come out, you think, Oh, this is exciting and nerve-wrecking, and it comes out in the show. I noticed that those that do survive, if you listen to their first show or their early shows and the one they're doing now, the quality's improved that much. I suppose why you do it, if you enjoy it, you touched on it earlier on that if you enjoy something, I suppose it's not like work because you're enjoying doing it. And if you're bringing in an income from doing it, most people aren't on the radio. They just want to be on the radio because they're used to do it. But now you can, it's all possible. Find out why you do it, discover why you do it. And if the why is good, then you'll keep moving forward.

 

[00:27:15.890] - Eddie Carson

I guess the first time back in the 80s when I was on that commercial station, the first time I actually had to do a live remote. No, it wasn't a remote. It was just a live, very short interview. There was a festival going on, a local festival, and they had to break in, and if they're going to give a synopsis and think a rundown of what was going on. And I had never done anything live before other than just introducing songs and reading commercials. So here I am talking to the curator of the festival, and that was nerve-wrecking, and I'm looking at the clock because I have to cut it at a certain time. We have to go again to reach the top of the hour for the news or something like that. And I thought I sounded horrible. Once it was over and I got to listen to the tape again, I'm like, okay, it wasn't that bad. And I got through it. So once I got through it, and I'm like, Okay, I did it that time. Now working a few things and I can improve on it. But that, from your question, that's what stood out as maybe given me confidence that I can do this and I can progress.

 

[00:28:38.270] - Martyn Brown

Yeah, and similar to what we've been talking about in an era dominated by digital media, which it is now, for me, it's 24-7, what do you believe sets the traditional radio and the broadcasting apart? How do you bridge the gap between the old and the new?

 

[00:28:55.420] - Eddie Carson

That's a good question. What I do with my... The shows that I work on with my partner down there in Georgia, I don't know if it's bridging the gap, but it's almost like bringing it back. What we're doing now, you don't really hear, even on terrestrial stations, making it sound like a live radio show where the disc jockey is introducing the song. You might hear what we call jukebox radio. They just play song after song, then they go to commercial, and you don't hear anything in between. If you're the listener, you might say, Oh, yeah, I love that song. I just can't remember who did it, but you never hear the guy say who did it. Or we give a little insight from 1975, that was the number one hit from Abba or BTO or things like that. So again, not so much bridging the gap is just bringing back that DJ feel, a live- Announcement. Yes.

 

[00:29:52.620] - Martyn Brown

Yeah, we've got a very famous presenter, or DJ, they like to be called presenters nowadays. There is a difference between a DJ and a presenter, as we keep bringing up in the podcast, Tony Blackburn. And I liked the Tony Blackburn way where he did say that was, this is, but he was comedic in between. He gave us positive information. He was cheery, he was lively, the gingles lifted you, the atmosphere. And now when I go to a wedding or something, I used to be DJing for 35 years or this type of thing. I've given that side a few years ago, but when I hear a DJ now, I'm constantly criticising. I wouldn't play this, I wouldn't do that. And my wife says to me, Shut up and just enjoy it. But it does affect you that way. You do need to bring some of that back. And the only time you hear them say anything is when they mumble that there's a taxi for somebody at the end of the year.

 

[00:30:50.830] - Eddie Carson

Yeah, you don't want to make it all about you, but yeah, you do, I think, break it up a little bit here and there and engage them a little bit, engage the audience, whether it's a live audience or whatever. So you're not just sound like you're reading a Sunday sermon. You want to keep people engaged. You don't want to bore them to death. So yeah, a little interaction is good.

 

[00:31:14.150] - Martyn Brown

Do you work off the top of your head with what you're going to say, or is it all scripted and what's there is going to be? I sound like I'm reading it when I read it.

 

[00:31:26.690] - Eddie Carson

It's more scripted than I would like. Right back, like I said, when I started, then there was nothing scripted. You had to just wing it. I guess because I wanted to flow at a certain pace now and I can edit things. I do script a lot of it, but I try to get away from just reading more notes, a couple of notes here, and then expound on that. So I sound more natural. You don't want to sound, of course, like you're reading from a book.

 

[00:31:57.090] - Martyn Brown

Reminds me of a documentary I did on The Beatles, and the music was fun. But when I say, I've taken it off now, but there were four parts to it. And I did sound like I was reading and it sounded… A friend of mine said, Oh, you wouldn't notice. It's a documentary style. Call it that. That's very polite of you. Let's talk about mentorship. What role has mentorship played in your broadcasting journey? Are there any individuals who have profoundly influenced your career choices?

 

[00:32:29.410] - Eddie Carson

Really? Not in the beginning. The partner I mentioned that I'm working with now, he was a disc jockey back even before I was, and he did all that stuff that I was talking about. He did the live remotes, he did the on-air shows, and he had real good banter. And I'm just picking up a few things from him, really. But one individual or a couple of individuals from when I started, it was more or less me listening to the radio, listening to certain DJs and announcements.

 

[00:33:00.730] - Martyn Brown

This is when you were very young and it was in your mind.

 

[00:33:03.520] - Eddie Carson

Yes, I heard the different styles. Of course, there was Wolfman Jack, and nobody's going to imitate him, especially the voice. But later on, Casey.

 

[00:33:12.690] - Martyn Brown

Kason- Is there a Morgan? Somebody Morgan? It's nine o'clock in the Morgan, they used.

 

[00:33:17.770] - Eddie Carson

To say. Oh, I'm not sure.

 

[00:33:19.720] - Martyn Brown

I had a series of CDs featuring him, and he was the typical brilliant 60s American banter.

 

[00:33:26.690] - Eddie Carson

Oh, okay. It was wonderful. There was another one called The Greaseman, and he was just way over the top. And he would never curse over the ear, but he used what they call code words, and he made it hilarious. One of my friends got to see him live one time in studio, and he said his hands and arms never stopped moving because the sound effects like cart machines. It was this and that, and you just keep taking this cart and that cart and making all these sound effects, and he could adlive like nobody's business. And I thought- True athlete, yeah. Oh, yeah, he was a true performer. And he pushed the button, I pushed the limit a couple of times. He got suspended here and there, but then he eventually got nationally syndicated. And that's one of the people that I listen to and thought, Okay, it's another type of style that maybe you could touch on here and there, but I wouldn't want to just imitate one person. But yeah, more listening to the different DJs on national and local stations is how I just eventually developed.

 

[00:34:37.180] - Martyn Brown

My own style. I've syndicate one out called the Forgotten 45s- Oh, yes. -david Bruce, and he does the echo on his voice, which I never thought E. J. 'S doing that. They tried it on Luxembourg for a while and stopped it, but he uses it to perfection. Plus, he drops in a comical comment every now and again, and it's just. They're not funny. They're so brilliant. I heard the show once, I thought I've got to get that guy on it. So many people now are fading away from the 60s. There used to be 60 shows in the UK all over the place, and now they're hard to come by because I suppose the big listening audience is getting too old or something or maybe dying off, dare we say, and the youngsters are coming up who don't really relate to the 60s, but I still think there's a place for them. And when you hear them, and especially when they don't just play the top 40, but those or top 20s, it was what we called it then, and only so many songs can get into the top 20. Once they're full, the others are left outside.

 

[00:35:41.070] - Martyn Brown

And by the time it's clear again, they all go down because they've had their. And it's those singles I love, and the B-Sides. We don't get B-Sides. I just love that oldy-worldy thing of radio. There was an album called The Killer B-S and it had all B-Sides on it, and it made our top 20 album chart. Because some of the B-Sides were absolute gold dust. They were wonderful to listen to. And you think, now what happened later was they bring out a disco single, for example, and put the instrumental on the B-Side. But I thought, No, put something different so we can expand on our knowledge of your talent.

 

[00:36:17.420] - Eddie Carson

But yeah.

 

[00:36:18.370] - Martyn Brown

I suppose it was all commercialism, but I do love the oldy-worldy stuff. And I was going to ask, I've got a couple more questions, but I'm conscious of your time, and thank you for giving it to us today.

 

[00:36:28.510] - Eddie Carson

Sure.

 

[00:36:29.530] - Martyn Brown

How do you stay creatively inspired and continue to bring fresh content to your radio station and other projects?

 

[00:36:37.710] - Eddie Carson

That is difficult. Like I said, I do rely on my partner down in Georgia. We bounce ideas off each other all the time, and I listen too, it's more or less like research. I do listen to other stations just to hear what they're doing. I used to read the newspaper and magazine articles and for ideas. That's just... It's fine. You're not really getting many ideas from that anymore. I just don't know. It's just... Basically, I'd be blunt about it, if you keep your ears open and your mouth shut, you can learn a lot, and you can hear what other people have to say, you just observe and listen. And just by doing that, you get ideas of, Hey, people may be interested in this. This may be funny, something like that.

 

[00:37:30.990] - Martyn Brown

So as somebody deeply connected to the world of audio, how do you see the future of radio broadcasting and audio production unfolding?

 

[00:37:41.180] - Eddie Carson

Another good question. As far as the digital broadcasting now, the advances, like I said, from when you had nothing but turntables and cart machines to how these platforms can put it all together. They have, I forgot what it's called, but basically it's like a radio station in a box. It's only maybe a square foot, but it does everything. It's just sitting, it's smaller than a laptop, and it does everything that you could do in a big radio studio 30 years ago. And I don't have one at the moment, but I'm told it doesn't take that much to get used to. I can't fathom that as far, especially if you want to queue everything up tightly and make it sound like it's a live show. But that right there, if they're going to keep making advancements like that, I really wouldn't know where it would go. It does allow people who normally couldn't get into broadcasting to do it, which is a good and a bad thing, because, of course, you'd like to give opportunity to anybody who would like it, but it doesn't, or let's say it allows for unfiltered content that maybe-.

 

[00:39:01.440] - Martyn Brown

You don't want it to be dangerous to hear the content.

 

[00:39:04.200] - Eddie Carson

Yeah, because some things that maybe just don't fit or belong being broadcasted to the world. So yeah, it could be a good or a bad thing.

 

[00:39:16.280] - Martyn Brown

Can you share a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the process of voicing and editing products? So what's your secret to delivering a compelling and engaging voice-over?

 

[00:39:27.060] - Eddie Carson

Okay, starts with the script. I try to write a script, like I said before, that sounds like I'm talking to just one person, and then always pre-read the script out loud to yourself until you think you sound natural and engaging to just one person. And then you can experiment with the tempo. And one thing that the technology allows is, you can actually speed up your voice or slow down your voice without actually changing the pitch. And then me, I like production because it's fun. So maybe find a good music bed or a couple of sound effects, even like you mentioned, the echo or reverb, you don't want to overdo it. But if it enhances it a little bit, then I just experiment with different things until I come up with something that I think everybody would like.

 

[00:40:23.240] - Martyn Brown

Is there a particular software you use when you edit a show, for example?

 

[00:40:27.730] - Eddie Carson

Mostly I use Audacity. It's a free audio editing software. But I tell you, for a free piece of software, it has a lot of bells and whistles on it. I haven't even begun to use all the tools in there. Some of the tools aren't necessary for what I do, but it does have a lot, and the tutorials. You can actually, if you take the time, you can teach yourself how to do most of it. And from what I understand, a lot of people use audacity. I haven't gotten into the the expensive versions of, I think, Adobe Editor or things like that, but audacity seems to be sufficient for what I do.

 

[00:41:13.370] - Martyn Brown

So many people know it because mainly because it's free when you're starting out, but you touch on a good point there. If you need to know how to do something about it, it's on online, YouTube, anything. They will actually show you how to do it, and that's how I get along with that. It's nearly always everything I do involves it at one stage. It's fantastic. Do you use a system like Sambroadcast or anything like that, or is it much more complicated?

 

[00:41:40.700] - Eddie Carson

I've seen Sambroadcaster, but what I use is Radio Boss, online version, and also we broadcast through Live365. Now, I really don't use their platform to produce the show, just to broadcast for licensing purposes. And then- I.

 

[00:42:04.510] - Martyn Brown

Said, brilliant. I'm glad you mentioned Live365 and lovely memories of that when it first started.

 

[00:42:09.430] - Eddie Carson

Okay. Now, funny you mentioned that, because I was reading, I was trying to look something up on Live365 site and I ended up coming across some articles. They have gone through a few different changes, actually reinvented themselves, I believe. The partner and I I was talking about, we use Nextcast voice tracking software, and that does a really great job in as far as rendering the voice tracks itself.

 

[00:42:37.770] - Martyn Brown

And you put it all together and mix it down, and then it's out there, it can go out there.

 

[00:42:44.290] - Eddie Carson

It could be sent out as files for whoever the station or a podcaster to, like I did with the John O'Heady Show and insert it where you want, or it could render it as an entire show. You could just play it and let it go.

 

[00:43:01.180] - Martyn Brown

And they can put their own commercial breaks in wherever they fit? Yeah.

 

[00:43:05.870] - Eddie Carson

When you render the show in the next cast, you just leave a line in the code for lack of a better term, and they can put in whatever they want.

 

[00:43:14.300] - Martyn Brown

Okay, finally then, what legacy do you hope to leave behind in the broadcasting industry, and what's next on the horizon for Eddie Carson and W. O. D. Y. O. Odysee Radio?

 

[00:43:25.730] - Eddie Carson

Wow, a legacy. Really, I made a promise to myself that this time, maybe it is a little too late, but that I guess if I'm known as a guy who wouldn't give up and whatever obstacles come just that I'll be able to get through them. As far aslet me backtrack a little bit. Like I said, eventually my goal is, and the one I don't want to give up on, is to make this my full-time career. I may keep a few of the hobbies I have, but this is how I want to make my living. It's pretty a lofty goal, but I don't want to give up on that. As far as W-O-D-Y, Otisy Radio, eventually, like I said, right now I think it's 19 syndicated shows and artists that play in between. And I would like to, I don't want to say get rid of the syndicated shows, but I would like to have more of a hand in the programming myself than having to bring in outside shows. I may be able to incorporate some of the presenters in it, but I would like to produce more of it myself, and also where I am now in Maryland and try to get it out there locally, of course, because you're already all over the world being on the web, I would like to get the county I'm in and the local region, start engaging them and trying to make it your local radio station.

 

[00:44:55.340] - Martyn Brown

Yeah, that's a great idea. And so is there a process you go through? So if somebody wants to syndicate a show to you, would they just send you a file? Is it as simple as sending you a file, you download it and do what you do with it? Or is it more complicated than that?

 

[00:45:11.800] - Eddie Carson

No, it's in the beginning, when I didn't have hardly any content at all, I went out searching for the music and for the shows through... I would just do generic, again, not knowing too much about it, the digital broadcasting side of it, just do searches for, as simple as, syndicated radio shows, and that I went through just tons and tons of information before I started finding them. Now and the music the same way. I used to go out and do searches and find the musicians and bands and almost beg them to, Hey, I've listened to this song, if you send it, I will get it on the air. I'd like to play this and this from your album. Now I have a backlog. I must have 19 and 20 pages of emails with song submissions from bands and artists that I haven't even been able to get to yet. I'm being inundated with it. And then same thing with the syndicated shows, somebody will send, Hey, I do this show, here's a demo, and I'll listen to that, and I decide whether it fits in the things that I want to do. And also, I'll tell you, it's restrictive, because being a commercial, going through the platform I do, you have to play commercials.

 

[00:46:34.830] - Martyn Brown

And so.

 

[00:46:36.280] - Eddie Carson

You've got to fit a certain amount of commercials in a certain amount of time, and only in certain blocks. So these shows, when they come in, if they just send you, say they would do an hour show, but they send you a 60 minute file, that's not going to work, because I've got at least four minutes, and I do eight minutes of commercials an hour. The show would run over, and I have to spend time cutting up the show, editing it. There's a certain criteria that I have to have, not that I want to do, but I have to have it in order to play the show in the allotted space of time.

 

[00:47:14.380] - Martyn Brown

I used to do one for a local offline station, FM station, and they said, We can't take your show anymore because it's 60 minutes long, and by the time we've edited it, and it's so much hard work, they said, Unless you can send it to us in this format, and it was with those codes on that you were mentioning. Well, yes. They knew where to.

 

[00:47:31.840] - Eddie Carson

Put their ads in. No, I've had to do that as well.

 

[00:47:33.980] - Martyn Brown

It was part of advancement. Yeah. It's what you get.

 

[00:47:37.650] - Eddie Carson

Well, at 19 syndicated shows, if I had to edit every one of them, I wouldn't have time for anything else.

 

[00:47:45.870] - Martyn Brown

Eddie, it's been fascinating. So what an interesting career. And how do we contact you or if somebody wants to listen into the station, where would they go?

 

[00:47:56.230] - Eddie Carson

If you go to www. Odysseeradio. Com, ot live. That is the website, and that'll take you to the home page with the player right up front. So you just click on the live365 player and the station will start playing.

 

[00:48:11.700] - Martyn Brown

I can back that up by saying it's a wonderful station and I've been listening to it, and quite often I listen to a few minutes and that's it. With yours, I just kept it on. It was amazing. Oh, thank you. And I know you're never going to give up. And we hope to talk to you again in the future and see how things have developed. Eddie Carson, thank you very much for being on The Vinyl Impressions Podcast.

 

[00:48:34.940] - Eddie Carson

Thank you, Martyn. It's been a pleasure.

 

[00:48:36.950] - Martyn Brown

Bye-bye for now.