PLANNING FOR GROWTH IN YEARS OF RESTRICTED RESOURCES

newscasts and the networked Prophet digital cart system for recorded newscasts.The use of computer technology became even more important under Clear Channel.NewsReady 32 news writing software, that includes the Cool Edit audio editor, becamethe standard for all Clear Channel radio news rooms. It was now a simple matter forreporters in any of the cities to write stories, record and edit news audio at their desks,embed the audio into their copy, and then effectively email everything to another ClearChannel station anywhere in the country. Reporters on the receiving end couldretrieve both copy and audio at their convenience, and the audio sounded as though ithad been recorded locally.At Clear Channel Columbus, news audio is recorded as a Windows wav file, sampledat 22 kHz, 16-bit, mono. These specifications keep the file size relatively small andmanageable, while maintaining broadcast quality for news audio. Using the commonlyaccepted guideline that the audio sampling rate should be double that of the highestaudio frequency desired, we can expect a 22 kHz sampling rate to accommodate newsaudio frequencies up to 10 or 11 kHz. The 16-bit resolution helps keeps the noiselevel down. Using these specifications keeps the file size on the order of 2.625megabytes for each minute of audio.At Ohio University’s Zanesville campus, we have adopted a similar approach andliterally email news copy with attached audio files to the Athens newsroom, where theymay be retrieved and aired on the radio network. By recording the original audio at 22kHz 16-bit mono, we avoid extra steps that may be required for conversion to mp3 orWindows wma files. The savings in file size may be comparable to that achieved byconverting to mp3, depending on the mp3 sampling rate. The audio is uncompressed,meaning no compression artifacts.Admittedly, the new audio codecs in Windows Media Encoder are tempting, sincethey promise high audio quality with much smaller file sizes. And, as with Windowswav files, no special software is required at the receiving end, since wma files may beplayed with Windows Media Player, that is included with the Windows operatingsystem.All in all, our approach to news gathering and sharing since early 2001 has workedwell for all concerned. The WOUB Network benefits from an expanded newsgathering team, and our regional students are able to participate in network newsactivities without having to be on the main campus. Isn’t technology marvelous?Some possible links for “Emailing the News”:NewsReady, a product of WireReady, http://www.wireready.com/Clear Channel home page, http://www.clearchannel.com/Prophet Systems Innovations, radio, http://www.prophetsys.com/ProphetRadio/(A division of Clear Channel)610 WTVN, Columbus, Ohio, http://www.610wtvn.com/main.html(Streaming audio available on this page)BEA—Educating tomorrow’s electronic media professionals 22