The Hyperfiction Network - The Personal Homepage of Ben Roberts

Radio Portfolio

2000-2001 - During my first semester at CU I petitioned into an upper level radio production class taught by John Quigley, the professional General Manager of Radio 1190 and a former freelance reporter. The following are a selection of projects from the class:

Reality 101: We were tasked with creating sweepers for the show that eventually was renamed Undercurrents. Teaser 1 was my first real success at radio production, complete with my strange sense of humor. The latter two were spoofs of movie teasers and didn't quite have the same success.

There were several other projects including a Treatment (film review) and Roots segments, 3-5 minute histories of influencial artists. During my time at Radio 1190, I would make more than a dozen, all but one of them aired--the first, on Eric Clapton, an artist deemed to mainstream. The final project was a 6-8 minutes feature story on the topic of our choice. As Napster was making major waves, I chose to look into copyright and piracy. Though I got marked down for going over the time constraint, I took immense pride in the fact that the class and my professor didn't realize it was too long until I mentioned it after the fact.

By spring semester, I had fast tracked myself into the fold at Radio 1190, completing my DJ training and becoming a sub DJ while helping out with several shows. I found myself a staple of the lounge, helping with projects for shows I wasn't involved in and watching then production manager Peter Rappmund work. I also helped the News Department with Think Tanks, their man on the street pieces, though I didn't think to archive any of them. By fall semester, I had my own weekly show. I produced a funky intro for Music on the One, the weekly funk show, and interviewed the band Dispatch, cutting together three hilariously botched attempts into a sweeper for the station.

In addition to my duties at the radio station, I began to pitch my own ideas. To stick a little humor into the day, I recommended some comedic polls. After producing five of them as a test run, the idea was sadly put to rest.

2002-2003 - In 2002, I took time off from school to get in state tuition. I still volunteered as a DJ, running a weekly show and helping out with several others including The Dark Dream progressive metal show, the Weekend Morning Show, the Morning Delivery with Milkman Dan, the soundtrack themed Boom Operator, and even assisting the J-pop show Music for a Beautiful Life once or twice.

2004-2006 - In 2004, I began to tire of DJing regularly and switched to volunteering for the News Department.

Inquiring Minds: I pitched a show to run side by side with the weekly Undercurrents news show called Inquiring Minds, a roundtable discussion on political and current events. Once accepted, I dove headlong into it, producing bumpers for either side as well as continuing my work for Undercurrents. Several shows are archived in their entirety here. On Halloween, 2004, I prepared to do a show on whether ghosts excited, hardly a hardball topic. At the last minute, both my guests, a local Boulder psychic and the Amazing Randi, bowed out. Despite this, I remain very fond of the man on the street segment produced for the ill-fated episode.

Think Tanks: Summer of 2004, I was offered and accepted the position of News Director at Radio 1190. One of Radio 1190s trademarks was the Think Tank, a man on the street piece. Though I had produced dozens over the years, I revamped the format, changed the music bed and intros, and attempted to make Think Tanks a more dynamic part of Radio 1190's programming.

Features: Over the course of my time as News Director, I continued to write and produce my own segments as well as training the news team and producing pieces for those students who didn't have the time. Often, my pieces were more playful than newsworthy, but I feel they all held to the same level of excellence in both writing and production. I also covered politics heavily and attempted to involve myself with community movements.

Interviews: Perhaps the most challenging part of my job was producing interviews. Not only did I have to cut them to time, but I had to keep them fluid and natural, an easy thing to screw up. Once again, I favored the political or the lighthearted, often favoring authors and local politicians.

Since leaving Radio 1190 in 2007 on my graduation, I've continued producing radio works, including a series of audio blogs which can be found on Worldwide Ace. Currently, a radio play version of the first Ace Harmon: Retro Detective is in the works, though there's no current time frame for completion.

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