Is it live or Memorex?

Remember the old Memorex commercials from the 70's? With a glass cracking, is it live or Memorex. Now I play that game with radio stations while traveling. We all know the answer, they are all recorded via voice tracking. But I especially like the ones, where it's tough to tell.

Where the programming talent team takes the time to develop and execute the product to the point where it's entertainment based and sounds live and local. Listening to San Luis Obispo CHR Wild 106 yesterday, they roll the songs under the sweepers, they match new music sweepers with the songs and the talent is up-beat and entertaining. I heard the morning man on Saturday afternoon and he was rockin'.

We all know the drill on a Friday when you are dealing with 30 other things and you remember you need to voice track Saturday and you rip out 4 hours in 15 minutes and is sounds like it. We've all done, or if you were like me and forgot to do it - The music ran with no talk - Ouch.

1.) Tighten up all the breaks, run songs under the sweepers. In most digital playback systems like Next-Gen, that takes a second or two. Sounds great on the weekend - All tight and fired-up.

2.) Know all the events going on during the weekend. The local paper usually has a weekend event section every Thursday or Friday you can use, or the local paper or television web site while you track.

3/) Refrain from all music breaks, meaning just talking about the songs and artists. If you have calls left over from the week, use them.

4.) Use FACEBOOK and TWITTER for breaks. Start something on FB that you can get a response from during the weekend and tie-back into your show on Monday.

Lot's of good common sense will help when tracking to sound live.