Metro Networks Cuts In Boston

[Brian Vita]

Its funny that you should mention that.  I've been doing the tech work at
WMWM for the last few years.  About two months ago while cruising the web I
found a program for the deaf that will download the current NOAA weather and
vocalize it.  One of the options is to save the output to an MP3 file.
Having a bizarre humor streak, I did a little massaging of the output and
tied it into the station's automation.  The result is our new WMWM Robo
Weather Center.

A little tweaking of the setup files gave me phrases such as "The
temperature outside the WMWM studios is" and "The WMWM Robo weather forecast
for Salem is".  The program is set to update from NOAA every 10 minutes and
write it to an MP3 file called "weather.mp3".  Every hour, just after the
ID, the automation looks in a specific location for a file named
"weather.mp3" and plays it.  Low tech but it works.

My thought was that the students would listen to it, be slightly amused and
then give me the nod to take it off.  The result was quite the opposite.
They loved it.  One of the student e-board members noted that the robo voice
actually sounded concerned when reading about thunderstorms potentially
containing embedded hail.  I told him that the next version will throw in an
"oh sh*t" when it sees something bad coming <g>. Now they're trying to get
me to automate traffic reports (parking at the college).


MoodSwings & Sunday Night Chill
The Jazz fix for your Sunday


Brian Vita
Jazz Coordinator
Sunday Night Chill Remote Studio
c/o CSS Inc ,77 Walnut St – Ste 4
Peabody, MA  01960-5691
Ofc (978)538-7575/Studio (978)817-0013 
Brian@SundayNightChill.com
www.wmwmjazz.com





Playing the best and only Jazz on the North Shore

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org
> [mailto:boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org] On
> Behalf Of Bill O'Neill
> Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 9:30 PM
> To: Mark Watson
> Cc: Boston Radio
> Subject: Re: Metro Networks Cuts In Boston
> 
> Mark Watson wrote:
> >  According to Boston RadioWatch, several staffers and air talent were
> > let go from Metro Network's Boston office as part of Metro's
> > nationwide cuts. Among the notable names sent packing last Friday:
> Joe
> > Stapleton, Bob MacNeil, Chris Fama, and Mauzy Stafford.
> Another brick in the wall....  Seems like just yesterday that services
> like Metro and Shadow set up shop and became opportunities for local
> stations to release their in-house staff and go with a contractor to
> provide talent for once core services like news and traffic.
> 
> And today, that service takes a hit.  I have an idea.  That NOAA
> weather
> radio computer generated voice that has taken hold?  See if 'he' has
> time in his schedule to run down the latest headlines.