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Cause aint nobody got time for Amateur's
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You're listening to locally produced programming created in
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KUNV Studios on public radio. KUNV 91.5. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and More, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System
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of Higher Education. This is
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is talking with the pros.
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The pros.
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Like, professionals. This is talking with the pros with me, Jess B. I speak to the professionals in the world of audio to gain an insight into what it takes to become a pro. Talking with the pros. Talking with the pros here. AceGat is with me. AceGat, how are you doing?
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Thank you so much for being here.
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Thank you for having me.
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Let me just start off with asking you about why you decided to be in this field of audio. So the reason I decided to be in this field of audio, because I grew up on radio big time. Now everybody says, oh, radio's dead, radio's dead. What are you still doing listening to the radio?
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We have Spotify and Apple Music.
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I know, I get that all the time. So funny, I was in the car with my brother a few days ago, and he was like, you and mom are the only two people that I still know that listen to the radio?
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It might be the only two people he knows, but there's people out there. Let's say 120,000 listeners on KUNV HD1 alone.
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I mean, come on now.
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There you go.
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You're not going to find this type of content anywhere else.
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I love listening to the radio because it's like that factor of knowing there's somebody else there listening with me, i.e. the host.
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My radio journey dates back to middle school. I grew up listening to a lot of radio veterans here in Las Vegas. So like the popular very popular morning shows That's what I would listen to when I would get ready for school and like when I get on the bus Yes the bus and it's funny. So In my freshman year and my bus driver She had the Steve Harvey morning show blasting on the on the loudspeakers. For the little kids. For the little kids, yes. But if there was no talking, it was just music. Like back in my day, the big way to be invested into new music was the radio. I mean, sure you had MTV, but it was around that time where MTV stopped caring about music. And all you would see on MTV is just 24 hours nonstop of ridiculousness.
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Yeah, and we're not talking too long ago either where songs on the radio for new music in particular, not all music is free and available all the time. So yeah, and just knowing what's current, like they're going to be the first ones to drop that.
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I go about that. And I listened to these personalities. And I think to myself, it's really cool how their job is to sit here in front of a microphone playing music and talking to you know the city and you know Las Vegas it's a huge market. We're ranked 31 I believe somewhere in the 30s in the top radio markets across the US. It is a big and ongoing growing market. You know a lot of people are coming here from all aspects of the country, all And with the growing of sports, it's playing a huge factor because people are finally seeing what the Vegas lifestyle is all about. And that's what makes a bunch of tourists come here and want to check out the Vegas lifestyle.
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Yeah, I'm so glad that we have a bunch of radio stations to choose from, like spanning all different genres. So there really is something for everyone being that, even though we're kind of like a little big town over here, we've got so many options on the dial. So continue to tell me a little bit more about your love of audio.
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During my early years of high school, I decided to take my own spin on hosting my very own radio show. Back in the day, there was a program. I don't think it exists anymore. I might have to double check, but there was this website called Mixlr, M-I-X-L-R, where you could host an hour of audio, for example, like a podcast live for free from your own computer. But now they changed it to where if you want to do audio at all, you have to pay for it. And I didn't want to do that. During the weekends, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I would host an hour music show by myself. I would play a mixture of today's music and some music from like the 2000s. I put it all in a Spotify playlist and I'll just play them straight from my computer. And every now and then I would go on and I would talk. Now the funny thing about it is that this was pre-ASCAP. Before, this guy was known as Main Boy Angelo on the mic.
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Main Boy.
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Main Boy Angelo on the mic. That was my radio name back in the day. But I was sitting there with my rock band USB microphone, just sitting there. Like every now and then. Like I didn't have these professional microphones like we have here in the Greenspun Hall. I had a little USB microphone that you would use to play rock band with. And I would just put it up to my mouth and...
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Wow.
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Yeah, it was a lot. So, and that was kind of like, I want to keep this going. And you know, I had a lot of fads that like, I was interested in something, but then I wasn't anymore. Like for example, I remember I always told myself that I wanted to be a meteorologist. You didn't.
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Yeah, I did.
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I'm a big weather geek.
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Wait, wait, what's his name?
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We just saw him at Jazz in the Park.
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Nathan Tannenbaum.
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You wanted to be Nathan Tannenbaum.
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I wanted to be a mini Nathan Tannenbaum.
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Were you gonna do a bow tie?
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Oh yeah.
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I was gonna get the whole shebang and everything.
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Wow.
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But then I found out what you have to study for it and I'm like, yeah, no, I don't think I wanna do meteorology but it is still an interest for me. Like I'm still very highly interested in weather.
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Yeah, and that segues a lot of what you're doing here at KUNV in the realm of journalism media studies. So go ahead and tell me about what that looks like being here at KUNV in
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the Greenspun Hall. So when I first got here, it was my senior year of high school. I was going on one of those Rebel Preview Tours for all the incoming Rebels. And one of the places that we toured was Greenspun Hall. We toured the TV studios where they filmed Studio G and they filmed Rebel Report and then they took us to the KUNV studios. They showed us the editing bays. They showed us the podcasting rooms and they showed us the studios for both Jas and More and Rebel. It was love at first sight. Like do you know in cartoons when you see a character that sees an attractive person and they have like their eyeballs sticking out with their with the hearts. Right. That was me when I first stepped into this place. And I was like, I want to do this. So so bad. Yeah. Like the next year hit and it was COVID. And then the following year, which was my sophomore year, things started to open back up and I was speaking with the general manager for KUNV, Dr. Ashton Ridley, and he was basically breaking down what the program was and I was like, heck yeah, I'm interested. So once I started getting more in sync with, you know, how to work the board and everything, that's how I ended up here.
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Yeah, I know what you mean about love at first sight with the eyes and the heart, because when I first toured KUNV and even looking through the video production side, being here in the basement of Greenspun Hall, I was just like, yes, this is my vibe. I love this. It's quiet. It's nice and cool There are no windows
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But doesn't feel like a prison cell yeah
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No, it doesn't. I love it down here. I love all this state-of-the-art technology that they have here So it was such a big draw. I changed my majors just to be here. I love it I wouldn't change it again. So I'm so glad that you're here too. And we're doing journalism studies with a concentration audio production and podcasting. So tell me about your past experiences that you've had. You know, I think you used to work at Beasley. Is that correct?
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That is correct. Wow. So it's all thanks to our operations manager, Jason Beattie. If you are a regular...
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Shout out Jason!
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Shout out Jason! If you are a regular listener of my show Clock In Clock Out, which I'm going to explain about a little bit later, then you know that I am the man of impersonations. And when it comes to our operations manager, it is no exception. Oh! You know, pal, it is great to be here at KUNV, you know. You know, these talking with the pros, you know, you sometimes you speak with these baubles, you know, I go into the AG2 studio every single day, and I see like microphones all over the place. And I see stuff breaking down all the time. I'm like, pal, where the hell am I getting these baubles from? By the way, that's not what our studios like at all. But he, but he insists that the students here are breaking things all the time, which is 100% not the case.
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A cap.
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That's not cap. Well, what Jason is saying is cap.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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But we're very neat students.
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Yes. Well, okay, maybe there's something going on that we don't know about, but we have a love for all that is here for us at the facility. So we treat the equipment with respect.
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We definitely do. These are expensive.
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Oh, of course. So for us to have the opportunity to train on them, learn on them, and get our experience on them, it's bar none.
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And with these facilities that we have here at Greenspun, I see it as a privilege and not a right.
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Definitely, definitely.
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So this is something that can be taken away from you if you like, try to abuse its power.
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Yeah, let's not do that.
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Yeah, let's not do that. But back to
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Yes, and Beasley, but yeah, but Jason, go
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ahead.
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So Jason sent out a message to all of the on-air people at Rebels, basically saying Beasley is looking for a board operator. And as soon as he sent that link out, I applied.
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Yes.
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And so I caught up with the program director at the time. He's no longer there. But I got an interview with him. I try to impress him with how much I know about radio. So like one of the questions he was asking me was, what radio stations do you listen to? What radio stations do you work at? What radio personalities do you listen to? And I listed a lot of people who used to be on said radio station. A lot of staff here at KUNV, they came from different radio stations, whether it be here in Vegas, whether it be in California, or in the deep cave-in islands of wonderful New York.
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So it's easy to say that you impressed him with your knowledge, right off the top of that dome.
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Yes, I impressed him with my knowledge. And after the interview was all said and done, he was like, you know, I'm not going to beat around the bush. You know, usually I would say, usually I would say, OK, and we'll get back to you. But I only say that to people that I'm not going to hire.
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And we'll do more.
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And we'll do more next. But he said right off the bat, I want to hire you. I like you. You seem like a really great person. You seem very devoted to the radio industry, I wanna hire you. So to my surprise, I got hired on the spot. I was a board operating for a couple of their stations. One of them mainly was a talk station. It was a lot of political talk, some sports talk, and some news in between. So you got different sides of the spectrum, so it's not sticking to one genre. You've got some politics and then you got some sports and it was really cool to get a glimpse of what the radio world Looks like outside of KU and let me just rack back. So you're doing this at Beasley
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Yes, and so within Beasley, there's several different stations if you will or different shows. Yeah several different stations
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So Beasley owns five different radio stations here in Las Vegas, so you definitely get a broad of different stations with different genres. You've got talk, you've got adult AC, you've got oldies, you've got what else you got? You got country, you know, you get the whole nine yards. So you were saying you were doing board op, go ahead. Yes, so I was doing board operating. So basically my main duties were to make sure that the talents get on the air, to make sure that the commercials and the PSAs and everything like that were on as scheduled. And I was also screening phone calls. Now, for the more political talk shows, they would open up the phone lines for people to call in and voice their opinions about a certain topic. relay it back to the host to see exactly who's calling, because they want their exact name and everything. Yeah. And another thing is... You were screening. I was screening, yes. So I was basically making sure that, you know, they sound like they got some sense in their head and make sure that they're not one of these trolls that are calling in, like, cursing up a storm and everything. Right, right. Because, you know, especially with a political talk show, you know, things can get heated really, really easily. And so these people might get carried away and they might slip out a word or two. And I have to make sure that when it does happen, which has happened numerous, numerous times, I would have to make sure that I would immediately hit that big red dump.
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Good job. Yay.
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Saving radio one red dump at a time.
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Saving radio one red dump at a time. I F-bomb. Yeah. OK. Also, you were talking about the bringing talent, making sure they were coming on the air. So is that like a producer kind of thing? Yes, it is more of a producer role. So the way it was set up, so they have two separate rooms for that one talk station. Yeah, were you looking through the window? Yes, I was. Yes. So I was looking through the window. The one room was the control room where it had like the computer and the board and everything. And then the other room was a big table with four different microphones. And I had to make sure that the talent get on the air because they can't control it.
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I do. Oh, oh, wait, say that again. They can't control it. I do. I do. Wow. So I'm basically,
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you know, I'm playing like Freddie Benson over here. I'm like in fog. So and you know, they're really strict on time as well because Exactly at the top of the hour News is supposed to be played if it's not played then it will be like either delayed or you know
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basically
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we can't miss the spot because it is like required and they even built it in the board where I like at the very top of the hour when no one's in the room that has to be played and if they acknowledge that someone's in the room, then the auto thing turns off. You have to do it manually. You have to make sure that it's on the dot every time.
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On the dot, yes. That reminds me a lot of what Matt would tell us about in his class.
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And which matter are we referring to here?
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Parole.
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Matt Parole, okay.
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Yeah, he was like, keeping time is so important in radio. That's basically what you're doing.
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You're living it, yes. Shut up, Matt Parole, by the way. If you haven't seen a Bostonian versus a Buck, check it out. If you're really big into sports, if you're big in the sports betting, that is the podcast to see and watch. And if you're interested in taking his class, he's also... And if you're interested in taking his class too at that. Yeah, he teaches here at Greenspun. Get on that. Enroll today. Enroll today. I'm a UNLV? A tuition. A tuition. And another thing that was really cool about it is that they made a huge deal about elections. They would have a huge election party. We would have pizza, we would have sweets, we'd have like cookies, pop, and we would have everybody just crammed in that one small control room at one time, and we have like multiple televisions in there. So one TVs on CNN, one's on Fox News, one's on MSNBC, just seeing, like the results happen live. Wow, as to like, who's gonna win in Nevada? You know, who's gonna win? You know, it's that it's that type of thing. And we were really big on Nevada.
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Yeah, of course. That's a lot of areas in like the political radio. What other stations were you board hopping
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for?
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I was mainly board hopping for that one talk station. But I do remember one time, I had the opportunity to board up for country. And it was a lot of party party party partner. It was basically a live remote, we had people over at the sponsored event. And every now and then they would come on the air and say, hey, this is X, Y and Z. We're live at so and so. We're going to be giving this away. If you want to come on by, we're going to be here until six o'clock.
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Oh, yeah. I hear those a lot. They hear those. Did you have to then like punch that into playing on on air? Yeah, because we didn't record it.
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It was live. It was live right when I have. Oh, how does one prep for that?
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Like as on that position? Are you talking about? Yeah, so how's that work? So they're somewhere else.
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Yes.
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And then you're in the studio.
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Yes. So what they do is that whatever wireless unit that they have, they connect it back to the radio board in the studio. And so whenever the songs are going, we have to like talk back to them in their earpiece and tell them, hey, this song has three minutes left. And after that, you're going to be on. And they're hearing the broadcast as it happens with no delay or anything. So they know exactly when to get on and then I tell them like the countdown in their ear when to go to commercial.
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Give us a countdown.
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Yes.
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Give us a countdown.
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Oh, all right. Standby, standby, and we are on in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. You're live.
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Oh, wow. Like all that.
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Yes. Wow. Because they're away, they can't see what's going on. They can't see the screens or anything. So I would have to tell them the time. I'll give them a minute warning, 30 second warning, 50 minute warning, and then I would count down from 10. Now if the person is there live, and if they see me behind the screen, then I would give instead of like saying, putting, going in their ear, 10, 9, 8, because sometimes that distracts them. So I would just give them hand signals, be like, hey, you know, you've got this much time left. Because they don't have a clock in there. So they, so they have to rely on me. So no clock period? At least not in that studio. Really?
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Yeah. Wow. Because I know we have a clock. Yeah, we have clocks everywhere. Yeah. And they don't have one.
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That's the I thought that was nuts. Did you think so? Okay, because
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I'm thinking that's crazy, too. Okay. Okay. I'm glad I'm not the only one. All right. Well, as we wrap this up, let's not forget about all that you're doing here for HD2, The Rebel. And I know you're also publishing your show on podcast platforms like Spotify. So tell me what that entails and what that's like and your thoughts.
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So for KUNV as a whole, it's doing a little bit of everything. Like I'm in here like even on days when I'm not supposed to be here. Like I'm not supposed to be here. I'm always, I'm always here. It's just that sometimes I don't have a purpose. It's just that sometimes I don't have a purpose to be here, but I show up anyway. I go up to Jason and be like, hey, is there something that you want me to do, like voiceover or production? Something. Because I'm always willing to help out with everything. Not just for The Revelation 2, but for our sister station Jazz and More as well. People over there love me. I enjoy sitting in with John Nash and Karleah. Yes, they're all so great. I love doing all the little spots that we do. I can't blame you. But tell me what you're doing for your show on HD. So it is with my good partner, Mr. Diggity. We host a clock in clock out. If you haven't got a chance to hear it yet. First of all, what are you doing with your life? Second of all, go on to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your wonderful podcasts. All you got to do is type in clock and clock out with a sketch in diggity. Our show will be there all of our episodes with everything that we've done Whether it be with guests whether it be with just the two of us and just me you're also Reoccurring a guest on clock. Yes. Thank you guys so much for having me show be honest
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The show is really funny Anybody can tune in and start just hanging on to every word that you guys are saying
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So and if you want to hear it live, which I'm sure you do I can already read your guys's mind We are live every single Monday. We are live. And we are live every Monday at 6. And again, if you miss any part of the show or if you just want to go back and listen to your favorite episode, again, clock in, clock out with Aceket and Diggy D, the voices of Las Vegas. Right.
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So in these modern times and in these social media platforms and with all that being mobile and everything that kids are doing these days. Kids have Spotify, they have the Apple Music and they're listening to podcasts and they're choosing to ingest that content via these apps such as Spotify. So tell me like how important that is to be able to
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refer back to that. It's really important because it gives publicity. It gives people a reason to listen. And it's not just Spotify. We're across a lot of different platforms. So let's say, for example, you don't use Spotify. Okay, do you use Apple Music? Do you use Apple Podcasts? Okay, do you use Google Podcasts? Maybe Amazon Music? Just tell your Alexa to play Clock In Clock Out. I've tried that before. She has no clue what the hell I'm talking about, but we're getting there.
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We're getting there for sure. But it's great to like, when you're telling people about what you're doing here, and that it's living on these platforms that people already know about, and it's not like, oh, tune in on your dial, on your car radio or something. It's something that they have on them, their phone, and they can download, subscribe, just how important that is.
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Wink, wink, the Rebel HD 2 mobile app, wink, wink.
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Yes, download in the app store, the Rebel HD 2 app.
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Exactly.
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Yeah, basically is what I'm saying is, it's something that you have to do now, and it's the reality.
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Right.
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Yeah.
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Agree. Jumping back into all that you're doing here on campus, and specifically for audio production, which is your concentration, what do you find yourself doing that people wouldn't even realize is also part of the audio world?
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So for the Revelation 2 and for KUNV as a whole, we do a lot of stuff for the campus. We're out at Jim Road, we're out at Pata Plaza playing games, we got a DJ out there giving away tickets to either a concert or a movie, and it's a way for us to interact with the UNLV community. It is getting our name out there, and roughly you can hear us on a few buildings across campus. You can hear us in the dorms, you can hear us in the gym, the SRWC, you can hear us in the dining commons, you can hear us some days in the student union. So whenever you hear my voice in any of those buildings, the first thing that you're gonna think about is the revelation too. Yeah. And one of the first places that people actually heard you was this past Rebel Preview. Yes. So me and my co-host Diggy D, we had the privilege of going out to the Student Union Plaza, which is in front of the Student Union. Yeah, which is in front. Yes. We were able to go out there and connect with these incoming rebels or even just high schoolers that want to check out the UNLV campus, just saying why you should join UNLV and what UNLV has to offer. And we were getting the crowd turned up. We had the marching band, we had the cheerleaders. We were leading Rebel chants, we're like, Rebel.
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And you guys were all mic'd up.
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We were all mic'd up and everything. Oh, we had the energy for it. And this was at like eight in the morning. So we devoted all of our energy just for this event. And I was even out there playing. I was playing rock, paper, scissors with people and regardless if they won or lost, they got a free voucher to eat at the DC. Oh, that's nice.
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Always good times at the DC. Always good times at the DC.
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Especially when you know that right above your head are those wonderful speakers playing the
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Rebel HD 2. Well thank you so much AceGaD for coming. Angelo Scaturro. Wow you actually said my name right. I said it. I know I know I know. I just love hearing all that you're doing here at HD 2. Love all that we are a part of and continue to grow and learn, learn, connect, and teach, inspire, connect. Thank you. Yes, which is the mission statement over here at KUNV. And well, if there wasn't anything else that you would like to tell us about, just enjoy this time. Thank you. I think I have really cracked down on everything, but I do have a question for you. Oh, yes. When can I hear you? I'm on air on HD2, Tuesday 9 to 11 and Friday 12 to 2. I love it. I'm gonna make sure to set my alarm for every show. Yes and then you can hear this podcast coming up in the fall. All right. Thank you so much ASCOT. Have a great rest of your day and I'll be seeing you again and thank you so much for tuning in. And if you missed any of today's episode, you can find us anywhere podcasts are available, like Spotify, Google and Apple podcasts. Thank you for listening to today's episode of available, like Spotify, Google and Apple podcasts. Thank you for listening to today's episode of Talking with the Pros with me, Jess B. I love you and I'll catch you in the next one. Bye.
Transcribed with Cockatoo