Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Cause aint nobody got time for Amateur's
0:00:00
You're listening to locally produced programming created in 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 of Higher Education. This is
0:00:24
is talking with the pros.
0:00:27
The pros.
0:00:28
Like, professionals. This is Talking With The Pros with me, Jess Speight. 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. And welcome back. We have Ray Fletcher.
0:00:45
Welcome, Ray. Thanks for having me.
0:00:48
This is awesome. Oh, I just appreciate that you're here taking the time to talk with us now Ray for those who don't know you Why don't you give us a little background into your love of audio and where that started?
0:00:59
Wow, just coming with the hard-hitting stuff straight out the gate. Okay, that's cool so I started I fell in love with audio when I was Volunteering here at K1B and when what year was that? This would have been
0:01:10
2019 I
0:01:12
in 2019, I started volunteering as a morning show host. So I was coming in and as you know, morning show hosts are not paid. Nowadays, they do about one show a week, you know, a couple hours. I was doing back then, I did five days a week, two hours a day. So I love doing it. I had a blast. I did it solo.
0:01:32
Tell me about that morning show. I would love to hear more about that.
0:01:35
the morning rush and it was my first foray into the audio world anywhere doing anything and I kind of just flying by the seat of my pants and I had a blast it was fun trying to come up with new creative segments and I started listening to other morning shows to figure out how they do it to try and kind of pull it to my show and then a few months in someone else wanted to volunteer for the morning so so I think two days a week I had a co-host which was nice. I wasn't always by myself. It was a lot of fun and it introduced me to this world and I learned a lot in my almost a year of being on air. And a lot of that that I've learned in there has carried over into other areas of what I did as well or what I do as well.
0:02:18
So you were fine solo on the morning show.
0:02:21
For a little bit, yeah. It was a good time though. It was tough. You know, I kept my breaks pretty short. I couldn't I'm not Chet Buchanan and the morning zoo I can't do the full You know like five to seven minute segments I was doing you know two minute breaks and trying to keep the show flowing is a lot of fun though And what was that radio format was it still just the jazz format and no more that was on the student station So it was the more top 40. It was funny because when I first tried to sign up to be a host they had a program where you could create your own show and play your own music right and that was for any of the volunteer radio hosts but when I I was part of the first class that they switched the format completely so we could no longer make our own like format or our own clock and that's when they made the switch to go over to the current format. It was kind of disappointing I had a name picked out for because I was gonna play reggae Hawaiian reggae music I was gonna be reggae Ray but that you know changed and I became rebel Ray because we weren't playing reggae so why would I be reggae Ray that's weird. Well that's still a specialty show that could happen. Eventually maybe you know I'm a big fan of the music the genre and I love listening to it love talking about love sharing it with other people because a lot of people aren't familiar with it and they like it. They like the vibes, you know, it feels like it's a nice summer day at the beach.
0:03:44
Exactly. I love the fact that you're passionate about that in that type of genre and that you would want to build off of that. What got you into audio? I know you said you put your feet into the college radio.
0:03:57
Well, I was always infatuated with radio when I was growing up. I'm a big baseball fan and you don't always get the baseball games on TV or you didn't back in the day. We didn't have all this like MLB game pass or any of this stuff that they have these days. So you didn't always get the baseball game on. So I'd put on the radio shows and listen to listen to baseball over the radio and just some of the storytelling and the way that the theater of the mind as they call it where I'm able to hear it come out of this radio and I'm able to see it in my head is like kind of how I became infatuated in it. But I never thought, growing up I never thought that it was something I could make a career out of or I could do for a living, you know, my parents wanted me to be a doctor, that's crazy, but so like I you know didn't know how to turn that into a career path when I was getting out of high school and stuff so I went into a different field, computers, I was building and fixing computers, networking them, stuff like that. It wasn't until I came back to school a second time and I was like, I don't wanna, it's not a midlife, maybe a quarter life crisis. I was trying to figure out what the hell I'm gonna do with my life and I was browsing through all, you know, of this stuff. I saw the radio station and then it clicked. Like, oh wow, I can actually do that. There's a way for me to get into that as a profession. And so that was when I decided to make the step, come down here into Greenspun and met Dr. Dave Norris, and he told me about everything. And he's been a major mentor of mine for the past, what, four years now. So that's kind of how I got into it.
0:05:34
That's so great. Tell me more about the fact that you came and chose to do audio production here at UNLV? Like, was this just straight off the catalog and you're like, I'm gonna sign
0:05:45
up for classes? Or did you take a tour? Oh no, no tour. So, alright, this is one of my favorite stories to tell. I was just working in sales because I got burnt out from like fixing computers, selling computers, doing that stuff. Went I started selling whatever you could think of, insurance, vacuum cleaners, computers, cameras, everything. I was just selling stuff. Light bulbs, I sold light bulbs one time. Yeah. Fluorescent or condensate?
0:06:13
I was trying to sell them to cities
0:06:15
for get these contracts with cities and stuff, but stuff like that. And eventually one day I told my wife, I'm like, I think I might want to go back to school. And I was dropping her off to work that morning. And I dropped her off, had this conversation on the way to drop her off. And she by the time I went to go pick her up from work, she was like, you're enrolled in UNLV. And I was like, what? What do you mean? I said, I was thinking about it, right? I'm considering potentially possibly doing it. But she had already filled out all the FAFSA, the financial aid paperwork, all that good stuff. She enrolled me.
0:06:51
Wow, she did the hard work.
0:06:52
She did, because she knew I was never going to do it. And I thank her for that. That was an incredible thing for her to do, because I didn't say do it. I didn't say I want to do it. She just kind of pushed me, and that's the push that I needed. Anyway, I enrolled in the College of Education, thinking I was going to be a history teacher. I was going to come back to college, go to school to learn how to teach high school kids history. And I took College of Education classes for one semester and decided this ain't for me. This ain't it. This ain't it. So I switched my major. I'm like I'm out. I like police work, I like crime shows, let me go criminal justice route. So I get into criminal justice. Yeah we're getting closer. Criminal justice program, I'm in that for another semester. But I started after I switched my major. I started looking at career paths for criminal justice majors And I'm like if you want to be an officer or an agent or any of these like government job Like you got it. You got to be under 35 years old by the time I graduate. I'm gonna be aged out Wow So I was like, all right, let me go into business Right, let me go into business So I went over to the business school and I talked to one of the advisors there, this guy, he went ahead and told me, yeah bro, you're too dumb to get into business school. Not in those words, but that's the message I got from him. Essentially I was on the wrong math track or something like that, so I couldn't get into business school. So that sent me into a deep dive, a search, an investigative journalism, I can say now, that searched through all of the UNLV website. I'm talking every link. I clicked on every single link they had on their website looking for different things that interested me. And then I saw the radio station. And once I saw that, the rest was history. I came over here, oh I sent an email, Dr. Norris hit me hit me back, and I came over for a meeting, and yeah rest was history. He's like I'll get you on the air next semester starts and we'll go from there and I'm like cool let's do it.
0:08:52
That's awesome. I love that journey and now you're on the KUNV staff. Yes. So tell us everything and anything that you're doing that people don't know about. Take
0:09:04
us behind the scenes of being on staff at KUNV. Oh well, I started here in 2019 like I mentioned as the volunteer host and in 2020 I got approached by Dr. Norse and Dr. Ridley. And they asked if I wanted to do, if I wanted a part-time job, interested in a paid job, I said, absolutely. So they needed some help doing production. And I'm like, I'll do it, but you're going to have to tell me, cause I'm, you know, I haven't even started my JMS classes. I don't know how to do any of this. You got to teach me. They were very willing. Them along with Kevin Kroll taught me the ins and outs of production. So I worked on the production team for quite a while. And it was funny because they hired me on in March of 2020. Oh, you remember what else happened in March of 2020? Anyone?
0:09:46
Yeah, everything got shut down.
0:09:48
So you know how everybody got sent home? They aren't working, working from home or they got laid off or whatever the case. Furloughed, I think was the popular term. Um, I wasn't, I was legit coming into work, into this station every day. I did not get any sabbatical or nothing.
0:10:07
Well, you were an essential worker.
0:10:09
I was considered an essential worker because radio, especially public radio, absolutely needed to stay on air, right? Like, you can't just take the radio station off air. People get their news that way. So I was here. We started a program called, it was with Kerry Kaufman, and it was called Impact. And I was brought in to board up and engineer that show so it was legit me and Kerry Kaufman down here The only people in this building it felt apocalyptic down here like I was I
0:10:34
don't want to say terrified
0:10:36
But it felt like the opening scenes of Walking Dead when Rick's walking out of the hospital and all the halls or lights are flashing Flickering and stuff. That's what it felt like down here already here in a basement. There's no windows. Yeah.
0:10:49
So we already have that vibe going.
0:10:52
Right.
0:10:52
Yeah, that was an adventure in and of itself. And then, you know, fast forward a little bit, I moved from production to events and promotions. And now I'm doing community engagement here at the station. So my job now is essentially to engage people within the community and the campus. So we go out and do giveaways and prizes, host events and throw red vests and all that good stuff.
0:11:15
Yeah, which is also very essential for promoting the radio station. There are times when people are like, oh, there's a radio station, and then, oh, there's a college radio station. So getting out there, boots on the ground, so important, and it means so much. And I'm just so happy that you're here to help us along in that. So tell me, Ray, I know you're a part of Raider Nation. I am. So you're doing a little bit of audio production over there as well. What does the behind the
0:11:48
scenes look like there? It gets pretty wild. Right now, during the off season, it's not too bad, right? Like, obviously, there's not a lot going on. We still have a weekly flagship podcast that we do. But essentially, my role there is production assistant slash producer and it's listed that way because I I produce on one show and I produce on game days but outside of that I'm an assistant I do editing I do post-production and stuff like that but I do fully produce a podcast and pre and post game radio shows on game days during the season though it can get very chaotic like I'm putting in 35 40 hours a week on top of the hours I put in here. So I'm working both gigs together. It's really cool. I've learned a lot and I'm working with people who have been in the industry for a long time and know so much that it's hard not to learn something. Like every day I go in and I learn something new from someone else and it's been a lot of fun. I love football. Football is definitely a passion of mine. So being a part of the Raiders, I mean, I couldn't ask for a more fun gig, to be honest.
0:12:55
Yeah, so you're doing a bunch of shows and you're basically like their number one in production.
0:13:01
Correct.
0:13:01
And that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
0:13:04
And we have several podcasts. We have a whole podcast network going on over there. It's called it's called RPN Raiders Podcast Network. We have a flagship show called Upon Further Review that I do the production on and the show I produce is called The Morning Grind with Lincoln Kennedy. Any Raider fans out there will know who Lincoln Kennedy is. And then the pre and post game radio shows I get to produce with some local talents. People have been here and done their thing in Las Vegas for a long time. JT the Brick, Eric Allen, some of these guys are, you know, Jesse Merrick is a guy I get to work with. He's over at News 3. I get to work with a lot of a lot of cool people that just know so much. So there was a
0:13:44
podcast seminar that happened earlier this summer and they came and spoke and they told us a lot about like the analytic side and so everything that you're doing is being quantified and what's that like in terms of production
0:14:00
for you? You know I wish I had more deep more insight into the analytic side of things, but unfortunately at the Raiders, I don't. I have a little bit of experience with that on my own personal side of stuff, but when it comes to production, my main goal is just to make it sound as good and as professional as it sounds, right? Because, like, not to toot our own horn or anything, but we're the Las Vegas Raiders. We're an NFL franchise. There's only 30 of us in existence, right? Like, so it has to, and they all, every NFL team puts out good content, quality content. So my goal is to make sure that our podcasts are up to that standard. Because I can't put anything out there, if it doesn't sound right, if it doesn't sound to the level that I think we need it to sound, if it's not as crisp and clear as we need it to sound, then I'm gonna scrap it, and we're not gonna air it you know like That's that's the main goal and it's been really cool. They've given me some creative freedom with some things I got to create like intro and outro for some of the stuff for one of the podcast I use my wife's voice. It's just pretty cool. She enjoyed that But like you know the creative freedoms really fun But yeah, the analytics the insights stuff like that. I don't really it's a little outside of my purview.
0:15:15
Yeah, I was just imagining that with production, like the ins and outs and doing your creative liberties, all the software as well that you're working with and the actual equipment, so what that's like in terms of, okay, this is what we need, this is the standard you're mentioning.
0:15:35
So we use, I mean, at the Raiders we use the same thing we use here, Adobe Creative Suite. It's pretty standard. They have other programs that they can use but they allow me to use what I need to, what I'm comfortable with. So I use Adobe Audition. I have to do a lot with Premiere and some of the other software within the Creative Suite. And then when it comes to recording, you know, it's all really high-tech equipment. Like it's brand, the facility's brand new, right? They built that in 2019. So everything there is just state of the art and their studios are awesome. I've learned a lot in those studios. Their boards are a little newer than what I was used to, a little more, newer technology, a little more advanced, right? And so it was a little bit of a learning curve there. And then like, the tools that I use within the Adobe suite have also expanded by going over there because they require a certain sound. So I have to, I had to grow my knowledge base within the Adobe suite while working there. And a lot of that, because they didn't have my role before I got there, a lot of that I had to figure out on my own. I mentioned I learned a lot of stuff from other people, but some of the core stuff, I had to kind of figure it out and make it sound good. So it was a lot of just internal desire to be good enough to make this sound the way they want it to be that led me to figuring out how to do things.
0:17:00
Yeah. And with the workload of editing and all those podcasts that are being produced, you had mentioned as well that there's even AI now built into the editing software. So do you see any advantages or disadvantages currently with that type software. Oh a million percent
0:17:16
There's pros and cons to anything right and with AI software, especially there's one that Adobe released recently Adobe podcast is what it's called and I've used it a couple of times and it's been really cool It mainly the biggest benefit to it that I found so far and I happen like I'll be honest I haven't done the full deep dive on it yet So I don't know everything that it can do yet But what I've used it for so far is take recordings that weren't recorded in a studio and it makes them sound like they were, which is like fascinating to me. Because yeah, there are some tools that I've been able to use and I can get the sound better. You can make it sound a little better than, like if it's recorded outside, it's gonna have wind, you're gonna have cars passing by, you got all this noise. I've been able to mess with some of it and use certain tools to make it sound like it's closer to being in a studio, but this AI podcast thing makes it sound like it was recorded in a studio. It blows my mind, and I don't know how it does it, but there's definitely benefits there. The downside is when you have tools like this, people rely on them too much, and you might have something that you think, oh, I'll just run it through this process, and it'll sound like it's recorded in a studio and then you just like do it and you post it without going back to review it so there can be some stuff that got missed or maybe the AI cut out an important segment because they thought it was like noise. So there's downside obviously but the upside is pretty awesome too.
0:18:42
That's so interesting and that's what's happening now and into the future. So what is your perspective going forward with the Raider Nation as well as KUNV Radio?
0:18:53
Well with Raider Nation, I mean, they're obviously still trying to grow. The podcast network is still in its infancy, I would say. We have like six or seven podcasts on there now. When I started- They're pretty well established. Yeah. But when I started, they only had four podcasts, right? So they're growing. I mean, every year, every off-season, we're looking to add something new or another lane to attack, you know? So there's definitely room for growth at the Raiders with their podcast network. Ideally, it makes it a little tough because the recognizable name talent here in Las Vegas when it comes to the sports industry isn't necessarily at the level of some other major established cities, right? Like, the city is still growing and sports being introduced into the city is relatively new with the Golden Knights coming in 2017. That was only six years ago. So the sports coverage from the media side of things isn't where they need it to be to be able to bring those names in to represent the Raiders, right? Like for instance, the Raiders aren't going to tell me, Ray, some guy who just graduated college who does audio production, to go on air because the Raider Nation has no idea who the hell I am. So that would make no sense for them. Problem is we don't have that recognizable name talent here yet in Las Vegas. And I mean obviously there's some. I mentioned JT the Brick. There's Q Myers over at 920 AM. But as that grows, as the media presence grows, then the stuff that the Raiders are able to do will be able to grow and then the city will continue to grow. So everything ties back together. Sports in the city are growing simultaneously. And when it comes to the radio station, I mean I'm outside of the audio purview for the most part now. I'm doing the promotions and events and stuff, but I hear it all the time. I hear the kids coming up that are going into TV. Radio's dying. It's gonna be gone. Audio is not going anywhere. There's always going to be a need for an audio. Even in video you need audio right and while Premiere Adobe Premiere has several audio options and you can do a lot of the same stuff you can do an audition in Premiere it's not quite as precise it's a little more difficult to access than it does in audition so learning this skill set the audio skill set is definitely something I encourage people to do because you can just look at our enrollment numbers here in the JMS program, you can see how many people are going into the TV side of the program and how many people are going into the audio production concentration. I'll tell you, there's a stark difference in numbers between those two programs. But on the other side of that, that means you've got so much more talent going into the TV side for jobs, right? So when you're competing for a TV job, you're going against all those people. When you're competing for an audio job, your competition is a lot smaller, which I don't want to say is like kind of a cheat route, but like it's a little bit of a cheat code, but like there is a need and it's not being met because everybody wants to go on TV and be the next Stephen A. Smith or the next whoever, you know. Radio is always, radio and audio are always going to be needed. So I advise people to, if you're interested in getting into this industry, audio is definitely a good route to go. Because, like for instance, the Raiders job, when I applied for that, I was the most qualified person for that job that applied, and I had only been in audio production for two years. If that was a TV job, I guarantee people with 10 years of experience would have been applying for it. And I would have had no shot, but because I have that concentration, I have that dedicated audio skill set plus I had work at the radio station and with podcasts already I was I was the clear choice, and I'm not forgive me
0:22:35
I'm not trying to be cocky or anything, but like that that just is what it is at that point. I think the medium Just in Raider Nation alone. It's doubled so I can see that this medium is definitely valid in terms of entertainment and getting a message across.
0:22:54
Right, and then if you look at the podcast space, I mean, everybody and their mother's got a podcast now. Like, that's gonna continue to grow, obviously. Not everyone's podcast is gonna continue, but like, there's so many options, so many people are getting into that space. And then there's the combination of video and audio podcasting. So, like, the need for audio professionals is not going anywhere. If anywhere, the demand is gonna go higher because fewer and fewer people are going that route.
0:23:21
And I say this all the time, with audio and visual, if you don't have a great, solid audio sound, then your video isn't gonna be elevated. Oh, it's terrible, right?
0:23:32
This is why people don't dig the kung fu movies. I know me and Wes dig the kung fu movies. But the audio's off when they're translated and you can't like you know I get it but with bad audio can ruin it can ruin it in a heartbeat so yeah it's definitely something that needs to be focused on a
0:23:50
little more. So many truths, so many. I for one agree that audio is valid I mean think of Spotify and Apple Music they're pushing it in the front page and promoting different podcasts. So there's going to be a need for certain podcasts to live but also to stand out. So being in an audio production concentration, I just see that this field is continuing to grow, as well as different venues happening in town in Las Vegas. There's always going to be that factor of experience, whether it's the 4D experience, audio, visual, and interactive. And with augmented reality, it's still not going anywhere. So, though we're thinking, oh, everything's happening visually, things are still so important on the audio spectrum. And in movie theaters, even if you go that route, like breaking it down in terms of the sound that's coming out We're we're living in an audio world whether people know it or not And I'm just so excited with all the things happening here in town when it comes to sports and when it comes to Music and entertainment audio is the place to be. Yeah, absolutely So Ray, is there anything else you got going on? I know you have a podcast. Is there anything that you want to tell all of us about?
0:25:19
Yeah, I do have a podcast called The Good and the Good. It's me and my wife and we bring on a different guest every week and talk about what's good and positive in their lives. So it's our little contribution to society.
0:25:31
Yeah, positive vibes.
0:25:33
Yeah, we're on Instagram, we're on Spotify, all the major podcast platforms at the good and good. Feel free if you're interested to hit us up.
0:25:42
Well, Ray, I just want to thank you again for coming on today. I appreciate all that you have to share with us in the world of audio and podcasting.
0:25:50
Yeah, thanks for having me.
0:25:51
This was fun.
0:25:52
Thank you, bye bye. I want to 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 Talking with the Pros with me, Jess B. I love you and I'll catch you in the next one. Jess B. I love you and I'll catch you in the next one.
0:26:13
Bye.
Transcribed with Cockatoo