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Flint and Webster Still Going Strong September 2002 marked the end of an era in audio engineering as Flint Webster parted ways after a quarter of a century. David Flint and Phil Webster have just passed their first anniversaries in their new business ventures. Two Businesses for One's Company 
David Flint says his idea at the end of Flint Webster was to go into semi-retirement and just do a few jobs here and there - instead he's working seven days a week, producing audio and also running a cafe bar: One Lygon Street. "Yes we're out, we're freelancing, we're based at home and it's surprised me just how much work there's been. The industry's changed... there are a lot of people just starting out and it's very exciting to find you're working with a lot of younger people," David says. "The work seems to have changed, it's not as creatively driven now as it was in the 80's or 90's but it's still good fun working on it and we've had enough to keep us going: more than I expected. "I'm lucky to have a few really good clients who automatically ring me and that's wonderful and probably all I need. I've not gone out and knocked on doors. If the phone rings and it's someone I haven't spoken to for a while I'm very pleased, glad to hear from them and hope it keeps up." conscious of building an image David says generally the industry's been picking up. He says he's also doing more television sound work than previously and is enjoying being a free agent. "Having your own studio and your own business, like Flint Webster, you're building an image. Over those years I was very conscious of that. We became one of the established facilities if you like, one of the top ones. We won more awards than most people in this country, here and worldwide. We did extremely well, but along with that, you've got to keep within the bounds you've set in a way, you've got to keep your standards up and you've got to run a business. So you're locked into a certain style and certain discipline. When you get out, I've found it's a lot easier. "You miss, I guess, being David Flint of Flint Webster, but I had my time doing all that and I'm free now to not only do the sort of work I did before, but to move on and experiment in other areas, such as the café bar." David says he juggles his days between producing and being at One Lygon Street. enjoying the best of both worlds "To walk around the café with an apron on talking to people, and a lot of people that I've known from the advertising and recording industry drop in of course and say hello, it's wonderful, it's like a rest mentally, just to be able to chat to people. Physically it's a little more demanding..but it's the best of both worlds, I'm enjoying it very much. "The day will come I guess where I'll gladly give everything up have a cup of coffee and read the paper each day. "Those 25 years that Philip and I were together: It's only after leaving and sitting back a bit that you realise how very important those years were, not only to Philip and myself but to the industry too. There were just a few of us I guess who did very well out of it and won lots of awards..and it was just a golden era. I'm very proud of those years and very happy that I spent them with Philip at Flint Webster. "One thing when you're running a business for a long time though, the hard bit is to get out. It's one thing to run it and be successful, but when it comes to the end it's not easy to move on and I was glad I could. It freed me up a lot and really I can do just about anything I want to do now." Risk In Name Only 
Phil Webster is animated, enthusiastic and excited about the future for Risk Sound and says the first 12 months have passed in a flash and a flurry of activity. All the equipment at the Bay Street studios has been updated with the latest Pro-Tools as well as Digi-Master for TV soundtracks and a Pyramix sound system. "We've refurbished the place technically and we've refurbished it aesthetically as well with new couches, new paint and all the ceilings different colours to add a personality to each studio," Phil says. And we've also made it comfortable for the voice-artists and actors that come in here..and just as importantly the clients, so they've got room to stretch out and enjoy the recording session." "we've put our heart and soul into creating a new studio" There are new faces as well. Kath Momsen moved to Risk from GAS ("and has made my life a lot easier,") and young engineers Dylan Stevens and Kendall Chadwick joined James Ashton, who stayed on when David Flint left. Delia West also remained, looking after accounts. "The 12 months has gone so quickly," Phil says "and because of the team of people that we are, the expertise of everybody has just made everything work so well for us - technically and creatively." In amongst the activity, James received his first nomination in the London D&AD awards for his sound design for the Moonlight Cinemas TV commercials. "There have been long days and long weeks but we've put our heart and soul into creating yet another recording studio in Melbourne that once again is a little bit different to the others. "It's all about complementing the writers" "We all share the same technology but each studio is unique in its make-up of people and I'm just as proud as punch of the five people that work with me here to make Risk Sound." Phil's fulsome in his praise for the technical abilities of the younger staff and talks often about marrying his experience in casting and voice recording with their new ideas and computer skills. "It's all about complementing the writers at the advertising agencies who are coming up with fresh ideas for their clients to sell a product. "A radio commercial to me is like a little one act play. It's always a slice of life and you can't always bring it to life in a studio, so here we have mic outputs everywhere outside, even out in the street." Never a dull day Recently a script called for a dog tearing something from the mailbox, - so Dylan brought his big Labrador in and they gave him some paper and set up the microphone and recorded it all. Apart from getting great sound, Phil says it was fun. Another script portrayed the spot as a telephone-answering message, so the young voice talent recorded it while pushing buttons on a tape-recorder, to help them relax into the recording. "You go home at the end of the day and say 'wow what a great day.' I've never in my 30 plus years of doing this, never had a dull day. Sometimes you think 'whoa that was hard' but the job starts and the job finishes and in that time whether it be one hour or three days to create something, it's a very positive feeling at the end of it. And it's great..because the majority of clients are fabulous to work with. "And you've never done it all. It's just exciting what technology offers us these days, the voice artists, the actors that we work with are always striving to do things interestingly. So we're fortunate we're working with all these talented people, working with talented people in advertising agencies, people that love writing and bringing their words to life." To celebrate their first 12 months the whole team went Go-Karting. Dylan won. CRA Lands Man on the Moon Astronaut Buzz Aldrin will be the keynote speaker at Commercial Radio Australia's annual conference, being held in Sydney. Dr Aldrin made the historic Apollo XI moonwalk with Neil Armstrong in 1969. His keynote speech to the CRA conference will be on the topic 'the power and influence of the media.' Dr Aldrin will also take part in a charity Radio Lunch to raise money for the Children's Cancer Institute. Among his more current achievements, Dr Aldrin has founded the non-profit ShareSpace Foundation which is devoted to opening the doors to space tourism for all people. His company, Starcraft Boosters, Inc., is working on the rocket designs to carry the tourists and he's also patented a design for a permanent space station. Other speakers at the conference include DDB Senior V-P John Immesoete, the creative force behind the Budweiser American Legends commercials, Media Sales professional Professor Paul Weyland, and Federal Communications Minister Richard Alston. The radio conference and charity lunch will be held at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre on Friday, October 17. p.s Buzz Aldrin trivia we couldn't resist. His mother's maiden name is Marion Moon! Logan Robs 2DAY of Ratings Survey 6 2003, the first ratings result for Sydney's 2DAY FM since long time program director Rob Logan left for a life in Pay TV, saw the station drop 1.7 to 10.9 and lose the number one spot. 2GB climbed up 1.1 to 12.2 to grab first place. Nova 969 continued to dominate the lucrative 18-39 demo, even though it was just piped by 2DAY in the overall figures coming in 3rd with 10.8, up 0.5 from last time. Melbourne's top three positions remained the same, 3AW first with 14.3, followed by ABC774 on 13.2 and Fox FM scored 11.7 in third spot. The real tussle was in the key 18-39 demo with 3MMM tying with Nova 100 after Nova gave up its lead from the previous survey. Brisbane belongs to B105 again, number one 18-39 and over all increasing its lead to 18.8. Second was the new 97 3 on 13.0 followed by 4MMM in third spot on 12.5. Adelaide's SAFM is still out in front on 19.5, but second placed 5AA closed the gap by over 3 points to post a 16.4, with 5MMM maintaining it's number three spot with 14.6. SAFM still dominates the 18-39's but 5AA has given the guys at Greenhill Road something to think about in breakfast, picking up 2 points to narrow the gap to just point 3. Perth's Austereo stations are one-two... 94.5 FM is number one again on a healthy 20.5 while sister station 92.9 shares number two with ABC720 on 11.8, third spot went to 96FM. The 18-39 trophy still belongs to 92.9, despite a challenge from 96FM. Staff Harassment Wins Novel Pitch A Melbourne car dealership is contemplating a 12 month radio campaign after a studio sent an actor into its showroom to harass the sales staff - and caught it all on tape. The location recording idea came about at Rowlands while Daryl Missen and John Rowlands were trying to find new ways to get agencies interested in radio. One agency came back to them and said there was a particular client they had in mind, but they didn't want to go directly to the client and ask to pitch. Instead they came to Rowlands and asked how they'd approach it. John Rowland takes up the story. "So the challenge was - why don't we go in and basically test their level of service without them knowing, and report back to them on the basis on the basis of well, we've been to your place here's what it is." make a nuisance of yourself Stig Wemyss was rigged out in surveillance gear with a microphone sewn into the peak of a baseball cap and he was basically told to wander onto the lot and be the car buyer from hell. "We said here's what we want to achieve. We want to make it loud. Make a nuisance of yourself, make them rally around, talk to people, go where you're not supposed to go..test them a bit. "Stig was never allowed to reveal his identity, he had to be confrontational and he had to be everybody's best friend so he would get them best out of them rather than aggression." owner hears himself on tape To get close to the sales reps to get them on tape, Stig resorted to the unconventional, hugging the sales reps, standing within their comfort zone, asking them for piggybacks. He crawled into the boot of a car, caught the attention of the boss, got into his office and opened the booze cupboard. All without giving himself away! Back in the studio, the raw tape was produced into commercials and the agency presented them to the potential client. "The guy they presented to was the owner - he heard himself in the ads and laughed," John says. The owner asked them to come back and record again - still without the knowledge of the staff. no changes to the final mix "We then used proper broadcast quality radio mics and we sewed them into the clothing and mic'ed Stig up in a similar way to how people are mic'ed for live theatre and we placed the mic strategically so we could get the people he was talking to as well as himself," John says. Again, the brief was to get three or four good commercials out of it - there was no script and the theme for each spot was decided from the raw material. When they were edited and presented to client there were no changes. "The deal was let us do it..and they did," John says. "We did three ads, they're running one at the moment and they want the other two. And they're talking about a whole campaign for a year." using humour to create goodwill John says the location recording allows a much closer relationship between the audience and the client. "I think audiences love location because it's filmy and I think people relate to it. It gives radio a more visual sense. If a bus goes by, everyone talks louder until it's gone, which is what you really do and what you're used to hearing. In the studio you dip the effects so you don't lose the words, so there's no relationship between people and their environment in the studio. "And if there are gags in there, then it's also a goodwill exercise… and if you can create the goodwill they're more likely to listen to the commercial again. I think that's something that fundamentally advertising overlooks." Big Profit Drops at Southern Cross Southern Cross has reported a 46% drop in net profit for the past financial year, largely due to a $17M write-down in its expanded share of ntl Telecommunications. Southern Cross chairman John Dahlsen said the resultant net profit of $17M owed much to good performances from regional TV and some increase in advertising revenue. He said metropolitan radio results were disappointing, with pre-tax earnings down 38% on last year, due largely to poor ratings at 2UE in Sydney and 96FM in Perth. "The diversification of our media assets has continued to strengthen our financial position with the more robust regional television operations more than offsetting the adverse trading conditions of radio operations," he said. No Advertising Led Recovery at Austereo The Austereo Group has reported a 35% fall in net profit last financial year, saying hopes of an advertising improvement had failed to transpire. However, chairman Peter Harvie noted that the commercial advertising market did increase by 4.9% during the year. Austereo's figures reveal a net profit of $36.65M for 2002/2003 down from $56.97M the previous year. This included total revenues from radio of $221.7M, down on the previous year's $233.5M. Harvie said Austereo had made various cost saving initiatives which had cut 6% from radio's operating expenses. He also said Austereo believed a recovery would come. "We believe recovery will ultimately flow-on, given the vital importance of advertising as a key marketing tool and the unique strength of radio as an advertising medium," Harvie said. "Radio has an assured and strong future within the media universe and is perhaps the most unaffected of all major media, by social and technological changes. Recent audience growth underlines this unique strength." ABA Announces It's All Over for Analog Radio The Australian Broadcasting Authority has announced it will cease issuing commercial broadcasting licences for analogue radio once the current round is complete. In a long, formal statement reiterating the ABA's charter to create regulatory arrangements that are 'stable and predictable', Chairman David Flint basically says that the present allocations of AM and FM licences provide enough variety for audiences. Since the FM spectrum was made available in 1980, there have been 97 new commercial radio services: 37 allocated by auction and 61 awarded to commercial licencees in one-station markets. According to the ABA, "This growth has been accompanied by similarly rapid expansion of other types of radio services, notably open narrowcasting and community broadcasting. While completion of these allocations will not be the end of analog radio planning, such wholesale expansion of analog radio is unlikely to recur." digital radio not constrained by analog decision In markets where there are still un-allocated commercial radio services, the general policy will take effect after those licences have been allocated. The ABA says the new general policy is not intended to constrain any future decisions regarding digital radio systems. Your Bits - Studio News
AudioNET® Bits AudioNET+ A new service that lets you send audio and low resolution video files to clients or other studios, in fact anyone with Internet access. We've introduced AudioNET+ after requests from clients who wanted an easier way to collaborate on jobs between studios or a quicker way to get approval from their agency clients. AudioNET+ allows you to send 6 files of up to 100 Meg, to any non-radio station recipient, for a flat fee of $10. Some studios are already using AudioNET+ to send voice demos and music beds to agencies for auditioning, or finished spots for approval. Audio studios can also use AudioNET+ to receive low-res vision files for audio sweetening. The finished mix is then sent back for re-striping as an aiff or wav file with a 2 pip or as high quality audio on the same low-res mov file. As usual, there's no set-up fee and it only takes about five minutes to get organised. If you're interested in finding out more, or getting started with AudioNET+ call Dave direct on 0414 310 225. With your feedback we're continuing to improve AudioNET® some new features added this month are:
AudioNET® Thought For The Day "As long as you're going to be thinking anyway...think BIG!" - Donald Trump.
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Killer Bits: September 2003
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