DUNDEE, Scotland — Wave 102 is an independent, Scottish-owned radio station broadcasting to Dundee, Scotland’s fourth largest city. All of our programming is done on-site from our new studios in Dundee. Being truly live and local means we do not network or share any programming. We are a 100 percent local all of the time. We are proud of this distinction in today’s broadcasting climate.
Due to our lease agreement coming to an end at our old studios, we had to create a completely new broadcast facility in a new building. I started off with a blank canvas and needed to procure everything from the coffee to the playout system.
RESEARCH
We researched several broadcast playout solutions and concluded Zetta from RCS gave us a modern first-class solution. We were impressed with the intuitive and presenter-friendly interface, and with the flexibility that every presenter could customize the layout they preferred. Each presenter being able to dock modules where they wanted and recall templates in any studio they were located in while using any workstation available anywhere in the building was a major selling point.
In constantly creating live and local content we have many presenters filling our dayparts. Our new playout system had to handle several presenters multitasking throughout the day. Features we required included voice-tracking, ease of loading audio, functionality to complete instant changes to live logs from multiple workstations and intuitive workflow. We have presenters from 19 years old to a retired presenter who says it’s still too early to “hang up his headphones.” Training needed to be simple to keep our station running smoothly.
Wave 102 moved into our new studios with lightning speed as we were under pressure to move from our old building. The presenters took to Zetta quickly and after initial training we were able to use Zetta within a couple of hours. We have developed our skills even further since the initial switch and are much more efficient at using Zetta now.
When we moved we were also looking at a new remote broadcast solution, as our previous way of doing remotes had become outdated. To be able to control the station from a tablet using Zetta2GO has opened up many new on-location opportunities for us. Within the first 10 days we produced three outside broadcasts with the presenter using Zetta2GO. The feedback was incredibly positive from the presenter and our audience. Being able to control all events in the log whilst on the move was empowering to the presenter, allowing him to really enjoy the experience of being out of the studio — as we all know how stressful that can be.
We also introduced a new IP remote broadcasting solution that has allowed us to report and broadcast from outside of our studio complex with ease. Our ability to produce live and local content has been at the center of the of the complete refit program focus.
Our entire station routine has seen an improvement in functionality with the implementation of an additional studio designed around our specific needs. The Wave 102 team across all departments had so much to learn in a short space of time as we moved our office systems to a cloud-based solution, making it easier for our sales team to work on the move. News and production are benefiting from our additional facilities, and we even added a state-of-the-art phone system, which allows us to communicate with our team easier.
Well done to the whole team at Wave 102 for adjusting to the new ways for working so quickly. Morale has also increased with the modern, innovative way of working.
At Wave 102 we love the fact that we are producing truly local radio, which is what all of our mainstream presenters got into radio to do. Unfortunately, in the age of networking and the destruction of many local brands for “pseudo” localness the content for the communities we live in has been diluted. We are proud at Wave 102 to create live programming for the people who live in our community right here in Scotland.
Alistair Smith is program controller for Wave 102.
For information, contact Neal Perchuk at RCS in the United States at +1-914-428-4600 or visit www.rcsworks.com.
