Category Archives: radiobumper

I’m Someone, and You’re Listening to Something…

Now presenting, my ds106 radio bumper! I used an AI text-to-speech generator to get the “you’re listening to ds106 radio” audio clip, and then used the tools within audacity to cut that up and make it more interesting. I had some difficulties finding an online program that would let me download the audio clip for free. I’m sure there were ways around this (free trials, screen recording), but since I didn’t need that much precision from the TTS tool, I opted to just keep looking for one that would let me download it with no hassle. Following that, I sourced a variety of weird, eerie music and sounds from Freesound and continued to chop these up and distort them. I was a big fan of the “distort” tool and changing the pitch.

Overall, I’m happy with how it turned out! I used to listen to the radio all the time as a kid (and still do now), so I tried to emulate what I heard there. However, I think ds106 is a little bit more retro/techno/weird than Elliot in the Morning, which led to the decisions to make the bumper a little unsettling.

The Power of SOUND!

Sound is all a part of life. Even with your eyes closed your brain can easily recognize the sound of bacon as it hits a sizzling pan, heels clicking against tile floor, or even splats of rain against a window. This is how so many creators are able to use audio to bring their stories to life without even adding the visuals of a video. So lets test it out and see if you can visualize what I am doing in my room right now with only audio as a clue!

Even without being in the room with me you can use the audio to easily imagine the scene. I am literally listening to music right now while the racing clicks of my keyboard subtly play over the muffled snores of my sleeping dog below me. And that’s the power of SOUND! Amazing right! Film, radio, and even audio books use sound effects like this to help tell a story. Even with all our world’s advances in technology like music apps with instant queue we still have radio . . . why? Well Jad Abumrad explains it pretty well in a RadioLab video, its all about connection. That feeling a viewer gets when they feel like the speaker is talking directly to them. Kind of like a parasocial relationship that makes people feel included and engaged. Its one of the same reasons podcasts thrive so well in current day with apps like Spotify getting over 32 million listeners.

Here are two other good examples of how audio is used in storytelling. The first is Moon Graffiti, on the Truth Podcast they use sound effects to help narrate the story of what if Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin crashed instead of being able to land on the moon. They use radio static, electrical beeping, button clicking, loud explosion sounds, etc to all help their viewer visualize the scene effortlessly. They are capable of making you feel like you’re in the room with the Mission Control team tracking the spacecraft itself. Even in this other example from the ds106 radio, they played the story of Limetown about journalist Lia trying to solve the mystery of what happened to the hundreds of people who disappeared in Limetown. The storytelling and voice acting is done amazingly well and I highly recommend listening to at least the first episode to try it out. But what stands out the most is how they used sound to set the atmosphere and mood for certain scenes. From the how voices start quiet then slowly get louder to portray someone getting closer or the sounds of crickets to show that they’re outdoors at night. Even the shift in the voice actors’ tone helps to show fear which drives the storytelling for many scenes. In other cases besides story, creators are able to use sound effects to make an impact. Radio bumpers are a good example of this. They are only a quick announcement lasting a few seconds reminding their viewers what radio station they are on in between songs, but they can still be entertaining with the use of audio editing.

Radio Bumper

Here is one I created myself inspired by the assignment bank for the ds106radio. Since this radio station is used by a college class I wanted to keep that theme by making mine based on a wild college party. For my audio editing I used Audacity and added rave music found from TikTok. The voice acting is Ai generated from Canva where I wrote out his script and spent like 30 minutes searching for the closest voice I could find that matched similar to young laidback guy. Lastly, I added the effect of party people cheering while he was making his announcement. Originally the cheers triggering early was a mistake in editing, but I kept it because in real life situations young college students would probably interrupt him with their cheering while partying anyway so it made it more realistic.

Radio Bumper

For my radio bumper, I wanted to make the background music, more lowkey. I wanted to replicate the music you would hear when listening to the lofi radio on youtube. Something that you could relax and listen to while you are studying or doing work for class. I found the background music off of a free music and image website called Pixabay.com. I then included just a simple “You’re listening to DS106 Radio”, just to let the music have the spotlight itself. I found this to be fun, as it didn’t take me very long and I was able to figure out what vibe I wanted to go for pretty quick.

I’m DS106 and You’re Watching Radio Bumper

For the radio bumper assignment, I based my bumper on the iconic “You’re watching Disney Channel’ ads that would air when I was younger. I thought the idea was creative and nostalgic, but mainly because of Defunctland on YouTube. When I looked into what a radio bumper was, the assignment description explained that it is a “short recording that identifies the radio station with signature music or an expression that makes sure the listeners know what they are tuned into.” It reminded me of Defunctland’s “Disney Channel’s Theme: A History Mystery” where the host, Kevin, talks about Network Identifiers. Kevin goes on to explain that bumpers are a fascinating liminal space that is able to tell viewers, “Here is where you are, here is what you’ve been watching, and here’s what’s next.” The video is all-around amazing, so I encourage anyone reading this to watch it. That being said, because this video taught me what bumpers were when I first watched that video, I wanted to reference it by using the Disney Channel theme for my bumper.

To make this bumper, I recorded myself saying my name and saying, “You’re listening to DS106 radio.” From there, I uploaded my recording and the audio clip of the Disney Channel theme to Adobe Audition to start editing. Because the audio was so short, editing was easy but I did run into one challenge. I wanted some music to play first and then for me to talk, but to do that, I had to set the clips at different audio levels and then have them fade into each other. The frustrating thing about Adobe Audition is that I couldn’t figure out how to do a fade transition for the audio. What kept happening was the first audio clip would fade into zero, and the next audio clip would fade from zero, but it was jarring and didn’t sound good. The solution I found told me to set the two clips to different volumes and then overlap each other. That is what I ended up doing, but I am keeping my eye out for a better way to do this.

I like how my radio bumper came out, and I’ve enjoyed listening to everyone else’s. I’m excited to maybe one day hear it on DS106 radio!

Radio Bumper

We will be working with ds106 radio this week, and in some future weeks, so we want you to try your hand at making your first radio “bumper” – a 10-30 second short audio that announces the radio station that is played between songs to remind listeners what they are tuned in to. This should be saved as an MP3 file, and then upload it to SoundCloud. Make sure in Soundcloud that you enable the option to allow downloads (so we can add it to ds106 radio!) Your audio must be embedded in your blog post summary of this assignment. You can embed Soundcloud audio by putting the plain text URL on its own line, and when you publish, WordPress will create a player to allow visitors to listen. The radio bumper is an assignment in the Assignment Bank, so you should tag your blog post correctly when you’re done. You may be able to get Dr. Oblivion to help out, if you ask nicely. Tag: radiobumper

For this I naturally had to go for the Technoir vibe my first thought was all about industrial sounds however I switched to thinking more along an unsettling vibe. I used one of the sounds from freesound made by a creator called looplicator. It was just perfect with some additional modifications I made it more unsettling. I was far less sure of what to actually say unfortunately.

I did try to look ups some examples after a bit of trial and error I ended up with this.

It took a few tries, but I managed to get it done. Ended up coming out far shorter than I wanted since I wasn’t the most inspired and did not know much about radio going in. So, mine is not cool or anything more about telling the viewers to relax and just enjoy. Since my original one was too cynical according to a friend.

Radio Bumper

For my DS106 class, I had to make a radio bumper, and it turned out to be a really fun experience.

I started by searching for the right background sound something with a tech-noir feel. After looking around, I found one that fit perfectly. It had the right vibe, and I knew it would work well behind my voice.

Then, I recorded my line: “You are listening to DS106 Radio.” Simple and straight to the point. I made sure to get a clean take, speaking clearly and at the right volume.

Once I had that, I brought everything into Audacity. I placed my voice over the background music and adjusted the volume so my voice stood out without overpowering the track. No fancy effects—just a straightforward mix to make sure it sounded balanced.

After a few small tweaks, I exported it as an MP3, and that was it—I had my radio bumper!

Overall, this was a great assignment. It was easy to follow but still gave me a chance to try something new. I learned how to mix audio, and now I feel way more comfortable using Audacity. Definitely a skill I’ll use again!