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Constructive Criticism

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The commercials are so funny that I don't get people's problems with them. That said, I am about tired of the same four ads that have apparently been running for two solid years. I have only been listening for a year or so, but I listened to the majority of the archive. It's the same exact ads. The same exact micro-plant powder. The same freeze dried food. I'm guessing the software ad is yours, Gene?

I am being %0 serious.
 
Gene Steinberg said:
Just to remind one and all: We aren't paid for the network ads. Just our own. And some of ours are trade outs. So we do ask for some sales help to get us more paid business.

I have offered to share revenues for a paid ad-free version, but the network isn't interested.
Click to expand...

Cheers to you for doing that, a valiant attempt for a different paradigm. May your show continue to grow and prosper... I think it's doing
so as we speak...
 
I listen to the show while I’m working, and normally fast forward my iPod through the commercials. But today, just for the heck of it, I decided to open the MP3 file into Adobe Audition and trim the commercials out. That way, I don’t have to stop while I’m working to fast forward.

I was curious how many minutes are used up on commercials. Does anyone want to take a guess?

The current show, Ardy Sixkiller Clarke, was 2 Hours, and 40 minutes long, as reported in iTunes. After I trimmed the commercials out, it was 1 hr, 56 mins! So there are 43 minutes of commercials in the show. that’s almost quarter of the show’s length.

And you guys don’t get paid anything for most of that? That’s dumb. If you factor in your bandwidth, you are paying them to broadcast their commercials and make them money. Other podcasts that are on real radio, like Kate Valentine, trim out all the network commercials. After all, they aren’t making her any money. So what benefits do you get being on their radio network? More listeners? Than on the internet? I doubt it. I don’t listen to that network. Probably like a lot of other people I download the show as a podcast. I have been doing that for quite a number of years now, way back when David was the co-host.

The commercials are funny, in a sad kind of way. Like the women who’s son was “borderline autistic and constipated” and felt better after having some whey, and wanted it more than cake or presents! Well of course he felt better after he could take a dump! You would too! I guess taking him to a doctor was unheard of? :rolleyes:

I bet the guys the other commercials are targeted to, the ones in their bunkers with their guns and freeze dried food and electronic cigarettes, don’t listen to the show either!

Anyway, just my 2 cents. I haven’t posted here in several years, but I've been listing to every show.
 
Thanks for listening, but you're a bit short in total show content. In any case, the network gives us enhanced distribution through the GCN site with millions of unique visitors, and to radio stations via satellite transmission. We are featured on a New York City radio station, for example, and receive far more credibility with the advertisers who do pay us (we get 3 minutes per hour to sell and we keep that revenue, such as it is).

The network wants the ads included in the online versions, because they sell those ads with the expectation that they will always be part of the show. I'd prefer a premium version, where we could run it commercial free, but the network says no.
 
Since this is a recurring issue, here's the actual programming schedule for each episode of The Paracast, which sets a one-tenth of a second margin for error. This exact schedule is also followed by hundreds of other network radio shows, and follows the Clear Channel format:

Seg1 - 10:00:001 to 10:00:099 long
Seg2 - 8:50:001 to 8:50:099 long
Seg3 - 9:50:001 to 9:50:099 long
Seg4 - 10:40:001 to 10:40:099 long

Seg5 - 10:00:001 to 10:00:099 long
Seg6 - 8:50:001 to 8:50:099 long
Seg7 - 9:50:001 to 9:50:099 long
Seg8 - 10:40:001 to 10:40:099 long

Seg9 - 10:00:001 to 10:00:099 long
Seg10 - 8:50:001 to 8:50:099 long
Seg11 - 9:50:001 to 9:50:099 long
Seg12 - 10:40:001 to 10:40:099 long
 
Gene Steinberg said:
Thanks for listening, but you're a bit short in total show content.
Click to expand...

Hi Gene,

No, sorry, I am not. I have the actual files here, and the software doesn’t lie. You know this, you are not a newbie with audio editing software. Feel free to time it yourself.

I’m not exactly sure what those numbers you posted mean, but if you open the show in an audio editor, and look at the time while it is playing, your first commercial break starts at a little before 10 minutes in. It ran until 14 minutes when you start the “we’d like to hear from you...” clip. Then the show starts again at 14:21.945.

The peaks sticking up here are the commercial breaks. They are louder than the rest of the show. There are 12 commercial breaks.

I marked where 1 hour and 50 minutes was on both of them, just as a reference.
Screen%20Shot_2013-02-26_at_12.43.21_1_AM.png


The edited show looks like this:

Screen_Shot_2013-02-26_at_12.52.22_1_AM.png


iTunes had deleted the edited show, since I had listened to it, but I went and downloaded a fresh copy off the website and edited it again just now. When a commercial starts, I insert a marker. So I scrub until I hear the show start again. Then I insert another marker. Then I select and delete the audio between markers.

So here’s the fresh copy of the show I just downloaded:
2 hours, 39 minutes, and 19 seconds. (159 minutes)

Screen_Shot_2013-02-25_at_11.59.38_PM.png

Here’s the show after I removed the commercials:
1 hour, 56 minutes, and 6 seconds. (116 minutes)
Screen_Shot_2013-02-26_at_12.20.45_AM.png

So, 159 m - 116 m = 43 minutes. That’s what I said in my other post.

Anyone can do this themselves, and I’d be happy to post the edited show if someone wants to time it.

Before and after files:

Screen_Shot_2013-02-26_at_12.43.05_AM.png


Like I said, I’m not making a big stink about he commercials. I just skip right through them. I haven’t even been to the forum here in a couple of years. But I hear you guys talk about people complaining about the commercials, and Gene, you go out of your way to defend them, saying there aren’t that many commercials. But yeah, there are. 43 minutes worth. That’s almost an hour!
 
How many other radio talk shows have you edited in this way?

What he says is that there aren't any more commercials than any other broadcast radio talk show. If the show is two hours and thirty minutes, then forty-three minutes is just over a fifth of the show's air time. That's now a lot, compared to other shows. Half hour television shows have an actual run time of twenty to twenty-two minutes, for example. That means eight to ten minutes are commercials -- just under to exactly a third of the air time. I would imagine radio is very similar, though I don't listen to any shows on the radio.
 
I posted the schedule to give you the actual format we follow with every episode. You just have to add up the time of the 12 segments to know how much programming material we offer during each episode. Wasting time pulling ads out of the show isn't necessary to come up with those numbers. But I am not defending commercials; I'm simply explaining that we do not run any more ads than any other talk show carried on commercial radio stations in the U.S. So why should doing something that's normal (whether you like the ads or not) be an issue?
 
Come on guys, ya gotta love the commercials and that weird, paranoid, pre apocalyptic wasteland they all seem to come from.

Like the guy whose "friend" made a video at weirddevice.com that "blows the door on the conspiracy wide open!"
(Guess the "liberals in Washington" couldn't keep a lid on that one.

The lady whose semi autistic kid got cured by whey is another classic, as already mentioned...

Or my personal favorite. The lady whose earwax buildup (try cleaning your ears lady?!?) was causing her deafness, until she got cured by magical silver potion. (Or am I confusing it with some other wondrous remedy?)

Sometimes, when I listen to the show I make a point out of listening to the commercials. I like to close my eyes, and imagine what sort of fantastical godlike powers and perfect health a person would get from using ALL of the remedies advertised AT THE SAME TIME. Smoke my electronic cigarettes while I drink magical silver water and eat whey-fortified milkshakes.

I bet the liberals in the government shudder when they think of the consequences...
 
ProphetofOccam said:
How many other radio talk shows have you edited in this way?

What he says is that there aren't any more commercials than any other broadcast radio talk show. If the show is two hours and thirty minutes, then forty-three minutes is just over a fifth of the show's air time. That's now a lot, compared to other shows. Half hour television shows have an actual run time of twenty to twenty-two minutes, for example. That means eight to ten minutes are commercials -- just under to exactly a third of the air time. I would imagine radio is very similar, though I don't listen to any shows on the radio.
Click to expand...

I don't listen to radio talk shows. I do listen to Podcasts. I listen to this show as a podcast, and have been doing so for quite a while. You can see I've been a member on this forum since '09. I bet a lot of the people posting here do as well. I listen to about 40 different podcasts. One or two of those Podcasts have one commercial during the show. Several of the podcasts I listen to are also aired on the radio, but they remove the on air commercials for the podcast.

I didn't start this thread. So apparently other people that listen to the show are annoyed with the commercials.

I was just pointing out that there are 43 minutes of commercials. As a listener, I felt it was a lot of commercials, and so do other people. I decided to time it since it keeps coming up on the show. I did not know there was a thread about it, but it doesn't surprise me.

It's all the more ironic since Gene gets no money from most of the advertisements. So the pod cast is free advertising time for the radio station.

Also, 159 divided by 43 is 3.6. So that's almost a quarter, not a fifth. 5 X 43 is 215.
 
I always listen on my iPod Classic. It’s not hard to skip the commercials, but I have to stop what I’m doing. That’s why I decided to try editing the show. I also found it more enjoyable to listen without the interruptions.

I want to point out that I am still a listener, and that’s what counts. I enjoy the Paracast. Yes, TV and radio have commercials, unless you are on a public station. I was just adding to the constructive criticism.
 
Criticizing us because we run the same number of ads as any other talk show on commercial radio in the U.S. doesn't make a lot of sense to me. That's not constructive, since that's something beyond our control. It's the price of free radio. Whether the network should allow an ad-free version for premium subscriptions is something else entirely. I think they should, but they do not agree, so there you go. I suppose if enough listeners to the various GCN shows made such a request, perhaps they'd reconsider.

As far as the amount of content on the show versus ads is concerned, the production calendar I posted is an exact measurement for this. We follow it to the letter, within one-tenth of a second. The show is based on a three-hour time slot, since there is also a news block on the live version. We get 39 minutes, 20 seconds of each hour. Multiply that by three to get the exact total.
 
I edit the show with 'Audacity'. It really is simple, there is no need to perfectly record times etc as in the post illustrated above, the ads really stand out and you can just highlight and cut them visually. Ok, you might not be exact and be a few seconds each way but that does not detract from the enjoyment of the show for me. Long live the Paracast - the only standard in paranormal radio!
 
Old Army saying: "It's always easier to troubleshoot, than execute". I wish rain water was beer and everyone could win the lottery.

I don't understand what all the fuss is about. The Paracast is F-R-E-E. Free. As in no cost. The podcast is presented as free. Those of us fortunate enough to have jobs, do we work for free? Do we have certain expectations we don't agree with, or things we wish we could do differently? Of course!

Right now, it is what it is.

Has everyone contacted their local radio station and asked them to carry The Paracast? If not, why not? Fact of life: sales solve most problems. Here's what I mean: if demand increases, GCN's willingness to entertain all the things we've been talking about goes exponentially up.

My thoughts aren't directed at anyone; more of a stream of consciousness. :)
 
According to an acquaintance who has been in the radio business for many years, we really need to have loads of volunteers contacting their local stations to move our shows to the next level (both The Paracast and The Tech Night Owl LIVE). At a certain point, the network will get involved, but we have to do most of the heavy lifting. I've been asking regular listeners for years to help us out, but few have bothered. If you enjoy The Paracast and want to see this venture succeed, we need your help.

And if there's any possibility that we'll be able to offer a premium ad-free version, it'll depend on having leverage. We don't have leverage now.
 
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