What You Need To Succeed: Space

It goes without saying that you are going to need a computer to survive in the radio world. It is difficult to work from home, do show prep and communicate with the world if you solely use a computer at work. Smartphones are extremely useful for show prep and instant communication, if you do not plan on doing home production work or recording than you may be fine with just a smartphone. 


Personally, I have my desktop computer (iMac) synced with my smartphone (iPhone) and I read my prep on the air from my tablet (iPad). I still use the prep computer for a few things but I store all my prep on a App called 'Evernote'. I use the web-platform as well when I need to print things. My prep can be entered on all of my devices and syncs all the latest information. I am sure you could use Google Docs as well, I really enjoy Evernote (I will write another blog specifically in the future to tell you all about the wonder that is Evernote).

On top of your computer you are going to need space. The next blog will give you more specifics about computing, this is about portable memory. 

You need an external harddrive. No questions asked. Your going to be producing LOTS of content and saving high-quality audio takes up a lot of space. An external harddrive is handy, think of it as your archive. Use it for backing up your work and also a digital portfolio of all of your work. Keep it updated and carry it with you so that at any given time you can show your work off to a potential employer or client. Make sure you start your external harddrive off right! Utilize file management skills to keep everything you place on it organized. I will write a note about file management in an upcoming blog. I recommend getting an external harddrive with at least one-terabyte of space. 



A memory stick is also a must. Use this to share your work. You can drop it off with you demo files and a resume at a local radio station, loan it to a peer or fellow student for a collaboration, fill it and give it to a mentor to listen to. Use your memory stick as your everyday storage. Take completed files and archive them on the harddrive. It is sad when you have only lost a couple gigs of work, it is heartbreaking when you loose all of your work. Using a memory stick also ensures a little more selectivity to what you initially show people its content, If you only want someone to see a specific pieces of your work this is a better way to present it. I have seen so many people plug there external devices into a computer for presentations or in front of an instructor and have inappropriate content pop up. That can be really, really embarrassing  Keep at least a memory stick for work related use. I recommend a four to eight gigabytes memory stick. 




Ensure you have a copy on your main work station or computer and on the external harddrive, I even upload my best work to SoundCloud. SoundCloud is an amazing resource for people in the radio industry to stream their work. I will have a future blog about SoundCloud, but check it out. It is easy to use!