On the 27th December 2020, I wrote on this blog:
Eventually, the goal is to have an incredible home studio, but for now, this corner of the spare room will keep me very happy indeed!
At the time, I was completing the occasional home broadcast for Cambridge105 Radio from a corner of our spare room with some very iffy equipment that was (almost) taped together to get it to function. It did the job but it wasn’t exactly ideal (although I remain indebted to those colleagues who so generously gave of their time to help me actually get my setup working).
Several years later, I feel incredibly fortunate to now have the home studio setup that I have been dreaming about since I was a child. I used to think, as I blogged about in that original post, that it would require thousands of pounds of equipment and technical knowledge beyond my level of understanding. Whilst there has been some financial outlay (a combination of saving some money each month and, like a ten year old, adding birthday and Christmas money to the pot), with some help from my brilliant colleagues at GenX Radio Suffolk, I’m now the proud owner of a home studio that very nearly functions like the real thing. The fact that this is possible still blows my mind!
Please forgive the minor geekery… I use the equipment listed below to broadcast my programmes for GenX Radio Suffolk:
- Rodecaster Pro 1 mixer and relevant cables
- Rode Podmic x2 (host and guest) and relevant cables
- Dell laptop (with wireless keyboard and mouse), running playout system and using butt to stream my audio back to GenX Radio Suffolk HQ
- Additional HP monitor for show plan and web browsing
- Laptop/monitor stand to raise both screens to correct height
- DT770 Pro headphones for host
- M-Audio monitor speakers (pair)
- Stream Deck mini to give me a ‘Next’ button to press
- Android tablet/phone (already owned) to make calls and to display key studio information at a glance
There have been so many highlights since all of this equipment came into full use, one of which was the new year’s eve show that Mrs Bown and I presented for GenX Radio Suffolk (pictured). This was an enormous thrill and made all the sweeter because of the setup I have cultivated over many years (and having such a fun co-host)!
I’ll blog again in the future with some more thoughts on the position of local radio and how happy I am to be a part of GenX Radio Suffolk.