Coleman Connelly
Grade: Junior
Major: Journalism
KJHK Position: Production Director
PJ: How long have you been Production Director?
Coleman: This is my first semester as Production Director. It is my first semester as an executive staff member but this will be my third year on actual production staff.
P: Cool! What exactly is it production staff does at KJHK?
C: Basically, we make all the donor spots you hear on the station. We make all the PSAs, local business spots, or any spots for organizations with the same community goals as KJHK.
P: Are you all allowed full creative control when producing the spots?
C: Sometimes we are. Other times we are given a script or previously recorded audio. Regardless, we are usually able to feature whatever music we want in our productions so long as we convey the information. Really, the only thing we can’t do is change already written scripts. Station IDs are probably where we have the most creative control. Creative control is really cool.
P: Nice! So, how did you get into production or sound design? Is it something you do in your off time?
C: It is! Actually, before I was ever on KJHK’s production staff I was into music production. I’ve always really been into stuff like that. It’s more of a hobby but it’s what I love to do, and I thought production staff would be a great way for me to strengthen my production abilities.
P: Have the skills you developed while producing music or messing with sound design previous to KJHK helped you at all during your time in production staff?
C: Absolutely. I would say it never really helped me with my vocals; I had to learn that after joining production staff, but as far as equalizing or normalizing the sound on a track goes, my experience definitely helped.
P: How about the music you make in your off time? How would you describe it?
C: I mess with a lot of music but mostly electronic stuff. I like to make hip-hop beats, drum n’ bass…
P: You like sampling?
C: For sure.
P: So, production staff, right… you use sampling a lot when making spots, right
C: Sometimes! Yeah, you can take pretty much sample any music or movie audio you want. We don’t have to mess with copyrights since donors are the ones who keep our station operating. We do like to be consistent with tone though. We like to use tonally consistent audio within the spot we are producing. You know, it wouldn’t make any sense to play a dance song over a PSA about substance abuse recovery because it would be inconsistent and wouldn’t make sense. We strive for consistency.
P: So, is being Production Director challenging?
C: It can be but I have a really good staff. It makes it a lot easier when you have people who know what they are doing, are creative, and good communicators. For the most part, it isn’t all that challenging. Not really, no.
P: How many people are on production staff?
C: I think we have about eight core staffers right now. They are all great people.
P: What do you want to do after University? Do you want to pursue a sound design or production career?
C: I would just love to be around anything with music, probably more so on the production side. Not actually producing music but some sort of radio, broadcast, or television production would be really cool. Producing my own music is just a hobby.
P: Right on! Well, that about wraps it up for my questions. Thanks and good luck.
C: For sure, thanks.