Katie's Corner: Radio

In the last few weeks I learned about Radio. Radio is very exciting and technical. Here are some of the thing I learned.

Radio waves are electromagnetic waves which are moving electrical fields.(moving energy) They can move through solids, air, space, ANYTHING!

Here's what a wave looks like:

Waves can be different sizes but are all the same shape. A.M. radio waves have a wavelength of about 10 meters. F.M. radio waves are about 10 cm from crest to crest. This picture is about different sizes of waves. It lets you see about how big (or small) the waves are and their names.

My field trip to Moody Radio.

My field trip to Moody Radio was very exciting! We saw many studios, and we were even recorded to be played on the radio. We talked into the microphones and were shown how to prerecord audio tracks. We were shown how they do very technical things that I can't remember.

Moody Radio is in a 10 story building. It needs three of those floors for all the people and studios. There are people that work in the office doing things like helping radio guests, responding to emails from listeners, and scheduling the broadcast. We watched the sound engineers, the weather and traffic announcer, and someone who was talking on the air as part of a talk show. My favorite part was seeing all their studios.

Here we are with our tour guide Jon Hemmer. His voice tracks play on Saturdays and Sundays in between the scheduled shows.

Mr. Hemmer is showing Toby (and the rest of us) how to make a voice track.

Recording into the microphone.

I have created a diagram that shows how the sound from the radio station get to my house and in my ear. It starts at the man standing at the microphone.