To continue working on my group’s ds106 radio show, I created a bumper within the twilight theme we chose. I made sure to mention my group’s name (Fifth Dimension), the twilight zone theme. and ds106 radio.

I opened Audacity and iTunes to start my bumper.  When I think of the Twilight Zone, I think of mystery, creepy, discovery, etc., so when choosing a song, I didn’t want some energetic pop music playing in the background.  I decided to go with a song from the movie The Illusionist called The Secret Plot by Philip Glass, because of its ominous and mysterious feel.  I uploaded the song from my iTunes into Audacity and trimmed down the portion I wanted to use. 

Next, I recorded my voice reminding the listeners what radio show was playing and to stay tuned. I lowered the volume of the song when I was talking by using the amplify tool. I also used the fade in and fade out effects in the beginning of the bumper, right before my voice came on, after my talking portion ended, and at the very end of the bumper to make the transitions flow more.

Finally, I uploaded my bumper onto Soundcloud:

I’m very happy with then end result and I had a lot of fun with it!  I like creating bumpers because the talking part of the assignment is short, sweet, and to the point but I also get to work with music.  I think a bumper can have a big effect on the emotions of the listeners, because if our entire radio show was based around the twilight zone (creepy, mysterious, etc.) and all of the sudden a rock/pop song came on, I know I would be thrown back.  I wouldn’t be in the right mood anymore to continue listening to the show.