I gotta say I really liked the talk show-style radio shows. I especially liked the way ds106 News Radio was structured. It felt like a real news talk show, with different commentators giving their opinions on various current news stories. There wasn’t a whole in the way of sound effects or music, as it’s supposed to be a news talk show, so those wouldn’t really make too much sense. Their analysis of the state of Trump’s campaign nowadays was on point. Their use of articles to spur discussion was good, and gave backing to their opinions. After Trump, they talked about the increasing heroin problem in the United States, specifically the couple who overdosed in a car with a child in the back seat. If I’m correct that’s this story. Once again, their use of actual statistics backed up their points and reinforced the realism of the show. I definitely agreed that jail time probably won’t help drug addicts at all. They could probably even still get their drugs while in jail. Then they talked about this recent “clown craze”, which I still can’t believe is a real thing. It’s such a stupid dangerous trend that really needs to stop. I also feel really bad for real clowns, who aren’t being hired because of these clowns. After the commercials, they talked about Hurricane Matthew. Specifically, they talked about the Shep Smith broadcast, where he was super blunt about it. They didn’t seem to like it all that much, but I actually liked his broadcast a lot. He’d spent time in New Orleans just after Katrina, so he saw the effects of a massive hurricane first-hand. He’s also well-known for being very honest and to-the-point on air, and actually not just trying to sell the news. For example, check out his broadcast on Ebola, when other news stations were totally overblowing the entire situation:

I liked that they also brought up Haiti, and didn’t stay US-centric with the story. Haiti was hit a lot harder, and way more people died, so it was good to talk about that.

They also had some good bumpers and commercials. The commercials were introduced by a spooky bumper, followed by a creepy clown commercial, which fit together really well. The fade out could’ve been a little better, but still. The “Grecian Gods-Away Spray” commercial’s audio quality was a little weird, but the concept was very unique and funny. The audio on the DS106 commercial could also use a little improving, but it was still good. The UMW Soccer commercial was really funny, since the match took place several days before the radio show aired. The ending bumper was also semi-spooky, and worked really well.

All in all, a really good radio show!