Help Needed for Radio Station Website Instruction

[toddvandyke]

Hello... an instructor in the School of Broadcasting at Central Michigan University has asked for some direction in designing his curriculum for broadcast websites. Could you all help by answering a few questions? 1 - What website software program do you use? 2 - How much web design do you do in-house, versus farming it out? 3 - Aside from good basic web writing skills, what other web skills should your programming people have? 4 - Do you have any other suggestions that could help him teach this part of our business effectively? Both he and I appreciate any counsel you can give. Thanks!

[photographermaui]

Thanks for the post sharing with us.

[elite502]

Depends on the radio company you work for. Most use a (CMS) content management system (example WordPress), some companies have even built a custom system. As to software, best thing to learn would be Photoshop, basic HTML would be helpful but not a deal buster.

Larger companies have web people on a local level and have national support, national controls updating the CMS, they add content that is shared across the markets, etc.

Learning advanced programming (PHP, Java etc) is a plus and will allow the web person to get creative on some projects. The most important thing to learn is graphics (Photoshop), that will not only make the radio station LOOK great, but will also be a huge asset to the stations online advertisers.

As to writing content for online, it's not really about writing long stories, or news (unless they work for a news station) it's more about writing the verbiage for online contests, events on the calendar, etc.

I do all local content in-house, nothing is farmed out.

It's about working as a team, I work with the promotions, sales, programming departments everyday! Working with each department is key for any online person at a radio station.

Hope that helps..