A cow enjoys Smoooooth Radio at one end and a gentle squeeze at the udder.

sfx: clock ticking

vo: The clock is ticking etc.

Just to remind you that the closing date for entries in the Cow Moo Challenge is next Monday, 9 August.

Already, stations from across the UK and beyond have submitted entries and today’s news about cloned cow products has suddenly brought news and talk stations into the, er, field.

Full details and handy cow fx audio below.

The Cow Moo Challenge

Original photo (c) Rick Harrison. Used with kind permission.

You could win! Best use of a cow moo in a piece of radio imaging wins the entire joint. And we mean that. It’s a joint of beef.

Here’s what to do

1. Make a radio promo, trail, sweeper or other imaging element that includes the sound of a cow moo.

2. Put it on the radio.

3. Email the evidence to earshot@smartin.me

4. Listen to the next Earshot Creative Review to see whether you’ve won.

Need cows? Of course you do.

We’ve found a selection of copyright-free cow moos that are truly outstanding in their field. Download copyright-free moos.

Download audio file (cowfx.mp3)

There haven’t been too many production vacancies in UK radio recently, but this one’s a cracker:

Associate Producer, Absolute Radio

If you’re thinking it’s bound to be heavily oversubscribed then you’re probably right. But that’s no reason to hold back. You read this blog so you care more than most about how things sound and you’ve listened to Vince Lynch explain the culture and creative direction he’s taking at Absolute Radio. You’re ahead of the pack.

So why am I promoting it here? Well, I listen to Absolute Radio too and like to hear it at its best. Good luck – it closes Friday.

Thanks to Lifehacker, here’s a step-by-step guide to extracting vuvuzela noise from a football soundtrack…

And here’s another from something called mocksession.com…

These examples make pretty brutal changes to the sound of the commentary too but if you’re an audio genius with access to proper production kit you may be able to do a better job. Perhaps you already are.

Or you may simply accept that the vuvuzela is part of the story and should be left intact for the sake of truth and, er, safeguarding public trust if not your own sanity.

Anyway, that’s the vuvuzelas extracted. Now where to stick them?

Comments

• Thursday 17 June, 2010, Adam Bowie writes: There was a French company called Audionamix on Five Live this morning boasting about their performance in removing the vuvuzela sound from broadcasts - it's about 1hr 50mins into this morning's World Cup Breakfast. They boasted that Canal+ had licenced their services. But a demo (admittedly heard on an AM radio) based around some Five Live commentary showed basically no improvement to my ears. From what I can tell, you can take the subtle approach and make little difference, or the heavy handed approach and destroy the underlying audio completely while more thoroughly extracting the vuvuzela sound. Personally, like it or not, I think it is part of the sound of this World Cup. It's being held in South Africa - a country where they play these instruments during games. The games are supposed to be taking on the flavour of the locale aren't they? (That all said, listening to the audio in this YouTube example - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTIQO7EuuT0 - they seem to be a better solution that those above. But it's hard to tell with YouTube encoded sound. It still sounds a little "metallic" to my ears.)
• Thursday 17 June, 2010, James Hamilton writes: For all this nay-saying of removing the sound from broadcasts with the excuse of notching out the vuvuzela sample will have an affect on the commentators voices... well, I think the logical thing to do would be to filter it out before the mix on just the atmos mics. Having said that, I don't think it's really worth removing. Although the BBC could give a "commentators only" audio feed on the red button.
• Thursday 17 June, 2010, Tweets that mention Vuvuzela extraction | Earshot -- Topsy.com writes: [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Stephen Martin and Stephen Martin, Drew White. Drew White said: RT @smartin Blog post: Vuvuzela extraction http://bit.ly/bR8Nhw OUCH- I know some folk don't like them, but wasn't aware of any insertions! [...]

Just a short note to wish you all the very best for 2010 and to thank you for dropping into Earshot in the last year.

Given that Earshot began as a reluctant trial and that sometimes I struggle to afford it the time it deserves it is gently satisfying to see how many people do drop-in. I’m especially pleased that you’re one of them.

So what’s ahead?

Even though my work is now very much business related, I retain a keen interest in the radio production, cross-platform promotions and marketing trades in which I spent so many years of my career.

So Earshot will continue to centre on those specialist fields. In part, it’s a way for me to witness change in those areas as radio adapts to its multiplatform future and siezes the opportunities of the digital world in which its audiences live. It’s also my latest justification for being a big radio anorak.

Look out later this month for a regular new feature, the Earshot Creative Review. If you have created some radio promos, production or imaging that you’d like to see critiqued by some of the industry’s finest then do get in touch.

Happy New Year.

Steve.

Have you noticed a haze of toxic gloom wafting across the radio industry? Me too. It’s almost enough to make you search the playout system for the love theme from Romeo and Juliet and attempt an impromptu Simon Bates impression.

But please don’t. That cloud of neurosis is man-made and if you ignore the fashionable doomsayers for a moment there’s much to be cheerful about.

Yes, there’s work to do but if you’re anything like me you’ll do better work when you’re full of hope and a decent breakfast. A friendly reminder of what makes radio so wonderful seems like a good place to start.

So, starting tomorrow and continuing for the next couple of weeks, I’ll post daily a reason why I believe we can be positive about radio’s place in the world and our place in radio. No rose tinted specs and no talk of green shoots, just fundamental strengths that underpin the medium. Things we can work with.

I’ve come up with thirteen reasons but there will be more. Feel free to add your own. We all know radio is amazing. It’s time to remind ourselves why.

As we say on the radio, it all starts tomorrow morning at 8.15.

Photo: smiley dice by Leo Reynolds, on Flickr. Used under licence.