Use of audio editors in radio production

Audio editing is performed at scale in the production of radio, but often the tools used are poorly targeted toward the task at hand. There are a number of audio analysis techniques that have the potential to aid radio producers, but without a detailed understanding of their process and requirements, it can be difficult to apply these methods. To aid this understanding, a study of radio production practice was conducted on three varied case studies—a news bulletin, drama, and documentary. It examined the audio/metadata workflow, the roles and motivations of the producers, and environmental factors. The study found that producers prefer to interact with higher-level representations of audio content like transcripts and enjoy working on paper. The study also identified opportunities to improve the work flow with tools that link audio to text, highlight repetitions, compare takes, and segment speakers.