Anthony McNutt: The Art Of Radio Imaging

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  0:02  
The Sound Off podcast, the show about podcast and broadcast starts now.

Matt Cundill  0:14  
Anthony McNutt is a senior imaging producer at Stingray Radio. There are a number of radio brands in that group, including Booms, K Rocks, Qs, New Countries, and Hots, radio imaging is not talked about enough when it comes to making a radio station sound great. The program directors who know generally are the ones building successful brands. Today, this is going to be a great audio experience, as Anthony has brought some audio gems to share with the class, I can safely say right now, do not bother to watch our conversation on video, because those audio imaging pieces are not going to be there. And now Anthony McNutt joins me from Bear River, Nova Scotia.

Matt Cundill  0:54  
It's a Tuesday when we're recording this, and you look like you're at home, 

Anthony McNutt  1:02  
I am. Yeah, I mean, the one bonus, I guess, that Covid brought along was, you know, they, they sent me home with it with a computer, and I remember I had to put a blanket over top of my head because of the echo in my apartment at the time, and that's how I used to voice and produce commercials blanket over me when I'm produced or when I'm voiced them anyway, and after that I was just like, is there any reason that I can't do what I do from home because my job switched, I was in Newfoundland on vacation, and Jones called me, like, yeah, I was thinking, you know, I want you to produce some K-Rock stuff, and you know, okay, and what about commercials, take you off commercials, give you a new new job? I said, "Okay. So I monitored the stations while I was over there, and then a while back I said, "Can I work from home now I'm doing this job? And they said, "Well, do a trial run, and we did a trial run, no issues whatsoever. They hooked me up with, with all the gear, and then from there it's been, yeah, got rid of the apartment and move to the middle of the woods,

Matt Cundill  2:02  
and the middle of the woods is located where, because Nova Scotia's got a lot of woods,

Anthony McNutt  2:08  
it, it does, so I don't know if you're familiar, it's about, it's about an hour from, from Kentville, from the Indianapolis Valley, so inward there, I'm, I'm on a lake, actually on an island, and that's what I do, I just live here and work here,

Matt Cundill  2:23  
so is that the highway where I go to the big stop in New Minus, and then just keep driving south, and I get on my way down to Chester, and like you're in the middle of Nova Scotia there,

Anthony McNutt  2:34  
yeah, so I would be, yeah, like 4040 minutes to an hour from Ken Phil, I'm, I don't know if you know where New Ross, who knew New Germany,

Matt Cundill  2:42  
is absolutely.. I do. Yeah,

Anthony McNutt  2:44  
so I'm handy to there. My wife actually teaches at the school there, so she's.. she's working there. I get to see her every day, which is great. And then I just work here, plug away, so I have no distractions during the day, which is great, because you know you're all alone and you can bang out a bunch of stuff.

Matt Cundill  2:59  
I always wondered what life was like there, because I would do the drive from down that highway, go down to, you know, Chester, and then eventually onto Mahone Bay and South Shore, and I was like, "Wow, who lives here? And apparently it's you,

Anthony McNutt  3:11  
it's me, I mean, and it's fantastic, because I mean, you worked in radio for ages, and you still work in the media business, and there are days where it's just you can pull your hair out and it's stressful and you need a break, so I just walk out my deck and go down the stairs and then take 10 steps and cast a fishing line for, you know, for a while and just fish and just clear my head and then come back to the project, because I always find I have to when I produce things you're too close to it and then you go away and you come back and listen, it's like, well, no, that doesn't sound good. Like, what was I thinking? Like, change that edit. Like, you have to step away from it for a bit. You can't just keep go, go, go.

Matt Cundill  3:48  
I'm sure it was a difficult decision for Steve Jones to say, "Hey, let's try you working at home, because I know he loves creative people in the building, and any program director is definitely going to want creative people in the building. But I think that having producers work from home has really panned out well for many people in radio, because you get to use your own tools, your own plugins, you don't have to go to the program director, hey, I really need this plugin for this particular thing that I want to do, it's one thing, it's $129 and no, you're not getting budget for it, so you can do your own plugins, you can also work your own hours, and a lot of production stuff happens after hours as well, and so as a program director, you gain versatility in your producer. Has it panned out that way? And what else is good or bad about working from home as a producer? For me, it's been fantastic, so I'm, I'm East Coast, I'm all the Q stations, I'm all of Newfoundland, I'm the Breeze, so the Breeze from New Glasgow, Halifax, Edmonton, Vancouver. I do a ton of voice work too, so it could be 7o'clock at night here, and I get something from a producer in Vancouver. Well, I always have my email open, so sure.

Anthony McNutt  5:00  
I'm gonna, I'm gonna voice it, because as a producer, I want to get things off my plate, and because it just keeps stacking up, stacking up, stacking up, so it's allowed me, you know, if I want to take a break and go for a walk and come back, you know, I'm always here, I'm always working, I'm always accessible, and you're right, you know, that I miss the, the around the office, I'm a, I'm a goofball around the office. I'll be the one that's singing and loud, and everybody hears me. But it's changed so much now that the buildings are not full like they used to be. I remember when I was in ABR Magic, there was, oh, there's like seven or eight people in the newsroom, you know? There was Dave Chalk and Terry Thomas and Vicki Gessner and Deanna Durnford and John Evans, it was just now you don't have that, so the buildings, I think, and radio in general has changed, that they're not ever like it's just not full, so having having the, you know, the ability to work my own hours, like you say, and always be available, because you know, for example, within the Blue Jays were in the World Series, I wasn't wanting to go into the station and sitting there at, you know, 12 1o'clock at night, producing imaging, and then going back in the next morning at 830 So, when I'm here, it's fine, because I'm in my own comfort zone. Sure, have a glass of wine, produce something. I don't do that during the day, but when you know, if something comes in late after hours, then sure, why not?

Matt Cundill  6:18  
You mentioned AVR and Magic 97 I believe that's where you got your start. And before that, were you at Kings Tech?

Anthony McNutt  6:26  
I was. Yeah, I was Kings Tech. Me and Ryan Summers, we lived in that building, like we were there all the time. After hours, we were lab monitors, so we would help out other students with any issues. I was always in the TV editing studio. I love doing that type of work. And then overnights at AVR was part of the school, we had to go and do practicum there. And then I got hired there and started on air. And then after the on-air portion, I was, I was cruiser driver for a while, so I was just always just banking a bunch of hours, and then one day, hey, can you, can you dub a couple spots for me? Sure. Hey, can you record a client? Absolutely. Next thing you know, I fell into a production job there, and I always wanted to get to Q, so I'd always send audio to Trevor Walworth, who was the producer at the time there, and I went down one day to see Smooth, and he's like, yeah, you sent me some audio, and I was like, yeah, he's like, I really like it. He said, you want a job? Like, sure. He's like, okay, I come back next week for an interview, so I did, and, and there I was. I was hired at Q, which was my goal.

Matt Cundill  7:31  
What was Ryan doing there?

Anthony McNutt  7:33  
Ryan at Q, he was at the time, he was a nighttime producer, so he would be, you know, dubbing in shows and dubbing in national spots and things like that.

Matt Cundill  7:46  
Yeah, so I should give a little context here, because Ryan is RS smooth to many who might listen to him, but he was also, he also interned for me in my department in Muzik at the Bear in Edmonton for a period in late 1997

Anthony McNutt  8:01  
That's right. Yeah, so he's a great fellow, and we still have a great relationship, and he's a super good producer. And now he's actually teaching, teaching the course, the radio and television arts course at the campus in Dartmouth. So it was just weird, just the way it worked out. You just, you don't, you don't think you're going to go visit somebody, and then you get offered a job. And then I started there and I was just, you know, doing PSAs and stuff like that, and it's like, geez, you're putting a lot of work into this PSA and effects, and he's like, oh, you don't have to do that much, it's like, well, no, just like what I do, I want to make it sound good, and that was in October, and then in December Trevor had to go off on medical leave, and he's like, here you go, here's, here's the mighty Q, and I'm like, really, and that's how that started. And then, when he came back, I just kept it, and then he moved on to program director and such. But did you ever miss being on air? Yeah, I still, I still do an on-air break every day, Monday to Friday on Q and O for the Q network. Now, do something called the Nutshot. We used to have Total Recall, and they'd always ask a question about what happened during the show, keep listeners, you know, along for the ride, and then we'd give them a prize. I was in the studio with BJ Burke at the time, and nobody had a question, I was like, "Oh, I piped up, it's like I got one, and then from there I just started the break, so now I just do it as 10 to nine in the morning, and one there, and goof around for a while, so that's my little on air that that I do, but the voicing is like on air, because I can have fun with it, and I can do characters, and I can do different things, but I can't, I don't want to be on all the time, you know, like being on air is, man, I couldn't do it, I really could, I, I love to do it, yes, but I don't think I could,

Matt Cundill  9:41  
How did you fall in love with sound, being particular about getting the PSA right, and making sure it sounded pristine? Is that OCD?

Anthony McNutt  9:51  
Well, it could be. I mean, when I was in school, Dave Bannerman, he was the radio teacher at the time, he said, doesn't matter who you're working for. You're always working for yourself, and that has always stuck with me. Like, I, I want to make sure that when I produce something, I want the writer to be happy with it, who wrote it. I want the voice, who hears it produced, to like it, and I, I want to like it too. And I'm my worst critic. I could count on my hand, one hand, how many pieces of audio that I really, really am proud of, because it's just I just always want to do more, and sometimes less is more, and I'm just too critical of myself.

Matt Cundill  10:30  
What's the moment when you sort of upped your game, where you took it from, okay, I'm going to produce it, I'm going to make it good, and I'm going to use an example, maybe working with voice talent, where you could take a promo and make it really, really go. What's the one thing that you did that you learned that said, okay, this is how you take it from good to great.

Anthony McNutt  10:51  
I've always been super particular about, you know, making sure there's no breaths in a spot or not using zips and zaps. I guess I'll say this. When the first project I did in Kings Tech, it was full of zips and zaps and swooshes and covering up edits. And then it just one day I thought, if you can't make the edit, then don't you know, don't cover it up with something, try something different.

Matt Cundill  11:17  
Who's some of the voice talent you work with these days?

Anthony McNutt  11:20  
Oh geez, Conrad, Jim Conrad is the voice of Q, and now we've.. I'm blessed because I work with Jim Conrad and David Kaye. We have them both on Q. Do you need that much horsepower on q2? legends, I mean, it's one of the things I never want to lose, but I.. you know, I hope they never say, why are we paying these two guys, like having two Lamborghinis in the garage, really? Yeah, Jim is super, like he's been the sound of Q forever, and Kay is just so versatile. His, I just did a bunch of demos for David, and his, his ad libs, and his outtakes, like I don't have to go searching if I'm looking for an old man or something, it's just like, hey, can you do this? He's just so good. And then the likes of On Breeze, right now it's Motion Melvin, he's he's so versatile, and Joanna Stoutweiser, we just switched to her not too long ago. Super clean sound, the audio is always pristine from all of them that I get, I mean, you know, Kay, when he's on vacation, it's like, hey, by the way, I'm going here, but don't worry, I got my setup, and it's just, he's just always available, he's super fast at getting stuff back. One of my favorites, though, would be Jamie Watson.

Matt Cundill  12:35  
Yeah, mine too.

Anthony McNutt  12:37  
Yeah, I remember the day Matt sticks with me all the time. There's two things that when I hear Matt Cundill, I think of two things. One, I hear in my head, Matt Cundill, local idiot, because you had an ID way back when that Watson voice that just struck me as funny. And then I remember the day my mom got sick, and I was working for my dad on the weekends, and my phone rang. It's like, hey Anthony, how you doing? It's like, yeah, I said, Matt Cundill, like, hey Matt, how are you? Good, never mind, like, what? Never mind, what do you mean? Nevermind, you called me for something, yeah? Just, just wanted to know if you want to come to Winnipeg and work for 40 grand a year, but you probably don't do it. I was like, no, I don't, Matt, but I said, I can, I can produce some imaging until you find somebody, and that's how that evolved, and that was a man. I had a lot of fun doing your stuff.

Matt Cundill  13:25  
Stupid chorus budgets, so I know exactly when that was. That was 2009 and you know, there was not the same recession that they had in the States, the 2008 housing crash, but there were some struggles in 2009 and budgets froze, and there was like a job hiring freeze, and there was a bunch of other stuff, and they said no hiring for six months ago, that's great. I don't have a producer who's going to produce this stuff, and they're like, I don't know, figure it out. I'm like, oh, so I called you, and you were great, right? So it was, we had a producer again. This is sort of, I should have clued in about 2020 you know, that people can do this remotely in 2009 because you know, we send you the stuff, and then you send it back, and we would just, you know, we load it up, and it was, I did have somebody who could just load it into the system at the time, and eventually, what happened was, when I was allowed to hire somebody, it gave way to Evan Cerminski, who's likely listening to this right now, and producing this particular podcast, but the voice at the time was Jamie Watson, and Jamie Watson, I definitely remember that local idiot Ivy, and you know he's very versatile, and so you mentioned the word a few moments ago, and I think this is really super important for voiceover people, and that's you're asked often to be versatile, and what does that mean to you? What does.. hey, I need a voiceover person who's versatile. What does that mean?

Anthony McNutt  14:51  
What does it mean? I want somebody to voice something through from start to finish, and then I want somebody to voice. Thing, and give it their own flavor, their own take, kind of what I'm doing with audio when I'm producing it, I'm seeing it on the page, but I'm adding things a lot of the time that the regular people aren't going to pick up the layers and different things I put in, so for a voice actor, if they can, if they can give me multiple takes, that's the one good and bad thing about Watson was I would send him a 32nd promo, and I'd get 18 minutes back, and one day in particular it was him talking about German gloves. He walked out of his studio, and he came back in, and he would just have this German accent on, and he just went well above and beyond, but he had so many outtakes in there that he left, and I used like it made my production sound so much better because of him and his voice, and it's the same with most of the voice guys that I work with. You know, they could flub something up and just, you know, offhand something, so if they're versatile enough to give me different takes, maybe a different delivery in the tone or the style, something that I wasn't thinking of, and sometimes I'll just, I'll put that in the notes, I'll just say, hey, you know, just have fun with it, do whatever you want with it, but as long as you give me the, the full take, because sometimes sponsors or different things, you know, they have to have to have that stuff in there, but yeah, just just have fun with

Matt Cundill  16:17  
it, yeah, and by the way, I know it's easy, we see this all the time in radio, hey, we're gonna have fun. Let's have fun with this. Have some fun with the script, and it can be hard to have fun when you're by yourself and in the studio. And I will read imaging stuff for stations, and I won't do much more than read it twice. And I'm like, well, that's only gonna be good. And if you get a producer at the other end who's great, you also have to be great with some additional takes and different reads on particular things, so that they can make the promo shine, and that's how you get another month of retainer action. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm super happy with all the voices I work with. I've never had an issue with any of them. They've always delivered above and beyond, and again,

Anthony McNutt  17:00  
and they've lifted the project off of the page, and when we're sending stuff, you can tell clearly by how the script is written who it's going to go to. Is it going to go to Jim Conrad or is it going to go to David Kay? Because they all, they have their unique styles, and they're both very, very different, but very versatile.

Matt Cundill  17:18  
There is a lot of average imaging out there that is just I can tell it's been written by Chat GPT, and I can tell it's been produced with something very rudimentary, and I have thought for many, for probably about the last 15 years, that what really can separate a radio station is going to be imaging. So, what are some of the things you can do to really make imaging pop, so that when you're listening to a radio station to market, you know it's top three because of the imaging. So, what are you hearing?

Anthony McNutt  17:47  
I mean, for me, I don't want it. I know it interrupts the music, but I don't want it to. I want it to flow. I want it to match the sound of the station again, the nose zips, the nose apps. I want something to sort of sounds seamless, but with the right inflection, with the right pausing, sometimes the silence, silence can tell a huge story. When it comes to imaging, it can stop, give you that split second, and make you think, and make you keep tuned into that station. You know, I think of of John Frost, like his, his imaging back in the day, when KROQ was super fast, super witty, super punchy, it would always make you stop and think, and since he sort of, he sort of slowed his imaging down, I think it's not as it's not as busy as it used to be, and it's still fantastic, but I think that, you know, I watched an interview, interview with him once, and it's all about, like, you know, you also got to think of where they're listening to the image, you know, the imaging, are they driving in a car where it's just going to sort of bypass you, you're not people don't tune in to listen to the imaging, you know, they're in there to listen to the jocks, they're in there to listen to the music, so if I can have a little bit of fun with it and and make people stay tuned in, I think that's that's my main goal, I just don't want him to say, you know, Q and A four, that's it. Like, okay. Well, what else? You know, give me something funny, give me something that'll make you know, make me think.

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  19:09  
Sound design of the Sound Off Podcast is inspired by Mega Tracks, the sound of entertainment, providing music and sound effects for radio, podcasts, and media professionals, Mega Tracks is your one-stop shop for library and custom tracks. Start your music search now at Mega tracks.com The Sounding Off newsletter, delivered free to your inbox, featuring maths media hacks, hot takes, and retakes. Sign up now at Sounding Off dot News,

Anthony McNutt  19:42  
what do you think is somebody who did tune into a radio station for the imaging? I mean, I am the same way I am, and I guess to circle right back to what you're saying about not being in the office, I used to call so many people into my studio and say, listen to this, you know. What's missing? What do you hear? What am I not hearing? And a lot of the times it was, it could have been something simple. I did a piece for when Gord Downie died, that would be the one piece that I'm happy with, probably the most happy. And one of the writers are just like, oh man, you should just start that piece with the loons calling at the beginning, and I put that in there, and I'm just like, every time I hear it now, I'm just like, ah, yeah, it just hits me.

Speaker 1  20:29  
If Canada was a person, of course, Canada would be a hockey player, an ex-goalie who almost made it and never lost love for the game. Canada would be a humble and gracious soul who grew up in a small town. Canada would form a band and university with his friends.

Speaker 2  20:47  
Doesn't seem like we're exclusively a college band, which to me is great.

Speaker 1  20:51  
And they would sing about uniquely Canadian things that years later would confuse the rest of the world. Late breaking story on the CBC was in blockades. they would tour relentlessly and play every bar, saloon, and run-down hockey barn from St. John's to Victoria. They would play in famous theaters and in farmers' fields. And for one glorious night in 1995 ladies and gentlemen from Kingston, Ontario, Canada, it is my honor to introduce to America my friends that tragically they would play Saturday Night Live, but they always came home to Canada. Maybe the world wasn't ready for a lead singer who told stories about killer whales answered invisible phones as a dance move, and wildly contorted his face to squeeze every piece of meaning out of each lyric. That's what the hell

Speaker 3  21:50  
is happening here.

Speaker 4  21:53  
But Canada sure was. We'd like to do a song now. We don't do it too often. Song that used to kind of be painful to play is now not as painful to play, because maybe it helps some people. If

Speaker 1  22:16  
Canada was a person, if Canada had a name, it would be Gordon, but he'd ask us to just call him Gord

Speaker 4  22:24  
as a kid growing up. Like, what is it about this country that isn't, is not a country? What is it? Can't tell.

Speaker 1  22:31  
Gord Downie was an ambassador, an advocate, a poet, a history teacher, and a storyteller.

Speaker 5  22:38  
You may be connected to somebody almost like a sister and a brother, and I think that's why Gord was connected

Anthony McNutt  22:46  
to

Speaker 6  22:47  
Charlie.

Speaker 1  22:52  
Gord told us about Tom Thompson and Hugh McLennan, about Bill Birilco and Jacques Cartier. He sang about the FLQ, David Milgard and Pierre Trudeau

Speaker 7  23:03  
to

Speaker 8  23:06  
receive the insignia of Member of the Order of Canada, Gord Downie.

Speaker 1  23:11  
Gord Downie was Canada, and Canada isn't the same without Gord Downie.

Speaker 4  23:18  
I don't want to die, and that really scares me. Yeah, sure. Want to do this right on the way out, so he's not worried.

Speaker 7  23:27  
I could make you scared if you want me

Speaker 9  23:32  
to. So, at this time, I'd like to call forward Cola Gord Downie here, and we had a prayer leading up to standing here before you, and I could feel his heart, I could feel his goodness.

Speaker 7  23:46  
The

Speaker 1  23:50  
summer of 2016 will be forever remembered for that night in Kingston, as the final notes of Ahead by a Century rain down.

Speaker 7  23:58  
You scared

Speaker 6  24:00  
me. A

Speaker 1  24:03  
nation wept.

Speaker 4  24:12  
Thank you, Gord. We know you have to go. I am resigned to the directions is heading. Yes, I am. I really am. It's been a pleasure. I love you.

Anthony McNutt  24:31  
I'm fortunate to be surrounded, not in the office anymore, but with fantastic radio people, and everybody's opinion brings something to an imaging piece and a promo or a commercial or anything, so I take everybody's opinions and apply it to my work. So essentially it's not me doing the work, I mean physically I'm doing it, but I'm getting, I'm getting a lot of help from a lot of people. How do you communicate with everybody? Is it all email, email and Teams now, and phone? Like I mean, Anna, Anna, and I talk. We work hand in hand quite a bit on a lot of things, you know. And she's scheduling everything that I'm doing, and everything like that. And we start essentially january 1, like we're already working on year end, you know. It's, we get a bunch of scripts. Tom Bedell writes a bunch of year-end scripts. He's working on that, I'll send them off to Conrad four times a year, so when it comes to December, I don't have to rush and put together, you know, 40 or 50 slices and intros and stuff.

Matt Cundill  25:31  
So, by the way, Anna Z, if you didn't catch the episode, she's the music director, so that means she is likely scheduling the promos as well, or at least making sure they're done.

Anthony McNutt  25:40  
I think we'll put the promos through. Sometimes Dan will slot them in there. Anna, yeah, it's a bunch of different people, depending on how they're putting them in there. If they're on the commercial log and if they're scheduled that way, or they can just slot them in and put them hardwire into the log, like the morning show promos, Route 104 all those sort of things. It's a busy gig. It really is. I mean, my day is is constantly communicating with people, and then there's the daily stuff that I do every single day, but then there's a whole nother world of just the imaging, that's it, is a blessing, like I said before, to work at home, because there's just so much work to do that I'm always available here, and I don't want anybody waiting on me, I mean, production is sort of the last rung, and I want to spit that back to them, so much so that if I get a promo and I send it to one of the voice guys, in the meantime, while I'm waiting, I'll voice it myself, produce it, reading it like they would, and by reading it like they would, like Conrad's got a slower deliberate read, I would voice it slowly, produce it all, and then when I get the voice tracks, I can swap them out and put some love to the voice and have it done in no time.

Matt Cundill  26:49  
I think one of the hardest things to do when you're working with audio is staying organized, and you talked a little bit about working ahead with the scripts and getting the audio and making sure that's going to be squared away, but there's a lot of files, and so give me a bit of a deep dive into organizing your audio files when you're working with how many stations and how many promos and how many voice people. If I were to go into, I assume you're using a Windows tool, are you? Windows, yep. Okay, so if I were to go in there and you know, go to File Explorer. How is everything sort of divided up? And what are the best ways to stay organized for me? You would go in, and it would be Project Imaging, would be the main folder. When you click on Project Imaging, then you would have the K Rock folder, you'd have the Q Network folder, then you'd have the individual Q stations, so Q 103 Q 104 Q 97 9q, 88 nine. You'd have the Breeze, and then you'd have the sub folders of all those, and then all the K rocks, and then you'd have the Steve Parsons folder and the Steve Jones folder. Why does Steve Parsons get his own folder? Well, because he's, he's had me do a few things, and

Anthony McNutt  28:00  
he's a man. I have all the time in the world for that guy. He is one of my favoritest people ever.

Matt Cundill  28:05  
Yeah, Steve Parsons would have his own folder. Yep,

Anthony McNutt  28:08  
yeah, he does. Yeah, Jones, Josie, there's a bunch of folders, and then inside of those folders, then you'd have, okay, in Q 104 you would have Route 104 you'd have Key Morning Show promos, you would have year end, and then long weekend. Every every project I do has its own folder, and then within that folder it's a mixed folder that I put all the mix downs in. And then when I load audio, this is monotonous. I export all the audio, drop it into wide orbit, and then all of those mixed-down files that have the wide orbit information on them are in another may 19, may 20. Drop them all in there. So, if anybody ever says, 'Hey, I need this file, I have the master file, I have the other file that I can drop in with all the metadata on it. I just.. everything, because there was a time when I.. I was producing a project, and I hours and hours and hours, and then I didn't click the one button that drags everything into the folder, and then when I went to reopen the folder, because it got revised, it couldn't find anything. I had to go searching for every piece of audio that I use within that project, so I learned very quickly to be super organized, and, like you say, when you're dealing with all the different voice talent and the different time zones and everything, it's.. it's a struggle, but you know, I forced myself to do

Matt Cundill  29:27  
it. I know it was a weird question to talk about organization, but I've never met a producer who actually survived past year three who wasn't organized. If they were too creative and the files are located everywhere and you can't find them, you're never going to make it right. No, I agree. I agree, and this is this is year 27 for me. What's your work day like? Because I can see somebody in Vancouver at, let's say, four or 5o'clock that's going to be eight or 9o'clock your time. And so, what is your workday like? And how do you, how do you manage it? My work day.

Anthony McNutt  30:00  
Starts with usually the night before I'll have my nutshell audio or whatever I'm going to talk about the next day I'll have that and then I start the morning every day I do a show intro for BJ Wilson in Halifax so pretty much like three clips from the day before making sure the lyrics from the songs that I use match the content that they're talking about. I do a same intro for K Rock in Newfoundland, then from there I'll do morning show promos. Those have to be in by a certain time, so I do have a couple things that I have to have done by certain times, and then there's there's things like Route 104 promos and other things like that. So my mornings pretty much shot doing morning show stuff, and then you factor in a few meetings throughout the day, and then you start your promo and imaging work, and then you get the voicing commercials in between that, and I'm very much of, if I see something coming in for another producer, I'll pretty much drop everything, get it voiced, because I know they probably got a lot on their plate, so I like to keep people happy, and then, yeah, it's, it's the, the voice work comes in from, from out west. Now, thankfully for me, Dan Barton, my PD, now he deals with all the cues and all the breezes, so he knows what's going on out west, so I can get those scripts during my, my day, for the most part.

Matt Cundill  31:19  
What's your favorite microphone to have in your vocal recording studio, so if let's say talent wants to come in and voice something, what's your what's your favorite microphone?

Anthony McNutt  31:28  
I mean, I'm liking the road now. I just got this when they moved me out here. I'm not a huge technical person or technical producer. When I worked with Trevor Walworth, he's like, yeah, just take this back and drop the mids out and then I was like, what, you just like kind of blowing my mind here. So I went back and changed some things. He's like, yeah, I like it. So I know what I like the sound of, and I just don't know how to explain it technically. I guess I'm not, I'm not a smart man, Matt. I know it's like porn, right? I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.

Matt Cundill  32:00  
Yeah, it's there's a sound, and the sound that I have now, you know, like nothing worse than getting a session back, and you have to run like restoration on it, and you gotta, you gotta find the hiss, and you gotta take the hiss. I can do all that, technically I can't explain what I'm doing, but I know how to do it, it's same as I, you know, you never look at the keyboard, my fingers just know where to go. What's a radio imaging trend that's been picked up on in the last five years that I wouldn't know about just because I haven't been inside a radio station in that long? Even in the last 10 years, you can, you know, go back that far if you like, because you were talking about zips and zaps, and zips and zaps, you know, that was very cliche. Even before that, the stuttering, there was stuttering, you know, with your voice person, but what's something now? I'll even hearken back to the Frost, you know, piece that you were talking about, the imaging, it, I think you have to develop it, has to feel a little bit more authentic now for the younger generations with the millennials and Gen Z, I think a lot of it now, less is more,

Anthony McNutt  33:00  
there's, there's so much imaging that is over tunes, you know. There's I know for the breeze, the breeze is a lot of work for certain things, but then when it comes to the imaging, it's finessing the voice and making sure your aux marks on the right spot. And then then Dan takes it away and makes sure it's coded properly, so so it runs cleanly over the song, so it's almost you're never ever interrupting, it's just always there. There's nothing that's big and in your face. So I think the cleanliness of imaging has changed in my ears, and I sure don't produce like I used to before. I use everything, like I was listening to some old power stuff the other day, and it was just off the wall, wacky in your face, where now it's just more about the messaging.

Matt Cundill  33:44  
Yeah, absolutely. I totally get that. What's one plugin you can't live without?

Anthony McNutt  33:51  
Depends on what I'm producing.

Matt Cundill  33:55  
What's your favorite plugin?

Anthony McNutt  33:56  
I like Guitar Suite. There's Guitar Suite plugin that just gives it a good, crunchy, crispy sort of I always, I don't use it on the initial piece of audio, I do a lot of layering, but not like just going, selecting chorus and swapping it to 50 and 20 and offsetting it, I do it all with a separate piece of audio underneath that I can manipulate all alone, and then if I'm doing Q 104 take that four and I want that to sort of sit a little little more and pop it up, I'll take the guitar suite and make it crunchy just to make it stand out a bit, so that would be probably one of my favorites, EQ, I mean, you can do a lot with EQ as well, there's Doppler effect that I love, like, yeah, it just all depends on the project, or just a simple, simple bit of reverb, you know? Like, I remember, jeez, like, I mean, 2020 of years was the worst year for, for me in radio, anyway. And, you know, not, not making it about me, but I sat there, like tears coming down my eyes, producing stuff, and it was. Is with it's like when the Portapique shooting happened, I used to go there bass fishing every weekend, and then that happened, and it was one of those things where this is what we're doing today, jump on board, which I love about radio, it's so immediate, and and you can, you can just tell the story and make people involved with the story, and we had callers calling in, and I voiced everything that day, and I'm not a, I'm not an imaging voice by any stretch, but it was just somber tone, and just a little bit of reverb on something that just sits with you and just makes you think, and I mean, that was Covid, same here as that, the mass shooting, there was a helicopter crash, there was a snowbird crash, like 2020 was just a garbage year of a lot of horrible things, and I think from then on I think my production has changed quite a bit, because it just opened your eyes to, you know, a different way to look at things

Speaker 3  35:52  
are requesting more ambulances, probably one more coming, and then at least one more stand by.

Speaker 10  36:01  
As years go, 2020 wasn't exactly the best. The entire planet squirmed under the oppressive thumb of Covid 19, and for Nova Scotia, that wasn't even the worst of it.

Speaker 11  36:12  
We have multiple scenes spreading over at least 50 kilometers.

Speaker 10  36:16  
A senseless rampage resulted in the death of 22 who had so much living ahead of them,

Speaker 12  36:22  
can't talk to my sister and call her all the time. I can't hug my niece. I'm just trying to breathe. This is tough. I know so many people are hurting.

Speaker 10  36:35  
The families, the friends, Nova Scotia, and the entire country mourned as we reflected on the magnitude of the loss.

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  36:43  
Today is a devastating day for Nova Scotia, and it will remain etched in the minds of many for years to come.

Speaker 13  36:51  
Something right out of a horror movie, worse than a horror movie.

Matt Cundill  36:54  
Imagine the fear that those people experienced in that moment. It's just terrifying and heartbreaking.

Speaker 14  37:02  
We're all having a great deal of difficulty processing that this could even happen.

Matt Cundill  37:06  
You think you see this on Fox and CNN, but not in your backyard.

Speaker 14  37:10  
I know, and it's.. and it's happened in our backyards, and yet..

Speaker 6  37:13  
yeah,

Speaker 14  37:13  
it's unbelievable. You be okay, all right? It's tough. Everybody's having such a tough time with this,

Speaker 10  37:20  
you sound a stand that every life must stand. As this year's inquiry brings all of those same feelings rushing back, we pay tribute to the fallen. And remember,

Speaker 15  37:36  
you know a lot of people today are gonna, are gonna have feelings that they're not going to be able to put into words, and that's okay. You don't necessarily have to understand how you feel on a day like today, but just feel that the entire province is feeling that with you.

Matt Cundill  37:49  
So, if you are concerned about somebody, it's 184298167 You need help, get

Speaker 10  37:59  
it. So, join us, Q Nation, as we salute the lives lost with a moment of silence.

Matt Cundill  38:12  
One of the things I talk about when I'm in a room full of podcasters is how to promote their show, and taking 19 AI clips, and uploading them to YouTube is probably more of a disservice than anything else, because you don't have 19 highlights on your show. Your podcast is not good enough. I've worked with morning shows where, if we could get one good morning show promo a day, that was a good day, that was going to be a good show. I think we'd probably wind up with four good ones at the end of the week, if you really had things clicking. What are you listening for? What makes a good morning show promo? Oh geez, I mean, the Q morning show is, is fantastic. The three characters, I mean, it's the personality that makes the promo, it's, you know, the right time to, to get out of, you know,

Anthony McNutt  38:59  
I know working with, I mean, Berkey, BJ Burke, he was at Q, and then we went to BJ Wilson. BJ Wilson has the ability to, even if he, you know, he's always prepared, and he has an out for a break when he gets into the break, but if somebody else has a funnier one, he's gonna bang out on that. So promos with him are pretty simple, we do, we do two promos a day, and then we rotate three on the weekend, and a lot of the times they're they're all different, plus we rotate nine best of clips, which are longer form on Saturday, and then there's a six that we rotate on Sunday, and then we do another nine on holidays, and then we do a whole year end best of, so what makes the promo content, you know, and just having the right out and just taking out all the, you know, the stuff in the promo that doesn't need to be there, you know, you can a lot of times, you know, you could have a 62nd promo that you could probably tell the story and get in and out in 25 or 30 seconds, and I think that's key is to knowing what to take.

Matt Cundill  40:00  
In you know, leaving in what to take out. What do you think of Taylor McLean? Taylor McLean, producer. Yeah, yes, I haven't heard her name in a while. I trained her, I know you did. She's fantastic. You know what she's doing right now, working for you, probably. Well, she's editing this podcast. Oh, yeah. Hi, Taylor. Yeah, she.. she left, and I think moved out west, didn't she? She.. yeah, she's now relocated to Vancouver, but I think you connected her to me when I needed an editor, and she's been editing the Sound Off podcast, I think, going all the way back to at least 200 episodes now, so

Anthony McNutt  40:42  
okay, yeah, she, she's fantastic. And another, another intern that I had recently when I was in Halifax, Darcy Campbell, and he was one of, well, be Taylor and Darcy. I'd always, I'd give them projects, they'd sit with me, and I'd show them some things, and they know what they're doing, but it's just getting a different perspective, because every producer produces differently, and they just like, oh, wow, like, you know, you're fast or something. And then I'd say, well, here, like, you take the voice tracks and go, and in both cases, when they produce stuff, it went on the radio, and that doesn't happen at Q, the, you just don't say, oh, here's what I produce, it's going on the radio. No, it's got to meet certain standards, but she is super talented, as is Darcy N, and they've got a huge career if they wanted in radio, for sure.

Matt Cundill  41:30  
Yeah, and I mentioned that because, for two reasons, because there's, you know, there's a bit of a tree here, you know, that we're from, and you and I both came down through Dave Bannerman, because you were at Kings Tech, but I, you know, I, he was my program director, and then you've also taught a number of people that I've worked with, a bit, you know, in the production area, even, you know, Evan Cerminsky, who's going to put the final touches on this particular podcast, he inherited a lot of your stuff and had it sort of match the style when, when he started producing for me in Winnipeg, and I can't, by the way, I have to thank you, by the way, for bailing me out of certain situations, like in 2009 but also, you know, every once in a while I've sent you a piece of audio and you've thankfully bailed me out, Oren, if you couldn't bail me out, you connected me with the right person who wound up working for me, so you're a good teacher, my friend.

Anthony McNutt  42:19  
Wow, well, I appreciate that. I mean, like, like I said earlier, I just.. I want to make people happy. I want to make, you know, I want to make a program director's job easy, but I'm also.. I'm also a bit much in the sense that it's like, oh, hey, you know, should.. should we have this? Like, should we have some ideas for this, or shouldn't we be on top of that? You know, like, I.. I just. I love the industry so much, and I bought into it years ago, and, and I just, I just want to be good, and I want to be better, and I always, I always strive for more. And Jones posted something on LinkedIn the other day, and it was something along the lines of, you know, just doing what you do and doing it well, and it kind of hit me, I was like, and I sent him a note, it's like, yeah, I've lately I've been not struggling, but it's like, should I be doing more? Like, is there something else I should be jumping on? But then, no, like, I'm just, I'm doing what I'm doing, and I'm trying to learn every day, and I know everything I do is not perfect, and I just, I just want to share it with as many people as I can to make it a good product, especially when it comes to, you know, some of my most favorite things to produce are also the worst things to produce, you know, when it comes to deaths, and we know we have a huge legacy file in teams that it's just, we see clips, you just, you know, you archive it away, and then, God forbid, when an artist dies, you know, everybody drops everything when that happens, and there's three of us. There's there's so senior imaging producer, there's me, who does the cue to K rocks and the breeze, and then help out with other projects. And then there's Derek Wellsman, he's the, I think, now he's Rock West, and he's boom. And then there's Pat LaPorte, who is hot and country, and a ton of voicing. And when somebody dies, you just, everybody all hands on deck, doesn't matter, no way, you know, doesn't matter what you're doing, you just drop it, and then you try to make that day about a specific artist and make it memorable, because that's what radio is, it's about, you know, memorable pieces of audio, the same with advertising, I remember when my mom got cancer, I started hearing every single cancer commercial on the radio. I was like, well, these just didn't start today, they must have always been there. It affected me, so I heard it, and that's the way I try to keep in mind when I'm producing things. You can touch individuals with audio without even knowing it, like it's the silliest of things that we produce get incredible amounts of feedback. Sometimes, Anthony, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I know you're busy, you got a lot of things on the going right in the middle of your day, yet you stopped to talk on this show. Thanks. Yeah, man, thank you. It's always good chatting with you, and send me all the freelance work you want,

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  44:59  
you. Another Sound Off Media Company podcast