Mason Merritt
Over the course of the past week, several groups of Homer High School Business Economics students have visited the WXHC, 101.5 radio station. These students recorded and customized brief commercials for their Business Economics final project, which required that they conceptually create a business to present in front of a panel of judges, during the week of midterms. With the assistance of Homer High School graduate Eric Mulvhill, who is the news director at WXHC, the high school students learned how a radio advertisement is created, from recording the voices to adding backing music and sound effects. It was the students’ responsibility to write the advertisement and decide how it would sound with the music, in addition to contacting the radio station, located on Main Street in Homer, to set up an appointment. Eric took time out of his busy schedule and studio time to give the students a crash course of the radio business.
Mason Merritt has worked at Oldies 101.5 for 2 years now, as a studio engineer for sports events; however, his exposure to the commercial recording process has been very limited. Mason has been present in the studio several times during the process and has even recorded one. He has never been as involved or had as good of a look at exactly how a commercial is pieced together before going with his group mates, Jessica Wallis, Sean Herman, and Cody Johnson, to record their commercial.From his perspective, recording the commercial and figuring out which music worked best with his group mates’ voices was familiar and came very easily. Mason was intrigued by how Jessica, Cody, and Sean would handle being out of their comfort zones in an unfamiliar environment. Jessica and Cody both shared similar sentiments about the experience; Jessica said, “The radio experience was fun and I learned a lot,” with Cody adding in, “I loved the editing process; with his skills, Eric made it seem very easy.” Sean also told Mason that he was “surprised and satisfied how the commercial came out and how it sounded as a finished product”.
Altogether, Mason felt the visit to the radio station was a very positive one, and he would like to personally thank Eric Mulvihill for his patience, John Eves for the use of his studios, and Bobby Comstock Jr. for letting them borrow the CD player.
Pictured Above: Homer High School Seniors Mason Merritt (left) and Cody Johnson (Right).
Not pictured: Eric Mulvihill, Jessica Wallis, Sean Herman, and Jon Cottrell.
Photo courtesy of Sean Herman.
