So I’m sure a majority of you have found yourself trying to be productive and then all of a sudden, you’ve wasted 45 minutes on YouTube watching random videos—it happens to the best of us. It’s just so easy to get caught up in watching news, music videos, or the most popular, random funny videos.

As we talk about YouTube in class, I decided to take a look at one of my favorite radio stations in Ft. Wayne to see how they use their YouTube channel.  For my analysis, I am going to be evaluating Ft. Wayne’s Country Station K105 and their morning show hosts- Dan, Dude, and Lori Mae.

I actually have a personal connection with them because I used to be Lori Mae’s intern back when she worked in Evansville so I have gone up to visit them a couple of times. From being up there and meeting the rest of the people at their station, I have begun to really like them and have continued to follow them on radio and their website. I wasn’t aware they actually had a YouTube channel until I did this research, so it was pretty neat to go back and watch some of the videos. I actually found one that I shot when I was visiting her for Country Fest. Check it out!

• · A Countryfest Stroll With Dude & Lori Mae.mov

The main purpose of their channel is posting videos from the different events they do as well as random funny things that happen in the studio when they’re at work. They primarily use it for entertainment value and giving their listeners an inside look at what they do everyday.

From the Making good newspaper video article, K105 does some of the things very well; but they also need some improvement.  First of all, they are very visual which is good. Since radio is typically all audio, I think it adds a lot to their station and website that they post videos to YouTube. It helps their listeners connect with them better and get a better idea of who they are as people. Not to mention, their videos are really funny!

Which brings me in to the next point they made on the “good newspaper video” article. It’s all about emotion.

They do a good job of using emotion. Most of the emotions they play on are humor and sarcasm, but that’s kind of their personalities. Although, that’s not all they do. K105 also does a lot of neat work with St. Jude’s Hospital and they toured it this year, so Lori Mae documented her time there and got some great interviews and had some touching information and stories to share.

I have included some links with the videos from their St. Jude’s visit:

• Chili’s Care Center
• St. Jude Children Artwork With Hope

Another couple things they do well are capturing your attention, and finding a “character” in their videos.

Nason’s article says that a successful video needs a ‘character’ to be the star – find someone who is articulate and engaging, someone who makes quips and jokes – and does them in short, sweet sound bites.

In K105’s case they have three characters: Dan. Dude. & Lori Mae! They are all very humorous people and all sort of have their own character on their morning show. Dan is the more serious one, dry humor one; Dude is the crazy, loud one; and Lori Mae is the “little sister they pick on”, and country girl one.

Here is one really funny example they did where Dude gets into “character”. Side note, he’s usually the one they make dress up in all the funny outfits.

• Afro Sheen.mov

While watching all of their videos for the past few months, I also unfortunately noticed some things that they don’t do as well.

First of all, they aren’t a news station and they don’t have a trained camera person. They aren’t really worried about the camera work as much so they aren’t very disciplined in their shooting of the videos, which is one thing Nason mentioned.

They do a lot of panning, which was a no-no in the video world, and they also don’t use the rule of thirds that often because they are usually walking around or shooting on the move which is hard to do because it makes the camera shake.

It’s kind of hard to evaluate them based on the article’s standards of shooting video because they aren’t a news station and are usually using a “flip cam” to record their videos. I will say that they could use a few tips when shooting, but it’s really hard to compare the two in certain areas.

Overall I liked their YouTube channel and think it adds a lot to their station. They also link to it on their social media and promote that they are posting when they are on air so that helps attract viewers. I think they are doing a pretty good job from what I can tell it is a very effective addition to their station and website.

youtube=http://www.youtube.com/user/K105MorningFun