Wednesday, October 27, 1999
Getting the right sound
WGUC radio producer a genius at making background noises 'natura
BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
When Bruce Ellis heads to Red River Gorge, he carries a few extra pieces of equipment in his backpack — an audio recorder and microphone.
The sounds of hawks, insects, whistling winds, a bubbling brook or dripping water in a cave captured deep in Kentucky often end up in WGUC-FM's Tunes From the Crypt Halloween show or Thane Maynard's 90 Second Naturalist.
Mr. Ellis, WGUC-FM (90.9) production director, calls it “ambient sound.”
You know it as the background noises that stimulate the imagination and evoke powerful mental pictures of haunted castles or African jungles.
He's the off-stage genius behind the WGUC-FM Tunes From the Crypt, Sunday's three-hour Halloween program distributed nationally by Public Radio International. More than 50 public stations — including state networks in Georgia, Connecticut and West Virginia — will air the show.
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ON THE AIR
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• Tunes From the Crypt: Three hours of Halloween music 6-9 p.m. Sunday on WGUC-FM (90.9). Repeats 9 p.m.-midnight.
• 90 Second Naturalist: Thane Maynard's 11/2-minute nature program airs twice daily on WGUC-FM (90.9), after the 7:30 a.m. news and at 6 p.m.
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Mr. Ellis, 43, spent all summer updating last year's mix of sound effects, movie clips and music (“Night on Bald Mountain,” “Sonata No. 2: Funeral March,” “Overture to Phantom of the Opera”).
Then the computer crashed.
So he spent last month reconstructing the show, loading into the computer about 1,000 audio bits that enhance the voices of announcers Mark Perzel, Naomi Lewin, Gary Barton, Frank Johnson and Brian O'Donnell.
“I don't think people realize how intricate and complex this stuff can be,” says Mr. Ellis, who worked at Fairfield's WCNW-AM before joining WGUC as a satellite uplink engineer 17 years ago.
He's particularly proud of the background sound that not only establishes the mood but also creates a sense of place.
Sound of emptiness
The Halloween show opening — set in “The Master's” (Mr. Perzel) study — posed a big problem: How does an empty room sound on radio?
On Tunes From the Crypt, it sounds like a ticking clock, a meowing cat and a crackling fireplace. The fire pops, the cat screeches.
“You use a sound effect to enhance what's already in your mind, to spark the brain,” he explains.
“People today are used to the spoken word being accompanied by this MTV-style, boom-boom-boom, all kinds of things, in this multimedia environment.”
In the second hour, “The Master” retreats to his wine cellar. There he uncorks vintage tunes from wine bottles, against a drip-drip-drip recorded at Red River Gorge, east of Lexington.
Many sound effects come from Mr. Ellis' personal library. Others come from purchased sound effects collections. Some he makes up as needed, rapping his knuckles on a grand piano top (a knock on a door), or walking on kitty litter (tromping through snow).
When he records Mr. Maynard's radio show at the Cincinnati Zoo, he usually comes back with more animal sounds than he needs.
“I collect everything. Even when I go to the beach on vacations, I get some real interesting sounds. You never know what you'll need,” says Mr. Ellis, who lives in Fort Thomas with his wife, Vicki, and their son, Andy, 15.
Mr. Ellis is at home around animals, having grown up on a dairy farm near Williamsburg in Clermont County. He fell in love with radio by listening to James Francis Patrick O'Neill on WLW-AM and National Lampoon Radio Hour on WEBN-FM. And he loved Bob Shreve's cheesy sound effects on Channel 12's Past Prime Playhouse movie.
Through the years, microchips have made his life easier. The 10-pound tape recorder he lugged in his backpack has been replaced by a Sony minidisc recorder slightly larger than a cigarette pack. Now he mixes audio and edits on a computer screen, after years of splicing reel-to-reel tapes with razor blades.
He began producing the 90 Second Naturalist when the Mr. Maynard moved his show from WNKU-FM four years ago. The Cincinnati Zoo education director was surprised that Mr. Ellis can make it sound like the show was recorded at far corners of the globe.
“Prior to Bruce, it was pretty much just a story. He put a lot of life into it with the actual sounds,” says Mr. Maynard, who has taped 3,000 Naturalists since 1987.
Loyal fan base
About 50 public radio stations, and the Armed Forces Radio Network, carry the Naturalist. The list may grow from a new marketing push by the Cincinnati Zoo, Cinergy and WGUC-FM.
The Naturalist has loyal fans across the country, including the Insane Thane Fan Club in Asheville, N.C. The biggest fans are here.
“I get more comments and response from this radio show — when I'm in the line at Kroger's or getting gas — than I ever get from doing television,” says Mr. Maynard, a frequent guest on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien Show.
After being promoted to production chief two years ago, Mr. Ellis handed off day-to-day responsibility for Naturalist to assistant Tim Lanter. But he still makes periodic trips to the zoo to record Mr. Maynard and whatever else he hears.
He has engineered Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra broadcasts from Music Hall and Riverbend since joining the station in 1982. He has worked with Keith Lockhart, the Starling Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonia from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Kathy Wade, Frank Vincent, Katie Laur, Jazz Live from the Hyatt and the Parent's Journal interview show.
“I'm sort of a jack of all trades around here,” he says.
He wasn't a classical music lover when hired by WGUC, but he has grown to appreciate it. “I didn't grow up with classical music, except on Bugs Bunny cartoons,” he says.
It's this perspective that drives him to make Tunes From the Crypt, 90 Second Naturalist and the Thanksgiving Feast for the Ears special as entertaining as possible for casual listeners.
“These shows are helping make classical music more palatable to the common guy who hasn't been exposed to it,” he says.
“People think you have to be able to understand the music. You don't. You don't even have to listen to it! Just have it on! It won't make you mean! Just enjoy it for what it is.”
Sound advice, from one of the Tristate's pre-eminent sound experts.
John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. Write: 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; fax: 768-8330.
