Hen FM88.9 ·

The studio manual

A complete six-step walkthrough for a first session, four studio corrections for habits we hear on the air every week, and the discipline segment — short, dry, effective.

The walkthrough, six steps

Recorded for a first session on Easy. Compressed versions exist; skipping step one is not among the options the studio accepts.

  1. Step 1 · name the ending lane

    At the quiet curb, before anything moves, decide where this run stops — and say it to the studio mic, the window, or the hen. A named ending behaves like a signed contract; an unnamed one behaves like a rumor.

  2. Step 2 · listen to one full traffic cycle

    Let the street play through without stepping. Note which lanes run long gaps and which pulse. This is the most affordable instrument on the console, available only to patient operators.

  3. Step 3 · open the tape slowly

    Take the first lane at half speed. It sets the reading tempo for the entire session — nobody gains anything by starting the broadcast at double time.

  4. Step 4 · re-issue the read every second lane

    From the squeeze onward, treat every second step as a fresh decision. Reads have expiry dates; the studio has invoices proving listeners know this and book renewed reads anyway.

  5. Step 5 · arrive, record, sign off

    You named this lane in step one. Reaching it and letting the result be recorded completes the broadcast — the run ends only when the street interrupts, and it wasn't invited.

  6. Step 6 · leave the frequency while it's pleasant

    Close the session on a run you're glad about, not on the one that makes you argue with the console. Tomorrow's reads inherit tonight's mood; leave them a clean tape.

A long straight road photographed at dusk for the studio manual

Studio corrections: four common habits

Heard on air, verified by the meters, corrected here with respect:

🚪 The unnamed curb
Stepping out without a finish lane makes every later step improvised radio — fine at lane three, costly by eight.
⏰ The stale read
A lane observed free during cycle one owes you nothing by cycle three. Renew the read or watch the street invoice you.
📵 Skipping the warm-up band
Opening a session on a deep strip skips calibration, not effort. Easy exists for the hands, not the résumé.
🎙️ Negotiating with the itch
The pull to extend a run is studio noise, not street signal. It gets reviewed at the next curb, never from lane nine.

The discipline segment

Three habits, all short, all on the logbook:

  • A named finish, every session. Not because rigidity is fashionable — because a named end gives every step between one and twelve a home to walk toward.
  • A fixed session count. Decide tonight's number of runs before run one. Fatigue is invisible right up until it starts hosting the broadcast.
  • Two silent minutes after abrupt endings. Runs that follow unchosen endings produce the least reliable tapes in the archive. Silence resets the desk.
Closing message from the studio: the run you planned feels better than the run you extended — and it's the only one that gets recorded. The meters agree. The street agrees. The hen, as ever, declines to comment.

The theory behind the segments lives in the program notes; corrections for this page belong in the call-in.