Please speed up the narration!”
“’The Wizard of Oz’ is really interesting, but it’s too slow!”
“Uncle Zhang, could you read it faster? I can’t wait any longer!”
“The program duration is too short. Comrade Zhang, I hope the program duration can be extended, or that the speed could be increased. It’s making me so eager to listen!”
A lot of listeners put in their suggestions.
Zhang Ye thought about it. He also felt that the suggestions were valid. When he was narrating “The Wizard of Oz”, he had maintained the speed and softness of when he had read “Little Bunnies Be Good”. After all, this was a children’s program and he wanted to take care of them, so he narrated it very slowly. But the letters this time made him reconsider. The speed could definitely be quicker. Because “The Wizard of Oz” had a more mature theme and suited a larger age group, it would not be suitable to use style of “Little Bunnies Be Good”. The children might still accept this, but the adults definitely would not have the patience. They might like the story itself, but if it was too slow with its emphasis on every word, the adults might not continue to tune in.
Some changes were required!
Three chapters per segment was possible. Adding one chapter wouldn’t be too difficult!
Zhang Ye had Xiaofang contact the recording studio for a booking. He stayed inside the studio for the whole afternoon to prepare the recordings for tomorrow and the day after. Zhang Ye had already recorded tomorrow’s broadcast this morning, but for the quality of the program, Zhang Ye did not think twice about deleting the recording from before. He re-recorded a full three chapters for tomorrow and almost doubled the speed of narration for them. He had set very high standards for himself. He only finalized it after a few recordings.
…
The next day.
Friday.
Everyone had arrived early. Zhang Ye was in the spotlight today. Everyone from the Literature Channel also thought so and were waiting for history to be rewritten, but were unsure if it could happen. Yesterday’s result was a special case. That rating had been brought about by the attention from the Mid-Autumn Poetry Meet event.
Zhao Guozhou also came in very early today. When they saw him coming in at 9:10 A.M., they all saw the smile he had on his face.
He got it?
He broke a historical record?
They listened to Zhao Guozhou announcing, “Today I will not be reading the listenership ratings in order of ranking. First, I would like to announce yesterday’s 3rd placing, Zhang Ye, ‘Late-night Ghost Stories’. The listenership rating is…..” pausing on purpose to pique everyone’s curiosity, Zhao Guozhou continued on, “Everyone applaud! Ghost Stories’ listenership rating is 2.01%! Maybe some people have already expected it. Yes, the program has broken the 2% rating barrier. Not only has it broken the listenership rating record for late-night programs of the same period, it has once again refreshed the historical record for the midnight segment in the country. It has replaced the Central Radio Station’s ‘The Sound of the City’’s legendary ‘Zero Point Night Chat’ from thirteen years ago, which had a 1.99% listenership rating! Now! This legend belongs to us! It belongs to our Beijing Radio Station!”
Whew!
Thunderous applause!
“Haha!”
“Too awesome!”
“Too impressive!”
“I think our channel is about to defy the Heavens!”
It has even exceeded the late-night segment, “The Sound of the City”‘s rating. It may not seem like much, exceeding it by only 0.02%. What was 0.02%, right? However, it was not that simple. Maybe only people in the industry would be shocked by this news. Why would it be shocking? Because it was too shocking!
This was a listenership rating from thirteen years ago. What sort of position did the radio station have back then? It had half dominance, and was already in decline, but it had not been completely taken out by television. A large number of people still maintained the habit of listening to the radio. It was completely different from the harsh broadcasting environment of today. The audience size differed by tens of times! But even so, “Late-night Ghost Stories” had managed to replace “Zero Point Night Chat”‘s record! What sort of value was this!? To people in the industry, this was something impossible!
However, Zhang Ye had managed to do it!
“Ghost Blows Out the Light” had managed to do it!
“Late-night Ghost Stories” had managed to do it!
People had reason to believe, that although they were unable to tell for sure at this moment, that the people on “The Sound of the City” had definitely received this news. They were definitely in a state of shock. They might have never expected that someone could break a listenership record from more than ten years ago in such a broadcasting environment!