Latvian Radio broadcaster Rita Karnača is one of the people without whom radio would not be radio. Latvijas Radio introduces these people in anticipation of its 95th birthday. Rita radio came 30 years ago, leaving the Riga-Jūrmala forest district and becoming a typist. She works half of her radio time in the broadcasting department. Rita is aware of the importance of her work and admits that she would not want to be a journalist because people are not interested in her.
Latvian Radio often has this: we greet in the corridors, know each other by word and voice, but sometimes we do not know how to put them together if our roads do not intersect on a daily basis. This is the case with Rita Karnača. This series of recordings finally gives you a closer look.
“My official job is ‘sound operator’ or ‘airtime operator’. We work in shifts, we are about five teams, ”Rita introduces herself.
An airtime operator is the person who makes sure that everything you hear sounds on the air at the right time and in good quality. When we talk, there is a pre-recorded show, so Rita has a little free time. But only for a moment.
“Pag, I have to play self-promotion now! Let’s play the song to the end, play the commercial and then continue the show. It’s hard to say, you have to see what our game program looks like. Here, with a light movement of your finger, we launch the small record… ”she skillfully presses the necessary buttons on the large console in front of her.
From forestry to radio
Rita Karnača started working in the broadcasting department 15 years ago, but this year is her 30th anniversary on Latvian Radio. And it all started quite amusingly – because previously Rita worked in the Riga-Jūrmala forest district.
“The news service had a nice advertisement – typists are waiting for an assistant during the summer,” she recalls.
Rita was advertised by a colleague and she got on the radio.
“I had imagined that I was a very good typist – I wrote with two fingers! At that time, there was a completely different circulation of documents – the editor came, read, spoke or thought about her message, and the typist wrote it down in several copies – chik, chik, chik, ”she remembers with a smile.
At first, no “chik – chik – chik” came together, and experienced colleagues looked at such awkward writing with big eyes. In time, both Rita came along. But technology, requirements, and the job of typist were no longer needed. But it has always been possible for radio to grow and develop – as long as you are ready to work on it yourself.
For some time in the 1990s, Rita’s job was to listen to the Western media broadcast in Russian at night, translate what she heard and thus supplement the then scarce international news tape. She later became a record operator and, when the seat became vacant, airtime operator. This work requires a lot of attention and patience.
Silence – the worst that can be
“This job does not allow me to remain conceited, does not allow me to think that I am infallible. Any mistake is audible to everyone.
When I started doing this work, I was struck by the thought: at this moment I am alone, and the whole world is opposite!
she says in awe.
Rita’s job is also to follow the good sound in live broadcasts when, for example, guests are sitting behind the glass in the program “Labrīt”, “Kultūras rondo” or “How to live better”.
“I have to see if it’s the right microphone, adjust the level, because one speaks louder, another quieter. Our own speakers, who are professionals, sit down at the microphone, sit there calmly and speak nicely. But the guests are different. An experienced operator is not angry that the guest starts to move in his passion, turn his head… Then I go with that microphone switch so that at least something more can be heard! ” scenes from the daily sketch of Rita.
Does the operator also listen to what is being said in the program? Rita admits that at first everything seemed so interesting that her head was almost torn from a lot of information.
“Then I noticed that I had a self-defense system. It is as if I listen to what is sounding, but I listen not as information, but as sound. For example, in one program “The Known in the Unknown” it was about various noises, sounds – I’m sitting here, and suddenly – silence! As I said, there can be nothing worse than silence in our profession. But it turned out that there is an example of what complete silence sounds like. But I don’t get excited about it! I see – the hardware works, but my first thought – what should I grab, catch? ” she laughs.
People are not interested in principle
The air operator is one of those radio people who cannot work remotely even during a pandemic. But Rita Karnača has no desire to change anything and become, for example, a journalist.
“I’m not the kind of person who can stay focused on any topic and interview people about things that don’t interest me at all. It would be boring and difficult for me, because – may I say? “I don’t care about people in principle,” she admits honestly.
That’s why we feel best on different sides of the microphone. But without Rita’s careful and attentive action, nothing you hear on the air would sound. Because – for everything to sound just good on the air, this externally invisible work must be done brilliantly.
“If I were very, very arrogant, I could say – I am a radio! In that sense, what I do sounds like a radio. And I am aware that I put my work in it, ”sums up Rita Karnača.
–
