voice over levels for radio broadcast?

[remote(s)]

hello! i'm helping a friend put together a project for a local community radio station. it's a series of stories/conversations/etc. delivered in mono-/dia-logue format. kind of like story corps on npr if you're familiar. the pieces will be 2-3 minutes long and will run between regular music and talk programming.

anyway, i'm helping with the editing and technical production and was wondering if there is an optimal peak/avg. level we should be shooting for before turning the pieces in for broadcast? i currently have them peaking around -6dBfs, with the average down in the -16/-20dBfs range.

any thoughts/suggestions?

thanks!

[rydberg]

You can safely peak at -0.3 dBfs and average around -12/-16 dBfs.

[electrofloss]

As far as I know, there are no real "specs" for radio broadcast like there are for television. Usually there is a Board Op (or a computer) that will adjust your levels in addition to whatever compressors/limiters in the broadcast chain. Nowadays I peak at -0.5 or so, but I used to release stuff at much lower levels and it still sounded fine on the air.

[remote(s)]

hey, thanks for the responses...i guess we'll print them a bit hotter before turning them in.