I’m standardizing metadata for a batch of 60 off-air cassettes, and I’m curious what you log when capturing an aircheck — beyond date/time and callsign, do you include program title, frequency, transmitter site, ads/PSAs, reception notes, or DJ names? I want a set that preserves historical context without bloating the workflow; one example on my desk is a 1979 college FM reel digitized at 24/96 on a Studer A807?
I keep it lean: a sidecar CSV per tape with date/time, callsign, frequency, show + host, city/tx site, and one “notes” field for reception quirks and standout ads/PSAs, then I copy it into the BWF BEXT chunk and a cue sheet on ingest. For a template, PBCore’s minimal set is a solid anchor (https://pbcore.org), and I skip song-by-song unless it’s a special — no need to turn logs into War and Peace; do you want ad-level indexing?
One thing I add is an “era snapshot” line: format, market, and any known callsign aliases, so future-me knows the station context at that date without bloating tags; it’s saved me from the “was this the jazz phase or the punk hours?” problem. I also quick-verify callsign/format history via https://worldradiohistory.com when stations rebranded mid-year. Would you capture the receiver/antenna chain too (just model + antenna type) for reception context?