Editing Voice-tracking (section)

==Controversy==
Voice-tracking has been a hotly contested issue within radio circles. Claims were made that the sense of locality is lost, especially when a station employs a disc jockey who has never set foot in that station's town. There is also concern about voice-tracking taking away job opportunities and providing fewer opportunities for disc jockeys in the amounting radio homogenization.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Quieted Voice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Or_ci9_9XoC&pg=PA162|publisher=SIU Press|isbn=978-0-8093-8848-6|pages=162–}}</ref><ref name="AlexanderOwers2003">{{cite book|author1=Alison Alexander|author2=James E. Owers|author3=Rod Carveth|author4=C. Ann Hollifield|author5=Albert N. Greco|title=Media Economics: Theory and Practice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FLqQAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA211|date=8 December 2003|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-62379-1|pages=211–}}</ref>

Still, supporters of voice-tracking contend that a professional presentation on the air by an outsider is preferable to using a local DJ who is not very good. They claim listeners generally like the sound, usually cannot tell that there is not a live disc jockey, and often do not care about the issue even when told. This, however, is not always the case, especially in towns where names have unusual pronunciations; if an out-of-market disc jockey cannot pronounce the name of a fairly common town in the market (for instance, a common barometer in the [[Milwaukee]] market is the proper pronunciation of the suburban community of [[Oconomowoc, Wisconsin|Oconomowoc]]), it is often a [[shibboleth|dead giveaway]] that the jockey is voice-tracked from out of market. Because of this, out-of-market DJs will often avoid making references to local information to avoid any possible faux pas. Some DJs will be trained to pronounce location information or be briefed on local news and events in the area they are serving. 

Proponents also claim that the cost savings gleaned from judicious use of voice-tracking can help keep a struggling station afloat. In those cases, they argue, the process is actually ''saving'' other jobs.

Since voice-tracking is designed to work without human intervention, stations using the process may have no one in the building at all outside of business hours. However, a station manager can often log into the station's main computer system from home (or other remote location) in certain instances, such as if a song track is not working properly.  Malfunctions in the automation equipment or programming after hours, resulting in [[dead air]] or a continuous repeating loop, can go on for hours before being corrected by management.

Another concern is how to alert the public in the event of emergencies, such as weather emergencies like [[tornado]] warnings, oncoming [[hurricane]]s and [[blizzard]] situations, along with other emergencies such as a train derailment or hazardous materials situation. In these cases, other automated systems come into play. [[Emergency Alert System]] (EAS) equipment is programmed to automatically break into whatever is playing and deliver information to the listener, usually using audio from a local government [[weather radio]] service. Often if severe weather conditions are known, a live person is "on-call" to stay at the station and give out details about the situation. For other stations, a 'news sharing' agreement with a television station allows them to carry the audio of a [[television station]] during a breaking news or weather situation, allowing warning of the events without the costs of hiring extra staff.