Every few weeks I work on a Saturday morning. It’s a long on-air shift from 6:00 a.m. to midday. Yesterday was one of those Saturdays.
If I’m rostered on-air I like to be at the radio station well before it’s time to sit behind the microphone. Unfortunately I was running a little late yesterday morning.
Now I have to let you in on a little secret. Our midnight to dawn shift isn’t live. From midnight each night until 6:00 a.m. the next day the announcer’s talk breaks are all played to air from computer. The appointed midnight to dawn announcer records everything the day before, so the announcer that finishes at midnight simply tells the computer to go into automation mode and lets it do it’s thing for six hours. That means that if no announcer turns up in time, the computer simply stops somewhere around 6 o’clock. Not good.
I left home much later than I wanted to yesterday morning and pedalled pretty hard. Thankfully I only got one red light the whole trip and the traffic before sunrise on a Saturday morning is usually fairly light. I watched my heart rate monitor slip into overdrive through a large portion of the trip.
Once I arrived at the radio station I threw my bike over my shoulder and dashed upstairs. I went straight into the studio and saw that the final hour of the mid-dawn shift was going to run about three minutes short. There was just 2 minutes and 50 seconds of the final song of the hour left. I quickly had to search the computer for a suitable 3 minute song to add to bring us up to 6 o’clock. With about 12 seconds left I pushed the enter button on the studio computer and added a song.
Three minutes later, at exactly 6:00 a.m., I opened the microphone for the first time in my six hour shift and wished everyone a good morning. Everything was just fine. (Thankfully there is always a journalist preparing news bulletins in the radio station well before 6 so if push came to shove they could race around and push a couple of buttons.)
Next time I think I’ll do two things. I’ll get to bed sooner the night before and I’ll set my alarm to go off a little earlier in the morning.
Posted by Rodney Olsen
Technorati Tags: Radio – Sonshine FM – Running Late
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Well done Rodney, at least you made it alright. I guess with your job, if you are late, the whole of the listening audience knows about it when the dead-air penetrates the airwaves. By the way, I was listening at 6am. I didn’t notice you were puffing, Honest.
You’re right, Scott.
If most people make mistakes at work they can simply correct them and move on. If I make a mistake, several thousand people know about it immediately.
Rodney,
You and Hamo are my token Westies so I thought I’d let you know that I’m going to be over there…from the 4th to the 13th of March. We’re taking a little holiday before Jackie (the wife) goes on a course from the 9th-12th… so if you guys are around about then.. it’ll be cool to catch up for dinner or something.
Also we haven’t booked any accommodation yet – and so can you recommend:
1. somewhere nice and reasonably cheap in Freo?
2. as above…in or near Margaret River?
Any other tips for a good holiday (other than not getting eaten by sharks)?
Cheers & hope you’re all well.
Luke.
Mid-dawn not live? Next thing you’ll be telling us the music’s prerecorded, too
Rodney….
You said you were an ABBA fan…You should have jumped straight for “When I Kissed The Teacher” (3:01) or “Money, Money, Money” (3:06). 🙂
Glad it worked out!
Have a wonderful day/night, Mate!
Nice timing. I’m sure it’s not the first time someone has almost missed a talk break. Actually, I know it’s not.
no more abba, NO MORE ABBA! Please no more abba….*curls up into the faetal position in the corner and starts to shiver*
*starts slow chant*
A…BBA!
A…BBA!
A…BBA!
😀
Love me some ABBA.
“If you change your mind, I’m the first in line. Honey, I’m still free, take a chance on me.”
Woah, that’s cutting it fine. I think I would have a little freak out if I was in the same position and all the listeners would hear would be the sounds of silence!
Thanks for the inside info about working at a radio station, it’s interesting stuff to hear.
But finding out that midnight to dawn isn’t live is a bit like discovering the Easter Bunny doesn’t exist. It’s kind of a sad moment.:-(
Andrew, it is a bit sad. Even sadder is the fact that some local stations are automating some of their day and evening shifts too. I really don’t get that at all.
I didn’t realise you started so early, I just asumed that you got there at about 8:50am 😛
Much respect goes out to you.
Hi Nichola.
I had to get to work that early to do the breakfast shift on Saturday.
When I’m doing my regular 9 to midday weekday shift I try to get to work by about 7:30. That gives me time to prepare and get organised.
Whew! That was a close one! FWIW, I’m almost always running late for work. I think if I was at a radio station, there would be LOTS of dead air. I’d sell it as a time for ‘mediation and yoga’ for the listeners. Do you think they’d fall for it?
Post like that make me feel blessed to live in Kenya. Here we are never in a hurry to do anything, and if you are late, even for radio or TV programs, no one seems to mind.