A Peek Behind the Scenes

The radio life seems kinda glamorous, doesn't it? In my pre-radio days, I always had pre-conceived visions of how it worked. I imagined hosts and DJ's coming into a studio with neatly stacked papers and sitting in a well-postured manner behind a microphone, creating this magic for me to hear.

So.

You wanna know how it REALLY goes?

I debated about posting this because, you know, we really do want you to think we have good posture and neatly stacked notes. But I thought you might like a peek behind the scenes...

So this past Tuesday, Lynne's scheduled show was with Dr. Ann Kulze, who is a nutrition expert she chats with once a month. Our listeners love Dr. Ann and we get tons of questions for her every month. Since my input wouldn't be needed for that show, {I mean, come on...really...do I look like a good backup for the nutrition expert???}, I gathered up my stack of People magazines and headed to the engineering board for an hour.

I sat tall in my chair with the magazines in a perfect stack beside me and smiled me 3rd grader cheeser smile to Lynne as I pointed to her to let her know her mic was on...and the show began. I carefully slid the music into a fade and triple/quadruple checked all the mics and sliders to make sure everything was in order for the show. Lynne gave her introduction and I sat with one hand poised on Dr. Ann's mic to check her volume...when we discovered...she was gone. She'd been on hold for about five minutes and when the moment came...she was gone.

We very calmly clicked on the backup music and reconnected with her, and I sat tall in my chair for our show: take two.

The interview began and seemed to be going very well...so I sat back {I slouched...let's call it what it is} and picked up the top magazine to read all about the allegedly handsome celebrity men...and about fifteen minutes into the interview, Dr. Ann said she couldn't hear us anymore.

To recap: we were 20 minutes into the show and our guest couldn't hear us, which meant something had happened to our phone lines. We had no choice but to let her go and forfeit the interview for the morning. Because if you weren't sure...Lynne and I are not telephone issue experts.

So right there on the spot, we had to formulate a plan B. Live. On the air. With thousands of people listening. I ditched my magazine, sat up straight again and turned on my microphone. Lynne and I exchanged what felt like very awkward greetings and stated that we would  come up with a new plan for the remaining 40 minutes of the show.

Lynne started another emergency song and the two of us leapt out of our chairs and took off in a dead run down the hallway to our office. I'm not kidding. Dead run. In boots. With heels.

We grabbed various books, binders, and ideas from our desks and did a dead run back down the hall, furiously scribbling notes as the song concluded. Then we opened our mics and flopped back in our seats, papers strewn about...and we laughed and told stories for the remainder of the show.

And THAT, my friends, is how it really goes in the land of radio.

Sometimes.

You never know what a day might bring. But you can be guaranteed there will be slouching and messy stacks. Even on the best day.

If you wanna hear the fun...check it out here.