Nerves and excitement were buzzing as my group arrived around 10am in the morning on Monday the 10th of April as we began to prepare for our live RWAV show. Tweets were being sent, photos were being taken and interviewees were greeted. Dusty and I practiced our presenting with the script and Rose had a go at getting the panel operating all down-pat so that once we walked into the live show, we would already all be in the zone.
Below is a list of things that went well and not so well, as well as the link to the live show (with annotations).
Enjoy!
- Intro: This intro worked a lot better than the one we did in the demo. It went for a little longer and we seemed more comfortable on air. We introduced the show well including giving a timeframe for things the audience were going to hear later on if they were to tune out at any point. I think this was super important as one needs to have an understanding of the fact that people don’t necessarily hear the whole show. Perhaps if people don’t like on section of the show, they can tune in later.
- Front/Back Announcing: Overall these were great. We constantly heard track names and station and show ID’s as well as a bit of background information every so often about the bands/artists and songs we were playing which gave it just that little bit extra to show we had done our research (and of course we care!). Also a back announce in the intro from the pervious show… this was to ensure listeners knew that this was a new show but still the same station as to not confuse the listener.
- Music: Choice of music I think worked well for the type of show that it was. We had an eclectic mix of sounds and it definitely had a true Triple R sound.
- Panelling: At times there were moments of silence between when the presenters had finished talking and when Rose played a song/promo etc. And there is one particular moment where I had started speaking before Rose turned my mic on. I think that was a bit of miscommunication as I was listening to the music and trying to make it sound professional by talking as the song ended. However, Rose I think was waiting for the song to end before allowing me to speak… which is fair! Again, I think at this moment I was feeling a bit flustered and USUALLY in my own experience, I actually panel operate the shows I am on, meaning that sometimes I forget that others are directing me.
- Interview 1 – Less Meat Less Heat: This is probably my favourite interview of the day. Dusty and I both had a fair share of taking part in the speaking. At times we were probably TOO casual and spoke over each other (including the interviewee) however I think this works well as it meant we were all pretty comfortable with speaking together. It was unfortunate that we ran out of time because Dusty and I had some many pre-planned questions/questions we had thought of then and there that we wanted to ask. I think in future it’s probably best if we work out what NEEDS to be told before asking what we want to ask in order to leave the interview feeling we had asked what people want to hear first + any extra fluff. The interviewee spoke well, I believe he was media trained as well which helps. He seemed keen on the cause and I felt that Dusty and I had done some good research before the show. We both downloaded the app he was advertising ‘The Climatarian Challenge’ so that we could talk to him about that. I think this showed that we cared what he was talking about and made it seem even more natural and well-researched.
- Interview 2: Swordcraft Melbourne. I wasn’t so keen on this interview. Dusty took more control of this one and there was a long period of time where I was heard speaking. I remember during the interview feeling a little out of it in the sense that I just couldn’t get into the interview because at times the interviewee waffled and I lost track. This was probably my own fault and perhaps I could have payed more attention or done a bit more research beforehand. I think it was important that Dusty lead this one as I was about to have my own pre-recorded interview played. It worked well in this sense as I wanted to share the talking around a little more. We probably could have planned this interview better if Dusty was to talk more having me ask one every 2-3 questions rather than a few at once and then nothing. Overall, I think the interview was insightful and it would have been nice to talk to him for a longer period of time (again another time constraint issue).
- Placing of content: The segments ran for a varying length of time which I think makes it seem natural. It probably would have been good to have had something to break up the two long-winded interviews, perhaps even splitting one of the interviews in half to stretch out the time. We had a good amount of content to fill the one hour show and I think we did really well on this aspect.
- The incident during my pre-recorded interview: As you will hear in the live recording, the interview cut out at about 3 minutes in with around 4 minutes to go. Unlike the rest of the audio that was playing off CD’s, this audio was played off Computer 2. In future, we will burn every piece of audio (including interviews) onto a few CD’s so that we do not run into this issue. Rose had double and triple-checked the CD’s to ensure that they worked, so this was fantastic and I applaud her for such hard work. I think we did really well to recover from this mishap, especially considering it was so unexpected. I had begun to read the script from earlier but recovered quick enough so that listeners could find out what the interview was about (a back announce). I also reiterated that they could hear the ‘FULL’ interview on the Triple R website under the RWAV page, which made it almost seem like a planned cutout and it sounded super professional. Dusty also picked up after me quite well, introducing a song. I remember feeling so flustered at this point thinking all this time had passed and we had said nothing, but listening back, I think it was just nerves kicking it. We actually did really well to fill the space and it’s definitely something to add to my portfolio of ways I’ve picked up from tech errors! The cause of the technical error is still unknown, however we believe that the internet may have cut out as it was loading and playing, resulting in corrupt playback.
- Social Media: Social media throughout the session was great, promoting the interviews and what we were talking about. We ensured to take heaps of photos before and throughout the show to allow us to have as much content to post as possible. It was also good that I continuously plugged the Triple R twitter page so if people were keen to check us out elsewhere, they could do this.
- Choice of Interviews/Interviewees: Overall the interviews that took place covered three varying worlds which made the show interesting for a whole range of people with different interests. I think the producer Liv did a great job with the diversity targeted during the show.
- Outro: This also worked just as well as our intro. I made sure to restate what the audience had heard on the show and where to find more information. I plugged the Twitter page and the RWAV website here to ensure that people knew where to go after the show. We front announced the next show which the next show were grateful for! Dusty mentioned the April Subscriber Amnesty as well as why listeners should subscribe. The Talks Producer was shocked but grateful for this as she couldn’t believe that we had done that much research as was really happy that we cared so much for the station. We also thanked each other (this was cute) as well as the rest of our team, to ensure they were recognised as well 🙂
- Vocal Quality: Dusty and I both have very different vocal qualities but this worked well as we sounded really natural. We went up and down at different points which made the show as a whole flow well and not jarring at all.
Overall a really great show and I’m so proud of both myself and the rest of the team for being able to pull off being the first group with less time to prepare!
