Have you ever had your studio booking interrupted by another presenter?
This does happen from time to time, and it’s slightly challenging to figure out. Please read here to gain a little clarity about the problems and the processes.
What can be booked?
At MainFM, you can book:
- Studio 3 (The ‘Production Studio)
- The ‘Off-Air’ studio, which is whichever of studio 1 or 2 that’s not being used to broadcast live at the time
Studio 3 can be booked in up to 3 hour blocks whenever you like, and you will not be interrupted during this time. It is slightly limited in terms of equipment compared to studios 1 and 2, but this is something we’re trying to remedy.
Booking the ‘Off-Air’ studio – Consider this!
The priority is always given to live presenters in studios 1 and 2.
Some live presenters like to arrive up to 45mins before their show to prepare and get in the zone. Usually it’s 15-20 mins, but some people do like more space to settle nerves and gather their thoughts.
Anyone booking the Off-Air studio must be prepared to make way for a live presenter possibly arriving ahead of their show time.
Some live presenters spend time after their show saving their audio and organising their thoughts. This rarely takes more than 15 minutes, but it can be an important part of a presenter’s process.
So what does this mean?
Let’s think about this example…
Three people want to use the Off-Air studio on Sunday morning.
Firstly, we need to think about who is presenting during the morning.
We can see 9-10 is free (MainFM Music means Auto-Playlist music)
Luca is presenting Art Swank from 10-11.
Kya & Lucy are presenting The Upshot from 11-12.
Elizabeth presents Sunday Best from 12-1:30.
Rich McLeish presents The Hero Lounge from 1:30 until 3.
Some of these shows may be loaded as pre-records and some may be live. How do we know? This is a good question for someone at the station, for the presenters themselves, or perhaps for the WhatsApp group or Facebook Presenters group. Things change often so it’s difficult to say with much consistency or predictability.
So here we have 3 people wanting to use the Off-Air studio. What should they think about?
Ben wants to start at the same time as Luca. This will be fine as no one is due to present beforehand, so he won’t be taking over from anyone. He can walk right in and do his thing.
However, Kya and Lucy are due to begin at 11am. If Luca is live at 10am, Kya and Lucy will need to set up in the Off-Air studio, next door, from around 10:40 or so, so Ben will be interrupted. He could move into Luca’s studio once she has vacated it, if he wanted to, but he needs to consider Elizabeth! If she’s live from 12 midday, she’ll need to set up at around 11:40, so he may well be interrupted again.
Long story short…this hasn’t been a great morning for Ben.
Tamsen will need to time for Kya and Lucy to finish up, but she’ll be OK through to her 1pm finish time as Elizabeth isn’t due to finish until 1:30, so Tamsen will have at least a clear 45 mins.
Can you tell what Renata will need to think about?
What’s the moral of the story?
Well, the first point is that Studio 3 is best to use as you won’t receive any interruptions.
What else?
If you book the Off-Air studio, you need to figure out who’s doing what to ensure you won’t be interrupted. This is up to you. Try reaching out to the presenter group to ask any questions you may have, or contact presenters directly.