As I reflect back on the show from yesterday, I want to let you know what happened during the show and provide my observations of the aftermath. I have to tell you, it is absolutely maddening when something doesn’t go right during a live broadcast, which happened at the start of the show. Of all days to experience an issue, yesterday was not the day I wanted to deal with Murphy’s Law!
As I started the show and began my monologue, I could hear a repeat of what I was saying that followed with a ~10 second delay. At first, I worried that this feedback was being broadcast. I then reasoned that it couldn’t be, because my call-screener was not alerting me to anything wrong.
As I focused on my monologue, it was hard to fight the urge to trouble-shoot the issue. I told myself that I had a live audience and had to keep forging ahead, despite the fact that I was hearing my own words repeated back to me in my headset. When I ended my monologue and brought Ivan on the show, it gave me a brief respite while he talked so I could try to understand what was happening. I thought that one of my audio feeds must have been causing the problem and MUTED my broadcast feed, thinking it was something other than what it was! Thank God Ivan was on site. He rushed into the studio and told me he couldn’t hear anything.
I took my feed off mute and stumbled into a conversation with Peter Singleton, after having given my introduction while muted. Sheesh! After I greeted Peter and gave him an opportunity to speak, I noticed something. I had opened up a separate browser window in addition to my broadcast page. Unbeknownst to me, when the show started, that other browser window, which was on the show page, started playing my broadcast, with a 10 second delay. No one could hear it except me!
When I realized what I’d done, I immediately closed that window and, to my relief, the feedback stopped! I kept moving forward in my conversation with Peter Singleton, thinking that the rest of the show would go off without a hitch. Au Contaire!
The show continued to move forward on schedule, leading up to the second biggest “get” I’ve ever had (Jedediah Bila was the first): an interview with Stephen Bannon! I was really looking forward to the conversation, but as the show approached the time of his call-in, Murphy’s Law visited me again: he wasn’t there! I felt terrible keeping Adrienne Ross on the line because I knew she still wasn’t feeling up to par. On the fly, I decided to thank Adrienne and end my conversation with her. The problem was, my next guest wasn’t there!
I segued into my recorded conversation with O.P. Ditch. O.P., if you’re reading this, you saved my bacon! After I started the audio clip, I sent an email to Stephen Bannon. My message was simple: “Stephen, waiting for you to call in to the Roderic Deane Show at 877-478-5783”.
I had to split my audio file with O.P. into two parts, thanks to the constraints of BlogTalkRadio. By the time I had found Stephen’s email address and sent him an email, the first clip of my conversation with O.P. was winding down. I provided a brief introduction to my second clip with O.P. and started that audio file.
To my never-ending relief, I noticed a new call on the line and I waited to be alerted by Ivan, my call-screener. As I watched the monitor, all of a sudden the notice came up: Stephen is on!
I now had to figure out how to end the audio clip that was playing. As Stephen waited in the “wings”, so to speak, we both listened to my conversation with O.P. When the audio clip provided an appropriate break, I cut it off and sequed into an introduction of Stephen Bannon, after offering an apology to O.P.
Stephen delivered a great conversation for the rest of the show. As I looked at the time, I thanked Stephen for calling in and went into my lead-out routine. The show ended with 30 seconds to spare.
Epilogue:
After the show was over, I knew I wasn’t done. I had to contend with the “technical issues” at the start of the show. Live listeners are great, but the beauty of BlogTalkRadio is having your broadcast available to anyone at the time of their choosing. I knew I had to “fix” the start of the show.
I went back to my studio and re-recorded the entire start of the show, including my monologue. I copied the newly-recorded start into the downloaded show, replacing the live version. After finishing, I uploaded the new audio file to BlogTalkRadio in the hopes that archive listeners would not have to experience all my technical difficulties.
By 4:00pm, 3 hours after the show ended, the new audio was available on BlogTalkRadio. I emailed the audio file to Stephen Bannon’s technical team, at his request. At that moment, I suddenly started feeling exhausted, having FINALLY completed the day of my blockbuster show. But I wasn’t finished. I had promised Stephen Bannon that I would listen to his radio broadcast later that night.
I have to be honest. I did stay awake long enough to listen to Stephen Bannon’s show, but I don’t remember anything about it. As soon as it was over, I turned off my laptop and went to bed. It was 9:30pm Central Time.
What a day!
You can listen to the show HERE.
Cross-posted from Roderic Deane