Earlier this week I went up to New Hampshire Public Radio to be interviewed by Virginia Prescott on her Word of Mouth program.<\/p>\n
Though I have a small home studio that I use for recording musical compositions, I had never seen a real professional studio before. The sound-proof doors, sound-deadening panels and so forth were really interesting. Naturally, as a ham radio operator, I found the equipment interesting.<\/p>\n
But there were two aspects I found really fascinating.<\/p>\n
The first was that everything is timed down to the second. I got to watch the producer time everything from the cueing of music to the beginning of statements. There are big clocks with digital by-the-second countdowns in the control room. The producer speaks into the host’s headphones, letting her know how much time she has left and so forth.<\/p>\n
The second was the host. Well, certainly she was well-informed and friendly, but I sort of expected that. When listening to talk radio, they make it sound so easy, but watching it live I learned a real appreciation for someone having a live conversation with you while having someone talk in her ear and timing her words down to the second. That is an amazing skill and it was fascinating to watch!<\/p>\n