Sometimes, Michael and I take turns being producer on TY Radio. When I do the job, things go alright, and I usually have my materials ready a few hours ahead which gives me time to train students and get them ready for air. When Michael does it… Well, that’s a different story.
To set the scene, Michael has arrived in my room, he has no idea what he’ll do for today’s TY Radio, which will begin in two hours, and he’s trying to make a deal: If I do the work on today’s show, I won’t have to worry about working Monday since he has it covered. But, there’s a catch: he also needs me to come up with the shows after Monday too.
MICHAEL: Monday, I’ve got a show. Bizarrely it’s a Michael Jackson tribute because someone wants to come.
ME: Again? How many Michael Jackson tributes are we going to do? We’ve mentioned him in almost every single show we’ve done this year with all the 2009 wrap-ups.
MICHAEL: Well… But someone… that teacher… I didn’t want to say ‘no’ because that takes a show off our hands and that teacher wants to come – I mean, it doesn’t take it off our hands, but that teacher wants to come from another school and wants to bring some students who want to play.
ME: Who’s the teacher?
MICHAEL: You know Stella?
ME: Stella again? The same Stella who keeps coming to do music shows?
MICHAEL: She wants to come and play Jacko.
ME: Why are you even asking me if I know Stella? Just say Stella. I know who she is. Who’s she bringing?
MICHAEL: Bringing students.
ME: Just general students?
MICHAEL: Yeah
ME: Whatever you want to do, dude. It’s your show.
MICHAEL: So we have to come up with something for after.
ME: Look, I did all the shows all the way from start to Chinese New Year, so whatever you want to do with the rest of them for the next two weeks, pick what you want to do. If Stella wants to do it, that’s cool.
MICHAEL: Yeah, it’s cool with her. Don’t worry about Monday…
ME: I’m not worried about Monday.
MICHAEL: What should we do tomorrow? Should we try and do a show on street food? Maybe it will be too quick to do that.
ME: Like I said, since I did the shows up to Chinese New Year, you can do the shows for the next two weeks or so. From now on, I can take Fridays shows with the girls after we start going out and getting sound around town and working out what the shows will be. This week I have to get them trained up and do the NOW TV course work. Apart from that, I’m swamped with NOW TV for the next two weeks by order of “M”, so it’s on you.
MICHAEL: What do you have to do with NOW TV?
ME: I’m running the courses. Which is perfect that it starts now since I did the shows before, so you can take them this time and I’ll just show up and do ‘em at the appointed time just like you did the last two weeks.
MICHAEL: Fridays isn’t a problem, those girls can talk and I’ll handle it.
ME: No, like I discussed with “M” and the “X” (big-boss), we’ll be doing something a little different with that by training students to go out and get sound.
MICHAEL: Well the problem is we can’t just… I mean… I’d love to do… I asked them “Why don’t we just do one show a week and do it well?” and they were like, “No.”
ME: Well, obviously for the last two weeks we did a show every day, and they were good shows. Every time we got in there, we did a good job, did it on time and the students liked it. They were good.
MICHAEL: Yeah… I guess.
ME: What? You don’t agree? Which show wasn’t good?
MICHAEL: Well, we canceled one.
ME: We did Welcome Back, we did Best of 2009 Movies, we did Celebrity Gossip of 2009, Best Music of 2009… Which one did we cancel?
MICHAEL: It was a Thursday show.
ME: The News of 2009 show? Because there were no students, right?
MICHAEL: Yeah.
ME: And your only job this year, so far, has been to get students into the studio to do the show, right?
MICHAEL: Well… It’s not my only job.
ME: Okay, anyway, that show still went on the air the other day to cover for you because you didn’t have a show. Correct?
MICHAEL: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. But what I mean is we haven’t done as many shows. We’re one show down, and I think some of the shows… Well, some of them were good.
ME: Which ones weren’t good?
MICHAEL: Ummmm. Well… I guess they were all good.
ME: So we’ve put on a good show almost every time. I don’t see why we can’t keep that up.
MICHAEL: Yeah…
ME: Just put in the amount of effort we put in before, or I should say, what I’ve put in before and we’ll have a good show every time. Got it?
MICHAEL: Yeah, the problem is that you took a lot of the work for the content…
ME: No, I took all the work for the content.
MICHAEL: Yeah, but, the problem is that obviously there’s all the other things to do as well.
ME: Such as?
MICHAEL: Uhhh. Finding students… There’s all of the other aspects of running the show and the radio station, like… that’s why I spend a lot of the time doing the technical side…
ME: Could you be more specific?
MICHAEL: Little things creep up all the time, like the computers, like we’re running out of space on, like, where we store all our shows, that’s one of the things I have to sort out, like, things like that.
ME: Isn’t that Sam’s job?
MICHAEL: Well…
ME: That’s his job, right? He’s tech?
MICHAEL: Yeah.
ME: So what you’re saying is you’re doing his job, and I’m doing your job plus my job?
MICHAEL: Yeah, that’s basically what I’m saying. Well… No. What I mean is… Yeah… What I’m saying is there’s more than meets the eye.
ME: So you’re saying you can’t do the work?
MICHAEL: No, I’m not saying I can’t, I’m just concerned if you just dedicate all of your time for radio to one show on Friday.
ME: I never said that, I said that I can start taking Fridays and after the NOW TV stuff is over, I can dedicate myself to a Friday show every time, train the students and still do what we always do in dividing responsibility. I’m just laying claim to Friday because I’ve already spoken to “M” and “X” and they want to do it, so we’re doing it.
MICHAEL: Well… Do we need to keep that just for Fridays? Because…
ME: If I’m going to use those same students, probably. Unless they start moving schedule time around. So, starting on the 12th, Friday’s are pretty much solid.
MICHAEL: So where are we now? That’s two weeks from now. Two Fridays.
ME: And like I said, I did the last run of shows, so you’re the boss. I’m on NOW TV and training right now.
MICHAEL: I think we should try and do that more, if we can get more recorded content I… The problem is that you can’t just do that on the spot obviously.
ME: That’s why we should be working a week ahead of every show. I’ll be sitting down with the girls to discuss what we want to do, then I’ll be out with them, help them record, gather their materials and edit them until I can get them trained in editing as well, and have shows ready at least a week in advance.
MICHAEL: I reckon they’d be capable of doing that. Editing.
ME: I do too, but that’s a lot to burden them with. I want them to enjoy it, not feel like it’s a full time job. We haven’t even sat down and done mic training or anything.
MICHAEL: Yeah, I guess so…
ME: So just do some brainstorming, send me a schedule, let me know what you come up with, and I’ll be there to assist.
MICHAEL: Got any ideas on what we could do for music on today’s show?
ME: Try iTunes.
MICHAEL: I don’t have an account.
ME: Well, wherever you get your music from then.
MICHAEL: Did you copy your music onto this computer? Can I have a look?
ME: No. I deleted it all.
MICHAEL: What’s your schedule after 3:30?
ME: I have class.
MICHAEL: Well, today’s show, I don’t know if we’ll finish on time. Kristy said she’d be down late.
ME: Well, we’ll see what we can do to begin and end on time.
MICHAEL: Do you have an iTunes account?
ME: Yes, and you can’t have it.
You can read more about the adventures of Michael here and here.
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