Behind the Scenes of Web, Radio and TV Production

Apparently we had a great show last night on The Kovacs Perspective. Why do I say 'apparently'? Well, it's because I was only able to watch a portion of it. The program the station uses for streaming the show live to the website only recorded 30 minutes of the show. From what I was told, however, YouTube was working just fine, broadcasting properly to those who were watching from there. We haven't lost any of the show, thankfully. I only saw about five or ten minutes of the first guest, and the last ten or fifteen minutes of the second guest. What I did see was great. Parts were rather hilarious, actually.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the show in its entirety, because there was a lot of laughing and joking going on, including an obviously ongoing joke about people throwing pens. Believe it or not, yes, this show was about dating and sex. The pen-throwing had to do with our second guest expressing an opinion that many of our viewers might not agree with. That's the way it goes in the land of broadcasting, though. You're never going to get everyone to agree on things, and controversy makes for entertaining viewing.

Producing any show you're going to have these little issues from time to time. This show is my only experience as a producer, but I've been on TV a few times, along with a bunch of live performances, so I've seen the drama that evolves from everyone scrambling to get everything ready in time. Sometimes people don't show up who are supposed to be on, which means finding last-minute replacements. At the moment I'm handling a similar situation. I'm waiting to hear back on a guest that was supposed to make an appearance on our next show, but because she's a surgeon and has to perform surgery that day, she might not be able to make the show. If she can't it means I only have a few days to find guests for the next show.

Any time anyone makes an appearance on the show, they have forms that they need to fill out. Release forms to give the station permission to broadcast with them on the air, as well as a form with all the information we'll need for the show itself. We want to know their contact information for getting them on the air, since we'll either have them on Skype or on the phone, so that's obviously some pretty important information. Then we need to know a little bit about what they'll be talking about so that the host, +Steve Kovacs, knows what sorts of questions to ask them.

These forms need to be in quite a while before the air date, because I also have a form to fill out that the station needs at least a week before the show. Without the guest forms I can't fill out the host form. Without the host form, there's no show. Within the host form I provide information on the URLs and pictures that will be shown while the guests are on the air. I don't handle any of the graphics, or do anything while the show is actually on (except watch it). That's all done by the station manager, +Len Azzarone, and his producer. I produce only the one show, but there are other shows that are broadcast through WTOE, so there are a few people working to put each show on the air.

Whenever there's a situation with a deadline, such as a live broadcast, there's going to be some stress involved. There are technical issues to contend with, and then there's the human factor. People are fallible. That would also be the reason for the technical issues. Since people make mistakes there will never be a program or application that works 100% perfectly. Speaking as someone who is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my professional activities, that isn't always easy for me to swallow. I want everything to be ready in advance, and I want it to go off without a hitch. Ha! Since that's never going to happen, I have to content myself with doing my best, along with everyone else doing their best, and hope things turn out well in the end. I make mistakes, too, as much as I try to avoid them, so hopefully people will be understanding when I do.

I really hope the guest we're supposed to have for the next show is able to make it, for three reasons. The first being that she's going to be awesome guest. The second reason is that Steve Kovacs specifically wanted to have her on the show. The third is that it saves me a lot of last-minute scrambling. There are a lot of people who want to be on the show, however, so it's usually not that difficult to come up with great guests. I've got a couple of people in mind already, who have requested to be on the show, and I'm very interested in seeing them come on, so even if the original guest does work out I'll still be inviting them to appear - just on a different date.

One major benefit to producing this show is that I get to talk to all these fascinating people. I mean, if I didn't find them interesting I wouldn't be inviting them to come on. I talk to everyone by way of e-mail, of course, but I also talk to some of the guests on Skype before the show so that I can do an audio and video test. We need to know that their microphones and webcams are working correctly, and that they're set up with headphones to prevent feedback. This means carrying on a conversation with a lot of these great people. It's likely that we'll be having some celebrity guests in the near future, too, so it's a good thing I'm not the type to get starstruck.

I'll be letting everyone know when the vodcast for last night's show is available, so anyone who wasn't able to watch it last night can see what all the fuss was about. I'll also be letting everyone know what's happening with our next show when everything is finalized and it comes time to announce it. Stay tuned!