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3 Things We Learned From Our First Live Podcast Tapings
January 22, 2019
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. As a radio programmer at both WBCN in Boston and WBRU in Providence, one of the highlights of every summer was heading backstage at Great Woods to broadcast a series of interviews for the Warped Tour. There's something about producing a show outside of the confines of the studio walls that infuses it with excitement. So I always knew that I wanted to eventually record a podcast episode on location in front of a live studio audience
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From the moment we first launched The D Brief podcast, one of my goals was to record the show in front of a live audience. During my time in radio, I always loved these types of broadcasts. I first set foot in a radio station as a teenager when I sat in the studio audience to watch Live 105's Alex Bennett host his morning show in San Francisco.
As a radio programmer at both WBCN in Boston and WBRU in Providence, one of the highlights of every summer was heading backstage at Great Woods to broadcast a series of interviews for the Warped Tour. There's something about producing a show outside of the confines of the studio walls that infuses it with excitement. So I always knew that I wanted to eventually record a podcast episode on location in front of a live studio audience.
Technically, our first live taping wasn't for our show. Joe Sehy invited Becky and I to open for a live taping of his financial advice podcast, Stacking Benjamins. This taping happened at Go Comedy in Ferndale, a theater that usually hosts improvisational comedy shows. This was the third live taping of a Stacking Benjamins episode, and it was clear that the cast and crew on that show had learned a lot in short amount of time. They spent hours rehearsing and sound checking before the show. When the doors opened and the audience came in, their preparation paid off. We learned a lot watching Joe's crew, and we were grateful for the opportunity.
Our first live taping that was exclusively for The D Brief happened less than a month later. Unlike the Stacking Benjamins taping, we hosted ours in a microbrewery. There was no stage to elevate us and no lighting to ensure that we were the focal point. The venue had a PA system consisting of an amplified speaker that we planned to use. We brought the rest of our regular equipment ourselves. Unfortunately, the venue's PA system stopped working a few days before our show and we didn't find out until we arrived to set up. We scrambled for a workaround. Ultimately, we wired our mixer through the house speakers, but because there was a bluetooth Sonos system in the chain, the audio through the speakers had a lag. This taught us our first lesson: Unless the venue has a dedicated audio engineer, never rely on somebody else's equipment. I bought our own PA system after that first taping.
The second lesson we learned from this taping: Assume the setup is going to take twice as long as you think it's going to take. This bit of wisdom was actually imparted to me when I solicited advice from the Podcast Movement Facebook group heading into the event. Sure enough, it turned out to be prescient. Given the need to adjust our sound system plans on the fly, it took me a full three hours to set up for the evening - longer than I anticipated. Fortunately, I had heeded the advice and had enough time.
Finally, we learned that while you do want to incorporate the live audience into your podcast in small ways, you don't want to break significantly from the regular format of your show. After all, the number of people who will listen to the recording is far greater than the number who will be in attendance. When I listen back to the recordings of these shows (we recorded two episodes in front of an audience that evening), I can hear myself playing to the audience a little too much at the beginning - polling by applause, for example. I did it less as the shows went on, and I think they sound better because of it.
Our first podcast taping in front of a live audience was a learning experience. While there were no major disasters, there were certainly opportunities to improve. This will not be our last live show; and as we do more, I will continue to share what I learn from them here.
LISTEN: Hear the latest episode of The D Brief podcast.
More Glimpses Behind the Scenes:
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