Tuesday, October 14, 2008

A Basic Lesson in How Not to Do An Interview

Yesterday evening I did an hour long stint on Radio Norfolk taking to Drivetime presenter Nick Conrad about my favourite records - it was a bit like Desert Island Discs, I suppose. It was quite enjoyable apart from the fact that I committed a cardinal sin of media training.

I did the live interview from a studio at Millbank and therefore had to wear headphones. When the studio engineer came through and I spoke to him I could hear my own voice in the headphones about a second after I had spoken. I assumed that wouldn't be the case when I was talking to the presenter and didn't say anything about it. Boy was I wrong. I spent the whole hour having to talk and listen to myself with a slight time delay. I couldn't remove the headphones because I wouldn't have been able to hear if Nick Conrad interrupted me.

I hoped that while a record was playing either the studio or the presenter would come on so I could tell them what was happening, but neither did.

So I just gritted my teeth, tried to go temporarily deaf, and got on with it. I have learned the lesson!

I could tell you now what records I chose, but frankly you can probably guess...

18 comments:

Alan Douglas said...

Number 1 pick : Dancing Queen, by um, er ...

Alan Douglas

Iain Dale said...

Got it in one. Bet you can't guess what the others were though.

Old BE said...

An hour! I hate that when it happens on the phone, so much so that I make the call as short as possible.

Anonymous said...

a bugger to happen to you (I, too, hate it when on the phone) but what was the sin? Is there a way to stop it?

Anonymous said...

Why didn't you just tell them about your problem?

Anonymous said...

I am probably wrong but I thought hearing your own voice with a slight delay was how it was normally done - so that you know you're being received and you can tell if you need to back off the mic a bit or talk louder.

Anonymous said...

"I guess thats why they call it the blues?"

"Im still standing"....(but not in North Norfolk ever again!)

Any classical? Benjamin Britten for the East Anglian connection?

Anonymous said...

I cannot believe you managed an hour of it - it happens to me sometimes on the mobile and it is just impossible to speak.

I have no idea what singers are listening to in the studio when they have headphones on, I always thought it was everything but their own voices.

Anonymous said...

You can mitigate the effects of this by pushing one of the headphones off your ear. It helps by making your own voice sound louder than whats known as the loop-back. Not a perfect solution, but it helps...

Iain Dale said...

That's what I did!

Anonymous said...

I have no idea what singers are listening to in the studio when they have headphones on,

everything. The mix of the instruments that they're singing over and their own vocals as modified through the sound engineering.

James Higham said...

Go on - spill it. Which records?

Anonymous said...

"It's Up with the Partridge !!"

Radio Local is fantastic !

Radio Brizzle is hard to distinguish between reality and a 'Down the Line' / Steve Coogan spoof - but that is why we like it...

Is you available as a podcast, me homey ?

p.s. Look on the bright side, you are still younger than Tim Westwood..

Anonymous said...

Paradise by the dashboard light?

Ed said...

Bat out of Hell ....

Anonymous said...

Pure Partridge!

The Daily Pundit said...

I'll take a guess at Puppet on a String, Boom Bang-A-Bang, Ding Dinge Dong and Save Your Kisses For Me. With Congratulations thrown in for good measure.

Anonymous said...

It's Raining Men ?
freedom to prosper