The misassumption of running Tiistain Tanssi-ilta is that it doesn’t take much time. When I started working at YleX in the beginning of the year, Orkidea, OlliS and Leena all told me that running a well planned show bi-weekly is going to take hell an amount of time. I did believe them, but still I was surprised how much work it actually is. Here’s the short anatomy of one Tiistain Tanssi-ilta show:
– Tuesday – one week before the show
Compiling the first version of the tracks selected to the upcoming show. Writing the press announcement about the upcoming featured artist. Making possible interviews. Writing and scheduling a blog post which includes the press release and setting it to go live on Saturday or Sunday.
– Thursday/Friday
Mixing and mastering the final one hour version of the show. Fitting in the pre-recorded parts such as Featured Artist and possible interviews. Archiving an mp3 copy, leaving the .wav file for broadcasting.
– Saturday/Sunday
Releasing the info about the upcoming show all over the web. Sending the tracklist and press announcement to YleX. Listening through the one-hour mix at least once for the manuscript writing purposes. Writing and scheduling the blog post which includes the tracklist and the selected music news from the past weeks. The blog post goes live on Tuesday 21:55.
– Monday
Going through the tracks and gathering the Teosto information. Sending the reminder to the next Featured Artist. Making the manuscript for the next day’s show (I’m pretty used to this already, but it still takes more than one hour to do).
– Tuesday – Tiistain Tanssi-ilta
Heading to Pasila about 1,5h before the show. Writing the Teosto information for every track played in the show: Track name, Artist name, Artist’s real name, Country, Year, Label, Catalog Number, Original Track Length, Played Track Length. Setting the Yle Areena to work correctly and to broadcast Tanssi-ilta on-demand for the next week. Plugging the laptop to the YleX mixer, setting the mics and jingles ready, playing the show, making the voice-overs live. Leaving Pasila about 5 minutes after the show. Checking that the show information has gone live as planned on the blog and on YleX services.
– Wednesday – (two weeks before the next show)
Searching for new music for the next show and sorting out news for the next show start. These two go on daily for the next two weeks and take a pretty significant amount of time. Sending a reminder to the next featured artist, if not gotten a pre-recorded voice-over and the featured track yet. Informing about the past show, posting through the forums and social media. Answering the emails and feedback. Having a couple of days “free” and starting from the beginning again :)
I once counted that you use easily a full work day (8 hours) for the routines mentioned above. If an interview is included, you can count 2-3 hours extra work and all these hours definitely do not include searching and listening through the new music, which easily takes in average 1-2 hours a day.
Work is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude. I like fun.
-Colleen C. Barrett