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Geeky question about cover DJs


Lee E

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Posted on another forum as well, hoping someone can answer

Okay, so conversation ongoing about cover DJ's so I have a question for the experts.
A. how do you decide who to use as cover.
B. how does the hireachary work for instance at R1 Scott always moves to Breakfast and the "cover" as such is brought into his slot, where as drive the cover comes directly into it
C. Would someone like Coxy or Mills have in as part of their contract "for x amount of weeks per your you will cover the breakfast slot"

Just interested in these geeky facts

 

And also

How soon before a show does the DJ arrive - do they need to do a lot of prep on the day, because someone like Adele would have to be there at 1am to get her show ready

Sorry to be a geek but love these facts

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Generally the only weekday daytime DJ's that move slots to cover other shows is Scott / Chris for Grimmy and Adele for Clara. Though Annie has covered Clara on occasion.

Cover for weekday DJ's generally comes from the above or from weekend DJ's. In the case of early breakfast Yasser or Jordan.

Cover for the weekends generically doesn't come in the form of weekday daytime DJ's except when the charts used to be on a Sunday evening. Cover for this is usually Yasser, Jordan or Adele on occasion.

It would seem that it is potentially listed in their contracts, especially in Adele's case, probably a sweetener for taking the early slot, but someone else would probably confirm this.

Arriving for the show, Adele is only about half an hour before, she always used to post an instagram? Or snapchat? video in the taxi on the way in.

Preperation for this is most likely done the day before by herself / her team. Just like most breakfast show features when Scott is on are pre-recorded the day before like RONR,  rather than just a few hours before.. though bangers is usually live.

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34 minutes ago, Lee E said:


A. how do you decide who to use as cover.

 

I don't have any insider info, but I could take a guess. Presumably it's just whoever Ben Cooper wants to try out, or who ever is experienced and a safe pair of hands. He probably uses the same DJ or two to cover specific shows for consistency's sake, and because they've done a good job the previous times they've been on. Whether they're available at that time of day/week is probably another factor.

 

34 minutes ago, Lee E said:


B. how does the hireachary work for instance at R1 Scott always moves to Breakfast and the "cover" as such is brought into his slot, where as drive the cover comes directly into it

If you're asking what I think you are, I think it depends in part on the answer to a. The presenter is picked to cover the DJ going in holiday - e.g. Scott in for Grimmy. That leaves a gap in Scott's slot that needs filling. So someone will be brought in to fill the slot temporarily vacated by Scott. But if the regular cover presenter is on at the weekends, like Dev for Greg, it doesn't leave a gap in the schedule that needs filling because there's nothing to stop Dev doing a week's worth of drive and the two weekend shows as well (as he does most of the time). Hence he's brought straight in to the slot. Interesting how Adele is never used to cover drive though - Greg used to cover for Scott when he was doing early breakfast.

And also, the hierarchy in radio is fairly well established - the weekday breakfast show is the biggest on the station, then the weekday drive show, then the rest of daytimes, and weekend daytimes (and maybe weekday early breakfast) are the lowest mainstream shows on the hierarchy. So cover tends to be temporarily promoted up - drive to breakfast, weekends to drive. Back in't day you used to get Scott in for Chris, Greg in for Scott, Dev in for Greg and someone else in for Dev. But that ended up being quite confusing, hence why weekend presenters tend to go straight into drive now.

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5 minutes ago, 1_tw said:

Generally the only weekday daytime DJ's that move slots to cover other shows is Scott / Chris for Grimmy and Adele for Clara. Though Annie has covered Clara on occasion.

Cover for weekday DJ's generally comes from the above or from weekend DJ's. In the case of early breakfast Yasser or Jordan.

Cover for the weekends generically doesn't come in the form of weekday daytime DJ's except when the charts used to be on a Sunday 

Preperation for this is most likely done the day before by herself / her team. Just like most breakfast show features when Scott is on are pre-recorded the day before like RONR,  rather than just a few hours before.. though bangers is usually live.

I have always thought breakfast prep would be done post show

So RONR is pre recorded? Sounds live to me wow never knew that

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12 minutes ago, OohErr said:

 

And also, the hierarchy in radio is fairly well established - the weekday breakfast show is the biggest on the station, then the weekday drive show, then the rest of daytimes, and weekend daytimes (and maybe weekday early breakfast) are the lowest mainstream shows on the hierarchy. So cover tends to be temporarily promoted up - drive to breakfast, weekends to drive. Back in't day you used to get Scott in for Chris, Greg in for Scott, Dev in for Greg and someone else in for Dev. But that ended up being quite confusing, hence why weekend presenters tend to go straight into drive now.

So in effect scott was demoted in 2012 if you like and greg and Grimmy put in better slots as such 

 

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RONR where it's a listener is generally pre-recorded, the Who game is also pre-recorded, can't comment on the general phone in's though, but bangers is most definitely live.

With Greg's show things like the going home song, the mayor of where, or it's latest incarnation are also pre-recorded.

Pre-recording things with other DJ's and guests also happens more than you think.

11 minutes ago, Lee E said:

I have always thought breakfast prep would be done post show

So RONR is pre recorded? Sounds live to me wow never knew that

 

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4 minutes ago, 1_tw said:

RONR where it's a listener is generally pre-recorded, the Who game is also pre-recorded, can't comment on the general phone in's though, but bangers is most definitely live.

With Greg's show things like the going home song, the mayor of where, or it's latest incarnation are also pre-recorded.

Pre-recording things with other DJ's and guests also happens more than you think.

 

So RONR with another DJ is live then? 

When is the going home song recorded the day before or earlier in the day? Never knew any of this

Scott certainly seems to be able to time everything just right does that come with years of practice 

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RONR dependant on the DJ I would say. Greg / Charlie would be guaranteed live, but when Clara plays sometimes it sounds pre-recorded.

Going home song is a good question, would say the day before sometime during / shortly after the show where they ask for people to text in I would say.

Most of the weekend DJ's are in at some point during the week to record interviews and prepare for their shows.

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8 hours ago, 1_tw said:

RONR dependant on the DJ I would say. Greg / Charlie would be guaranteed live, but when Clara plays sometimes it sounds pre-recorded.

Going home song is a good question, would say the day before sometime during / shortly after the show where they ask for people to text in I would say.

Most of the weekend DJ's are in at some point during the week to record interviews and prepare for their shows.

Most of the time when Alice plays, it is live because, as you said, she's in during the week preparing for her shows.

As for other pre-recorded stuff, almost all the weekend interviews are pre-recorded. With Scott's show, things like the Who game and some listener stories (especially when you see Scott's/Chris' pleas on Twitter) are done prior to the show. Other listener's stories can be entirely live though.

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Now I have another question (thanks for the replied BTW)

It would sound to me that Grimmys whole team are on holiday

Does this mean Scotts whole team moves to the breakfast show and produces that, which is why all of Scotts features are on there - its basically the normal 1-4 show but in the morning, where as when Scott has covered odd days, its all of the usual stuff

If Scotts team is on the breakfast show, then who would be doing the Matt Edmunson show in the afternoon covering for Scott - Matts Weekend team?

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59 minutes ago, Lee E said:

Now I have another question (thanks for the replied BTW)

It would sound to me that Grimmys whole team are on holiday

Does this mean Scotts whole team moves to the breakfast show and produces that, which is why all of Scotts features are on there - its basically the normal 1-4 show but in the morning, where as when Scott has covered odd days, its all of the usual stuff

If Scotts team is on the breakfast show, then who would be doing the Matt Edmunson show in the afternoon covering for Scott - Matts Weekend team?

When all of the usual breakfast team is off on holiday, yes, all of Scott's team move to breakfast and all of Matt's would move into Scott's show for the period of time that they cover but this is not always the case. However, if Scott covers breakfast when Grimmy is off sick or has the odd day off (usually Monday or Friday), the breakfast team will remain unchanged (i.e. Fiona as AP, Tina as newsreader etc) as will Scott's team in the afternoon. 

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It must be a bit annoying that the breakfast team's holidays are sort of defined by when Grimmy wants to take his. 

With Greg or Scott, it's less of a big deal because one member of the team being off doesn't disrupt the on-air "team" sound of the show. If Greg is off, Ian is often still producing Dev and likewise if Ian is off, Travis or someone else just steps in as Producer.

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On 4/3/2017 at 9:56 PM, Lee E said:

When is the going home song recorded the day before or earlier in the day?

The Going Home Song is recorded during the show that they ask for the callers, for example on Fridays before the chart moved in they would record Mondays GHS then,  Tuesdays would be done during Mondays show etc etc. It's usually one of the AP's jobs to do the GHS.

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14 hours ago, murste said:

It must be a bit annoying that the breakfast team's holidays are sort of defined by when Grimmy wants to take his. 

With Greg or Scott, it's less of a big deal because one member of the team being off doesn't disrupt the on-air "team" sound of the show. If Greg is off, Ian is often still producing Dev and likewise if Ian is off, Travis or someone else just steps in as Producer.

I would imagine its something similar to what is called in my industry "rostered annual leave" where your leave is defined into three blocks (2 weeks spring, 2 Summer and 2 winter) with some spare days to take ad hoc. So first 2 weeks April 17 are "the breakfast team" etc etc.

Just a theory.

Whats pleasing this week, is that breakfast is in effect Scott and Chris's 1-4 show just between 630-10 instead with their features, and bits, where as Scott standing in on a sick day would be Grimmys normal show with Scott hosting, listened to Coxy a bit on R2 as well, and she is doing a good job there as well.

So this week and next 9apart from Friday where there is a two hour Grimmy/Styles interview we have half hour more of the usual Mills show just in the morning, and Matt wasn't too bad covering the 1-4 slot.

leading on from this..... now when Scott covers Breakfast like this, do they use studio 82A where grimy comes from or do they use their own one?  

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7 hours ago, Lee E said:

when Scott covers Breakfast like this, do they use studio 82A where grimy comes from or do they use their own one?  

All of these questions' answers are mere guesses in this thread, so don't take them as read. 

All dependent on availability of studios, but usually the breakfast show will come from 82A or the one opposite, with pre-records coming from the studios closest to the green room. 

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