The passions of producing FIR

If you listened to FIR 465 on Monday, or you subscribe to the FIR blog posts RSS feed, you’ll know that I won’t be co-presenting today’s episode of The Hobson and Holtz Report podcast with Shel.

Instead, you’ll have the opportunity of enjoying the participation of guest co-host Kami Watson Huyse, a public relations consultant based in Houston, Texas, principal of virtual agency My PR Pro, active in social media circles and a long-time blogger.

We’ve had a few other instances in recent weeks where I’ve not been able to co-host our twice-weekly show. It’s more usually been the other way around, with Shel’s travels and schedules more often producing a solo performance from me.

Which brings me to a question I’ve been asked a few times recently – when I do a solo show, how come I don’t do what Shel does when he’s solo, which is to get a guest co-host, as he’s doing with today’s show?

The straightforward answer is largely a tech-related one. Basically, Shel’s hardware-based rig and overall setup (here’s his travel rig to give you a good idea) means he’s able to bring in different elements of a show – other co-host live via Skype, recorded contributor reports, listener comments, etc – as a seamless whole and capture a one-hour show with all those elements in one single-pass recording.

In contrast, I don’t use any of that hardware – my rig is a Sony Vaio laptop PC, microphone and headphones, Adobe Audition 3, and that’s about it: I’m not as passionate about the hardware as Shel is.

So I focus on assembling the pre-recorded elements of a show including my recording, Shel’s contributions, reports, comments, etc, in editing mode to mix and produce the content as a final MP3 file which I then publish. I guess it’s the assembly of the elements that appeals greatly to me. (As a kid, I loved Meccano, Hornby 00 trainsets and Lego and, when a bit older, was more interested in producing plays in my amateur dramatics society than acting in them: go figure.)

That set-up doesn’t allow at all for a live co-host. What I have done in the past is grab a segment with someone via Skype if they’re available – like this one with Bryan Person last October – which I record beforehand and then add into the show when I edit and assemble.

And by the way, in reference to the IKEA parts assembly diagramme above, no, I don’t like assembling home furniture and other DIY-type activity. Go figure that one.

However we create FIR, the end result (including the passion) is always the same; it’s the process that’s different.

So relax and enjoy today’s FIR with Shel and guest co-host Kami Watson Huyse, and I’ll be back on Monday. Can’t wait!