Radio 1 40th birthday shenigans

Only caught the last ten or so minutes just to have a look - Picture was pretty good for the stream, I thought.

I liked how Zoe and Sara ended with Perfect Day (coincidentally the version used to plug the Beeb back 10 years ago!) and taking a moment to have a little dance along to it as well, with the neat little fade out as the song closed.

Think JK & Joel are in a different studio. The Chart show takes a bit more setting up on the studio desk than some of the daytime shows. Or it could just be they dont trust JK & Joel on live camera!

And of course the fact that large chunks of the chart show are pre-recorded! Although yes it does require a lot more setup than most other shows.

In my (albeit limited) experience of radio there's a button on the mixing desk which lets you switch the output to the speakers when a record is playing. Obviously you have to remember to switch that off again before you go back on air, otherwise you end up with feedback hell (which I've done more than once - probably explaining the 'limited' experience I have of radio)...

As for not trusting JK and Joel on camera, why not? It's not as if they're getting the boot or anything, are they..?

No link to the live webcam on the site either. I can imagine most of the Top 40 show will be a pre-record, the segments with Mark Goodier and Bruno Brookes so far are most likely pre-records. At least they've played some older stuff on the show so far.

o/t, but I prefer the single/album version of Madonna's "Like a Prayer" to the version from "The Immaculate Collection".

Most professional studios have the studio monitoring linked to a switch on the mic fader - quite possibly fed off the same system that switches on the red light.

In most studios you don't need a button - the speakers kick in the second the studio mics are faded down. As soon as you fade a mic up the red light switches on and the speakers cut out.

In the studio I used to use it was configured to do the same when you hit a PFL (pre-fade listen) button on any channel, but I suspect most studios are configured to only do this in the desk driver's headphones.

Normally studios can be configued depending on how the person operating it likes it or what it's used for. So the PFL can be assigned to the speakers and/or the headphones - you wouldn't necessarily want a studio guest to hear the PFL and you wouldn't want the PFL on both as you need to monitor the outputs. Other monitoring sources, and off air or opt out, can usually be assigned likewise

All but the very very basic studios have mutes on the speakers connected to the mic faders

For all you radio anoraks out there (and I include myself in that as I had hours of fun with this!) Radio 1 has an authentic Cart Jingle machine simulator on their website! 23 authentic Radio1 Jingles from the last 40 years each on their own cart. Load 'em up, play 'em but don't forget to wait for them to recue before you try and eject one and get the next one ready! Took me right back...
Radio 1 Jingle Machine

By the way, if you don't know what a cart is, have a look at this:
NAB Cartridges