There is now a week to go. Next Monday the first test show of Season 11 begins. But what is a test show? Well…
In the early days of TigerTails Radio, we worked with equipment that was a little… less than reliable, let’s say. Our main picture of TK and Hedgie looking worried at the microphone comes from an equipment failure that stopped our headphones working, with us cursing and swearing away unaware that the mics were working fine – and it was only a message from the listeners going “you do realise we can hear you, don’t you?” that clued us in. That was very early in Season 1. As that episode took about 20 minutes to play out, there’s been the on-running gag that we’ve got the first 20 minutes of the show to break things.
When we started to get real equipment, it took some time to work out how to best configure it. So we did a pre-show episode, dubbed Episode 00. It wasn’t advertised but still gained a listener base. It was a chance to try things out, and to see how equipment worked. This started in Season 3 and worked well enough to happen again at the start of each season since. At the end of each season, the studio would be torn down, cleaned, rewired and set up again – thus making test shows an invaluable resource to make sure it had all be wired in correctly, and that all the equipment still worked.
Season 11’s test show will be a chance for TK to lean how to use the new equipment, and how to bounce from each device when each segment comes in, especially the gaming segment. We have lots of bits now, so much we had to buy a rack (as much of it was rack mountable) to put it in. The main mixer is on the desk still, as is the video mixer (which is new). At some point, we might have someone who is competent at cable management to come in and make it all look pretty but at the moment it all should work. Should! This is why we have test shows.
So, come tune in to the test shows. Watch us get the rust of presenting off as we slowly re-learn how to not talk over each other. Come see the equipment failures. It’ll probably be clunky, with dead air in places, and the sound quality might be off for a while. In other words, it should be a giggle.
The countdown continues…
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