9AM: 24 Hours in the Life of 5 live
Post categories: 24 Hours in the Life of 5 live, 5 live blog
|09:00 UK time, Thursday, 24 February 2011
5 live Breakfast's Your Call running order
Morning, my name is Rachel and I work on the 5 live Breakfast show as a broadcast journalist. One of the shifts I regularly do is producing the final hour of Breakfast - Your Call. It's an hour long phone-in show hosted by Nicky Campbell between 9-10am every weekday. You might think an hour's worth of radio is easy to fill but a lot of discussion and heated debate goes in to making it really work on air.
I arrive into the 5 live newsroom just before 7'o'clock already thinking about potential contributors on anything from anti-semitism and DNA testing kits, to multiculturalism and football. I listen to breakfast during my commute, making a mental note of what stories I think will really get our listeners going. It's a rare occasion that I sit down at my desk and the topic's already been decided. Sometimes it's related to the lead story that morning, other times it could be a debate at 7.40am or an article in one of the newspapers.
Usually, one of us will pipe up with a suggestion while munching on breakfast and immediately, the Breakfast editor Scott Solder will ask: "So what's the question?" It's a great way of getting in the right mindset to think about what will sustain a debate for 60 minutes.
While the discussion rages, I keep one eye on the response from listeners via text, email, Facebook and Twitter reacting to stories on air with Breakfast. If one story or issue gets a big response then you're usually onto a winner. A few weeks ago when the Richard Keys and Andy Gray's comments hit the headlines our audience responded in their droves which made Your Call obvious. Whatever the 5 live audience feels passionate or vocal about tends to dictate our decision.
I've always got a list of potential interviewees to hand if we need someone to kick off the debate at 9am. They have to be people who aren't afraid to come on and argue the toss with our listeners. By 8:30am, the bare bones of the programme is normally sorted. But that said it can change at the very last minute.
One Wednesday I was busy finding guests on have-a-go heroes, those people who step in without obvious concern for themselves. On-air, Breakfast was doing an interview about the impact of still- births and miscarriages following the sad news that Amanda Holden had miscarried her baby at 7 months. The guest they were speaking to made an appeal: "We need to talk openly about this".
So we did.
The response from our listeners was amazing. Your Call was filled with texters and callers who wanted to share their stories of what it's like to go through the same experience.
While Your Call is on air I'm busy dealing with callers and texters who want to share their views with the nation, while also monitoring the wires to keep across any breaking news that we need to respond to.
Once we're off air and Victoria Derbyshire is on, we meet for a team debrief and a (usually) well deserved cup of tea. But it doesn't stop there for me. I spend the next few hours working towards the breakfast show for the next day. I put in early calls and do a bit of digging on stories the day editor likes the look of.
One more meeting and then I'm out the door and off home. Ready (and willing) to do it all again tomorrow.
Related Links
Check out the time-lapse video of the 5 live newsroom
Read the first blog entry for 24 Hours in the Life of 5 live by Breakfast's Chris Hunter
Read 5 live travel presenter Nick Duncalf's blog post
Rachel Fursman is a broadcast journalist with 5 live.
Comment number 1.
At 09:24 24th Feb 2011, zelda wrote:Can we please have a blog facility for the breakfast phone in as we used to have.
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Comment number 2.
At 09:26 24th Feb 2011, carrie wrote:It is interesting that Rachel says the Your Call subject is often decided quite late, as I have noticed that it is frequently the same subject on phone ins on Nolan or Livesey the night before. You would expect this with leading news stories. If you listen as much as I do you notice the research is obviously the same behind both presentations. If its not shared info then the subject is clearly not being taken to a new depth of facts to be made available to callers.
Loving this series of blogs.
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