Christmas is prepared in advance

Has it really been a year? This year, just as last I am in the middle of possibly my most important mission of calendar. Preparing the pre-recorded Christmas shows. I don’t know whether it is because I did such a bang-up job on the last year, or just that I’m foolish enough to show willing, but from now until the end of next week my every waking thought will be filled with collaring presenters to get their contributions in the can.

This is actually harder than it seems. The general rule is the bigger the name, the more they appear to resent having to wait behind five minutes after their show goes on air in order to get a Christmas message in the can. Over time I’ve developed a nice line in cajoling and pleading, stressing that the process of sitting down and wishing the audience a merry Christmas before introducing their favourite seasonal hit record need only take sixty seconds or so. The problem comes when I show them the “approved” list of records they can choose from and they either complain that their personal favourite isn’t on there or that someone else has already nabbed their choice. Skilful negotiation has resulted.

The biggest task of all will be the World Cup special. Like all the best radio documentaries it is being assembled in kit form, with the audio from the summer being combined with narration from Adrian and a series of sit down interviews with the commentary teams. By the looks of things, I won’t get everything in the can until the middle of next week, effectively leaving one day to sit and stitch it all together and get the whole thing to run to time.

At the end of the day, it is a good exercise in production skills. I have to confess to spending Christmas Day glued to the radio last year, feeling a surge of pride as each show went out, knowing it had been created on Adobe Audition on the PC in the corner of the living room.