
Welcome
to a day in the life of the Matt Townsend Show team. Perhaps the Matt Townsend
Show isn’t on the same level as a Hollywood blockbuster, but for those who
listen, Matt is always endearing, witty and fun to listen to on-air. While all
of these things are true, he is the first one to remind us that what is
happening behind-the-scenes is just as important as what is happening live on
air. Because, like in Hollywood, what is happening backstage is really what
creates the magic on screen.
Fortunately,
being a producer for Matt Townsend is the best job, ever. He may well be the
greatest boss in the world, or so Matt says. Our team is made up of a head
producer-Terry South-who helps all of the student producers do their job right.
The board-op runs the technical operations during the morning show, and the
student producers help book guests and put together segments. We work with Matt
and Terry to find different types of guests under different genre’s like
business, psychology, world news, and human interest stories. We all do a lot
of digging into stories that we think could add something to the show and the
lives of those listening. The producers then send the idea to Matt and Terry
and if they like it, we go ahead and search all over the world wide web until
we can find contact information for the guest which we then use to try and book
them for the show.
As producers, booking guests is
always exciting. You see, our entire team shares a Google calendar that has the
dates and times of the segments that we can fill in with our guests. It’s a
really great system until you realize that you have emailed a guest about a
time, they’ve agreed, and then later find out that another producer has already
filled that exact time slot. Then you have to start over with that guest which
makes us feel both exasperated and nervous. But eventually, we find a day that
works for both the show and the desired guest, get them put on the calendar and
discuss topics that might come up for the interview. Then, a few days before
the interview, you create a set-up sheet for the interview which is basically
just a big paper that gives Matt all the necessary information for the
interview and some possible questions to ask. That goes to Matt the morning
before the show, and then Matt works his magic to make the interview
interesting and exciting to listen to.
While listening to the morning
show, you can learn a lot about Matt and you may come to find some really strange things about him. During the end
of the last hour, Matt likes to collaborate with the Sports Nation folks and talk
with them. Most of what they talk about is completely ad-libbed, or made up on
the spot. A few weeks ago, if you were tuning in, Matt and Sports Nation talked
about what types of emotional pets they would have if they could. Apparently, he
told us all he would pick a goat, because what isn’t soothing about a goat,
right? You can always count on Matt to keep things weird during the show.
Working as a producer for The Matt
Townsend Show is fun, exciting, crazy, and rewarding. We love that our
listeners care about the topics that are chosen, and all of us on the Matt
Townsend Show team hope to continue to make things both engaging and weird for
you all.
-Caitlin Thomas, The Matt Townsend Show Student Producer