Radio pros pride themselves on maintaining their calm on-air, no matter what happens. And quite a lot does happen…
Several years ago, dashing in Master Control to deliver one of my local newscasts during All Things Considered, I noticed an acrid smell. In radio, silence is not golden – so there was no time to check for the source of the odor before opening the microphone.
As I delivered the opening lines of the newscast I saw smoke, then an actual flame, coming out of one of the monitors on the rack in front of me. I kept announcing the news, until I came to a sound bite: a short piece of pre-recorded audio. While that was playing, I turned off my mic, ripped off my headphones, and stuck my head out the studio door, shrieking to Dan Mushalko that the studio was on fire.
It was only a 20-second soundbite, so I rushed back to the microphone, turned it on, and continued announcing the news. While I mentally rearranged the newscast so I could throw to a longer recorded story, Dan dashed in. Ever so quietly, he extinguished the blaze, disconnected the monitor, and removed its smoking shell from the studio by the time I was off the air.
No one was any the wiser, but the smell of burning plastic still makes me kinda twitchy…