We’ve been asked by the BBC to have two outside broadcast with panels per month. We’ve already recorded two such events – a Scotsman Islands debate in Benbecula and a Question Time organized by Edinburgh University Students Association (EUSA). On October 14th we’ll record another Scotsman debate on Renewables in Jedburgh and at the end of October we’ll record a Glenrothes hustings organised by a poverty group there.
The basic idea is that a group that already wants to have a Question Time or panel type event and has contacted guests and booked a hall can invite me to chair the event (free of charge), and our team record it and broadcast 45 minutes of the highlights in the Riddoch Questions slot on Radio Scotland every Friday.
I think I can safely say we are very unobtrusive –public events need microphones and a small mixing desk anyway so we simply plug a wee digital recorder into the side of the desk and voila! With some preparation between us about subjects, audience and panel; some note taking by us for minimal editing and a computer point provided by the host to send the sound file to our audio man in Glasgow – its done!
We change very little – at the EUSA debate we suggested an extra voice to achieve balance in the panel, which resulted in us having Tavish Scott in his first outing as Scottish Lib Dem leader. Quite a coup for EUSA. Ideally we’d record on Thursday night (like BBC Question Time.) This hopefully avoids being overtaken by breaking news earlier in the week and lets us include really topical questions.
The key thing is that Feisty can’t organize such a busy schedule of events from scratch. So we need to rely on groups to do most of the organizational work, with the recording as the icing on the cake! Contact our researcher Laura if you’d like to know more.
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