Thread by @csymrl, fun story from that night: i was directing NPR's special coverage that [...]

fun story from that night: i was directing NPR's special coverage that night, which — beyond the drama of the caucus results being up in the air all night — had some drama listeners [ideally] didn't hear. buckle up ... https://twitter.com/grace_panetta/status/1356950569085100037

https://twitter.com/grace_panetta/status/1356950569085100037

about halfway through the night, we had a massive technical failure in our main studio. hosts couldn't hear guests, or me.

naturally, this was discovered at the worst time — during a live interview with a guest, who suddenly got cut off since hosts thought the line dropped.

of course, the line hadn't dropped, so i started talking into hosts' ears — he's still there! you have him! — as the guest, responding to hosts saying "oh, it appears we've lost you," says on air "no, i'm still here"

uh oh

i tell the engineer to take the phone line off air, and i frantically tell the guest we're having some technical issues & thank him for his patience while we start to figure out what on earth has actually happened

i distinctly remember looking at @NPRKelly while pushing the button to talk into her headphones, saying "can you hear me?" and having her eyes widen as she pointed to her headphones while shaking her head

while we knew *something* was up, we didn't know what exactly the problem was — whether it was something with those headphones or the whole studio. could we fix it now or not?

a quick check of fellow host @sarahmccammon's headphones proved it wasn't an isolated thing — no audio was going to hosts' headphones. guests, control room, each other ... all dead.

not ideal for a live radio broadcast, really

we couldn't troubleshoot during a live broadcast. the one solution we had? change studios

... during a live broadcast

........... of special coverage

but, there aren't many times in a show where we could go to a break, and there was no way for me to tell our hosts @NPRKelly & @sarahmccammon what to do until that break in, like, 9 minutes — an ocean of time.

so ... we had to improvise.

i found a whiteboard in the studio and wrote HEADPHONES = DEAD. VAMP! in big letters and held it to the glass. i pointed at @NPRKelly, and then at the board, and then gave a skeptical thumbs up to ask if it was okay.

she looked at the board, then at me, and returned the

as she and @MaraLiasson began to ad-lib, i snuck into the studio and whispered to @sarahmccammon, "you need to go to studio 32 NOW, and take @NPRrelving with you, and i'll explain later"

they left, while @NPRKelly and @MaraLiasson held the air for ... many minutes

meanwhile, @EricMarrapodi and @bhardymon and the producers in the studio started powerwalking over to the other studio to get set up there, while our engineering team was telling master control we needed to move all of our future guests to the other studio. no small feat.

we then came to a 90 second music break — the only chance to get @NPRKelly and @MaraLiasson [and me] to studio 32 ... clear across the other side of the building. we hit the break, i ran into the studio, and screamed GO TO 32! RIGHT NOW!

on hearing that, @NPRKelly said, "on it!" and had a 40 time to make NFL players at the combine impressed.

i was far slower.

the break ended, hosts and producers and i were in place in a completely different studio, and could hear everything again. it was seamless! we picked up where we left off and started rotating guests back into the show.

we did it, thanks in no small part to our engineer @NeilTevault, who made sure the new studio stayed on the satellite & we stayed on air, and all of NPR's amazing engineers and techs who helped get studio 32 online in no time.

we all agreed we were thrilled to learn to stay on the air with no real disruptions but all agreed — let's never do the studio olympic relay ever again.

crazy to think this was a YEAR ago. remember being in an office with your coworkers?

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