Satellite Media Tours: Taped v. Live Segments

QUESTION: Why are there taped segments on my SMT rundown? ANSWER:

One of the questions we often get when pitching a tour is “can you book more live interviews?” Our goal, like the client’s, is to get a live hit – but there are a few reasons why some stations will not or cannot book a live segment on the tour date:

• The news director currently has an edict that does not allow producers to book/conduct live interviews with sponsored segments because they want to approve the segment before it airs. Often this is because that station or producer has had issues in the past with segments being overtly commercial - the basic bait and switch (this can sometimes be even more of a factor in top markets).
• The show does not air during the tour timeframe so they will tape it to air later the same day.
• They don’t have time in their show that day to conduct a live segment but are still interested in the segment so will tape it to air at a later date/time.
• They don’t have time in their show that day to conduct a live segment but are still interested in the segment so will tape it to air at a later date/time.

At Boom we are always vetting stations that we book with and have an almost 100% success rate of segments taped during the tour airing within 1-2 weeks from the tour date.   This is for a few reasons:

• Stations will generally not put aside time and resources to tape a segment that they have no intention on airing (they allocate talent, and satellite time to take in the segment).
• We work with our clients to provide stations with a well-rounded, informative interview -  avoiding content that is too commercial to air.
• We monitor and vet stations that do not air taped segments and remove them from our outreach efforts – this helps to eliminate tapings that then don’t translate into viable hits for our clients.
• We aggressively follow up with all taped segments to help ensure all interviews make air.

Even with these fail safes in place, there are legitimate reasons a station may not be able to or want to air a segment they booked such as:

• Breaking news on the day your segment was to air causes your interview to be bumped and many times the producer is not able to fit it in at a later date.
• A bait and switch interview – stations was provided a different interview segment than they were offered in the pitch.
• The segment ends up being overtly commercial.

And, to work to get as many live segments as possible we will always move a taped segment to make room for a live segment that may only be able to book at that time slot.