If All Else Fails

The first sign of trouble was the beach ball.

If you use an Apple computer, you know the beach ball. If you use Windows or Linux, it's the little tumbling hourglass, or just a freeze. But whereas normally the beach ball -- also known as the "spinning pinwheel," or by various curse words -- eventually goes away, this time it didn't. It was Tuesday morning, early, the beginning of the post-Labor Day work week, and my MacBook Pro was acting up. I rebooted, and after a minute, the computer froze again. The next reboot generated an alarming circle with a slash through it, indicating that the computer couldn't find a usable hard drive. And... okay, I'll save you the rest and skip to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store, where I was informed that, yes, as I suspected, the hard drive was probably dead and that they'd have to send it off to the Secret Apple Repair Universe for a few days at great expense. Three to five days. Sorry, dude.

I was not happy, yet I was reasonably serene, for I was confident that I had a solid backup plan. I have an old but, I thought, serviceable PC with Windows 10. And an iPad, although there are things I have to do for work that can't be done in iOS (don't get me started on that...). And several file backups, from thumb drives to off-site automatic backups. I was prepared.

Yeah, about that....

Nothing went quite how I had planned. I knew the PC was slow; I did not realize that it was glacial. I knew it had updated; I did not realize that it had discarded most of the applications I'd installed and all of the passwords and files I'd saved. I knew I had file backups; I did not realize that the PC wouldn't read the thumb drives and external drives and that the off-site backup would decide to become balky and freeze up whenever I tried to retrieve a file on the iPad or iPhone. I was prepared, but I wasn't TOTALLY prepared. And so I was able to work, sort of, kind of, but just not the way I usually do, certainly not as fast and definitely not as easily. It was a difficult week.

But, again, I was prepared, so it wasn't a total disaster. And it's a lesson that you can extend to practically everything you do in radio or podcasting or life.

As usual, I'll leave the technical preparation stuff and the emergency stuff to Howard Price. (You should have a comprehensive programming and technical plan for emergencies if you run a radio station, but I assume you know that by now.) But even the mundane stuff needs backup. You rely on your laptop for show prep and communication and social media, but do you have a backup that'll get you through several weeks if your laptop goes haywire? Isn't that worth spending a few hundred on a Chromebook or Surface Go and loading it with the programs (and passwords!) you use the most? Or making sure that your tablet or phone are equipped to handle what you'd normally do on the laptop? You don't want to be like me and find out that your backup isn't ready or adequate. If your livelihood depends on your computer, you need more than one, just in case.

We're not finished. You're a host or producer? What are you gonna talk about today? Sounds great. You got a backup topic for that? What? You figure that if all else fails, Trump'll say or do something outrageous and that'll cover things? Don't count on anything. It's always been the case that if you prepare three hours' worth of show, you'll burn through it a lot faster, and it's always a good idea to overprepare. That's what backups are about: Too much to talk about is way better than not enough.

Oh, and, program directors: How's your bench looking? That's backup, too, and more important than you think. Do you have backup hosts ready to go at any moment if the regulars are unavailable? Not just vacation and holiday relief, but, like, your afternoon host calls you an hour before today's show and says he or she got sick or had a car breakdown or the dog ate his or her show prep? And do you have the dreaded "best of" shows all ready to go if the backups are sick, too, or your building has to be evacuated? Can you not only keep your station on the air but generate quality programming if circumstances conspire against you?

And then there's the backup of having a Plan B for your career if things go sideways. But you know that. Make sure you know what else you can do if your present career takes a dark turn.

(I haven't forgotten podcasters. Make sure you have alternatives for recording, editing, and posting. I had multiple backup methods, which was good because one of them didn't work but I had another option. If all else fails, if you have a USB mic and Audacity on a backup laptop, or an app to record on your smartphone, you don't have to miss an episode.)

I'm still probably a few days away from getting my Mac back and getting back to normal. My backups sucked, honestly, but they're keeping me in the game while I wait. Don't wait until YOUR hard drive crashes, or your morning host catches the flu, or your Zoom recorder stops recording to get your backups in place. Being able to awkwardly, slowly get things done beats not being able to do them at all.

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Talk Topics, the show prep column at All Access News-Talk-Sports, should be part of any host's backup plan. It's where you can go to get more things to talk about beyond the obvious, and when you're facing a slow news day or your prepared topic is flopping or you just need something different, you'll find what you need by clicking here and/or by following the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item. And do not miss "10 Questions With..." KTRS/St. Louis' Jon Grayson, updating us on his move to a new station, talk that's not traditional, and social media fun. Push the button, Frank....

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My podcast is "The Evening Bulletin with Perry Michael Simon," a quick (two minutes or less) daily thing, and you can get it at Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Google Play Music, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Stitcher, and RadioPublic. Spotify, too. Google Podcasts? Click here. You can also use the RSS feed and the website where you can listen in your browser, or my own website where they're all embedded, too. And if you have an Amazon Alexa-enabled device, just say "Alexa, play the Evening Bulletin podcast."

You can follow my personal Twitter account at @pmsimon, and my Instagram account (same handle, @pmsimon) as well. And you can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pmsimon, and at pmsimon.com.

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What else? Eagles won, so that's good. And, oh, yeah, I'll be in Orlando for the NAB and RAB's Radio Show later this month, so if you want to talk, that's one place you can find me. Maybe I'll see you there....

Perry Michael Simon
Vice President/Editor, News-Talk-Sports and Podcast
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
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Twitter @pmsimon
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