A couple of weeks ago, Ryan Jespersen invited me to join him on BT Edmonton for a segment on blogs in Edmonton. The idea for that segment quickly turned into live-blogging the entire show, which I thought would be a fun opportunity!
So this is my post about my experience on Breakfast Television in Edmonton. I’ll be updating it throughout the morning (at the bottom). I’m also live-tweeting, of course.
To the right, you can see my “blogging desk” on set. Cool huh? In addition to checking out all the other guests this morning, I’ve got full access to check out the set, control room, etc. And I’m doing two segments on blogging: one at about 7:20am, talking about the business side of blogging, and one at 8:40am, talking about some of my favorite local blogs that you should be following!
Behind the camera!
For my first segment on the show, we talked about blogging, how I use it, and why businesses might want to get into it. Some of the things we covered:
- Blogs are the stars of social media! A blog can be a great hub for all of your online activity, much like how I have mine setup with the buttons at the top.
- It’s important to post consistently. Doesn’t have be every day, but it should be a consistent schedule, so that you know when to post and readers know when to expect something new!
- Always turn on comments. Give people an opportunity to respond, and your blog will become much more valuable.
- A good place to get started: WordPress.
The next segment will cover some of my favorite local blogs!
The Control Room at Citytv. These are the folks that make sure everything is running smoothly!
Ryan and Victoria’s Secret Angel Candice Swanepoel on set. The studio filled with people to get a glimpse of the supermodel!
Ryan outside, discussing Miracle Treat Day. Proceeds from any Blizzards sold at Dairy Queen locations in Edmonton today go toward the Stollery Children’s Hospital!
During my second segment on the show, Ryan asked me about five of my favorite local blogs. It was a difficult question to answer, even though I obviously had some time to prepare for it. In the end, I decided to give them a longer list, and together with the producers we narrowed it down to five that made it on air. Here are some of my favorite local blogs (the first five are the ones that appeared on the show):
- Only Here for the Food – everything you need to know about local food!
- Arts on the Ave – great example of a community blog
- the edmontonian – all your local news and events information!
- Oilers Nation – one of many blogs that are part of the oilogosphere
- Gluten Free Edmonton – great example of a niche blog
- I Heart Edmonton – great local features and events information
- Daveberta – your source for politics!
- Transcend Coffee – great example of a business/organization blog
- Transforming Edmonton – the City’s official blog
I read a lot more blogs than these obviously, but I check all of those pretty regularly (using Google Reader). Enjoy!
The on-air personalities getting ready to close out the show!
BT Edmonton ends today with a performance by Carolyn Dawn Johnson.
It was a fun (and early) morning for me. It’s always interesting to get a peek behind the curtain, to see how a live show like BT Edmonton works. A few other thoughts on the experience:
- There was a little bit of chaos in the studio at times, but not as much as I was expecting actually! It seems like a well-oiled machine. I thought it was interesting that they had a schedule with times down to the second. Obviously they deviate from it a little depending on how long people talk, but they stayed amazingly close to the plan.
- The camera guys are so important. They setup the shots, and make everyone on screen look good. They’re the ones who run the studio on the ground (I guess you could say the control room runs it “from above”).
- The control room was, as expected, pretty cool. Love the screens all over the place.
- I thought the 3 hours would go by slowly, but before I knew it, we were done!
You can see the rest of my photos here. You can watch both of my segments here.
Thanks to Ryan and the entire BT Edmonton team for the opportunity!
MasterMaq's Blog 
You probably are seeing all the chaos that happens behind the scenes of a live TV program. If you wanna see coordinated and organized mayhem, check out the control room. You’ll see how hard the crew works to not only get the show on the air, but how hard they try to avoid and fix mistakes before they air.
See if they’ll let you run the studio camera.
Great appearance and thanks for the mention!
Cheers,
–Abisaac Saraga
Gluten Free Edmonton
It would be great if this were to turn into a weekly event – like: blogs of the week or social media happenings in #YEG. I think it would do a lot to raise awareness in the general population on social media and other online communities.
Thanks for being a leader in this area . . .
Dean
I assume you disclosed that one of the blogs you mentioned on air was that of your wife?
Girlfriend, and yes I absolutely did (if you watch the video you’ll see it). I brought it up in advance to the producers, and they still wanted it as one of the five. I think that speaks to the topic (everyone loves food) and to the quality of her blog.