Behind the Scenes at Freestyle

We are going to the Freestyle offices. Beautiful yellow offices of Freestyle on the 3rd floor of CBC Vancouver. Here we are. And they used to be the radio roundup offices.

Yes, they did.

They were modified slightly for the needs of Freestyle.

You mean cleaned up?

No, actually modified. We knocked a hole in a wall and put in a door, and we painted them yellow, and we hung up some fancy beads.

Fancy beads?

Fancy beads. And we took down some other walls and moved things around.

And here we are.

Here we are.

Come on in.

Thanks.

Good morning, kids.

Good morning, Nick Purdon.

GG.

This is Makers, it's called. This is the book with such weird inventions as—

where's the one that I thought you might like?

Oh, for today's big feature? Yo yo yo, the beeping alarm clock. Oh yeah?

There's a guy actually in here who looks just like Matt.

It's 7:45 AM right now, I'm working on the opening. I put all the music together and basically I'm just putting Putting the script together so that we have something to read and talk and riff on. And we'll go to air in what, about 15— 1 hour and 15 minutes, holy cow. It's too early in the morning.

It is too early. We were a little late coming in.

So here we are. All of us, well, we turn into heist guys and try to knock over a casino using the Tod Maffin system. All that and absolutely no playing with Don Johnson's heartbeat, we guarantee it.

I'm Ross. I'm one of the story producers on the show. I look for interviews mostly.

So it is, uh, 7:53 in the morning. We all get here around 7:30, that kind of thing, and we scour the websites and the newspapers for events of the day that are appropriate for Freestyle with an eye toward incorporating them into today's show. And in 7 minutes, at 8 o'clock, we will have a very quick little meeting, and everyone will discuss all of the things they found over the course of the morning so far. We'll assign what has to be changed for the show, and then we really kick into sort of high gear for getting ready to go live at 9 o'clock.

Why, why 9 o'clock? I thought the show was at 2.

That's right, but we're on the West Coast, so, uh, 9 o'clock in Vancouver is 12 o'clock in Toronto, and we go live to the Sirius Satellite Network and Toronto Master Control records the program as, as we're doing it live, and then at the appropriate times in every time zone east coming west, they fire it, they start it. So it starts at 2 o'clock in Halifax, and it starts at 1 o'clock actually in Toronto, and then at 2 o'clock in rural Ontario, and then at 1 o'clock in Winnipeg, and so on and so on across the country. It's a bit complicated. It's part of the asymmetrical schedule so that we start at different times and we run for different lengths in different parts of the country.

Are these computers doing this or robots?

What do you mean we'll call?

In the show we'll call and show some love. Just call up, say it's this minister guy, Dave.

That's a great idea.

Were you aware of that?

But you know what?

We'll get a voicemail. Which would be even funnier.

You will get a voicemail.

That's great.

Well then it's a quick idea.

Anything else to include in the show today?

Oh, Landis.

But there's nothing new on those. No, I know, I'm just—

You're already broken?

The one has been cancelled.

Aw, man!

What's cancelled?

That's too bad, I was still getting into it.

Motorized ping pong ball server.

Oh! Hang on, Nikki, hang on. Okay, what just happened here? First of all, who are you and what just happened? Why did the bell go off?

My name's Nak.

Yeah?

I'm booking stories.

All right, so what was with this bell?

That's the "I just made a sale" bell. We got ourselves a story for Monday.

All right.

Finnish Complaints Choir.

What is that about?

It's a choir in Helsinki, Finland, and all of their songs are complaints about life.

Really?

My taxes are too high.

Okay, it's 8:33, we're 27 minutes to air, and I have just printed off the script. I didn't put the date on it. I always forget to put the date on it, but whatever, you guys will figure it out. We've got the exciting Miami Vice opening with starring Crockett and Tubbs. We've got music from Heat. We've got Leonard Cohen.

We've got—

So you actually bring these CDs down to the studio, right, to play?

Yes, I do.

Normally I'll burn a CD of what's like a sort of mix sometimes from my iTunes and stuff.

Oh yeah.

So half stuff from my collection and half stuff from Record Fireman's.

I think a lot of people think that it's like that you— that like we have this big digital catalog and we just punch it up, but no, we're actually putting CDs Yes, we're actually putting physical CDs in the player.

Sometimes we'll put stuff in Dalet and fire it from Dalet too. It all depends on how we feel like it, what time we have. See if I can get it.

What's going on here?

I don't know, we're trying to get these clips off YouTube.

Yeah.

We've got 15 minutes before air, or 20 minutes really, because we don't start till whatever, but it's just—

Yeah, but did you try different ones?

It's about quarter to 9, just about go time. Heading down to the studio, get ready for the show.

So you take with you, you've got Scripts in your hands, you've got this box of all these are the CDs we're playing.

Music for the show, I got my coffee, I got water, I got a sandwich.

Look at that!

I am set.

It's like a radio kit. Yeah. Is it actually locked?

That would suck though.

That would suck. So this is what, this is the control room?

Yeah, here, control room studio 4 with crappy lighting.

Yeah, no kidding.

Someone down here likes their fluorescent lights. That's a little bit better. Yeah, we gotta reboot everything.

How come?

Because I don't trust the computers. Yeah, or the people that mess with them. And, uh, going into the studio proper.

I always wonder why those doors are so heavy in studios.

It so the sound doesn't come through there. All right, the hallowed halls of Studio 4.

Now this used to be the Roundup, former home of the Roundup.

Yeah, slightly different desk configuration back then. Uh, I don't know if Gabbro was ever in here. I think she was always in that little tiny—

I think she's in 22. Yeah, on the show today. Oh crap, do we have any bills?

They're, uh, they're the first lady of television, Martha Stewart, Marge Simpson.

Okay, on the show today, the first— okay, what do we got? Holy crap, 1 minute?

Yeah.

Okay, here we go.

Can you give me my mic just for a second, for a split second, so I get my levels for headphones? Or is it too late? I have no control over my mic. Just press hard. It's not—

nothing.

I don't know if there's gonna be a problem, but I cannot turn my mic on.

We get down, you know.

We have 30 seconds to fix it. Oh, there we go. Thanks. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Thanks, dude. Okay, I'm good.

So your mic's gonna be hot when the Phil Collins are on, right? When the Phil Collins are on.

So are you cueing us?

We'll cue you.

We're good. Okay.

We get down if the play calls for it.

Thanks, Matty.

We get down to it if the play calls for it, but no one has ever tread before where we are now.

We're seeing their operations from the inside.

We are taking it to the limit one more time.

I mean, there's undercover, and then, then there is which way is up.

You think I'm in so deep I forgot? I never— Is that what you're saying? I never forget.

I never, I never You know, Nick, I'm sorry, I can't do this.

Come on, you think I'm in so deep I forgot?

Nick, I know you're really excited about the opening of Miami Vice today, but I just cannot spend the whole show talking like I'm in a Michael Mann film.

Come on, we love the jocular guy banjo that makes no sense half the time.

Speaking of which, did you have to wear your pastel Armani suit, for goodness' sake?

Just trying to get into character. So let's start again.

No, no.

From the top.

Nick, just put on some socks or something, or maybe shave.

I'm Detective Sonny Crockett, Miami-Dade PD. Welcome to Freestyle.

Nick.

I'm Nick Purdon.

And I'm Tod Maffin. And on the show today, the art of the First Lady of Television.

What, Martha Stewart?

Marge Simpson.

Alright, and as well we'll turn into heist guys and knock over a casino using the patented Tod Maffin System. Stay tuned for that.

Exactly, all that and absolutely no playing of Don Johnson's heartbeat. We guarantee it.

First off, they were two sisters from Halifax, then they were in a band called Plumtree, They moved across the country, they formed another band called Bon Tempi, and they wrote this song.