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Anybody ever been on TV?

How the hell did you concentrate on playing? Hopefully you had the setlist nailed in advance.
My wife was on the set so I had to behave and be careful not to stare at the eye candy around me.
Of course that is where a good pair of Dark sunglasses really helps.:D

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I’ve been fortunate to have played on TV several times, both local and national TV (TNN). My best advice is to first be yourself and approach it like you would any other live gig. Make sure your amp has working DI or bring a direct box with you. Also if you are performing in a TV studio be prepared for very hot and intense lighting. Make sure you’re in tune and ready to go at a moments notice. And most importantly, have a great time. I’ve enjoyed everytime I’ve been able to play on television.
 
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Redhead has been invited to be on a local (community cable) TV show next month. We'd do two songs for a telethon (raising money for the high school band). I have absolutely no idea what to expect, except I know we'll get a pro video for free that we can use to promote our wiggly selves. Tech advice, war stories, etc. greatly appreciated.
I was on Joe Franklin Show if anyone remembers that. Our interview time was just about 12 minutes (1 guest slot) and that included the song(s) played. I think he asked each one of something an addition to talking longer w/ the main guy. We would have come off way better if we didn't come off so serious. I heard J. Gelis took the show over when they did it.
 
My first band in 1967 was on a local dance show called "The Ed Hurst Show". We were on "Teen Talent Spotlight" & were called The Satisfied Minds. Think we played Mickey's Monkey,badly I might add.We were also on another Ed Hurst dance show held at a aquarium theatre/dolphin show place called Aquarama.We lip synced to a tape we made that was going to be our 1st single next to some huge fish tank. We were upstaged by a group of trained seals who played "How Dry I Am" on bicycle horns.
Did a bit of TV in the 80's. Was on a morning show called AM Philadelphia (I think that's what it was called).We were upstaged by the Chippendale's Male strippers. Highlight was the band arguing about what song we were going to play right on live TV.Everybody wanted to be the lead singer. Ahh..band ego's. That was the Flamin' Caucasians
The Flamin' Caucasians were also the house band on a sports blooper show on ESPN called "The Lighter Side of Sports" I think that was 1986-88.(My memory can be faulty) We did all the ones Jay Johnstone hosted. I recall playing "Heartbreak Hotel" with Reggie White & "7 Nights to Rock" with Lyle Alzado. They were all taped at a Sports bar or Atlantic City bar/lounge during working hours.
The Flamin' Caucasians were also on "The Morton Downey Show". We were the band the week that it was taped at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. The band wasn't really featured,we just played intros & outros and commercial breaks. We were on camera off & on. Their idea of mixing the band was to hang one SM57 over us.We were there the night Roy Innis & Al Sharpton got into a fight on stage. The place had about 1100 people there & it just exploded. It almost became a riot.Yep,I was in a band called the Flamin' Caucasians in the middle of a near riot in Harlem. It made national news. We also did Morton Downey shows in Detroit & Atlantic City. Might of done one at the studios in Seacacus,NJ too.
I am from Secaucus originally...
 
On the News and showing how a "local band" in the background playing, was at the event , and one show a couple of times. On the 2nd one, remember ..... the camera can be on you when you don't think it is, and "on" when you don't think it is, even off stage. They got an off stage shot of me with a girlfriend and aired it. And, I think everyone I knew must have been watching it that day.
 
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+1 to Dr. Love and all others who gave similar advice.

In the folk band I was in, we were featured numerous times on a local show called 207, and once we did a New Jersey folk cable show called Horses Sing None of It.

As everyone said, know ahead of time how the audio is going to fed. If you can, mike everything through your own board, submix it and give the sound people a stereo line from the board. Be careful about using active mics (see below).

The folk band was pretty straightforward - on the 207 show they could feed our instruments separately into their feeds and we sang around one mic which they provided. Our BL was given a clip-on mic for the interview. It was smooth and seamless, very professional.

The Horses Sing None of It was a nightmare to set up - we needed six inputs (three vox, three instruments) and they only had five. The also wanted us to sing through lavaliere mics and we said no, so we tried to submix through a board. However, there was a problem with the mics were using - something about the phantom power from the board interfering with their own board. 30 minutes later we sorted it using different non-phantom-powered mics.We got through but our BL was frazzled.

Have a back-up plan and then have a back-up plan for the back-up plan.
 
I’ve been on the news twice. Once when I had a sailboat docked in a local marina. There were a number of break-ins and I got interviewed about the marina watch we organized. I was a bit harsh and it got edited into me pretty much threatening that anyone caught would be found only if the concrete blocks came untied. The second was when a house my first wife and I had built but moved out of during the divorce. It had a gas leak and blew up one night taking 5 or 6 houses with it and damaging some up to 2 blocks away. I went by to see the carnage and an old neighbor recognized me. A reporter heard us and interviewed me.
 
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Not in front of the camera, but I spent 22 yrs at the PBS station in San Diego, with the last 15 of them being the main audio guy. I took pride in getting musical acts sounding good on TV. Went from an 18 input board feeding 1" videotape to a 64 in digital board feeding HD tape and 24 trk DAW.
Won a local Emmy for audio in the process. Good times... I still work freelance sports TV audio even though I'm retired from PBS. Lots of stories...
 
I have been on radio and TV as a bass player about 5 times -all local, no account stuff.

As part of my day job, I have been interviewed on national TV and radio 50-60 times. I have been the go to interview for a national cable news network for the last two years regarding sensitive, computer security stuff.