There’s a saying at Marketplace – “what happens on the overnight, stays on the overnight.” The overnight is the shift the producers and hosts of the Marketplace Morning Report work to bring you that program. It starts around midnight and goes until about 8:30 in the morning.
I’m going to break that rule though and tell you a little bit about the overnight this week. See, some of the crew putting together Marketplace’s afternoon show are also working the overnight. That’s because the 16 hour time difference between LA and China means that our daily live broadcast of 2 PM Pacific Time/5 PM Eastern takes place at 6 AM the following day here in China. And to make the 6 AM deadline, we have to start work at 3 AM. We’re preparing for a dress rehearsal of the show this morning – to test out some ideas and make sure there are no technical snafus.
Our broadcast location here in Chongquing is the 56th floor of the World Trade Center – Chongqing. In any other city, this space would be a swank bar and observation deck – it’s the tallest building in the city and an ultra-modern symbol of what Chongqing aspires to be. But there’s a glut of office space in the city and the building is mostly empty – including the enormous observation deck we’re broadcasting from. It’s a crazy, Jetsons-style place that’s never been used for its intended purpose as a restaurant/bar/lounge:
And it’s also freezing tonight – well, not quite – it’s maybe 40 degrees outside of the small area that’s got space heaters. The space heaters only help a little.
The pictures will hopefully give you an idea of where we are. Kai Ryssdal, Deb Clark – the series producer – and myself are shown below. Tell me if we look warm:
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