August 20, 2026 · by David Gilbert · 3 min read · Radio & Broadcasting
Not every "things went wrong on air" story is a disaster. One of my favourite segments ever started as a fairly standard, planned piece on a specific tech topic, fell apart almost immediately once we actually went to air, and turned into something considerably better than the planned version ever would have been. Here's what happened, and what it taught me about over-planning.
The Plan, and Where It Immediately Fell Apart
We'd planned a fairly structured segment walking through a specific topic step by step, scripted enough that we both knew roughly what was coming next. About ninety seconds in, a listener called in with a genuinely unexpected, specific real-world problem that didn't fit the planned structure at all, and we made the call, live, to just drop the script and actually work through their specific situation properly instead.
Why the Unplanned Version Worked Better
The scripted version was, by design, general — built to apply reasonably well to a broad audience, which inevitably means it applies perfectly to almost nobody's exact specific situation. The live, unscripted version was solving one real person's actual, specific problem in real time, which is messier, less polished, and considerably more genuinely useful to everyone listening who had a similar but not identical problem of their own.
What This Taught Me About Planning
I still plan segments carefully — that's not the lesson here. The actual lesson is holding the plan loosely enough to recognise the moment something more valuable is happening live and being willing to follow it, rather than rigidly sticking to a script purely because it's the plan and abandoning it feels uncomfortable or risky in the moment.
Why This Is Harder Than It Sounds
Departing from a plan live, in front of an audience, carries genuine risk — it might not work, you might end up somewhere genuinely worse than the planned version, and there's no safety net of editing to clean it up afterwards if it goes badly instead of well. That risk is exactly why most people, understandably, default to sticking with the plan even when something more interesting is clearly trying to happen instead.
How I Decide When It's Worth the Risk
If the unplanned direction is responding to something specific and genuinely real — an actual listener's actual problem, not just an abstract tangent I personally find interesting — I'll take the risk. If it's just me wanting to go off-script for my own amusement, I'll generally hold the line and stick to the plan instead. The test isn't "is this more interesting to me." It's "is this more genuinely useful to the person actually listening."
Where This Applies Directly Beyond Radio
I've used the identical instinct in client meetings — having a planned agenda, genuinely useful as a starting structure, while staying alert for the moment a client's actual real need turns out to be something different from what the meeting was originally scheduled to cover. Following that thread usually serves them better than rigidly finishing the planned agenda purely because it was the plan.
The Broader Point About Planning Itself
A plan is a genuinely useful starting structure, not a contract you're obligated to follow once something better and more relevant is clearly happening right in front of you. The skill isn't choosing between planning and improvising as a permanent, fixed identity. It's knowing, in the actual moment, which one is genuinely serving the person you're there for — and being willing to switch, live, when the answer changes.