’Pelle Peter on P3’ is the programme where radio host, Pelle Peter Jencel, normally broadcasts every day on DR P3. Right now he is not in the studio at DR, Denmark!
No – as so many others – he spends this time on lockdown due to Coronavirus in his apartment in Copenhagen with his wife, the journalist Maria Jencel.
Even though they knew each other well before, they have gotten to know each other even better in the last few weeks.
Their entire apartment has been converted into a radio studio, the couple, over a week, spends 15 hours broadcasting live ‘P3 youth radio’ every Monday to Friday from 15.00 to 18.00. The programme is called ‘Quarantine’ and the two of them are the team behind it. Pelle is the host and Maria is the producer.
“This is a very new way of working together. During the Coronavirus crises many families are experiencing working together in new ways and that is certainly the case with us…I think we are making the best of it and we are having a good time doing it”, says Pelle Peter over the phone.
At the moment 75% of DR employees are working from home as best they can. The hosts and producers at P3 wanted to send as many hours to their young audience as possible who for the most part lives alone. They should not be left with only social media to get them through the day – in spite of the difficulties of getting the logistics in order at P3.
“The condition was that we had to broadcast from somewhere else other than the studio at DR. Our boss called us to ask if we as a couple could broadcast from the apartment. Not many radio couples can do that without involving a lot of other people. We can do it and we both thought that is was a really good idea”, says Pelle Peter.
So these days they are broadcasting from the kitchen, where the equipment has been set up. Pelle Peter can look out of the window, when he is on the air. Maria sits 5-6 meters away in the living room. She can take phone calls and get the next guests ready over the phone, when her husband asks Coronavirus challenged listeners to call in and join the programme.
“Maria is far enough away from me, so she can talk on the phone and work the PC, when I am live in the kitchen. I am used to having everything lined up in advance – I cannot really do that now, but then we can do some other stuff. Our ambition is to be present in our listener’s lives during the Coronavirus mess”, said Pelle Peter.
The next step is to get a webcam up and running, so their listeners can see, what they are doing in the apartment when they are on the air. “Actually the biggest challenge in all of this is the working hours. It is hard to actually take time off in the apartment. We are talking about the days show all day until we are on the air… it can get a bit exhausting in the end, but we were never in any doubt, when they asked us if we would do it. This is a one in a lifetime experience”, says Peller Peter.
This article is used with thanks to Peller & Marie and was written by Jan Dorman.
