3pm:

Long before the programme springs into action at one-minute-to-6 each weekday morning, a team of producers is already hard at work.

RNZ night editor Mary Wilson and set up editor Jane Dunbar are thinking of the top stories to lead the show from when they walk in the door the afternoon before.

With dozens of slots to fill across the three-hour show, it's a big hill to climb at the start of the shift.

Jane Dunbar leads a team of three evening producers, who need to fill three hours of the next day's show, made up of reporters' stories and live interviews.

"It is a very busy, full-on night. We have a lot of work to get through, we respond to breaking news through the night."

Editor Martin Gibson calls in each night at 7pm to discuss how things are going with Wilson and Dunbar, to see which stories will make it to the show, where they will go and what will lead."

Producers start contacting and confirming talent: politicians, mayors, overseas correspondents, sergeants, sports stars, the local dairy owner.

Each interview needs comprehensive notes for the presenter.

Producer Troy Matich said the secret to good notes is thorough research.

"Reading everything, having all of the information, every little bit, and then condensing all of that down to a small amount of text so the host can figure it out in the morning."

Fellow producer Georgie Hanafin said it's no small task prepping the presenters.

"There's a lot more work that goes into the interviews and the stories than what appears. It's a three-to-five-minute interview on air, but there's hours and hours of research and interviewing and phone calls and trying to understand stories that goes into it."

11pm

As the afternoon team get ready to go home, Emilia Sullivan, Morning Report's sole overnight producer, is just getting started.

She's on deck throughout the night to cover any breaking international news, working with correspondents around the world and RNZ's partners for international content cutting their audio.

"I put together all the things that happen on the other side of the world while everyone is all tucked in bed here in New Zealand.

"I set it up, so you guys are all in the know in the morning."

For Sullivan, that means she usually goes to bed at 10am and wakes up in the early evening.

3am

In the small hours of the morning, the day team of editors, producers and presenters are waking up.

Deputy executive editor Denise Garland has her morning routine sorted - right down to the number and type of alarms.

"My first alarm goes off at 3.47am, it is my watch alarm, it vibrates so it doesn't wake up my partner. I have two other alarms set, my personal phone and my work cell phone for about 10-minute increments because I have slept through two alarms before."

5am

The production team starts to roll into the office around 5am, although often the presenters are already there.

Presenter Corin Dann spends his time before the show frantically flicking through international news channels and websites and getting on top of the details for the big stories and interviews.

"It's like cramming for an exam every single day. A day like today, we've got to get through the RMA so there will be an interview with Chris Bishop, the minister.

"There will be the Environmental Defence Society, so I'm thinking it's quite a thorny issue to unravel in a three- or four-minute interview."

Fellow presenter Ingrid Hipkiss agrees it can be a hectic start to the day.

It is a pretty intense hour or so, getting your head around maybe 7 or 8 interviews, going through a whole lot of notes.

5.59am

One minute before 6am and two studios - one in Auckland and one in Wellington - burst into life as the presenters read the shows intro ahead of the pips and the 6am news.

Throughout the show producers are chasing interviews, checking facts, writing traffic, working on Morning Report's daily podcast, and communicating between the Auckland and Wellington studios.

Martin Gibson, who has been executive editor for the past 26 years said while there's a structure to the show, anything can happen.

"That's the beautiful thing about working on a news programme.

"Every programme can be different, and it can change while you're doing it, so if a big story breaks during the programme we'll throw everything out and start again.

"And when that happens it's exciting, it's sometimes daunting, but we always push and push and push to make sure we get the best for the audience."

Hipkiss said presenters need to be prepared to be unprepared.

"The reality you just can't be prepared for everything, because you can prepare for those interviews but then that can all get thrown out halfway through the programme as soon as there's some breaking news.

"So, you have to be prepared as best you can but be pretty nimble and ready to change."

Dann said the best moments are when the interview comes alive - and sparks something in the listeners' ears.

"They are out there doing their thing in the morning, eating their cornflakes whatever but they are going to stop by the radio and listen and they're thinking 'woah what's going on here', or they're outraged, or they're laughing.

You sometimes get a sense of when that's happening."

While some mornings are busier than others, after three hours on air, it's time for the bird - but the Morning Report production team's attention is already turning to what might work for the next day.

When the early team head out the door, it's almost time for Mary Wilson and the afternoon crew to come in and start the daily process all over again.