Radio days

Part of this will be autobiographical and part will be news, or at least not necessarily a closely guarded secret.

I just wanted to relate my radio experience briefly because I enjoyed the chance to sit in the “hot seat”. (Actually they have rather comfortable chairs in their studio.) Just had to look at it as a conversation with a friend of mine, one that just happened to have a microphone placed between him and I. Once we got rolling I didn’t even notice it. Now I didn’t write the “top 10” post with this interview in mind, but it did turn out to be a nice conversation piece for the 20 minutes or so I was on.

I suppose if I had to do it over again I’d spent a bit less on the background part and a bit more on the issues. Felt like we had to hurry through a couple points at the end, but overall I enjoyed the experience and if Bill wants me to come back (and I have a chance to make up the hour or so of work) I’d be happy to do so. Writing on a blog I have half the night to make my points, but when talking I have to learn to compress my point into slightly smaller bites when I go through them. (Plus I had a couple trains of thought derail on me, which sometimes happens to me sitting here too.) I will have a little bit of an advantage of not needing the introduction in the future though, so that won’t be such a concern.

However, I returned to work and found out I had a cluster of folks listening at my desk and the reviews were good. Now if I could get them to listen to Rush from 12-3. Actually, poor Jen (who sits next to me) does get to hear Rush from two sides because Keith has his radio on in his office as well. But I know she brings an iPod to work so she tunes out our radios most times.

(Dirty little secret – I spend most of my day with my headphones on listening to the CD’s I bring as well, just not during the 7-8 or 12-3 slots!)

Last night I came across another local blog with an interesting angle. I met John Robinson for the first time on Tuesday because he was sitting in with Bill Reddish, sort of learning by observation how to run the computer that manages the radio program that is AM Salisbury…a push here and the traffic report comes up, then another touch for the weather, into the commercial, etc. etc. Neat to watch.

But John has a new blog called Robinson on the Radio. While he’s jumping the gun a bit, (the program doesn’t actually begin until March 12th), what they’ll do is give him the hour immediately after Rush Limbaugh at 3:00. Neal Boortz moves up to 10 a.m., which will make his show live in the Salisbury market instead of delayed several hours. Bill Reddish picks up an hour as well, and Laura Ingraham gets squeezed out.

I think it’ll be interesting to have another local host that is more focused on talk radio rather than having to juggle news, all the features, and several guests like Bill Reddish does in the morning. And since John’s got the link to monoblogue, he may have some comments about my posts – why not?

And if he (or Bill) needs a guest, I’m almost always available Fridays at that time slot, work ends for me that day at 11:00. (That’s the day I love our 9-9-9-9-4 format, plus it’s easy to make up an hour.) But I think my CD listening will be shortened by a couple hours a day come March 12 once these changes occur.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer. View all posts by Michael