A struggling new radio station needs fresh money all the time and of any amount. I got a call one day in 2006 from a man calling himself Bob Linden, a radio personality. You are a radio personality as long as you say so and act brazenly enough. I invited him to come up from San Francisco for our first session. Bob wanted to rent the studio with an engineer for $75 for a one-hour program to be broadcast on Air America (AA), a new liberal, nationwide hookup. I had said great, not knowing what I was about to get into.
He was a captivating guy – lots of radio war stories. He did his time with small time stations across the country. He was too-old for DJ-ing at 60-ish, so he picked up the banner for vegans and animal rights activists. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=568616575
Our local KGGV patter-pace was “river time” – start at 8-ish, end at 9-ish and babble between music cuts. At our first session, Bob scribbled out a sort of script with four segments, each with differing, but exact lengths, e.g., interview segment 12:36 (mm:ss); three commercials 2:54. He wanted an under layer of voiceless music for transitional fade-ins and fade-outs of specific durations. We were pre-recording a show, the final product to be four sound files that we would upload to New York (NYC). The four files had to total exactly 48:00 minutes. The engineer was me most of the time, although I did try and “baptize” many new radio wannabes with doing this session. We did it weekly for a little over a year. The “engineer” was a producer (in-charge and calling the shots), screener (making and handling the guest phone call-ins), recording engineer, and special effects guy (his 5-yr-old grand-daughter’s cute quip library).
We got to know the PETA lady, Ingrid Newkirk, and were fascinated to be able to discuss the Michael Vick – dog fighting – pro football situation with her as it was happening; Bob Barker, elder statesman – TV Host; Pamela Anderson, behind the scenes friend of animals and the nicest “star” you’d ever want to meet and have to deal with; and Dennis Kucinich, a major Vegan, who spoke with us often, even while he was running a presidential campaign (our secret favorite for 2008).
The “we” above was mostly me, but I hooked in Christine Lowry almost right away. She was in a death dance with cancer at the time and investigating all health possibilities slightly off the medically beaten path. Christine was one of KGGV’s few true professional radio people, so she was aware of what was required to keep the AA folks in NYC happy. These were highly stressful recording sessions, however. Linden was often late and/or not ready and he was overjoyed to turn over all the technical aspects to KGGV. The AA producers in NYC were always complaining that the fades were too short and the segments too long. The stress was anathema to Christine’s situation: her pain level was high and she preferred the slower-paced, medicated state.
I tried Sophie Weiner in the role – she was one of KGGV’s second wave of interns from El Molino High School. Brilliant and talented HS Senior – she could run circles around both Bob and I, probably Randy as well. She did the sessions for a while because he was an entrée to Indie bands that she swooned over. That passed eventually and I tried Sharon Wikoff, but the pace was too frantic. I ran out of candidates who could match the energy of this dervish. It was a great learning experience: the segmented wheel of time allocation for a one-hour bit; the absolute insistence of timings being exact to the second; the value of voiceless fadeouts (and ins) for making up for the mistakes of others; the importance of “We’re live!” when you’re hooked in nationwide; and the thrill (every third or fourth week) when NYC says, “Good one, that’s a wrap (it’s in the can)”. I still get a respectful chill when the hour ticks over and I hear, “This, is the BBC – it’s 8:00 am” -- masterful – I know that I can set my watch by their pronouncement.
He was a captivating guy – lots of radio war stories. He did his time with small time stations across the country. He was too-old for DJ-ing at 60-ish, so he picked up the banner for vegans and animal rights activists. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=568616575
Our local KGGV patter-pace was “river time” – start at 8-ish, end at 9-ish and babble between music cuts. At our first session, Bob scribbled out a sort of script with four segments, each with differing, but exact lengths, e.g., interview segment 12:36 (mm:ss); three commercials 2:54. He wanted an under layer of voiceless music for transitional fade-ins and fade-outs of specific durations. We were pre-recording a show, the final product to be four sound files that we would upload to New York (NYC). The four files had to total exactly 48:00 minutes. The engineer was me most of the time, although I did try and “baptize” many new radio wannabes with doing this session. We did it weekly for a little over a year. The “engineer” was a producer (in-charge and calling the shots), screener (making and handling the guest phone call-ins), recording engineer, and special effects guy (his 5-yr-old grand-daughter’s cute quip library).
We got to know the PETA lady, Ingrid Newkirk, and were fascinated to be able to discuss the Michael Vick – dog fighting – pro football situation with her as it was happening; Bob Barker, elder statesman – TV Host; Pamela Anderson, behind the scenes friend of animals and the nicest “star” you’d ever want to meet and have to deal with; and Dennis Kucinich, a major Vegan, who spoke with us often, even while he was running a presidential campaign (our secret favorite for 2008).
The “we” above was mostly me, but I hooked in Christine Lowry almost right away. She was in a death dance with cancer at the time and investigating all health possibilities slightly off the medically beaten path. Christine was one of KGGV’s few true professional radio people, so she was aware of what was required to keep the AA folks in NYC happy. These were highly stressful recording sessions, however. Linden was often late and/or not ready and he was overjoyed to turn over all the technical aspects to KGGV. The AA producers in NYC were always complaining that the fades were too short and the segments too long. The stress was anathema to Christine’s situation: her pain level was high and she preferred the slower-paced, medicated state.
I tried Sophie Weiner in the role – she was one of KGGV’s second wave of interns from El Molino High School. Brilliant and talented HS Senior – she could run circles around both Bob and I, probably Randy as well. She did the sessions for a while because he was an entrée to Indie bands that she swooned over. That passed eventually and I tried Sharon Wikoff, but the pace was too frantic. I ran out of candidates who could match the energy of this dervish. It was a great learning experience: the segmented wheel of time allocation for a one-hour bit; the absolute insistence of timings being exact to the second; the value of voiceless fadeouts (and ins) for making up for the mistakes of others; the importance of “We’re live!” when you’re hooked in nationwide; and the thrill (every third or fourth week) when NYC says, “Good one, that’s a wrap (it’s in the can)”. I still get a respectful chill when the hour ticks over and I hear, “This, is the BBC – it’s 8:00 am” -- masterful – I know that I can set my watch by their pronouncement.
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