For some reason, I had a harder time than usual with my part of the preproduction for this week's show. No idea why. Dana and I set the playlist on Tuesday night, as we usually do. He sent me the tracks I didn't already have, I put everything into a folder, and checked for timing to fit our three-hour space. Little bit of jockeying and swapping out--there always is--but the music part was basically good to go by Wednesday morning.
And then I had a lot of difficulty getting the rest of my share done. I had to do multiple takes of everything. I'm okay with leaving in the occasional miscue, just to reinforce the illusion that I'm, y'know, human; there were too many mistakes to leave be, verbal flubs and tongue-ties, plus here-and-there issues with audio levels or sounds, resulting frustration, leading to more miscues and the need for more retakes. It's a damned good thing this is fun. Eventually, my share of crafting this thing was nearly finished, and just about ready to hand off to Dana so he could perform the real work of turning it into a radio show.
And then our pal and SPARK! colleague Rich Firestone sent us the new Micky Dolenz track, a simply sublime cover of R.E.M.'s "Shiny Happy People" (as discussed here). With special programming set to occupy the entirety of next week's show, there was no way I was gonna postpone playing that last-minute addition. Back to it! Had to remove two tracks to make room for our Micky--apologies to the Kinks and Eytan Mirsky, both of whom will be part of next week's special show--and needed to redo three of the back-announcements to reflect the changes. But by then I'd regained my usual inept-but-intrepid facsimile of mojo, and my little part of slappin' together this week's edition of The Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet was finally completed. Off to Dana it went!
(And, continuing this week's rock 'n' roll tsuris, Dana then had a devil of a time accessing the file. I think he wound up using a spanner and a ratchet--and possibly a blowtorch--to pry the damned thing outta Dropbox. Let's face it: this week's show is cursed. But it got DONE!)
And it's pretty good, too. Evidence of that claim appears below. Spanners and ratchets at the ready. A DIY stubbornness and the will to channel it. Rock 'n' roll radio? Let's go.
Blowtorch optional. But available as needed.
NEXT WEEK: *ahem*
THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO # 1200!
For now, THIS is what rock 'n' roll radio sounded like on another hard-won Sunday night in Syracuse this week.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream, archived at Westcott Radio
You can read all about this show's long and weird history here: Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO).
TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS are always welcome.
Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio: CD or download
RYKARDA PARASOL: Above It All (n/a, Tuesday Morning)
No comments:
Post a Comment