Every week, I step behind a big, suspended microphone and record my show. Usually though, before I get to recording that week’s program, I make a series of liners: short commercial-like spots that promote the show on radio stations. Sometimes, last week in particular, saying ‘You’re listening to … on W-A-C-K Radio!’ in a deep radio-announce-style voice uncountable times into a microphone, whilst the house is empty and devoid of life, a certain, echoing madness comes upon me which causes me to break from my script and burst out into different voices, for no apparent reason other than I go temporarily mad. Take this clip for example:

A total waste of time, energy, and whirling sound effects! And how the words ring true. Here’s another result of me and a mic:

There I go. Could I stop there and end it while there was still time? Obviously not, because I made a short series of Rancher Hicks, with this one coming next:

And another:

And as a grand finale, I tried my hand at being a crazed hippie:

After those, I was nearly convinced to launch an entirely new scheme which involved people sending in questions to either Rancher Hicks or Perry Hip, who would in turn answer them online to more-or-less satisfactory results. No wonder it takes all day to get these shows done.

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Posted in About Me
Tags: Radio Stuff, The Top 5, voices

88.3 FM, WJNF The Rock, is shutting down in January of 2008 and transferring their signal to Way-FM, a national broadcaster. For those of you who have known me long enough, WJNF was the first station ever to take on my show in February of 2006. I remember spending an entire month calling every single radio station, state by state, with no takers for the program. I got to Florida and called Rene, and she took the show right there. I was so excited that when we went to the chess tournament that weekend, I told people I didn’t even know about it. It was the first time anybody else thought I was famous .

After one station took me on, just being on the air acted as a catalyst for other stations to sign on. Gradually, I learned how to host a show (ahem…perhaps I should have learned that before I went on the air…) and then I got to interview bands, go backstage and do all the stuff I had always wanted. Now I’m in 20 states and 5 countries, on all the types of radio there are- even satellite in Africa! I think I will always be indebted to the station who believed in that teenager who wanted to be a DJ.

That’s me, around the time I first went on the air with them. Like all perfectionists, I shudder when I hear myself back then. How could they have let me go on! I bemoan. The low whisper voice! The static in the mic! Those terribly cheesy jokes! But I know without that initial boost of confidence of getting on the air, I never would have learned how to do it. So here’s me today:

I can’t say that they were the first station that let me on the air (KNLE had the honor of a 13-year-old DJ with a squeaky voice all to themselves…another story for another time). But WJNF and I have both come a long way, and I wish them well wherever they choose to broadcast their airwaves.

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Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: Radio Stuff, The Top 5, WJNF

I just finished recording a new intro for my radio show! Check it out below:

This is taken from this weekend’s show. I didn’t know that I’ve had the same intro since October of 2006! So it was certainly time for a newer, sleeker one. Here’s the old one:

For my friends who have been around long enough to remember, before this show was even on the air, I did this online with cheap equipment and a microphone that sat on my desk. I look back and shiver: how in the world did people put up with listening to me ? Remember this show:

I hadn’t yet learned mastering and I had an awful microphone! My voice sounds so tired as well…probably because I used to need absolute silence and would record until 2 AM!

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Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: audio production, liners, My show, Radio Stuff, recording, The Top 5