St. Patrick's Day Radio Shows

From this angle, Studio B is on the left, and Studio A is on the right.  I'm usually in Studio B.

I arrived at the radio station a little more than an hour before my first show on St. Patrick's Day.  My shows for the day were: Women in Music from 2 - 4 PM, Polka Time from 5 - 6 PM, and Classic Country from 6 - 9 PM.  When I do all three shows in a day, I usually do the vast majority of the preparation for the day before the first show even starts.  This includes organizing the studio, picking out music, pulling out the underwriter cards, doing a sound test, checking the board to make sure all the right buttons are pushed, starting a playlist, and looking up the weather.  While doing all that, we monitor the previous show in case it ends early.

This day, I had extra preparation to do in that I wanted to find as much Irish Polka Music as I could.  I pulled out the majority of the CDs in the Celtic section, and scanned the backs to look for any Polkas.  Then I listened to the songs off the air to make sure they would work for my show.  After choosing my songs from the library and my own collection, I wrote down some notes of what I wanted to play.

The Celtic section is the bottom three rows.

Women in Music was the easiest show for me to do the St. Patrick's Day theme.  I had more than enough music in my own collection to cover the show, and I know most of that collection like the back of my hand.  Most of the music I played was traditional Celtic, but I did put in some more recent songs as well.

When I started doing the radio shows ten years ago, I hardly had any female musicians in my collection.  Over the years, I have collected a lot of music.  In the Celtic genre, I think the majority of my music is now female musicians.  Having the Women in Music show has really exposed me to a lot of amazing female artists, and I will always be grateful for that learning experience.

I wore my Irish hat and sweater in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

After the conclusion of Women in Music, I took a short dinner break at Sven and Ole's in Grand Marais.  I had garlic cheesy bread with marinara sauce, and really enjoyed it. 

The key to getting dinner during my break is getting something fast, and getting back to the radio station.  It usually takes me about five minutes to get out of the station (I do the weather and basic announcements for Swing Session before heading out), five minutes to drive to a restaurant, and five minutes to get back.  I don't like to be walking in while the previous show's final theme is on, so I have to get back at least five minutes early.  That gives me about forty minutes to eat (if I'm lucky).

When I started out hosting Woman in Music, Polka Time, and Classic Country a decade ago, I was on for seven straight hours, since Classic Country used to be four hours long.  I would bring a sack lunch, and eat during the songs.  It is nice now to have that time for dinner, and go out one of the restaurants in Grand Marais if desired.

I was a little nervous about doing almost all Irish Polkas.  Most of the European Polka Music is from the central or eastern part of that continent.  The Celtic Polkas sound quite different than a Polka from Germany, Russia, Scandinavia, or the former Czechoslovakia.  In the past I did get a little negative feedback when I played what I think was a Viennese Waltz.  To avoid that on St. Patrick's Day, I stuck strictly with Polkas, and made semi-frequent announcements that it was a St. Patrick's Day Polka Special.

I did get one phone call.  Much to my delight, he said "I just wanted you to know that this is the best Polka Time ever!"  It is always fun to hear from happy listeners.  The vast majority of our callers are great; I haven't received any negative feedback in years.

Polka Time went really well.  All but five of the songs were Irish.  Two of the remaining songs were Scottish, and three were American.

When Polka Time was completed, I went right into the Classic Country show.  It was hard to find Irish Classic Country (although it is popular on the Emerald Isle), but I did play a couple of songs each from the Irish musicians Orla Fallon, and Daniel O'Donnell.

If you want to see the playlists from one of the shows, go to https://www.wtip.org/, and click on "PLAYLISTS."  On the scroll down menu, tap on the name of the show.  When the new screen comes up, tap on the date (March 17th, 2019) to access that playlist.  You can look at it during or after the show.  If you are viewing the list during the show, you will have to keep refreshing the page.

Thanks for listening!

Lighthouses and Lake Superior Ice

I was in Grand Marais on Thursday to host a Thirsty Boots show on WTIP.  Prior to the show, I ran several errands in town, and then stopped at the harbor to see the sunset.

There was ice in and around the harbor, which reflected the light from the two main lighthouses.  Frigid wind stung my cheeks, and dried out my hands.  I took pictures of both sides of the tombolo going out to Artist Point shortly after the sunset.  There was a beautiful mixture of blue, red, and orange surrounding the lighthouses.  In the other direction, the ice acted like a gigantic frozen mirror featuring and upside down image of Artist Point.

Grand Marais Harbor

Artist Point

The Lights Are On!