Live on the Air!

 

View from Studio B

This past Thursday, June 3, 2021, I got to do a live show for the first time in over a year!  My Thirsty Boots show was the second volunteer hosted show to be hosted live since March 2020.  In the intervening time, many of the hosts have been recording shows at home, and sending them in.  Sterling took the shows and put them on the air, while a few dedicated staff would come on every hour to do the weather and station identification.

Some advantages of recording at home are being able to edit, and being able to hear my shows over the radio.  Both those things have made me a better radio host, since I was able to critique my shows once while doing the recording, and once while listening to the show.  When broadcasting live, I can hear my show over the headphones, but it is not the same as hearing it coming out of the radio.

There are many advantages of broadcasting live.  Biggest on the list is the extra energy I feel going live over the air.  There is a little more pressure to get everything done in a smooth and timely manner when the biggest (and often times only) mistake that listeners will notice is dead air.

I missed the music library at the station.  While I had plenty of music for Classic County, Thirsty Boots, and the various mix shows, I do not have a huge polka collection at home.  It is quite difficult to find Polka Music in the form of CDs, so it felt like each show was very similar to the others.  When I do my first Polka Show on the third Sunday of the month, I look forward to playing some music I have not been able to play for over a year.

Another advantage of live broadcasts is the full board.  It gives me a lot more capability than recording a show on a computer.  I’m still able to most of the same things, but it is a lot easier on the board.

Sterling met me well before last week’s Thirsty Boots to go over the board and computers.  Since I had hosted shows for eleven years before the pandemic, it all came back quickly.  The only changes were the individual microphone cover (pictured above), the plexiglass shield between the microphones, some new cleaning procedures, and the change in position of the Enco computer, which puts out the programming when no one is at the station.

I had plenty of time to practice with the board, and reorient myself to everything in the station before my show began.  Sterling was nice enough to stay around until my show started to make sure everything went smoothly.

It was wonderful to be welcomed back into the WTIP studios.  Sterling did a great job making sure I was comfortable with the operations again.  Jana, who has done an amazing job sending me my underwriters throughout the pandemic, left a nice welcome back note on the underwriters list too.

Broadcasting live out the WTIP studio again was like returning home.  I hope I’m able to continue to broadcast from that station for many more years.