Play something by Polly Scattergood!

The tone of this post might be described as "feet-shufflin'".

Hey, speaking of the radio show, how does one go about getting a gig like that? I've been told I have a good radio voice.

I've been told I have a good radio voice.

You sure they didn't say "a face for radio"?

Getting a gig like that at a campus radio station varies by campus, as I suppose you don't really need to be told, and is probably the easiest such gig to get (though I suppose that depends on your campus; I think Brown's radio station, for instance, is for-profit (!) and it's probably harder to get on there).

I have no idea how one gets a gig at a respectable station.

Teo definitely doesn't have a face for radio.

Teo, when summer vacation starts, the stations usually go from being deluged with would-be DJs to being desperate for anyone to do a show. So, show up in the summer and ask if you can get trained to do a show then, and prove your worth by doing a summer show. Then maybe you can worm your way into a show during a real semester despite not being an actual student.

I move that boston unfoggetards have a meetup at approximately the same time as the New York meetup, just to show 'em.

I thought Teo and Fontana Labs tied for best-looking male Unfoggeder at the DC meetup.

A campus station would be the type of place I would be looking, and I would probably be a student when I was doing it. Although trying it out this summer when I'm not a student is a thought.

It also depends on what kind of show you want to do, of course, but I would wager that you could get all kinds of groupies doing a show in which you narrate, in all mellifluidity, the events of 1692 in the Americas.

I'm not even being 100% facetious here.

I thought Teo and Fontana Labs tied for best-looking male Unfoggeder at the DC meetup.

Uh, excuse me. I know you saw me, because we had a conversation.

Huh, I haven't heard that cycle, but now I must. An ensemble here has recently done portions of Crumb's American Songbook, which I recommend enthusiastically.

11: Good to know, as that is probably the kind of show I would be most likely to end up doing. Music DJing doesn't seem like quite the best line of work for me.

12: remember, he wears some pretty thick glasses. He probably thought we were policemen, or gypsies.

OK, if it's a non-music show you should definitely try first during the summer. It depends on the station, but in my experience it's hard to convince the directors that any sort of actual concept show involving talking for minutes on end is really feasible.

Just remember to pitch your voice lower than normal and sort of croon as you talk.

I'm not necessarily wedded to a non-music show, but I think a music show would be a pretty hard sell given my near-total lack of knowledge about music.

It doesn't make sense for you to do a music show just to get on the air. Also, it really depends on the organizational structure of the station you'd be applying to how difficult it will be to get a non-music show.

You could intersperse historical commentary with the hits of 1692. It would be a nostalgia-fest, like those old-timey radio shows.

At this big state college there aren't any non-music shows, except the sports and news shows which is where the people who actually hope to do Communications for a living get their cracks in.

Some people do music shows that are like half semi-planned blathering, but nobody comes in with a script or a plan for spending two hours talking and playing archival audio footage. I think this results from the program director being paranoid about any possibility that anyone might express a political view and therefore cause us to cease to be a nonprofit or get the state to revoke our license or something.

Sometimes, ranting incomprehensibly about alternate dimensions is enough to get you a show.

At both of the private institutions with which I have first-hand experience there have been many non-music, non-sports shows, more at stanford than at chicago, though.

Some people do music shows that are like half semi-planned blathering

I hate those fuckers.

I did a classical music show when I was at school, which won me the coveted 6 a.m. slot. A friend of mine did a show called "Exactly What I Played Last Week".

The local campus station here actually has a lot of non-music shows.

My friends got a show when we were in high school by walking into the station and offering to take the Tuesday overnight slot. Turns out Wednesday morning 1AM to 5AM wasn't highly sought after.

I mean, surely I can compete with this.

Don't underestimate the power of inertia.

Oh, you've got one of those NPR-type campus stations. Those are usually much less half-assed. And harder to break into.

There are other types?

Yes.

The half-assed kind are more fun.

There's also this, but they're not even campus-affiliated. They do seem kind of half-assed, though.

As long as they're assed enough to actually have an FM transmitter.

I hate those fuckers.

But they always blather well about you, Ben.

The only NPR/campus radio stations I've ever really encountered are the ones at Duquesne and Penn.

But I live in an area where major metropolitan areas have a whole bunch of colleges, instead of one or zero like you have out west. So once one station has the Pittsburgh or Cleveland or Philly franchise for "All Things Considered" sewn up, there's plenty of room for others to do their own thing in obscurity.

You could vlog, you know.

You could vlog, you know.

Yeah, but I'd have to get a webcam or something.

38: you could use woodcuts instead. Like a wlog! Just for the historical accuracy.

Just for the historical accuracy, but also without loss of generality.

And if I can find someone else to participate, we can do some diawlogging!

Uh, excuse me. I know you saw me, because we had a conversation.

you were *just behind* those two. Just barely. Look at the bright side: if you were any better looking it would be impossible to get on the radio.

There were a couple of other fellows that might have been pretty good-looking, but you couldn't tell behind those scruffy Amish-type beards that the young folks affect nowadays.

you were *just behind* those two. Just barely. Look at the bright side: if you were any better looking it would be impossible to get on the radio.

Hey!

other fellows that might have been pretty good-looking, but you couldn't tell behind those scruffy Amish-type beards that the young folks affect nowadays.

Hey, now. We're all butt-ugly and proud of it.

You'll grow a scruffy beard, Teo, and those radio folks will be none the wiser.

...unless you rub your whiskers against the microphone.

really, shouldn't the title have been "for the love of big apples?"

I move that boston unfoggetards have a meetup at approximately the same time as the New York meetup, just to show 'em.

That's a good idea. We could simulvlog.

Hey, now. We're all butt-ugly and proud of it.

Nope. We're all 47, male, and balding. That could be butt-ugly, but it might not be.

my guess is the Swedish date is coming back via NYC and BW is meeting her at JFK
how romantic, but it's called spoiling her transversing the whole country for that

KANW is licensed to APS, or at least it was in my day. A friend of mine in high school got a show there somehow. KUNM seems to function more like a community station with heavy doses of NPR than like a proper college radio station.

Teo, do a talky show like this one.

I thought I had posted this last night, but I recommend that for the meetup, if you want to do something vaguely insane but which will almost certainly produce good stories to tell people later (and isn't that everyone's goal, really?) you get everyone to go on this group's solstice walk. Not that I'm planning to go, the previous walk I did with them was enough wintry walking for me.

KANW is licensed to APS, or at least it was in my day.

It probably still is. My parents always listened to KUNM, so I'm not as familiar with KANW. Their schedule seems to be about 80% New Mexico Hispanic music, so they probably have a lot more leeway for carving out new shows than KUNM does.

David Emory does not really have a radio voice.

Oh, and w/d: that sounds like a great idea, actually.

Especially the part about my not going, right?

In my limited experience, it's a really good group. The guy on the left in this video runs it. But this particular walk sounds nearly as mad, if not more so, than the bridge walk (this link will not, for some reason, work in IE) they did this summer.

Especially the part about my not going, right?

That's the best part. I don't think I'd want to do this without anyone else I know along for the trip but I definitely want to do it.

Those walks do sound pretty great, but the overnight one is just too much for me. I'm getting old and it really hurts to stay up all night.

Just think of it as getting a really extreme alpine start.

Yes! I want to come to NYC that weekend! Yes! I'd like to see people!

I did a sort of inverse of that solstice walk once, hiking in Yosemite... get up before the (summer) sun, get back after it's down. It was about 30 miles and a 5000ft elevation.

It was a lot of fun, but hurt the next day.

You wanna go on a 15-hour walk, Becks?

I too would be up for meeting people. I think I'll pass on the walk, though.

You people are WEAK.

i wonder whether they require registration or one can go incognito and what people walk usually, if like all young guys and there comes obasan
would be funny
or whether one can walk some part of it, the sunset part for example, maybe one can, i know the point is honoring the solstice, but if it was daywalk could be like sightseeing, i'd walk, coz it's not talking
just overnight, it's pretty cold outside for 15 hrs

I think a summer solstice walk would be better.

A good winter solstice walk would be from Salisbury to Stonehenge. And back.

68 -- And paint yourself blue to do it.

There's no registration required, it's a casual organization. You can start walking and then stop at any time you choose to (and live forevermore with the knowledge that you've failed at life). The group when I went was majority female and fairly young.

The group when I went was majority female and fairly young.

Too bad it's not an equinox thing, then.

68 is deeply profound.

(and live forevermore with the knowledge that you've failed at life).
good, it seems to be cancelled in favor of the equinox