[Chuck] Blahhhhgg

Top ten entrants Carrie Kaufmann, Anne Glickman and myself were on WBEZ's '848': here's a link ... http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Program_848_Segment.aspx?segmentID=125...

With my first scheduled two week vacation from the on-air part of our radio show in six years, you would think I would finally have the time to blog.

Guess again.

During each of the next two Saturday's shows, August 11th and August 18th, I will call in with a travelogue of sorts at around 10 AM (US central) on WNUR 89.3 FM Chicago and online at http://www.wnur.org and http://www.thisishell.net. So I have to be writing the entire vacation - or at least a few hours right before I go on the air - each of the next
two Saturdays.

But even when we're not doing live radio, there's still piles of work to be done including booking guests for upcoming shows, requesting review copies of books and films, updating the http://www.thisishell.net web site daily, and all the research that stuff entails. Not to mention getting
the 'Best of' recordings together for easy play on the next two Saturday mornings, thanks to producers Drew Colglazier and Chris Wade. And that doesn't include a dozen other unfinished projects.

Luckily, beginning Monday, August 13th, I will be somewhere where there are no phones. Which means no Internet. Which means no work ... except for the books I will peruse and a three foot stack of book reviews I should sift through.

To do my two call-ins, I will first be in the midst of a layover at my girlfriend's mother's townhouse-on-golf course in mid-Michigan and I will call from there. I did five self-imposed years in the Lansing megalopolis. There's really not much to add.

Then, the following Saturday, the 18th, I will be in the Houghton Lake area of the northern lower peninsula and without telecommunications. That means, I will have to walk to the Roscommon County Airport, maybe a little shy of or over a mile, and use a long distance card on one of
their pay phones to do my call-in.

If you're in the area, drop by. I'm sure the waiting room still has subscriptions to all your favorite consumer aviation periodicals. Have you seen the new Cessnas?

When in the Houghton Lake area, make sure to visit the Pines Theater. Unfortunately, while we're there this year, the movie is 'Rush Hour 3.'(The over/under for number of racist comments you can hear muttered under someone's breath during each showing is three and-a-half, but out loud ones count, too ... and, more than likely, there will be far more on the screen.)

The Pines is only vaguely 'Twin Peaks' - esque. In that Homer Simpson looks nothing like Fred Flintstone looks nothing like Ralph Cramden looks nothing like Warren Harding.

So, I'm blogging daily till Friday, then my vacation from the Internet begins.

For my first entry this week, I'm just cutting up some notes I wrote last week. Adrianne, at Public Radio Exchange, asked us to write on our Challenge Three experience. I wrote alot and it all sucked. I just don't think I am any good at doing what I am told to do.

Tomorrow, I will blog again. Right now, I am off to update our web site, http://www.thisishell.net. Visit it if you get a chance.

Here's the parts from my notes last week that are worth sharing:

(Asked why did we pick who we picked to interview ... my first thought was Noam Chomsky ... )

Chomsky has been called the "leading living public intellectual." that would catch everyone's attention, right? But when Noam has been a guest on 'This is Hell' in the past, the interviews have gone as long as 53
minutes completely uninterrupted. No commercials, no editing, just Noam. When Noam gets on a roll, you do not want to interrupt. Besides, this is one of the only, if not the only, media outlets that gives Noam the chance to speak live and unedited on the radio without the constraining
limits of sound-bite sized responses.

And that kinda interview ain't conducive to what them judges want, see?

(We asked everyone we could who they though would be a good guest for the interview ... )

One reply stuck out and it was quickly seconded: Dr. Mustafa
Barghouthi. Mustafa came in second to Mahmoud Abbas during the January 2005 elections for the Palestinian National Authority presidency. He would give PublicRadioQuest.com visitors an alternative, non-Fatah, non-Hamas Palestinian view of what's happening in the Occupied Territories.

Mustafa agreed to be on our show, but we had growing concerns over sound quality. Not only would we be doing our segments live for the contest, but live on the air during our show, in new studios that are not completely 'broken in,' but it would be the only way we could get this
caliber of guest on our interview entry.

Although I had already booked Mustafa, we decided that we simply couldn't depend on the Palestinian telecommunications system to conduct an interview that would have the audio quality needed for this contest.

Then, I started reading Patrick Cockburn's recent reporting for the London-based The Independent from Arbil in Kurdistan. He'd been on our show twice already this year, once from his home in London, the other time from Baghdad. While I knew the sound quality, even though it was a
land line to London, wouldn't be the greatest, it would certainly better than that from Ramallah and I thought the news he could convey to PublicRadioQuest.com visitors was the most timely ...

But you can still hear the interviews we did with Noam Chomsky, Mustafa Barghouthi and Howard Zinn, as well as an interview with Tufts University professor Gary Leupp, by going to our web site. http://www.thisishell.net

In preparation, it was just another week of hell. it's like cramming for final exams every week. But instead of failing an exam, you make an ass of yourself publicly. And there's nothing you can do about it because it's live.

However, it was tough to change my style as needed for this interview. I had to get in as many questions as possible over five minutes to show my interviewing style. That is very unlike our show where we allow our guests to talk at length and, often, my questions are lengthy in order
to provide background information that the audience may need to fully grasp the significance of the conversation.

I don't want to be a celebrity. That's why I want to work in radio.

...

The most difficult part was easily the interview done of me. I don't believe that the host/anchor/reporter/writer/journalist/reporter
whatever you want to call them should ever be the center of attention. And those 'hosts' who pursue celebrity undermine the service they should be performing for the public. Especially in public broadcasting. And that mission is to get information to the public in a way in which your
listeners/viewers can learn about and, if necessary, make their own decisions regarding, the content provided.

When I am being asked questions like 'what you believe in' or 'struggle with,' and 'where do you live' the questions focus on me, which, make me feel a bit uncomfortable. As a 'host' I believe in playing second fiddle to my guests (get it? 'host' and 'guest' as if you have invited them into your home? ... ). Too many hosts see themselves as the end-all,
be-all expert on everything when, in reality, they're rarely more than people with access to a microphone.

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