Not Hornung

Welcome to the end of the week of radio.

In interviewed Paul Hornung this morning, but for some reason that doesn’t feel like the highlight of the week. Verlie Suggs hosted with me on Tuesday morning and we took a ton of phone calls and drummed up some drama on the radio… but that wasn’t the highlight either.

The Community Programming Initiative started up again. We took a long-ass break over the summer from opening the airwaves to local groups to buy time and get on the radio. It was necessary for a number of reasons, not the least of which was we needed the focus to build a brand new studio. On Wednesday, Kusiak and Reardon returned to  talk about the Bishop Noll – Andrean rivalry.  Thursday, Frank Mrvan talked better ways to cart the poor around the Region. Mayor McDermott and the Whiting-Robertsdale Chamber of Commerce came back on the air today, too.

Don’t get me wrong. The Community Programming Initiative is a good thing. It gets the most local people on local airwaves as possible and that has to be a good thing in the mind of every American. But even though it’s returning, it’s still not the highlight of the week.

That honor belongs to this moment right now. Everyone’s vacated the new studios and I’m sitting here typing to you while listening to some Grateful Dead on the speakers. Blaring. Loud. No neighbors yet in this five-million dollar investment that’s coming to Purdue. So I can pretty much play “To Lay Me Down” as loud as I want. I just fixed a technical problem that I’ve been working on for three months and somehow it feels like time for a beer or, if back in the old days, a visit to Wampum.

But that’s not really necessary. A lot of people have helped to make this studio on the campus of the Purdue University Calumet Commercialization Center a reality, and I thank all of you. But right now this studio is mine. I built this thing. I’m looking out the window at the zillion trucks an hour barreling by on Indianapolis Boulevard. Sunshine. Brand new overhead lights, HD cameras, new mics, computers, screens, switchers, even all-new XLR cables. And for some reason all of this put together with the Grateful Dead feels just about right.

So this moment would be your highlight of the week. Or rather my highlight of the week. Friday. The end of the week of radio.