October 14th, 2015

WJOB producer Tony Panek w Purdue student

Nick Popovich of Sage-Popovich Air

Jennifer Sanders of Methodist Hospitals

11:06am on a Wednesday morning

Just got out of class. Broadcasting class. Every other Wednesday we break ground in education by putting students on the air live for an hour and a half. It's all good radio, just some is better than others.

The students got a few calls from listeners today, and you can tell that they're not entirely comfortable speaking to general public. Not yet. The one thing I suggested is to follow up with a question for the caller. That makes them feel as if you listened to what they had to say and that you care enough about them to ask a question. That's as good a start as any for start of a decent call-in radio show.

On my show, it was mostly me. At 7:30, Jennifer Sanders came in for Breast Cancer Awareness month. Once in a while you're a little leery about a guest coming on with a heavy topic in the middle of the morning... but Jennifer came in with energy and statistics about breast cancer and the segment went well.... except for the part when I said "smashed" in referring to breasts during a mammogram.

"We prefer 'compression,' Jim," Jennifer corrected. 

The talk about breast cancer came on the heels of Harry Caray calling in from heaven in the wake of the Cubs winning their first playoff series at Wrigley Field EVER. I didn't realize that. When the Cubs finally beat the Cardinals last night in the NLCS... it was the first time the Cubs ever finished off a playoff series at home. They've won a few series since Wrigley was built in 1914... but never at home. The city and the Region are going wild for the Cubbies. Harry and Ron Santo are living it up with Ernie and Ryne Sandburg. Region rats Joe O'Connor and Bill Porter did a pretty good Cubs song, and so did Katie Day (who's really Katie Schlesinger). I play the songs, fans call in... everybody's happy.

After the show I worked with new WJOB producer Tony Panek (Purdue Cal grad) to start establishing our video network. It's a slow process. As soon as I'm finished writing this blog that nobody reads, I'm gonna take a few youtube tutorials on how to use Wirecast software. I'll explain some other time what that means. For now, suffice it to say that radio is in transition... and at WJOB and JED.tv that transition means video.