Rain and rhythm on Region radio

It rained a bunch of buckets all through the rush hour this morning and that kept people calling about backups on the Bishop Ford and Cline Avenue and 294 and the lot. You could kinda tell that we had more listeners than normal including one stretch in which five women called in a row and three of them were new.

It’s a risk you take when you’re a guy and you don’t have a female co-host and most of your callers and probably even listeners are men. I’ve worried about that before and then I’ll go somewhere and some dude will tell me how his wife carries a radio around while making lunches for the kids so she won’t miss any of the show. The fairer sex is out there listening and it takes a rainstorm to flush them out sometimes.

US Senator Joe Donnelly called in this morning amidst the mayhem. It was an especially timely interview in that he is on the Armed Services committee and the President was set to give a big speech tonight on terrorism. (Obama said he'll send 475 service members to Iraq to fight ISIS). Donnelly also addressed the killing of Merrillville officer Nick Schultz, bringing up that three Indiana officers have been killed in the past couple of months.

It was a dance of experience. A rhythm develops when you’ve interviewed a competent speaker enough times. You lay it out, he answers back… but not too long. For he too knows there is a rhythm that must be adhered to. Once in a while you interject with a follow-up, and it might even be aggressive, but that too is part of the dance of experience.  Without the challenge, he or she can’t react, show leadership. In the end, no matter what was said, the audience appreciates the rhythm and might even tap their collective feet to it.

It’s almost 8:30pm so it’s time for local radio guy to go to bed. Just like my grandpa, I go to bed before the news and wake up before the paper. Tomorrow's 9-11. Donnie Bacso was in the tower and tomorrow he'll be the WJOB airwaves.