It’s been quite a busy three days. Wednesday was the day we flew back from DC in the afternoon – and that night I sang four solos with the Kenosha Pops Band for their season finale, followed by the end-of-the-season party at Villa D’Carlo. Yesterday morning was my first day back at the station since vacation, which meant that there was a mountain of stuff to do, and I was in the studio five hours rather than the normal three – followed by a much needed nap on the couch and then a Caritas rehearsal with Kathy and Kate. (We sing for church on Sunday.) Then Marshall came for supper (Applebees) followed by a couple hours of opera videos that evening (while Kathy was at the movies with several friends.) Fun! But Whew!
Which may help explain why I was a bit bleary-eyed this morning (Friday) for WGTD’s live morning show broadcast from Kenosha’s harbor. This weekend is U.S.Cellular’s Kenosha Days of Discovery featuring six so-called Tall Ships, and for the first time in the event’s three-year history we decided that I would do my morning show at the event- and preferably on board one of the ships. It sounded like fun.
As it turns out, just the technical set-up was a major headache and as Dave McGrath back in the studio began playing the theme music for my program at eleven minutes after 8, general manager Dave Cole was still frantically plugging in mic cords and getting me situated. But no one is cooler under extreme pressure than DC and he just kept plugging away and got me on the air in a nick of time.
I did most of today’s morning show aboard the Nina, which as the name implies is a full=size replica of one of Christopher Columbus’ three vessels. Not only is it the same dimensions and the same building materials, it was also constructed with the building techniques of 1492. Not that there aren’t a couple of modern amenities . The Nina may primarily be a sailing ship, but it is also equipped with an engine from Mercedes Benz which is essential for insuring that the Nina will reach all of its scheduled destinations through the year and thus meet all of its obligations. Also, the crew of six enjoys a beautiful flat screen television in the hold of the ship- plus thirty-plus DVDs. Except for that and some modern communication equipment, this is pretty much exactly the ship which Columbus piloted across the Atlantic Ocean. I had a fun time interviewing its captain, Kyle Friauf, except for the moment when I asked him about the design of the front end of the ship – and gestured behind me. It’s a good thing it was radio instead of television, because as the captain began to answer my question he gently pointed to the other end of the ship. That’s right, I couldn’t even identify the front and rear ends of the ship, let alone give them their proper terms- the Bow and the Stern. I’m just glad Captain Friauf had a sense of humor and some patience, or otherwise he might have thrown me overboard in disgust.
Once that interview was done, complete with a couple more mild faux pas, I moved from the Nina to the Appleload, and its captain, Guy Parks. He’s the guy in the picture, and I’m sure in all my life I have never seen such a Kris Kringle lookalike as Captain Parks. He actually has the imposing build of a former heavyweight wrestler and football center, but he is also a gentle and intelligent soul and a complete joy to speak with. Our conversation went along swimmingly until the moment when two Coast Guard officials showed up to inspect his vessel- and BOOM he was gone and we were done.
My specialty on the morning show is phone interviews with authors. . . and I think interviews in-person, so to speak, are much tougher for me. One reason for it is that when I’m interviewing someone over the phone, I’m often listening to their answer but already flipping quietly through the book to find something new to ask about in my next question. But when the person is right there talking to you, there really isn’t that same opportunity to do that- You have to listen politely to what they’re saying, and LOOk like you’re listening- which makes it pretty much impossible to mentally move on to the next question. So I found myself in the unfamiliar situation of having to think of my questions in these nervous bursts – which was tough, especially because I was entering the fray with an embarrassment of ignorance. (A little ignorance about the topic at hand is fine – and even advantageous – but to know NOTHING is a rather scary position in which to find one’s self.) So this morning show ended up being a good example of what my beloved old partner Bill Guy liked to call an interview of “Heavy Lifting” – an interview which took a tremendous amount of conscious effort from start to finish. (Thank goodness that only a very few of my interviews are Heavy Lifting, or I wouldn’t last much longer in this business!)
Anyway, I hope I can keep Bow and Stern straight from here on out. . . and if I ever get to do another aboard-ship interview, I will try to go in not as an Armed-With-Ignorance Larry King but rather as the Always-Does-Their-Homework Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air. I bet she knows the difference between Bow and Stern! And if she didn’t, she would have it thoroughly figured out well before the On Air light would go on! Live and Learn.