I Am A Delight

As you may or may not know, I’ve been hosting a radio show once a month since March-ish. And while I love the idea of being a radio host, you also may remember that I find it extremely stressful. The studio is about 45 minutes away, in an old, run-down factory that is most definitely haunted, and I have to go there on a Sunday when no one else is around. This necessitates Ken accompanying me, when he could be building me a new garden house (his current project) or napping because he’s exhausted from being awake. And it’s a good job he comes with me, because the station is unstaffed, and every time I go, something has been unplugged or a button that’s supposed to be pushed isn’t, and I never know until the very second I start the show, when Ken will pop up behind the glass between the studio and the ‘green room’ (it’s green—that’s the only thing about it that resembles a Green Room) and frantically mouths “It’s just dead air!” Then it’s a mad dash to figure out what’s gone wrong THIS time.

But this month, due to a variety of reasons, none of my guests were able to make it to the studio for today’s episode of Reader’s Delight. Normally, when someone can’t come in, they just pre-record themselves doing a reading, but then I had a brainwave. Why couldn’t I interview these writers remotely via Zoom, and upload the audio to the station’s scheduled playlist? Never mind that I had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how to do any of that, but it was okay because the one thing I DO have, the most important thing, is a daughter who is a WHIZ at sh*t like this:

Me: Hey honey, do you know how to splice together three audio tracks into one and then convert the whole thing into an MP3 file?
Katelyn: Sure.
Me: I WILL GIVE YOU TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS IF YOU DO THIS FOR ME.
Katelyn (laughs): Okay, Mother.

And that’s just what we did. I interviewed 2 people remotely (I already had one pre-recorded track because the author was in Europe) and then sent the files to Kate.

Me: Are you sure you know how to do this?
Kate: What? It’s already done. Check your email.

And I was SO thrilled…until I listened to the whole thing through. It was terrific, the authors were engaging, the audio was edited so smoothly…the only problem was ME. Specifically right at the end. I don’t have professional Zoom, so I only had 40 minute sessions, and the last author and I had had a wonderful chat at the beginning, using up a lot of Zoom time, unbeknown to me. It wasn’t until she was in the middle of her reading that I got a pop-up that said, “You have 10 minutes remaining” so I started to panic. She finished with about 4 minutes to spare, but I was so flustered that, at the end of my outro, I said—and I’m not joking—“Until next time…uh, listen to me then.” And if that’s not the WORST tagline that a radio show host could have, I don’t know what is. So now I’m brainstorming for really punchy taglines. Maybe “Until next time, keep reading!”? “Until next time, keep adding to your TBR pile!”? I don’t know—if you have any ideas, PLEASE tell me! Because hopefully, I’ll be doing this remotely from now on, depending on what happens this afternoon at 2 pm when the show airs. Until next time…listen to me then (by streaming it on CKMS Radio Waterloo 102.7 FM).

23 thoughts on “I Am A Delight”

  2. – And remember, reading is life.
    – read like your life depends upon it.
    – if you’re not writing, read. If you’re not reading, drink.
    – gift a book, it’ll probably outlast you.
    – we are the story tellers, what’s your story?

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  3. Maybe it’s just me but I really like “Until next time…listen to me then.” As unpolished as it may be it sounds like a wonderfully quirky tagline that I wish I’d come up with if I hosted a radio show. And it reminded me that Allen Sherman, best known for his “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah” song, recorded an album titled “Live!!! Hoping You Are The Same.” But in your case it would be fitting if some of your listeners were, as we sometimes say, on the other side.

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  8. Just go with something easy to remember, like ‘And that’s it folks. Catch you next week.’

    On my videos I just say ‘As always, thanks for watching and goodbye’. Not very original but it is easy to remember. 😀

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