My Favorite "Never Too Old" Shows This Year

Well, I'm taking a break from Radio Free Nashville this weekend so there's no live broadcast from me. I didn't say, though, that I was taking a break from doing a blog this week, so here I am.

It's been a little over three months since I started this show. If you've followed my journey, it's been a bit of a roller coaster ride in terms of learning to do a half decent radio show. Indeed, the learning curve continues. Along the way, I realized talking off the top of my head isn't my strong point while trying to manage other details of the show...I had that skill once, while I was in Toastmasters for five years. But I've been gone from it too long and don't really have time to hook up with another club. So, since I decided to return to the practice of scripting my shows in November, I have found a few that have not been painful for me to listen to. I have actually enjoyed listening to them.

So in chronological order, here are my favorite shows of the ones I did this year, with links to the individual blog entries (In all of these, technical glitches not withstanding, by the way).

9/13/08 – The first one. First shows are always special, I guess. I knew I would be a bundle of nerves, so I did script this show. Perhaps for that reason it turned out to not be a total embarrassment to me. I remember how it blew me away when program director Beau Hunter told me that two calls came into the station from listeners saying they liked the show.

10/18/08 – Great Voices show. This is the one I did after listening to the replay of the "Geo on the Radio" Alex Harvey interview. I think the spirit stayed with me and made everything else click. Also one of the first where I had a theme. (And yeah, "quite" was one of my favorite words that day...)

11/22/08 – 1963 show. One of my favorite years in music. I thought the JFK assassination anniversary section came off well. I was dealing with a miserable cold that day but I must say it kept my voice pitch from jumping into the stratosphere as it often likes to do.

12/6/08 – The "by the shoreline" show where I talked about growing up in the Savin Rock part of West Haven, CT in the neighborhood of an aging amusement park. I was also happy with the extended pitch from the heart I did for Radio Free Nashville.

12/13/08 – The "highs of the 60s" show. Some good musical choices there. I was also inspired by the creative genius of my friend Dale Connelly earlier that week on the last broadcast of Minnesota Public Radio's Morning Show which lasted 25 years. He wrote a comic sketch with a most eloquent observation on endings that I just had to work into an encouragement piece on change. I want to write like Dale when I grow up.

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't thank my musician friends Randi Perkins, Steve Craig and Simpli Lauri for taking a chance on me and agreeing to be guests on the show this year.

What I've realized after hearing some of my more recent shows played back is that perhaps I shouldn't be so hard on myself and I should stop venturing into "comparison-itis". My fellow DJ Steve Haggard of the Haggard-King Radio Hour on Tuesdays told me he thinks he and Kimberly King are getting pretty good at it after six months on the air. (I'd say so!). Hopefully I may be halfway to pretty good after three.

Things for me to remember going into the New Year: keep my voice pitch in the middle (you can tell when I'm particularly enthused or excited—up it goes!), and slow down so I don't stumble so much. Above all—focus, focus!

"Never Too Old" as I've noted, moves to Sunday at 8 a.m. starting January 4. It'll be a different experience in a few ways. By virtue of it being Sunday morning, it'll be more laid back. I will be following automation, which means I'll have more time to look around the studio before I go on-air and focus more on how things work and how I can make them work for me. Overall, it might be a better spot for a DJ in training.

Again, grateful thanks for those who have listened to "Never Too Old" or read the blog this year. I hope you will follow me into the next year.