This is an update of my previous post, an account of answering a call to place an old radio series back into circulation.
As I wrote previously, I have been re-editing programs in my last radio series, a half-hour program called “The Spirit of Jazz.” The show was syndicated by the Presbyterian Media Mission of Pittsburgh, Pa. back in 1989 or so. I have stored reels of the show in the attic, not the best idea, I know. Upstate NY attics are frigid in winter and way too hot and humid in summer. But the tapes still play OK on the old Revox B-77 that is also housed in that attic. (Again, not the best idea, keeping that poor machine up there.)
I’ve been transferring the tapes to CD, and then to my computer, editing with Audacity, adding a new close to extend the programs a minute beyond the original 28:30 length, and then converting the new mix to MP3 audio. I may have found 22 different programs on the attic shelf, so by this time I’m winding down the process with only a handful to go.
Though it’s been many years since the show aired, I seem to remember that PMM had placed it on just a few stations during its short run. But if memory serves, the stations were in fairly good-sized markets, though no doubt in odd public service time slots. So, I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a huge audience out there for this combination of contemporary jazz cuts with meditations on thoughtful themes linking the musical selections. No doubt there’s not much more audience now at 10 p.m. on Sunday nights on that modest computerized Internet radio station on the shore of one of the Finger Lakes. Geneva Community Radio. It’s a well-intentioned, even earnest, effort to serve a local community, while having the potential to reach a global audience. It is the Internet, after all.
I’ve been faithful to the process, I have to say. I’m even working a few weeks ahead, and having a fine time hearing those old tapes again, listening to my scripted words, sometimes with warm satisfaction, sometimes with a touch of regret that I didn’t spend a lot more time writing (and praying about) the script. Often, though, I forget to actually tune in, if that’s what one calls it when one listens to an Internet radio station. (Indeed, is it even really “radio?”) Sunday night comes and Joan and I are watching something on the DVR, and I remember to drag the laptop over to the recliner and find the “station” — mostly to 1) make sure the show is on, and 2) keep track of which episode is, um, airing. And then I wonder… if I’m not paying that much attention, who in the world (literally) is?
Some things never change. Sometimes the program doesn’t sound as good technically as when it left the studio. And sometimes, computerized station or not, the program doesn’t air at exactly the right time. Early on in the process, I heard the show before mine run way over, and mine was delayed. And a couple of weeks ago, I tuned in at 10:20 and heard nothing but the Internet radio equivalent of Muzak. Apparently my program had aired early and was over by 10:20. Missed that one.
Speaking of the program that is on before mine, it’s a terrible lead-in, just awful. (I’m referring to its value as a lead-in, not to its value to an audience.) The program’s called “Gospel Doings,” or maybe “Gospel Doin’s” (as in do-ins, see). It’s what I’d call “white southern gospel,” folksy, laid back, full of country twang and evangelistic zeal. That’s fine by me, as if that mattered. But here’s the problem: if you tune in early for my show, or even on time if the “Gospel Doings” have run over, you are looking for jazz, and, pardon me, you might expect a small dose of the sophistication that one finds in that musical genre. The “doings” will do in my potential listeners. And if you are a big fan of southern gospel, I doubt very much that even the Holy Spirit would move you to stay tuned for a program featuring the music that was once relegated to dives, bars, and back alley bistros. In other words, between one program and the other is a huge disconnect!
I doubt that anything our Presbytery programs in a slot such as this will be “appointment radio.” But it would be nice to think that someone is out there making this effort worthwhile. If you’ll excuse me now, I think I recall something in the Bible about the Parable of the Sower, or the Seeds, or — Once there was a broadcaster who threw his signal into the air…
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