Workin' For a Livin'

It would have worked!

First off, it might be a time for a change.

Every now and then, I ponder leaving Blogger (as much as I've loved them). They're about to change the interface and, admittedly, I'm not a big fan of the changes. But, I've also been with them for nearly 14 years.

Still, I feel like I haven't taken the necessary step and have had a (dormant) account on WordPress for at least two years. In fact, it still said something about "Greenwich Sentinel" it in for some reason.

I'm sure they didn't get paid either.

I digress.

Then I could consider a whole reboot to Robcasting, which I've also considered, as opposed to explaining the Mixlr account name (mixlr.com/robcasting-radio). So, these are things that occasionally pop up in my mind.

But, all of that co$t$. The amazing thing is, I have an audio page that is also unused but I don't have the widget to actually publish it. So, if anyone knows anything about those things, I'd love to chat. We could have a Robcasting Revolution!

OK, so to the picture above. I was supposed to call Greenwich/Wilton baseball at Greenwich High yesterday. I think it would have been my first call at the place I call "Cardinal Yard" since...well...the Greenwich Sentinel days.

And not getting paid. Hmm, what am I trying to say here? Anyway...

The sky yesterday was rough, my friends. It had poured hours earlier in New York, but when duty calls, you go. I literally can count the number of truly missed broadcasts on one hand. You get in this business, you do the job. You exhaust every last option before you give up.

I considered calling basketball and hockey the day Sean was born. I didn't, and I had the excellent Sean Kilkelly ready to go, so WGCH didn't miss a beat.

Very few things have kept me from a game.

So if, I don't know, a bad internet signal was to keep me from being live, I would record the broadcast and air it later.

At Staples in 2003 for football, all we had was a cellphone and nowhere to recharge the battery. So, we stood in the crowd and people handed us their phones. Then they would go recharge them. And, so on. We got the job done.

Shawn Sailer and I called a game by standing on chairs and looking
over that tarp. We used bread trays for the equipment.

Yes, you have to be a bit insane to do what I do. That insanity has driven people from this industry because they realized it ultimately wasn't for them.

You have to be willing to crawl to do setup and breakdown. You have to be willing to have it take a physical and mental toll. You have to deal with certain levels of abuse (yes, really) due to jealousy and power and entitlement.

And you have to understand a level of creative thinking that I can only describe of "MacGyveristic." In short, the wheels start turning in my mind as to what equipment I have with me and what cables I can make it all connect with.

The heavy stuff is about to arrive.

So, when the sky is awful at 3:45 and you have a show to do at 4:00 and then a baseball game to call at 5:30, you dig into your bag of tricks. That bag often means financial cost and acquiring things over the years.

You dig out your Behringer audio interface and your MacBook. You grab a headset and a few cables. You park in a spot where you can ping off the Greenwich High School guest wifi (the cell service there is, simply, pathetic).

And you drive around the parking lot to find the best signal.

While wearing the headset listening to the feed of the radio station*.

*The parking lot was mostly empty and I'm a professional. Or something like that.

And then? THEN? After you've done that, and have even decided that's the setup you'll likely use come gametime because you still have lineups to write?

Then Alex LoParco texts you, followed by Michael Genaro.

"Game called."

Sigh. OK, now you're talking to Bob Small at WGCH and you explain it all to him. He's prepared to stall to let you get to the studio because -- in these lazy, hazy, crazy days of COVID -- the station is within 10 minutes away.

So, you get out of the parking lot, make two rights, a left, a right, a left, and a right and you're at WGCH. You hustle into the studio and you're on the air around 4:16!

With NO notes (PREPARATION, Y'ALL!) you launch into a stream of conscience radio show for the next 45 minutes (including commercials) that eviscerates Greenwich for the molasses-drip of red tape to get things done, go rip city on DeSean Jackson and hypocrisy (all is still quiet on the social justice front, including friends), take a call from Chris Kaelin, and wrap up the show at 5:00.

Then -- there's more! -- you edit the show and upload it to Mixcloud and Archive.org for your files and for Jonathan Rios to run on WON 920 The Apple and WEAF 940 The Liberty.

Then you drive home, catching up with Paul Silverfarb before ordering dinner for your mother and son.

You get the job done.

All for zero money.

Learn from this, kids. Don't act like entitled, spoiled brats because you talk to big names and suck up to them. The cliched calls and pithy hashtags won't win the day. Pay attention to the world and realize how out of touch you look.

If you simply walk away because the internet didn't work or something else, there's always a chance that someone will show up and step in.

You know, like Lou Gehrig.