The Interview

 

(stock photo)

I had to do an interview today and, if I'm being honest, there was a miscommunication.

I was on Z-93 to host "Poughkeepsie Nissan Sunday Sports (with Zolz)." I put "with Zolz" in parenthesis because, when Zolz is at the ballpark, I'm going to lead the show. Oh, of course, it's Zolz's show and I'm not being petty. It's all in good fun.

So Zolz texted both Fran Pomarico and me and said we'd have a guest on.

Well, a few things happened. For one thing, Fran didn't see the text. For another, I assumed Zolz would lead the interview since he knew the person.

Assumed. Yup. My bad.

Zolz came on with us for roughly 15 minutes. We talked about parental behavior in youth sports (obviously a topic near and dear to me) among some other things. Then he left.

Then we were on with the guest.

Having only the text of Zolz to work with, I rolled into the interview with Rick Stockfield, the founder and President of The 3 Up 3 Down Organization.

(To apply for a grant from the organization -- which was the topic of the interview -- go here)

To an extent, this is like improv. It's purely ad-lib at that point. It's reminiscent of the good ol' days of the sidewalk sales we did on the HAN Network.

You see, it's not like I had much of an idea of who the interviews were with. Prep work wasn't possible. So when Marty Hersam and I had to interview someone from a Darien dress shop, I worked off the cuff and did an interview I still teach students about.

In case you're wondering, I asked about discovering trends and staying up on what customers are interested in. It was an interview that was initially laughed at when it was noted that two guys would do it. In the end, we did a pretty good job.

Sometimes it's simply a matter of being inquisitive and using a certain level of common sense.

As for today, we finished the segment and went to break. Fran told me how I made it sound like I knew Mr. Stockfield and I figure that's a solid compliment to say that it all went fine.

I remember another time that Mark Jeffers asked me to put a musician on "Doubleheader" as a favor. Again, it was in a tight spot where I couldn't do more than reach for my computer as we went live. From what I was told, the musician (fairly popular in Australia, as I recall) was happy with the spot and I was happy to not embarrass either myself, him, or Mark.

I appreciate the challenge.

In a perfect world, there's time for research and prep or I already have advanced knowledge of who I'm talking to.

Often, that simply isn't possible. This is a tale I've told you many times. So many of my broadcasting brethren curl up in a fetal position because they don't have sufficient time to create charts and graphs and write life stories.

While they do that, I plow forward. There's no perfect formula. It's one thing when I'm interviewing Mariano Rivera or Bernie Williams or Terry Bradshaw or myriad local athletes. Those are interviews I can do blind.

It's another when it's an olive distributor in Manchester, VT.

But it's also a bit of a dance as both sides can make it work.

We made it work today.

*****

For those who don't know, I've been a part of "Poughkeepsie Nissan Sunday Sports Talk with Zolz (and Fran and sometimes Rob) for about a year. I try to get to the studio most weeks. Zolz has asked me to guide the show -- co-hosting with Fran -- when he's at the stadium. Fran and I have hit it off instantly and we'll work well together. We've become almost immediately good friends and he's thankfully a member of my fan club.

I already knew Zolz and I work well together. I'm blessed with two good colleagues for this endeavor.

The Mahopac-to-Poughkeepsie (or farther) drive is the bad part.

I'll probably be back there again next week, but my next hosting gig is in two weeks. We're also fortunate  with radio pros like Uncle Mike Hanson and Jeff Semancik who guide the show (it's weird to not be my own board op) and record us when we can't make it on a Sunday.

It worked well today.