On the Other Side of the Glass

 

Before I was the sports director at WGCH I was a go-to board operator.

That's how I earned my microphone there (figure of speech).

When I joined the station in 1997, I was there to run the controls on a few Sunday morning programs as a fill-in. Eventually, that became my calling card.

Oh, you've got a show that needs someone to run the board? OK, I'll do it.

My goal was to be reliable and always available.

It didn't matter what the show was. I did all kinds of things and either didn't go on the mic or jumped in as needed. 

Bob Small -- Operations Manager and overall guru -- needed to be out of the office for a rare few days this week and I jumped in to help.

Most of what I needed to do was board-op.

But, as you might gather, the technology of 1997-2000 isn't exactly the same. In fact, we're not even in the same studio space, having moved from Dayton Ave to Lewis St in 2007.

Still, the board is the board. That hasn't changed a whole lot, though there are some funky things I had to deal with. Otherwise, when I ran the controls for "Your Greenwich House" yesterday, it was pretty much like doing "Doubleheader.

Both of those shows are low maintenance. Turn on the mics and talk. Maybe play something off a computer. Pretty basic stuff.

Tonight, following "Doubleheader" I ran "Greenwich Matters" with Sam Romeo.

Now, I think the world of Sam, so this has nothing to do with him.

But, otherwise, ugh. This is where you have to be calm in radio. The chaos can eat you up.

You see, Sam doesn't come to the studio to do the show. That's exactly how I do "Doubleheader" normally. I do it remotely almost every day. The difference is Bob Small turns my mic on and walks away so he can work. Oh sure, he's in the building if something is wrong with my show but, otherwise, he's doing his thing. That's the exact reason we don't take phone calls normally unless callers get me on my cell or Google Voice number.

So tonight I had to connect with Sam via computer. I also needed a way to talk back to Sam.

Enter Sean Kilkelly, whom I texted for advice.

You see, I'm normally on the other side -- either for talk shows or games. I'm at home or in the field.

I wasn't going to bother Bob in this case but Sean knew how to help. He steered me in the right direction to establish the talk-back connection.

Sam's show is current events driven and dabbles in politics. Well, it's a political show I suppose. 

Of course, Election Day is next Tuesday and the candidates wanted to get their voices heard with Sam.

They started calling -- along with listener calls -- almost immediately.

So I grabbed a few calls and lined them up. 

Then I put one on the air.

And Sam couldn't hear them.

This, of course, happened live. Before he went out of the office, Bob had caught me up on things so that I was ready but we failed to go over these wrinkles. It happens.

Sam and I tried to work around it and, to be sure, I began to feel the sweat building on my brow.

I asked Sean. He knew. It was a button that hadn't been pressed. A wrinkle I wasn't aware of.

Bang. We were fixed.

From there, being a board operator can be mundane but it can also mean juggling some things. That's what I did.

We got through the balance of the show without issues.

After Sam and I said goodnight off the air. I realized that I needed this night. One thing I really liked in the past was being involved with everything when I first started at WGCH. If Bob needed someone to engineer an event, I told him to train me and I'd take it from there.

I took on basically anything and was happy to observe where needed.

There's a reason I wound up on the St. Patrick's Day Parade and the Greenwich Town Party and so many other things.

So to be back in the studio, and figuring out the inner workings of Sam's show was a really positive thing. Then, if someone else needs help, I can be available to assist.

Making it work -- using resources as needed -- is what it's all about.