the rix mix

Good radio show last night but I had to work for it, & it took an hour to settle in. Probably the heat. The WFMU library had been reorganized - I was expecting that. But some of the music on my list wasn't there, had been moved to the basement or we never had it to begin with. The show prior to mine was broadcast from the upstairs studio & the DJ didn't know I was filling in, so I didn't get a next up filling in for intro, which is annoying. Then I couldn't get the computer screen & new unidirectional mic lined up comfortably, & when I first went on mic I sounded like I was speaking from 3 feet away because I'd bumped the microphone sideways, it doesn't look any different turned sideways, & it had me baffled.

I made a DJ screwup while cueing up a CD, punching the stop button on the CD player that was going out over the air. When that happens, you feel total confusion & utter panic packed into less than five seconds. The light of reason tries to shine into your dark, chaotic mental space. Sometimes, the next move you make is also wrong, as occurred last night, "Shit, I started up my talkover music." Then I made a third wrong move, restarting from the beginning the music I'd originally cut off. But in fact, as I then realized, the music I'd cut off had been less than 30 seconds from the end anyway. So just stop everything & begin the next song. It was nothing. Everyone has had really terrible experiences. I remember listening to an aircheck tape & only then discovering to my horror & shame (& later amusement) that I hadn't stopped a turntable & fully turned down the volume when the song ended, had started another song, taken off the headphones, & gone into the music library as two songs went out over the air simultaneously. I must have come back into the studio after a few minutes & shut off the turntable thinking the volume was already down, & only then turned up the studio speakers. The glory of WFMU, & of the kind of programming I used to do quite often, is that most listeners no doubt thought it was deliberate. But it really sucks if I'm not having the fun.

At 10:50 I put on a long salsa jazz cut to finish the show, planning on using that time to roll the record cart back into the library, & organize everything for quick refiling & packing so I could be out the door in Jersey City ahortly after 11, making the midnight train out of Newark Penn Station. But the 11 pm to 2 am shift DJ hadn't arrived. This is a rare enough occurrance, at night it's a real anxiety producer. The #1 responsibility & rule is that the DJ has to remain at the control board until someone else takes over. It's the law, too. You play DJ, but in the eyes of the FCC your purpose for being there is broadcast engineering. Five of, still no DJ, & he's a reliable veteran. I ran through the necessities & options. If I stayed past 1 am I'd be stuck all night. I'd have to phone the Program Director, whose first reaction would be to ask me me to hang in there for a full double shift, bribing me with promises of future delicious Chinese takeout & everlasting gratitude. There isn't much he can do at that hour on short notice. Ah, but there was a young DJ upstairs in Studio B just listening to music. So I could call the Program Director, switch call to extension 242, & let him order that guy downstairs into Studio A. I could easily make it to midnight with the recordings I had on hand. I did an official I.D. at 11. Oddly, the salsa number went back to the beginning, I must have accidently had the player on repeat. I let it play while I considered what to do next. At 11:01 the tardy DJ walked in, agitated from his journey on New York's flood-plagued subways but ready to go. I went back on mic, closed out my show, signed off on the engineer's log & got out of there fast as I could. Amazingly, a PATH train pulled in just as I walked on to the Exchange Place platform, & I caught the 11:48 out of Newark. Thank you Jesus.

Labels: WFMU