[Speed Gibson,
Monday May 9, 2005 at 11:56pm]
Ain't No Thing - Week 10
This week's contestant called himself "The Dude" which seemed a bit much for a debut performance. But actually, I heard a very good program that I scored as a solid B. Had he not rambled a bit at the front and back, he might have received the first A.
His choice of topics was good, including two of my favorites - education and ethanol. He spent much of hour two on ethanol and its variations with an engineer/writer I believe the NARN interviewed the day before. If so, The Dude did a better job, drawing out all kinds of facts and persectives. More than once, I backed up the .mp3 recording I had made (Replay Radio) and took notes. He even artfully handled an ethanol bigot caller who insisted that ethanol was a net energy source.
As he freely admitted, he did too much show prep - a little on everything, rather than focus on a few. I think he now knows how fast the clock runs.
I think we have another contender for the second round or whatever Joe O'Brien has planned.
His choice of topics was good, including two of my favorites - education and ethanol. He spent much of hour two on ethanol and its variations with an engineer/writer I believe the NARN interviewed the day before. If so, The Dude did a better job, drawing out all kinds of facts and persectives. More than once, I backed up the .mp3 recording I had made (Replay Radio) and took notes. He even artfully handled an ethanol bigot caller who insisted that ethanol was a net energy source.
As he freely admitted, he did too much show prep - a little on everything, rather than focus on a few. I think he now knows how fast the clock runs.
I think we have another contender for the second round or whatever Joe O'Brien has planned.
I realized also that I have become highly unenthusiastic about this 'reality radio' format. It is too hard for the one-time show to really do anything beyond cliche and make it work.
The best one-time format is "here's a story, let's talk about it". Imagine if Mischke were judged on one performance. Imagine if he knew he only had the one shot. He would have to take a risk of bombing (which is a real risk in comedy) or not be himself.
For the listener it gets into the very boring "blah, blah, blah" with very little consistency at all from week to week. It might be easier, IMHO, if we all knew what was actually going on with the slot. Is it a first-round, second-round type of thing? Is it a newcomer each week until the ratings tank? The nebulous "goal" has begun to wear out my patience with the format.