We just got back from KPFT studios where we dropped in on Rhonda Garner* who was hosting RadioActive solo (Phil was on vacation) and, let me tell you, it was a pretty punishing example of technology failing us.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the show itself was fun and Rhonda is always good folk to drop-in on but our problems all arose becasue Steve and Clinton couldn’t make it so I went in solo but I had to find a way to play”Victory Gin” from the new album on air because I didn’t have a CDR copy of Bag of Hammers with me. (strike 1) No problem, I’ll just ask Steve to put it in Drop Box. Seems easy, right? So I head to my usual lunchtime stop, The Black Hole Coffee shop on Graustark, and – with my Ipad – downloaded the Drop Box app so I could grab the track Steve uploaded for me. The one problem – Drop Box doesn’t download the file; it only streams it. (Strike 2) Great, maybe this will still work if I can get Wi-Fi at KPFT. So I finish my scone, take my coffee with me, and head to the studio. When I get there, I find Rhonda in good spirits and things look positive after she find an RCA converter so as to hook my Ipad into the board. Unfortunately, I proceed to try to stream the track and it turns out the wi-fi is sketchy in the DJ booth in that particular corner. (strike 3! One Out!) OK, ummm, maybe if I e-mail the link I can drop the file into my ITunes. So, I head out to the lobby again but when I go to the download link, I get the same issue as earlier – the Ipad won’t download the file to my ITunes. Instead, it only streams it! (Strike 1). No problem, Steve comes to the rescue with his Mac which has a copy on its hard drive. So we plug it in to the board but, for some reason, the board isn’t piping in that channel. (Strike 2) Ok, maybe we can burn a CD and we can just play it on the CD player. We ask around and sure enough a guy named Colin had one he’ll let us have. Great! But when I bring it to Steve, he realizes it’s a DVD-R! (Strike 3! Two Outs!!) Finally, we decide to take a chance and just hope that the issue is simply that the monitor isn’t feeding the signal right and we can’t hear the channel on the board because it has something to do with the fact that it’s not live. We start the intervew and go for it and all we get is dead air. (1! 2! 3! YOU ARE… OUTTA HERE!) Epic Fail!
Still, no worries, we had a good laugh on air about this and we shot the shit with Rhonda for a good 15 minutes. But that’s typical; KPFT is always kooky fun (much like KTRU) so you always leave with a smile on your face no matter what. So, thanks Rhonda (and the vacationing Phil) for being such good folks.
Oh and by the way we also got a nice mention in The Houston Press today. They listed “7 Cool & Cheap Things To Do This Weekend” and kindly mentioned our show tomorrow. Thanks Chris, ‘ppreciate ya.
See, y’all tomorrow night at Rudz!
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