I was mic'd again for today's episode of Humble and Fred Radio. The guys have recorded four episodes thus far, and I've attended three of them. That gives me a pretty sweet perspective for this entry, a behind the scenes look at Humble and Fred Radio.
Firstly, it's pretty cool that the guys put me on mic and actually give me air time. I signed up to be the digital manager, the guy behind the site and audio access. If you've heard a podcast with me on it, you know I'm not professional radio talent. I'm still learning when to come in, when to stay quiet and how to not pop my p's.
Here's how today went. I'll tell this tale in great detail, so if great detail bores you to tears, you may want to skip down to this great picture of a dog loving the shit out of leaves.
I arrived at Redfish Entertainment Studios shortly before 10am. Humble and Fred were already in their studio, working on some technical issues. The line in to the board from Fred's laptop wasn't up to code, so re-cabling was in order.
There was a little pre-recording prep. We talked about newly signed up guests, how the chat with radio students at Corus went, and various aspects of our personal lives. The pre-recording chatter is probably more entertaining than the recorded chatter. Oh yeah, we also chatted about today's show, who's calling in and some general subject matter they wanted to cover.
At about 11am, we started recording. Everything is completely live to tape, so it all happens in real-time. The songs played, the bumpers, the bits... everything is recorded "live" so what we hear in the room is exactly what you hear on your iPod.
Sitting at Fred's old dining room table, in addition to Humble and Fred, was Mike Wixson and I. Mike was Mobile Mike, to those of you who remember the late 80s and early 90s at CFNY. All four us us are sitting in front of microphones and part of the opening segment.
What happens next is a conversation between two long-time pros and a couple of Mikes. It's effortless, it's funny and it's recorded. During a Moxy Früvous song, a call is made to another Mike from the Everything to do With Sex Show. Like everything else, the call is recorded live to tape.
An hour and change after we start recording, we wrap things up. At this point, Humble's job is to convert the recorded WAV file to MP3. While Humble's doing this on his Mac, Fred's updating an XML file I've configured for him and preparing the day's entry. I'm helping Humble, helping Fred, and starring in the day's promo video. You can see that below.
Humble then FTPs the MP3 to our web server and uploads that video of me to YouTube. Fred embeds the video into his entry, and publishes everything as soon as the FTP is complete. By 1pm, everything is online, and it's time for Mr. Sub.
While we chow down on subs, the boys promote the day's show via Facebook and Twitter. At 1:30, Wixson and I are in a business meeting and Humble and Fred are receiving an interesting call from Prime Time Sports. They're invited to join Bob McCown from 4pm to 4:20pm, a fantastic opportunity to make people aware of our new venture.
With my meeting over, I caught PTS on 590 at 4pm and heard Bob McCown speak very highly of Humble and Fred Radio. He said Humble and Fred fans from the past will learn about the new show, tune in and return for more. This traffic and buzz will inevitably attract sponsors and other opportunities, while Humble and Fred produce their own show without clocks and censors. Hearing this made me quite proud to be a part of this project.
That was today. We'll do it all over again tomorrow, and you'll hear the result at http://www.humbleandfredradio.com/.
I can't wait.
