Saturday, October 4th's show was wwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy better than the September 27th show because I felt better about the music. The music spoke to me during the week as I spent nearly 4 hours in preparation just listening to the type of music I prefer. Doing that lead me to a deeper feeling of solitude during the actual delivery. I didn't feel wiped out by what I was lplaying/listening to like I did last weekend. Last weekend I had music that weighed me down and actually gave me a headache. When you run the board, make the announcements, select songs to play, try to match tempos, answer the phone, let people in the building, keep your logs, and remember what CD player you put the next song in, all that alone will give you a headache.
The support of fellow programmers has proven to be monumental. A conversation with more than one fellow programmer guided me towards staying true to myself when I'm on-air by playing music that uplifts me, empowers me and resonates with me, which ultimately does the same for the listener. This weekend along proved especially telling, my delivery felt more authentic. So thanks to people like JJ Johnson, Yugen, Celeste, and Daniel for the training and all your advice. Thanks to my good friend Len for listening and providing feedback. Thanks to DeenaB for keeping track of your playlist and posting it.
Of course there were some technical challenges, that's always going to be there...I have more than 25 years of experience in event management with an emphasis on event production (technical logistics management) and there isn't a show where you can just sit back on cruise control, you always have to be ready to adjust quickly in case something breaks down. Last night, the technical problems reminded me to never get comfortable, to never forget that machines do fail from time-to-time and that you have to be ready to jump in and improvise while multi-tasking to fix the problem.
Now, the next thing I want to concentrate on is building a show around a few segments/sets so I can tell people what they were listening to while interjecting statements that will have a greater impact without loosing the flow of what I'm trying to deliver. I had quite a few new tracks that I played last night and I thankfully, I can at least provide a copy of the playlist, but I would have liked to have been able to convey more about those new tracks/artists while on the air. It's all about practice and the next opportunity will be Thursday, October 9 from 7pm - 9pm.
Ciao for now.