I was on the radio yesterday morning here in Birmingham – 960 AM WERC to be exact. I was the first guest of a segment looking at area bloggers on the station’s new morning show hosted by Steve Shannon and Leah Brandon. It’s not the first time I’ve appeared on the air in town, but the first since I’ve become a web publisher.
As I was reminded by one of the volunteer contributors to The Terminal, talk radio really is the first and at times still purest form of engaging a lot of people in a conversation. Bloggers could really look at themselves as hosts and personalities, with the comments section serving as a slightly more hidden way to “take calls from the audience.”
I went on about an hour after Jay Saxon did (I will say that I’m convinced that Jay is one of those “adventure follows me everywhere” people…) and his appearance made me a little more relaxed about mine. For those that didn’t know, Jay was the “local Birmingham resident” in the midst of the devastation caused by the natural disaster that struck Myanmar recently. He’s also someone who previously appeared on this site as we followed his adventures in Beirut almost two years ago.
Anyway, it was fairly painless going on and both hosts were quite nice. They knew as much about me as I did about them, though I knew that I recognized both names from elsewhere in my travels and knew that for us to land both of them in this market says a lot about how far we’ve come from the days of The Radio Carousel, though I’m sure that many are waiting for the inevitable next rounds of moves.
There are some that have known me for some time that are aware that I am petrified of speaking in front of groups, and that fear extends to appearances on television or radio. One-on-one most people can’t tell that I stuttered profusely as a child and that it can occasionally make an appearance if I get too nervous. Luckily I think I only had one of those moments while in front of the mic.
I think that many, including myself, are still wondering what direction the new show is going to take. I was definitely entertained and found them a welcome addition to our morning drive options on Monday, including the Mayor Larry Moments that were interjected through Monday’s broadcast. As I like to say, I may not agree with them on everything that they say, but I know that a lot of folks don’t agree with all that I say and that’s what makes this world of blogging fun (and what’s made talk radio fun for many years). And besides, they were a lot of fun to talk to. I also did have a chance to plug The Terminal to an audience that probably wouldn’t normally know anything about it.
I hope that I get the opportunity to go on again and maybe i may feel like I can lend something more to the conversation. I’m pretty sure that they’re going to be adding some voices to the general conversation for some time to come.
