Teacher Staff On-air Day

I manage a high school radio station. I was also a student at WSDP so the station has a special place in my heart.

Today we are having teachers and school staff members in the studio to host hour long radio shows. They get to pick all the music and plan their talk breaks. I've really enjoyed the wide mix of music they've played. We just finished an hour of 80's hair metal which brought back some memories of high school. I can remember walking across campus, at the end of a day, as someone's boom box blared Def Leppard.

I'm always amazed by the preparation work the teachers put into the shows. Most come in with full scripts, we've even had a few on-air giveaways. The prize goes to our hair metal teacher who came in with a long black wig and the leather pants. He was definitely ready to rock.

Two of our staff members had their daughter and nephew team up for a show, complete with halloween jokes. Our board operator and program director made sure to let them know that they did a better job then many of our high school dj's.

We've also noticed that are staff dj's are dominated by English teachers. It must be their creative side yearning to come out. We need to get those math and social studies teachers in on the action next year.

There is something fun about developing an on-air theme and picking music to share. Sometimes the hardest part is narrowing the list of songs down to 12-15 that can fit in the hour.

More OTR

No, I'm not going to write all my posts about Over the Rhine. If you read the last post you know I'm looking forward to seeing them in Cincinnati in December. The chance to see them play with Ric and Brian again is something that can't be missed.

I got a little taste tonight as Ric played at Trinity House Theatre with Sarah Masen. As Ric and the band did "Circle of Quiet" I turned to my friend Brook and said "I can't wait to see that in December. We both nodded in agreement. I always liked Ric's version but add in Karen's vocals and that will be even more special.

Late in the show Ric brought Sarah back on stage for a take on the Charlie Peacock song "The Way of Love." The band lit up with Sarah on the mic, and this magical version was stunning.

Over the Rhine's posting board has contained some suggestions that Sarah Masen would be a good opener for their Taft show. After seeing Ric and Sarah, I second that.