Well, it was one afternoon that I got
a call from Michelle Lee of WOBL 1320 AM in Oberlin, Ohio. She introduced
herself as the radio host of the Bluegrass Borderline show, and went
on to explain to me that she had a 7 hour bluegrass show on Sunday
mornings! 7 HOURS???? WOW! I was impressed. We talked about advertising
BuckeyeBluegrass.com and I was interested, though I'll admit our advertising
budget is not exactly huge... We talked back and forth and then Michelle
asked if I would like to come on and be interviewed about the website.
Let me tell you, I have never been interviewed nor have I ever been
on radio, so I was a little hesitant, but it did sound like fun. Michelle
Lee is a bubbly fun person and I thought, shoot, why not?
So I gathered up my stuff on early Sunday
morning and started out with the trusty Buckeye Bluegrass van and
off I flew down the turnpike. (Not too fast, as we all know the fine
officers of the Highway Patrol have a particular fondness for showing
off their writing ability to those whom go a little too fast on the
turnpike!) My musical selections were Blue Highway's Still Climbing
Mountains and of course, JD and the boys with that CLASSIC Rounder
44.... It was about an hour from my old home place and the tool booth
lady was very nice. Apparently I looked a little lost (my normal travelling
look...) and she gave me a nice little map and we had a nice chat.
Apparently there are not a lot of people getting off at the Baumhart
Road exit and she felt the need to talk. I told her I was going to
be on the radio and she was pretty interested. Hey, might convert
someone to bluegrass you know, so I take the advantage to talk about
bluegrass whenever possible.
WOBL is off in the country, a stone's
throw from the turnpike, and out in the fields. Guess that is a normal
thing for radio stations, eh? Nice little place. I was a half-hour
or so early because I was going to be in the last hour of the show
and I didn't want to be late for my big radio debut!
I haven't been in a radio station since
high school days, and it was fascinating. Found Michelle Lee and we
got a chance to say hello and chat a little bit. She played J.D. Crowe
for me... Old Home Place! My favorite you know... Let me tell you,
Michelle plays really good grass... from good traditional stuff to
new national grass... a wide and varied offerings and I liked it all.
There just wasn't anything that was unpleasing. It was great, too,
to have folks calling in and requesting songs. Bluegrass is alive
and well in Oberlin! Folks seem to really appreciate that WOBL has
offered a whole morning of great bluegrass!
Well, eventually we got to business. I
really had no clue what she was going to be asking me about, but I
think I hung in there pretty well! My
chair was really short, so I look like a munchkin with the mike here!
We talked for about 10 minutes all about the website. And then she
played a little music so that I could start breathing again! (g) When
we came back, we talked a little bit about our new project called
Bluegrasskids.com. (It's still in the beginning form, so be patient,
but I'm working on it!) I got to announce our latest statewide website...
www.IndianaBluegrass.com which is up and running, but still very very
young! It was a day of firsts!
Well all in all, I survived my first radio
interview! And had a great time afterwards hanging around with Michelle
Lee and talking about bluegrass music, shows and websites. I am responsible
for her website too, now... hope you all like it! Go take a look and
be sure to sign her guest book and mention the road trip journal...
it was a great road trip!
The Radio Interview File is ready!
Bear with us... it's the first
RealAudio file I've ever made!
It's Big.... 3.2 Meg, so you
might want to let it download while you pick a couple tunes
on the ole banjo... but it's worth it.
Well, maybe. Okay, it's interesting
and you'll get to hear Sherri talking.
That's got to be worth something....
(g)
The WOBL 1320 AM Interview
with Michelle Lee on the Bluegrass Borderline show, March
7th, 2004
