Morning with Mo!

Aside from all the other crap going on that I still can't articulate (in part because I don't want to, but also because I really haven't done enough analysis), I've been doing some pretty fun things. Today for example, I went to a taping of Unmasked, a "behind the scenes" type interview show for Sirius|XM hosted by Ron Bennington, who has to be the hardest working man in radio, and guest Mo Rocca.

I'll get to the interview in a moment, but I wanted to take the time to dive into what makes a good radio host. Basically Ron Bennington is it. He's been doing radio for ages, in various markets, and now on satellite radio. Listening to him is one thing. Actually watching him work is something entirely diffent. A lot of what I do for a living involves watching people. Their furtive movements, their unconscious twitches, how and what their eyes track — all give insight into their thought process, and often exactly what they are thinking. Witnessing Ron in action, there is a fluidity, and clarity of thought that very few other on-air personalities can match. His work is poetry, it is song. He's bright, perhaps not as intelligent as I, but radically more agile, and dexterous. I've admired his work for years, but I was blown away by watching him live. Wow.

Mo Rocca was a fun guest. He's cute, bright, and has some amazing stories that never fail to engage the audience. Most recently he's been on as a regular CBS Morning Show contributor, but I know him from The Daily Show, finding him at Tekserve, and the occasional P-Town tea dance ;-). I didn't realise he was a Harvard graduate, but I did know about his background in musical theatre. Prior to the taping, they asked us in the lobby if we had any questions for Mo. I didn't at the time, but during the interview I thought of a few. Unfortunately, they didn't do a Q&A after the interview as they often do, so I was shut out. I wanted to ask him his thoughts on Tom Lehrer. I did however, manage to sit next to Ron's co-host Fez throughout the interview. He's quite adorable in person. He reminds me of a slightly older, and shorter pagerbear.

On the trip back to Greenwich, I did my standard commuter routine of listening to podcasts. Up this time was my most recent episode of Ruining It For Everyone, where we talk about iBooks2, and its impact on the public school systems. Normally, I don't listen to the podcast once I finish editing it. Between being on it and talking for hours, then editing it down to a reasonable time, I'm pretty tired of the topic. This time I decided to give it a listen, and discovered that we're actually getting pretty good. In fact, there are a lot of other podcasts out there, on real networks, with real budgets, with rather famous people on them that also tackled this topic, and I think in general, we did a better job. Of course it helps that my co-host, Maggie, works at Harvard, so she understands academia, and the problems of trying to support something like the iPad/iTunes/iBooks platform. Even on a technical level, our sound quality is actually improving (Maggie got a new Rhøde mic, and it's lovely), and we're doing some other things on the back end to make it far better than when we started a scant 9 episodes ago (last week we recorded our 10th episode). I fully realise as a host, I have a long way to go, but those changes are going to take longer. Old habits die hard. If you haven't, give it a listen: http://ruiningitforeveryone.tv

Happy Friday everyone!