In case anybody missed the announcement yesterday, on December 1st, we lose our biggest money making program - JM in the AM - but we gain the morning drive time slot (Mon-Fri 6-9am). Ideas welcome! Pledges welcome too - we've never been broker than we are right now I am sorry to say.
Is it OK if I just play the Karate LP again? Traffic getting out of Hoboken was murderous, lasting effects of the train crash. Everybody leave Hoboken by car now. Bastards.
Unfamiliar w/ the market you are in, but is there any competition for JM in the AM listeners?
If yes, poach talent and put it on the air 6-9.
If no, recruit talent and put it on the air 6-9.
Part of the bialy is better than no bialy.
@Ken - my vote is to make the Karate record narrator the regular 6 AM - 9 AM host.
9:17am
Dan B From Upstate:
Time to lure Tom Scharpling back to do the Best Show five days a week. (Kidding, of course. I don't think anyone, ESPECIALLY Tom, wants to hear the best show five days a week.)
If PLU Vicki is available, I nominate her to provide some content. I think the listeners would enjoy a British voice and some pooeyflute whilst they're mired in the morning traffic.
Also, any morning DJ has to play the first and last minutes of Nachum's intro/outro music, as to maintain the regular stream/OTA switchover vibes that I've come accustomed to.
9:22am
JakeGould:
@Ken: An idea for a morning show segment: "The Bullshit Report." There's all kinds of stuff going on in the world so the report will keep listeners up to date on such bullshit. Like Facebook's "Trending" stuff but on the radio.
Re. mornings. You certainly have enough smart-assed (compliment) host types to pull in to hook people (guessing that's still an effective approach for morning radio.) Consider showcasing a variety of other shows, hooking folks into WFMU.
9:27am
Polyus:
Three hours of one of those eerie numbers stations every morning.
I'm worthless for 6–9 ideas, apart from Kenny G + Billy Jam drive-time nonsense (still a capital idea) .... Mostly came by to publicly self-flagellate for missing Guru Guru just then.
Moving off the JMAM thing, how about WFMU's Dead Call Letter Office where you play the archives of defunct shows with occasional interruptions for commentary on how the show fit in station history?
What about calling up Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys and offer him the slot, with the stipulation that he hits his considerable contacts up to donate a ton of dough to WFMU's coffers.
also if you could add what time it was going to be, that'd be great. tell me what the time is now and then what the time is going to be a bit later also
9:37am
Sam:
Maybe get Anthony Cumia
9:38am
phillip in the bronx:
@jakegould woth respect i dont tune in to wfmu for news and weather. its the music you can never find anyplace on the dial. and mary wing and her bell
Re: Morning Zoo you could have Andy try to call a different ethnic restaurant to make a dinner reservation for that night in the language of said restaurant.
9:42am
JakeGould:
Also a segment on crazy people on the subway.
9:42am
Sam:
And you need listener challenges and contest giveaways to get everyone excited.
9:43am
Jack:
What's Trump doing after the election? Offer him a radio slot.
9:43am
phillip in the bronx:
id be open to a morning zoo but ONLY if the hosts are jim the poet and Bronwyn C like a 3 hour sportsy talk
9:45am
Jack:
@philip - I was with you 100% until your last comment.
9:46am
Sam:
What if it was Jim, Bronwyn, Mary Wing, Ken, Andy and Irwin doing shtick together, with Clay P. interviewing folks on the street and Frangry and Michelle doing the traffic and weather reports, respectively? That would be solid entertainment.
The perfect two guys for a morning zoo, and this has already been tested: Wm. Berger and Jonathan Herweg, who are hilarious together. Not sure who the giggly female should be, though.
Ken, have you considered contacting J & H productions? It's my understanding they have lots of connections pertaining to the Label Industry if you you are looking for a particular talent to fill the time slot.
I think a drive time show with the WFMU approach would be great. Any alternative the the inanity of what they do on commercial radio is much needed.
I think it can be done in an un-obnoxious way.
Portland very briefly had great AM radio in the form of Mike Chase and Daria O'Neil. It was really funny, with original material, funny segments, a minimum of inane on-air chuckling - a female presence who actually did stuff, etc.
J&H Productions is a great idea. These are all great ideas, thank you everybody! It's sad and scary to lose Nachum but the possibilities are very very exciting. I KNOW we can find the perfect air horn.
It was killed by station management who thought no one wanted to listen to a woman on the air as a primary focus - added a longtime PDX jock who played purchased, really corny comedy bits.
Oh and we are having our annual October Imaginary Fundraiser, if anybody can make a pledge over to the top left there... FMU is broker than broke right now. I kid you not.
Long gone, Ken. I think Chase is on some horrible syndicated Country station and Daria is still doing it here in PTown, some Intercomm station, I believe.
This was in the 90s, when I was still listening to local radio.
@Rich: it took me a while to figure out that the sliver of JM in the AM was part of a larger legitimate show, since the tone is so different from the rest of WFMU. I thought it was something along the lines of the Jim Price 1-minute show.
Just an aside: When you say "WFMU East Orange", are you still referring to a filing cabinet in a dentists's office?
10:05am
JakeGould:
Also, since this is a morning show you could probably get more kids to call in. Maybe a kid talent segment where they play some instrument or tell a joke.
This is all so great but maybe we are getting ahead of ourselves. Is everybody settled on Esperanto as the language for the morning show? Seems like the consensus.
10:14am
Polyus:
Tugboat Richie needs to be part of this Morning Zoo. He could phone in shipping reports.
morning show idea: i get a phone call from a wfmu dj at 601 and then have to put a show together. live video cast from my home in indiana and the ISS. btw, we need to get an astro/cosmonaut. also stan lee is the traffic girl.
10:17am
JakeGould:
@Ken: Hire this cockatoo. http://youtu.be/tRsfOGJ5lZg
For the love of [redacted], don't do like the morning TV shows and air a hundred promos for a two-minute bit that's coming at the end of the program. That's highly annoying.
Do It for Me already has a bit of a 'Brooklyn Zoo' feeling. Rebroadcast what they're doing independently—and nothing like a video feed for drive-time radio.
The best food show on radio is "Good Food" from KCRW. Honestly… it's heart-felt, idiosyncratic (a pie obsession, Jonathan Gold), and intensely L.A.-centric (local restaurant picks, interviews from the Santa Monica Farmers' Market).
I'm sitting here stuck at one percent people, if anybody can help move the needle to the 2% mark, I would despair less. (Imaginary Fundraiser time here at WFMU)
Hi Ken: I'd suggest a highly confrontational morning show that mixes sweet with sour. If you get an obnoxious yet hilarious host akin to Sam Kinison (without the yelling) going around Brooklyn or Queens or Bronx and pointing out dumb sh*t like $5.00 cafe au lait. A good name might b Breakfast in America/New York/Jersey Chitty. Have a Supertramp song open n close show. And include the Muslim half-a-second segment. No Esperanto though. Itll drive ppl away after the first hour.
One last pledge this year; I wish I could do better. Tell you what, if on 09 November it looks like we _won't_ need relocation and border-guard–bribing money….
Apparently it's really hard to get into Canada legally, so maybe we should all go to Mexico instead? They'll have to build their OWN wall to keep US out!
11:01am
Sam:
Maybe 2 hours of Esperanto and 1 hour of sign language for deaf listeners?
Glenn L. and I saw the Danny Fields film last year in Amherst, and Danny Fields was there doing a Q and A. It was great! Ken is right: everyone go see the film.
11:05am
Sam:
Hey, why not sell the parking lot! How much could you get for it?
PEACE all. I am OUT OF WORK, so good luck with your silent fundraiser....looking forward to a cone update. Sorry you are losing JM in the AM after all these years...will be a substitute teacher and work at Home Depot to try and save our house from foreclosure...
I am not sure what to do with your morning show. I think Dusty could have a really cool call in show....or Dusty and the guy from 7SD would be awesome...
GREAT cone story.
Once on a camping trip my daughter pooped in the woods and had to show us her "Poo sculpture". It looked like an ice cream cone and was quite an uncomfortable moment. Potty train Lola to poop on the cone, nobody with dare mess with that.
maybe 3 hrs of old time radio classics, (preferably no comedies and mostly x minus 1), played over mellow psych/ crazy/ instrumentals along w random commentary by host. Hey its all free on internet archive. Or a show digging through internet archive
Was Danny Fields one of the inspirations for the "National Lampoon Radio Hour"'s 'Ron Fields', an A&R man who'd guest on Billy Murray's character's radio show? www.youtube.com...
' Whaling songs are the BEST! '
11:09am
Brendan:
Dog poo in the recessed door handle of the offending parkers
Radio mockumentary: "Bohemian Rhapsody: the Song that Made Punk Necessary". Interviews with seminal punk figures, through mediums when necessary, on how hearing it just once (and even if liking it) motivated them to get up on the stage, play two chords, and scream.
Hey Ken. In the short notice have Cheyenne or that dj that played lots of Goth do the morning show. Worse come to worse YOU can do 2 shows a week. Id love that.
ooh, i hear TYPING sounds. there was a college phys ed teacher named TIM SCHUM (pron SHOOM). we'd joke that if he were a typing teacher, it'd be (plz pantomime typing) TIM TIM TIM...(being the sound of the keys) and then SCHUM ( hit the carriage return). believe me, if you were there it'd be funny.
Same chord progression as Planet Earth by Duran Duran. Similar lack of coherence, as well.
11:30am
el B0-bO:
I dont hav money this week. I get paid Friday. Ill pledge to FMA n ur show next week. Sry for the delay. Coincidentally my wife also got a puppy, a German Shepperd/Collie mix, 3 months old now, and She Is A Pain In My Ass.
Wow- Ken, a "Get Smart" reference- who would have thunk it? What a brilliant TV show!
11:48am
New Jersey Dept. of Traffic:
DJ Station Manager Ken we've been made aware that you have an abnormal amount of caution orange traffic cones in your vehicle. We wish to have a few words with you, please don't go anywhere, we will send a thug, errr, I mean a courtesy officer over right away. Thank you and remember, don't text and drive and never leave a campfire unattended.
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