by Andy Capp
I'd like to do a little number for you now. It's a familiar tune, one you've heard in RAP several times over the years, but this is my arrangement.
Here we go. And a one, and a two...I'm movin' on!
Yep, it's a traveling song. After a lifetime in the land of Mt. Rushmore (although always on the other side of the state), I've accepted a job in the city of the Space Needle. If you caught the interview in RAP last month, you read all about my new employer, KidStar Interactive Media. The move is melody of both Rhythm and Blues. The Rhythm is the beat of a new city (a real city), the tempo of major market radio(s), the pounding of my heart as I try to catch up with the pace of it all. The Blues? Leaving the area I've called home these thirty-five years, walking away form the station and people of Kellow-land after ten years, and last but definitely not least, leaving the family behind. (Yes, they will join me in a few months, but try explaining that to a couple of pre-schoolers and an almost Jr. High Schooler!)
I had a frigid three days humming along toward my new home, considering how different my life was about to become. From teacher to student, from Parkas to Umbrellas, from Session 8 to ProTools, from family man to lonely guy, from targeting late thirty-something women to targeting their kids, from beef to seafood, from the person who "knew it all" to the one looking for the person who really does...these are a few of my favorite things....
Of course I listened to the radio almost constantly during the drive, and without my wife in the car, I was free to channel surf and turn up the commercials to my hearts content.
Three days and five states of radio really brought into focus the importance of the Production Director's job. In an endless round of the same songs, the same liner-reading DJs, it's the imaging, the production between the songs that defines the "hook" of the station, and as Blues Traveler pointed out, the hook brings you back!
With a few sour notes, the overture ended, and I arrived in Seattle. I write this at the end of my first week, and while I have my hands full learning the words, basically the song remains the same. No matter where you conduct your production, it's still a symphony of relevant information, creative concepts, solid writing, and clean, ear-catching audio. One thing I do know after a week at KidStar, they've got a hell of a band, and I'm damned lucky they asked me to come jam with them!
A few liner notes: thanks to Klem Daniels (my new boss) and his family for making me feel welcome and feeding me, helping me find an apartment, loaning me shelves and pans and about a thousand other little things that have made this transition smoother. Thanks to Mark Malleck (Asst. PD) and his girlfriend Kelly, for taking me into their home before I found an apartment, feeding me, and getting my windshield wipers going again (VERY IMPORTANT in Seattle!). Thanks to everyone at KidStar for making me feel so welcome and putting up with my slow learning curve (and thanks to one of the DJs, Tina, for the loan of her Futon).
I would also like to thank everyone back in Kellow-land for an incredible ten years, for the going away parties, for the parting gifts, the friendship, the laughter, the tears. In many ways I found myself saying good-bye to two families when I left, and though it may not sound as musical as the original, I left my heart in Sioux Falls.
Thanks to my wife, Cindy, and the kids for allowing me this chance to grab the brass ring and do a solo act for a while (although still my biggest fear is that they'll realize they don't need me...).
And finally, thanks to you, for listening to my little ditty. (I'll try to get back to something about radio production next month.)
So now I begin with a fresh sheet of music. Things could go two ways, the experience could be rocking or come falling down on me like a ton of heavy metal. The choice is really up to me. Kenny Loggins sang my feelings long before I felt them:
Some people dream of change,
Some will remain the same,
Some of us live our lives under the gun,
Some say the road is clear,
Some say the end is near,
They say it's a hopeless fight, but I say
I've gotta try!
♦