Is Anybody There?
Posted at 5:30 AM on July 17, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(27 Comments)
Good morning summer vacationers, surfers, climbers, aerialists and crazy risk takers all! I hope you enjoyed the blatantly falsified recreational photos from the past few days. I can assure you, I did none of the things depicted.
I am back in the saddle for one day only, here from 6 to 9 am this Friday to enjoy your companionship and to exchange entertainment with you via Trial Balloon and Radio Heartland.
I'll wager it seems only marginally different from when I am NOT here.
Here's some tedious but true full disclosure about the past 4 days:
All twelve hours of the generic sounding morning programming were recorded in advance.
Only one hour was designed to be heard on a certain date at a specific time. That was the 7 am hour on Tuesday morning, thanks to Charlie Maguire, Pop Wagner and Tony Glover, who were performing at the Gingko Coffeehouse that night.
Three of the hours were previously broadcast, drawn from a stockpile created for an earlier vacation in February.
The remaining eight hours were recorded one at a time over the past few weeks, complied in preparation for my brief "staycation".
I offer my apologies if you were baffled by my apparent presence in the studio though I seemed inexplicably unaware of the date, the time, your requests and comments on the blog, the news of the day and even the season. That's not too unusual. I'm often unable to keep track of all those details when I'm really here.
In contrast, Mike Pengra, who faithfully posted comments on the blog through the week, WAS truly "here". Each time the not-really-present recorded version of me played a song, the genuine in-the-moment Mike Pengra wrote the name of that song and the artist on his computer and pushed a button so you could see the information on your computer or digital radio.
If you didn't notice any differences, don't worry. It was our intention to deliver an almost normal experience. Although it does raise some questions because digital technology will allow us to do more and more of this "time shifting".
What is the value of "liveness" in media today?
When you tune into a program on radio or TV, do you assume that the people creating it are there at that very moment? Does it matter if they're not?
For example, most Saturdays if you hear A Prairie Home Companion at 5 pm on MPR's Classical and News networks, you can be reasonably sure the show is being made as you listen. But when there are vacation repeats or if you hear it during a re-broadcast the following day, is it any less (or more) enjoyable?
And what is the nature of the communications bargain in "new media" today? Is it fundamentally different from other kinds of conversation? Does the media filter make it OK to be dishonest about time and place?
What does it mean to be "there"?
And if all of this is too much to consider at the moment, relax. You can think it over while you start your day, tend your goats, ride your bike, go to your office, and fulfill all the obligations that demand your immediate attention. Listen to the rebroadcast from 11 to 1 today, or review parts of the show later tonight or tomorrow through our online archive.
You can come back and leave your thoughts later.
I'm always here.
Comments (27)
Good Morning Dale!
Welocme back and hope you had a relaxing staycation. We do appreciate you really being "there", ready to offer spontaneous responses to the events, music and comments of the day. I do surf, but only the net and back now after a lengthy computer downtime. I had to wipe the machine and reinstall the recovery discs. So I am back to 2007 and trying to recall what programs I am missing. Deja Vu is possible. I don't mind prerecorded shows, but have always appreciated the spontaneity and real time relevance of your presence.
Barb from blackhoof, when wiping my computer I lost your web site Out to Pasture and it does not come up on Google. Are you willing to share this now or do you want to preserve your privacy. What you are doing now is what I dreamed of doing tho perhaps with not that many goats. So love to check the blogs and pictures and live vicariously.
Jenny
Jenny
Yes, welcome back, Dale. And, thank you, Mike, for participating so well in the cover up. :-)
Being "here" is probably a perception thing anyway. In my youth, I collected vinyl disk records and was particularly pleased to have several old 16" recordings made at WTCN and each containing a 15-minute on-air program for broadcast: Was that "real" or pre-recorded?
In college, I worked in between studies at the campus radio station. It was often fun to pre-record my segment so that I could be elsewhere yet there. Of course, I had to make it back before the reel-to-reel tape ran out. Oh, those were the days! I understand that computers can do a much better job of disguising just about anything.
Enjoy the weekend, RH advocates everywhere.
Good morning Jenny!
Welcome to the past. It's odd that a computer problem can also lead to a form of time travel, but this is the world we live in, I guess.
My advice - as long as you're temporarily stuck in 2007, take your money out of Bear Stearns and buy gold.
Dale and Mike - the music is always great but the live give and take is what keeps drawing me back to listen as much as i can during the 6 to 9 a.m. times. just more fun, more interesting for me. thanks for coming back, Dale, and thanks for your input this week, Mike! For me, you folks make Radio Heartland the joy that it is.
Jenny - happy to share Steve's blog URL -
Out To Pasture
glad you enjoy the blog - Steve has a good time doing it.
and Donna - your (evil, hidden) plant yesterday of "Knock Three Times" didn't work. i still have Sammy's Bar. help!!
I was fairly certain you were "faking it" for the last four days, but I think that is okay. It works. I do think live is needed, but if you need to prerecord to take time off, that's okay and even adds another deminsion ro rhw show.
I was sure the last few days were recorded - and was mighty impressed that you'd take the time to do that all so we listeners could get our Dale "fix" in the morning, pre-recorded or not). I missed the current comments about the blog and such - but with all you and Mike do, time off is well deserved (but begs the question, how will we know when Mike is on vacation?...). Time shifting with technology can be a grand thing, even if it does seem a little "science fictiony" if I think too long about it.
Glad your back in the saddle - and happy Friday all.
Anna,
If I've done my job, you won't notice when I'm on vacation. However, if you could measure the fish population of the northern lakes, you'll know when I'm not working. ;-)
Dale, it does have a different feel when I know you are there "in person" but so little of what we hear on the radio these days is "live" and people are face-to-face, can't trust photos as "real time" -- heck, just keep that great music coming and you can do anything that you please...it is always good to know Mike is there and keeping the blog interactive.
And now it's the weekend again...good one all!
Good Morning All,
Funny you should talk about time here--I tend to contemplate it regularly, especially after reading "The Time Traveler's Wife" I knew you were on staycation because i ran into you last week--but the most interesting media prerecorded moment for me was when I realized that some segments are prerecorded for the "News Hour with Jim Lehrer" I think sometimes they even record the interviewers questions and then splice in answers!!
Kathy
Rogers
Hi Dale & Mike,
Even though I 'knew' you were gone, I still pretty much forgot that fact while listening. I still started up the show as soon as I got to work, and have listened to the re-broadcast to catch the parts I missed. So you did well keeping it real.
As you note, it's hard to replicate the live interaction between you and the blog posts on the topic of the day. This is always interesting, as are the resulting song choices via requests and suggestions. It's kind of like putting a toy boat in a river current, thinking it will go one way - sometimes it does, but often goes a different direction. Occasionally it gets stuck on shore, or tips over and needs to be righted, but that's OK too as long as you're wearing a lifejacket ;-)
Greetings! It's great to have you back Dale, and I hope you had a restful staycation. We certainly appreciate that you try to make it a seamless experience when you're away, but we do miss you! The interactivity of RH is the central part of its charm.
I too, wonder what happens when Mike Pengra is gone on vacation. It was nice to see him pop up on the blog during the week. Take care!
Live is always MUCH better.
dale, its nice know that you can do the magic from an arms length. the possibilities are a little staggering. enjoy a life break anytime, just keep the soul of radio heartland alive. i miss jim ed but with bubby, the senator and all the visitors form the old days it is a comfortable transition. i was like a deer in the headlights when the announced demise of the morning show occured and now it is nice to have access 24/7 so there is a happy ending thanks to you mike and hal (computer presence)
I'm with the poets and mystics about time, especially when opposed to something some call "eternity". For poets, I'll take Eliot's "still point in the turning world," and, more provocatively, Ginsberg's: "They broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven...lifting the city to Heaven which exists and is everywhere about us!" For mystics, there is always "Om."
Oddly enough, I had a kind of eternity-in-the-moment time experience at Ginkgo's Tuesday night, hearing those three Minnesotans whose work I admire paying tribute to Woody Guthrie. At 68, I can remember Guthrie's dying, was aware of his work and connection to Bob Dylan etc., knew people who knew him, Cisco Huston, others, and who were politically active in some of the more dangerous "causes" of the thirties (and now--they too are "eternal"), and forward--all of which felt "present" for me in that room at Ginkgo's Tuesday night: a continuity from Woody, through Glover, Maguire, and Wagner--both through their music, their anecdotes, the very sounds and words themselves. Woody, in a sense, 'lived' still for me, or came back to life, briefly--was awakened.
All of it made richer still by my recalling someone's telling me long ago that the building across the street once was a brief hangout (or apartment) for Bob Dylan, back in the day. My wife asked if I spotted Dale there in the room; I did not, though had no idea he was out of town. "He gets up so early, Patti," I said; "I doubt he'd be here; besides he had them in the studio today. They even played that very song, Take a Whiff on Me." So Dale's being gone (so to speak) adds another dimension to these questions. You were, of course, present at Ginkgo's, Dale. In a way. Eternity is now.
Well, I was in the land of holsteins Mon-Weds, so I didn't notice your absence, Dale, but if we'd been here, I'm sure we would have!
Arlo was great last night! Lots of wandering chatter as always, but that's part of seeing Arlo live. Sang some old bluesy stuff, old stuff of his ("Motorcycle Song", "Chilling of the Evening", "City of N.O." (Thanks for that, Dale!)) a few of his dad's tunes... including "This Land is Your Land" which included him telling about his mom's trip to China after his dad's death and hearing the Chinese sing "This Land is your land". Arlo thought this was odd, but then decided that they were going the long way around the world (from the US East coast to the Pacific via Europe, Africa, everything in between that way). Typical Arlo.
As we were driving by, it looked like he was chatting with some folks by the tour bus. Great evening!
Oh I LOVE Tommy Emmanuel.....
Thank you for the Mystery.
Arlo talked about hanging around with Hudie Ledbetter and family (and being babysat by them!) and did songs by him and Cisco Huston as well.
I think that Yo Yo Ma has few Chinese vocals on some of his Silk Road recordings.
Morning all. Welcome back Dale. Mike did a fabulous job of connecting with the Trial Ballooners in your absence. I can definitely tell the difference when you're pre-recorded, live is so much fun. But it also makes me grateful that you're working extra and behind the scenes to make sure we're not left completely high and dry when you are out. As several folks have said this morning, in the real world, radio stations aren't very personal. Knowing you're trying to make your absences easier for us just makes me realize (once again!) what a great gig we've got going here on RH.
AND, I'll be computer-less again next week (nothing courageous this time, Donna... just out of town), so I'll catch up with you all in a week.
Have a great weekend Heartlanders!
Good Morning RH,
Nice to have you back Dale. Mike does a great job too. Somehow I knew he fished.
When I heard Monday A.M.'s set, I was pretty sure it was one you played back in Feb. when you were off segwaying. Checked back to the early Feb.playlists, which only read, "The Dale Connelly Show,"and thought, "He's smarter than your average bear!" It was good hearing it again.
I still don't know how to find the archived DC shows since the installment of the new web design. Will you offer guidance, please? (I emailed MPR, but they said something like how even though my request was important to them, they may not be able to respond to every individual's panic attack.)
Have a great weekend Heartlanders!
Yes, my thanks to both of you, Dale and Mike, for making pretty much seamless transitions between live and fake-live. (Mike, I enjoy your "voice" on the blog.) If I didn't read the blog, I think I wouldn't have noticed for a couple of days. But I love the interactive nature of this program when you are there, and hearing references to comments made on the blog, like I'm in on some secret that is now being shared with the rest of the world (ah, the Ego creeps in).
Anyway, thanks for R. Crumb and Cheap Suit Serenaders a couple of days ago. Query, Dale: is part of getting back in the saddle having (getting) to read through all the blogs left while you were gone?
See, where else in radioland can you hear the Ditchlillies' Breezin' Along and Liberace's Cement Mixer in the same hour?
Donna,
I'm looking into the archived show question. It's a bit of a puzzle. Sorry if the official response was off-putting. I know in the past the older shows have been available, but at the moment it looks like there is only one set in the archive - the three hours from today. Hmmmm.
Barbara,
Regarding R. Crumb, you are certainly welcome. I enjoy playing his LP's, and the cover art is one-of-a-kind. And I consider it my privilege to look over blog comments from when I was gone. This is a talented group. You certainly don't need me around to keep up a conversation!
Thanks, everyone.
I realize that I am way late with this - but I got to thinking about a book I had as a kid called "Whobody There?" I don't remember much about it except there was a differentiation between "whobodies" (family, friends) at the door or sending mail and "anybodies" (sales people, delivery people). We talked at our house (and still do sometimes) about "whobody mail" and "anybody mail." Dale and Mike are "whobodies" in my world. Anything on commercial radio is "anybody radio." I think Dale even counts as "whobody radio" when it's pre-recorded.
Happy weekend.
What a cool story, Anna. You should re-post somehow on Monday, so more people can see it.
although i love hearing your voice in the morning RH is on all day at my house ; for me it's the music
I knew right away that you weren't there Dale, your presence makes a huge impact on RH. Though the music is always enjoyable when you're not there my attention can wander off. On the bright side, I didn't feel bad when I missed the show almost entirely due to my unpredictible work schedule. I'm pretty sure those feeling are not what MPR wants, so enjoy your job security Dale! And hooray for time off even if it's a staycation!
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