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The Comfort of Routine
Posted at 5:59 AM on November 2, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(27 Comments)
Welcome to November. And welcome back to Standard Time.
Today we start a new schedule on Radio Heartland. The thing you'll notice first is that we will have programs in the early evening during the weekdays - starting at 6pm today with a re-broadcast of the Saturday night Radio Heartland show that we produce for MPR's News and Information service.
In the first hour, it's a cavalcade of spooky, Halloweeney music for this dark time of year. I made a point not to talk too much about Halloween once I realized the hour would be heard again on November 2nd. You should listen tonight to see if I can convince you that I'm really in the studio. I know I'll be listening. Will I fool myself? We shall see.
By the way, I think we exceeded our 500 urchin estimate for Saturday night - I had to run to the drug store for supplementary candy at about 7:30 pm, boosting our total reserves from 500 to 572. Good thing. We shut off the lights at 9 with a handful of bars remaining.
In the second hour of tonight's inaugural cavalcade of personalized programming, I'll scout around the library for new music. October and early November are a great time for releasing discs - setting the table for holiday gift-giving. Of course this year may be less robust than usual with many people hesitant to spend. But a CD is still a relatively affordable gift, and if you run a record label you have to be an optimist. Especially now. We'll hear some of what the optimists are selling.
Also starting today, we're going to mess with the Dale Connelly Show.
For the past ten and a half months, I've been getting up at 3:30 am to get to the station at 4:30, so I'd have an hour and a half to finish the Trial Balloon Blog, make some coffee and pick some music before moving into the studio for three live hours, starting at 6am.
Now I'm going to try getting an extra hour of rest, arriving at the station at 5:30. I'll let JASPER run the show between 6 and 7 with a few recorded announcements dropped in. That way I can stay at my desk, polishing up the blog, making coffee, picking music, and then moving into the studio at 7 a.m. for two hours of live broadcasting. I'll record some more announcements for JASPER to incorporate between 9 and 11, and then the 11 to 1pm segment will be a re-broadcast of my 7 to 9am live show. Whew!
That's a lot more than you needed (or wanted) to know, but this is the Internet, and there are no secrets.
If everything works as planned, you won't notice much of a difference, except that you have already wasted several precious minutes reading about it here.
Have you ever had to learn a completely new routine?
How did you manage it?
Comments (27)
Dale,
Thanks for all the thought you've put into the new schedule. At this point I can't figure out if you are there or not.....
I clearly remember the day I became a dedicated Morning Show listener. It was a November 2nd many years ago. Jim Ed announced that since it was All Souls' Day the next selection would be Soul Music by Miss Aretha Franklin. I hope with all the changes you will continue your much appreciated continuity and play some Soul Music today.
Happy November to all!
Thanks for the informational blog entry today!
I'm not a morning person. About 4 years ago, my schedule shifted so that I had to begin work between 6 and 6:30 in the morning. Oy!
good morning All and happy November, happy full moon (yes, Donna, i saw it!) and happy standard time. the new plan sounds good, Dale - think it's a good thing that you can be at your desk, better rested and drinking coffee at 6 a.m. instead of talking at the early risers. i'm out to milk earlier (and less rested) now with the time change - so "see" you all about 7:30, with my "Dream Foam" coffee in my hand.
I'm here, Beth-Ann, but not "live" until 7am, central standard time. I'll add Aretha Franklin to the playlist for you. How about "Do Right Woman"?
Dale, you are a little like a factory worker who works a night shift and, because of this, is not on the same schedule as his family and many other people. If you can use Jasper to get you a little closer to a more "normal" schedule, I think that is great. I worked a late shift for a little less than two years and I know it has it's problems, or at least it did for me..
Dale,
"Do Right Woman" sounds great.
Good luck adapting to the switch from Dale Standard Time to Connelly Saving Time!
Greetings! That's nice you can change around your schedule a bit, Dale. That's a heck of a long day when you get up at 3:30am.
We are creatures of habit, so mixing it up can be a bit disruptive, but certainly refreshing as well. Change is good ... Looking forward to this new schedule. Have a beautiful day everyone!
Good Morning!
It sounds like a good schedule change Dale, 3:30, yikes!
I've changed my routine many times over the years and I pretty much just take it in stride though sometimes with a bit of disappointment like when The Morning Show ended and there wasn't a broadcast available outside of HD radio. So we went out and got ourselves HD equipped but that still left me without access on my morning bike commute. Then came the iPhone app and viola, Dale was back in my ear as I peddled though it requires multiple restarts of the stream along the way. Well now that the chill is upon us, it's too cold on my hands to do all the stopping so I rarely get to hear the show on days when I ride. I still take it in stride but miss getting my daily dose in the morning.
Sigh...
At least today I have an appointment that has me leaving early so I can enjoy the show from the comforts of home for a few more minutes.
Mark
Great to hear from you again, Mark!
Are you saying the iPhone drop out problem continues?
I thought it was going to be fixed.
And if your hands are unable to re-start the device because you're wearing glove ... that's just wrong. Isn't there an app for that?
Hi Folks
Thought I'd say Hi to all this morning, since I put together a computer configuration to surprise my son (Hoang)--- by broadcasting the Sons of the Pioneers while he was getting going this morning.
I guess that might be a sign of faith on my part, that I believed that "Morning Sun" was going to arise as it has for quite some time now. Dale, we are very fortunate to have you putting this all together as you've been doing.
Happy All Soul's Day to a mighty good soul.
Sheila from Ada
Good morning Dale,
Thank you for playing Chris Smither “I Don’t Know” this morning. What a clever song writer! We were at the show Sat night and enjoyed it so much I went home and bought 2 of his disks. I had never seen Chris before and had only seen Loudon once prior to Sat. We wanted to see Loudon with Richard Thompson, (still disappointed they chose to skip MN on the “Loud & Rich” tour) but being introduced to Chris was a plus!
Could you play Loudan’s “doin’ the math” and maybe throw in a Richard Thompson?
Thanks, and happy Monday……
With a kid in the house, morning routines are key to getting out of the house on time. A shift of even 5 minutes can throw off everything. This year we got lucky and the change in routine allowed an extra 5-10 minutes before we have to get to the school bus stop. Phew. I think we'll need that extra time come snow boot season.
Dale, I'm glad you're getting some extra sleep. 3:30 in the morning is not a sane hour for anyone. I'm sure 4:30 isn't too much better, but it's at least an hour later, regardless.
Thank you so much, Dale, for "Stand By Me" and the other supportive songs for all of us standing up and speaking out against racist violence. Peace!
dale, old age creates wisdom. an extra hour with a coffee pot and a brain tweak sounds like a winner to me but what will you do with the extra hour? go to bed later? like what 830? get up early like the last 30 years but read the paper more deliberatly? i hope you can roll over and enjoy the hour but my experience is that its difficult to change stripes. i get up earlier every year and that is just part of the deal. an extra hour would be good but not necessarily going to be used the way i figured. the way life works sometimes you are just along for the ride. it sounds like you steer your ship pretty tightly but i will be interested to hear on this one. one more loudan is never enough. white wino's is a favorite
I’m glad the early risers aren’t too disappointed about the 6 a.m. hour, but I am not a morning person either so am happy you can get an extra hour of sleep. As always, I’ll continue to listen to the replay or archive for the parts I missed live. That’s part of my routine.
New routines have seemed especially hard when starting a new job since you're often going into a situation where you don't have people you know well. At least with changes to routines at home, you can work through it with your family.
Congratulations to all for a successful membership drive last week, I’m proud to have made my contribution in the name of RH. Thanks to everyone for making it happen.
Oh, heard it’s kd langs birthday today, have a good one kd.
i miss having a routine at all! i still haven't really created one here in UT--except in the sense of tending to wake up when the sun comes up....
it's great to be in charge of one's own routine, though...i try to get up, get the tea, tune in to RH, and get through the emails so i can get started on the freelance work by about 9 a.m....that often works :-)
i usually miss the first hour of the show, but i bet there will be a few folks who'll miss your voice in the early time, dale...while not begrudging you your extra hour...
thanks for the kd lang--what a singer--
have a great day, all---
forgot to mention that i'll try your former schedule, dale, on wednesday, sort of, when i have to get up at 3:30 a.m in order to leave the house at 4:30 a.m. to drive 2 hours to the nearest big airport to catch a 7:45 flight to a conference in Ohio...whew! expecting it to be a mind-bender :-)
I keep a list of songs that really catch my attention - I just added "Ships" by Tyler Ramsey. Some songs just make you stop and pay attention to the lyrics when you realize they're hitting close to home. That happens a lot with songs on RH. Thanks.
I'm in Iowa this morning, but through the miracle of computers... Glad you'll get an extra hour SOMEWHERE, Dale.
I'm kind of like Kay, in that being semi-retired is a form of free-lancing, and it seems my schedule changes weekly. I love being up early, but don't usually make it -- the time change may help.
Which reminds me, I was thinking of Barb and Cynthia and how goats do the time change, and then realized... goats don't know there is TIME. Gives one pause.
Dale, great for you you can get another few hours of sleep on a "regular" schedule.
I hate new routines. In the past year I had to adapt to a new radio system...internet radio to hear you...a new mobile phone with a touchscreen which I had to reload again when i fell in Lake Superior...a new car, hybrid that I forget to turn off at times...and a laptop though I love that.
The older one gets the harder change is to accept.
Right you are, Sue. The older I get, the more baffled I feel about ... well, everything.
I am impressed that you can fall into Lake Superior with a mobile phone and a "reload" is all you have to do! If only we all were so resilent!
Regarding completely new routines, I am amazed at how I settled into one (it includes audiostreaming Radio Heartland) after quitting a 34 years academic career in another community. My "retirement" plan was pretty simple: follow my wife to Twin Cities (she still has a day job) and settle somewhere within easy walking distance of good coffee and a hard copy of the New York Times.
But I soon found myself writing every morning and into the afternoons. At first I observed my old pattern, not writing on Saturdays and Sundays. But I realized I wanted to write every day. The weekend abstention was a quaint residue of that older routine. I've never been happier than with my new routine, an organic development out of a new circumstance.
As a college student, each new semester brings a new routine as schedules change--sometimes for the better, sometimes not. It seems like I'm finally able to get used to when I have to get up for class each morning by the end of the semester, and then it all changes on me again. My first class last spring wasn't until 10:45 AM... it was such a beautiful thing. This fall... 8:00 AM. Ick.
Sounds like everything's a go at Radio Heartland. Good luck with the new programs. It's a very interesting thing to me that Dale seems to put equal weight of importance between the Blog and the Broadcasting, to the point that he gets up at 3:30am to write Blog entries and he's now cut out one hour of live broadcasting because of same. I would have thought that since MPR is a BROADCASTING service anything to do with the Trial Balloon would be secondary. Not so. I DO know that I paid $170.00 for an HD radio with the idea of listening to Dale in the morning. I'll see if I can try and get the Blog on it...
Hi Again:
I forgot to mention in the above note that I am familiar with all the new programs coming to RH and they are of course top notch, all. Another thought that might take some load off of Dale and give him more time to write would be to include two OTHER award winning shows that happen once a week. Some of you may remember "What'd Ya Know?" And "To The Best Of Our Knowledge". TTBOOK was broadcast on MRP for many years and then dropped when they decided it was better and cheaper to program only shows that MPR produces even though it is one of the most respected program on Public Radio. "What'd Ya Know"with Mike Feldman speaks for itself. It's an institution. Everybody loves that show. Radio Heartland could rebroadcast To The Best Of Our Knowledge one weekday between 6am and 7 and What'd Ya Know on another weekday morning and in fact it could replace Dale's show altogether on that day leaving him completely free with write on the blog! It's a Real Shame that MPR doesn't program one or both of these great, great shows. Public Radio stations MUCH smaller than MRP carry them throughout the country. The Twin Cities deserve better than "Speaking Of Faith" numerous times a week. Since MPR has made it's pledge goals this fall maybe they could look into buying one or both of these programs for Radio Heartland.
Enjoy your extra bit of sleep Dale! Am enjoying the Saturday night show (on Monday night) and am a bit befuddled as to what I am listening to, since I can't find a list for tonight or Saturday... Maybe it's just me.
As to the comment about goats not knowing what time it is now, our dog is QUITE certain she should be fed supper earlier than she is now being fed. No grumbling about breakfast so far... It's interesting to see the changes that RH is going through (mostly good), but I still wish I could get it in the car if I am out and about... baby steps with this new technology stuff... :+)
Larry - have you noticed this is a music station?
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