I had the pleasure of hearing an excerpt from my most recent blog post featured on-air on CBC Radio 2 this past weekend.
Apparently, hosts of the weekly program “In Tune” discovered my blog in the Internet universe and found it interesting enough to mention on-air during the hour-long show.
Having worked previously as a classical music announcer for two different NPR affiliates for some years, as I listened to the host’s voice and my own on my computer, I couldn’t help but think that with this most recent recognition, it was almost like I’d come full-circle.
While an undergraduate music major at Wichita State University (Mike Pelfrey’s alma mater as well), I began working at college radio station KMUW-FM as a classical music announcer. The staff there found it far easier to train music students in the intricacies of running the board and other technical matters than it was to train Radio-TV/Communications majors to pronounce foreign words and names. Music majors like myself could usually be relied upon not to flinch from the sight of nor massacre composer names like Antonín Dvořák or Dieterich Buxtehude or names of compositions like Verklärte Nacht or Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune.
Ten years later, I was grateful to win my first orchestral audition–for the position of Principal Oboe with the Spokane Symphony–but needed to augment my orchestra salary through part-time employment. I sent an air-check, got my radio chops in shape once again, and began work at KPBX Spokane Public Radio an announcer. Before I left for New York and the Metropolitan Opera, I had gone from a few hours a week to a position as the regular weekday afternoon on-air classical music host.
Now–almost twenty years after moving to New York, marrying and thus becoming a Mets fan, and bidding radio adieu, my voice could be heard–briefly–over the airwaves in Canada and via the Internet everywhere once again. My blogging about baseball had put me on-air once again.
For me at least, in this digital age, it truly is “all connected”.
You can hear the CBC Radio clip here: Perfect Pitch Mentioned on CBC Radio Radio 2
Perfect Pitch 