Radio Update

You may have noticed how few of my postings deal with the ongoing saga of the sale of KTPB. I have many things on my mind lately, and frankly I still don't know what to say about it.

My last day of employment is the 31st which I guess is Thursday.

Since there will be no music director and no staff after then, I guess they will go to a constant feed of Peter VanDeGraff from the satellite Beethoven network like we have been on our overnight hours. I'm sure there will be many listeners who won't even notice. There is rarely any mention of any of this on the air.

Kathy, the station GM and one of the announcers, has been out of town for a few days since she has a job interview in her home state of Kansas. She pre-taped the final edition of her Friday afternoon Musical Theatre Hour program which I started before I left the office this afternoon. All of the music on the show was about goodbyes. It was titled "The Party's Over."

I guess that is the most blunt expression of the present situation which has aired recently.

I am spending a great deal of mental energy trying to figure out what I am going to do next. I can't imagine living in this area any longer. Other than that, I'm sending out resumes to Ohio, New York, Colorado, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis among others.

I have given some thought to what piece of music would be fitting as my final act as Music Director. I have too many good choices so I will probably wait and see how I feel next week.

Part of me wants to end with Beethoven's 9th symphony to go out with an air of overcoming obstacles. Another part wants to go out with Mahler's 6th symphony, also known as his tragic symphony since it ends after more than an hour of music on a note of complete despair.

The loudest voice in my head can't help but think of the song written by John Hickman when his band Cracker was saying farewell to a long and complicated relationship with Virgin Records. The title was "It Ain't Gonna Suck Itself."

I am somewhat disappointed to see that this job for which I moved to this area of the country is ending under unfortunate conditions. Of course, the majority of my time of employment here could be considered unfortunate conditions. I remember last summer we were operating out of a temporary office in a building with no air conditioning that should probably have been condemned. Certain members of the staff speculated at the time that it almost seemed like the college administration was trying to get rid of us.

I'm not really bitter. Chances are good I will end up somewhere much more pleasant. This was a good cause to fight for, but the fight is over.

I came in somewhat unsure of whether I could be the Music Director of a Classical Music station. That insecurity led me a while ago to almost feel it was my fault the station was going under. I would hope if that was the case they would have replaced me rather than just letting me destroy things. That's a pretty good insight to my thinking.

This place has had bigger problems for a long time. They had a good run. We had a good run.

The party's over. Almost anyway.

Starbuck's here I come.