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SO AFTER 16 YEARS, I’M FINALLY GOING PODCAST
The Lisa Wexler Show is my baby. I gave birth to her on September 30, 2006 and she’s still an adolescent, at 16, but approaching geezer status in media years. No matter.
The Lisa Wexler Show is my baby. I gave birth to her on September 30, 2006 and she’s still an adolescent, at 16, but approaching geezer status in media years. No matter. She’s as fresh and vibrant today as she was on that day when my very first interview was with Gov. Jodi Rell on the late, great WSTC/WNLK. I ran out of my scripted questions! Gov. Rell said “That’s it?”, and I looked at my notes and I said “Yes”, and she hung up. That would never happen today. Sixteen years later, I could end that interview on a dime or continue it for two hours straight.
The show has been my ticket to life and adventure, advocacy and stimulation, just as I had always hoped. I joined the boards of Jane Doe No More and The Jeffrey Modell Foundation because the founders were guests on my show and I fell in love with them, and their causes. I covered the national political conventions all over the country, and haven’t missed a New Hampshire primary in many years. Politicians and entertainers, scientists and novelists, doctors and heroes. There has not been one boring day in my life since I got behind that mic. Thank you to the late, great Mike Raub, for putting me there.
Now on WICC, the great CT heritage station, I am in the company of the greatest people I have known in my career. Stellar FM morning hosts, from “Stormin Norman” on WEBE108, to “Chaz & AJ” on WPLR, to “Anna & Raven” on Star99, are across the hall. My lead in is Melissa Sheketoff on WICC, a superb talent and an even better human being. Kristin Okesson, the GM at Connoisseur, leads with common sense and grace. I have never been happier on the radio than I am now. Keinehora.
I love my baby. But now I have to send her to school to learn a new language. She has to make new friends. She has to introduce herself to new teachers, and prove that she can get good grades. She has to go out there and become a “podcast”.
What is a podcast? It’s a recorded conversation. The gurus say that the podcast is a different medium than radio, that being a successful radio host doesn’t translate to the sexy, new podcast world. Sorry- I don’t buy it. Laughs are laughs. Either you want to eavesdrop on the conversation, or you don’t. If you were looking for no ums, ahs or stutters, you were already listening to the hyper-produced NPR stations. They do a great job, but they are the furthest thing from spontaneous talk.
So here is what my baby will do. She will turn herself into bite-sized, yummy snacks. She will make it easy for her new friends to find her, on any platform where they listen. She will ask her friends to review her good work, so that their curious friends will listen too. She will enter that brave, new world called “podcasts” and learn the language well. And she will keep having entertaining, informative conversations with all those fabulous people. Because the world needs her. And more importantly, so do I.