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Festival of Games 2022 recap December 16, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Animation, Aviation, Christmas, Game Shows, History, Internet, Media, Military, Personal, Photography, Travel, TV, Video, Video Games, Weather.
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Last year’s Festival of Games (the first)

Last Saturday, the second annual Festival of Games was held at the Cradle of Aviation Museum along Museum Row in East Garden City. The so-far one-day spinoff of Long Island Retro Gaming Expo (read about the 2022 LI Retro here) was my latest chance to walk and snap photos in as many sections as possible. Then, back to the vendor halls to add video games to my multi-console, multi-generation collection.

Thanks to my past recaps, I have made friends with the organizers, volunteers, and a week before this Festival of Games, the museum’s director of marketing and community relations, Jerelyn Zontini. I’m honored to know them and to promote special events like this.

I did not think to check the Festival of Games website for this year’s schedule, so I missed out on the panels in the main stage (planetarium) and classes in the classroom, but I saw everything else on offer, and was surprised to meet legendary collector, YouTuber, and streamer Pete Dorr at his vending table. More on that later.

To photograph the event, I brought my Canon EOS R7 with RF-S 18-150mm lens and Speedlite 430EX III-RT. When writing about my initial experience with the mirrorless camera, I did not lower the resolution on test photos. Considering the camera’s higher native max resolution (6984×4660) with the same 3:2 aspect ratio as my previous camera, it made sense while editing Saturday’s photos to increase my default blog post/social media resolution. Thus, going forward, photos will be no lower than 2000 pixels vertically, stepping up from my max horizontal resolution of 2600 pixels.

Again planning on a two-hour stay, my mother dropped me off at 12:43 PM:

Once inside (and having my bag searched), I presented my e-ticket printout to a box office attendant who stamped my left hand.

A promotional banner for the first leg in what’s now my annual triple crown: Cradle-Con:

I bought my weekend pass for Cradle-Con Monday afternoon. No more New York Comic Con for me. I was already disenchanted with them last year, but went anyway and had a good time. The uncertainty and last-minute additions this year were my tipping point, as noted in the third paragraph of my Dutchess County trip post. I’m optimistic that I’ll have a much better time at Cradle-Con.

Each section I walked through at Festival of Games has a dedicated photo gallery. We start with the vendor hall gallery:

Sure enough, it’s Pete Dorr! I would definitely return to his table.

The board game section:

One of the photos taken here was posted to the museum’s Facebook page.

In all the years I’ve been inside the Cradle of Aviation Museum, I never observed its exhibits. I rectified that after passing the board games section.

I assume the title says “we have” instead “we’ve had” because the misattribution is more popular.
Coincidentally, the next day (Sunday) marked the 50th anniversary of the final Apollo mission‘s lunar landing. Their final EVA on the moon occurred 50 years ago Tuesday. Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean 50 years ago next Monday (December 19).
Then, I turned my attention to commercial aircraft and airports.
“Long Islanders see more commercial air traffic than any other people on Earth. How many of these planes can you name?”

MY ANSWER: Most of them, thanks to my proximity to John F. Kennedy International Airport. The planes are either on final approach or just took off. I also see general aviation aircraft coming to or from Republic Airport in Farmingdale, which is even closer to my house.

Back to video games in the free play area:

Tournaments:

On to the second floor:

PC games…
The holiday games section, starting with a dancing R.O.B. quartet…
The middle TV shows the 1996 TV special Sonic’s Christmas Blast.
You may recognize the name Howard Phillips in the credits for Home Alone 2 on the Super Nintendo. It was a LucasArts game released shortly after Howard left Nintendo for LucasArts.
Arcade games…
A pinball machine

Of course, most of the arcade games were housed on the Air & Space hall sky walk:

I chose not to play any of the arcade games or free play console games. I just wanted to buy games, and where better to start than at Pete Dorr’s table? I didn’t introduce myself to him right away, but he approached me after a few minutes of rummaging. That’s when I complimented him on his work. I ended up buying five Sega Genesis games from Pete’s table, which he gave me a great discount on. Then, we posed for a photo:

An hour of vendor-hopping yielded 42 games in all, including seven imports! Four games were for the Family Computer (Famicom) and three were for the Super Famicom. Final Fantasy V was a timely get as GTV Japan posted a retrospective the day before (last Friday).

Satisfied, I proceeded to the parking lot for my mom to pick me up.

As I stood in the lot, I photographed all my bagged pickups. (I put Pete’s games and ones from the second vendor in my backpack.)

Back at home, I spent nearly two hours photographing my pickups, removing price stickers, and cataloging the games.

Pete Dorr’s games are on the left, the ones from the second vendor are on the right.

Now, photos of all pickups by console, starting with Family Computer (Famicom):

Super Famicom:

Nintendo Entertainment System:

Yes, I passed on Deadly Towers again.

Super Nintendo:

I didn’t notice a crack on the upper left of Tecmo Super NBA Basketball until cataloging later. I bought a better condition cart on eBay Tuesday night and put in an offer for another Looney Tunes game, Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos. I bought that on Wednesday when my offer was accepted.

Sega Master System:

Now, I have the original Zillion to go along with the sequel I bought last year.

Sega Genesis (Mega Drive outside North America):

And one Nintendo Wii game: The Price is Right: 2010 Edition:

That last pickup was the culmination of all the time that I spent this year watching various winning pricing games and showcases from the Bob Barker era of The Price is Right, and with my resulting renewed obsession with Barker era music cues, many of which can be found on this YouTube channel.

It was another successful and enjoyable Festival of Games. Thank you to Pete Dorr and all the vendors I bought from, to the LI Retro staff including George Portugal (who I saw on Saturday), and to Jerelyn Zontini. It was great to meet her in person after she connected with me on LinkedIn a few weeks ago.

Until Cradle-Con.

Instrumental Invasion, 12/7/22 December 8, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Christmas, Comedy, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Travel, TV, Video.
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The December 7 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded out of sequence on November 5 and 6. I did segments 1, 3, 5, and 4 on the 5th, and 6 and 1 on the 6th. Pickups were recorded on the 6th and 7th.

The playlist was created on October 28 alongside the one for last week. Annotations began on October 29 and didn’t resume until November 3. I went back to a script this week, which I drafted on the 4th and 5th. I’d have done it all on the 4th, but I had errands to run, including shipping the last of my eBay items referenced in my new camera post.

Like last week, I chose to record out of sequence so I could get the presumably short segments out of the way and bank time for the ones I expected to run long. Also like last week, I was still short after principal production, having to make up 15 seconds by reinstating my “fun fact” about Lynne Scott being friends with Laraine Newman.

The Futurama reference after “Robo Bop” by Fourplay dates back to an episode of Mike Chimeri’s Music Collection, my short-lived YouTube series. The excerpt I played was from this video (the title sequence for episode 4ACV17, “Spanish Fry”):

The November 7 pickups were for the second segment after missing an opportunity to link Amy Poehler and Laraine Newman as Saturday Night Live alumnae (that show has come up a lot lately) and memoir authors (Yes, Please and May You Live in Interesting Times). I met Laraine at New York Comic Con in 2019:

There were more callbacks to Homecoming Weekend this week. I returned the favor to Jett Lightning after he played the original “Blue Train” on his Sunday show, and I played two songs that were on my live Friday show. The songs are the respective artists’ current singles and previously heard on the regular Wednesday show (original air dates are in parentheses):

I was told not to play music from Lisa Hilton‘s new Paradise Cove album until after its release date last Friday. Since the title track shares its name with a favorite Russ Freeman composition, I bookended the show with each “Paradise Cove,” marking Lisa’s album’s debut on the show.

I referenced the Dutchess County trip yet again, doing so after “El Swing” by Hudson.

My “beat Army” line after acknowledging Dan LaMaestra‘s tenure with the U.S. Navy Band was coincidental. I forgot the annual Army-Navy [football] Game is this Saturday.

The Dan Ingram joke about Jack Jones stemmed from Dan’s backsell of “The Impossible Dream (The Quest)” on June 25, 1966 (heard in Rewound Radio’s The Life and Times of Dan Ingram: In His Own Words):

I slowed the clip down three percentage points to the correct speed.

I excluded the 1984 and earlier segment to allow for an extra segment of music from 2022 releases. The Hudson song filled a gap.

Excluded for only the fourth time in 140 shows was David Benoit. He will be back next week.

Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:

Instrumental Invasion, 11/23/22 November 24, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Blu-ray, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Travel, TV.
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The November 23, Thanksgiving Eve Instrumental Invasion on WCWP took a while to develop, as Kenny Mayne would say. The playlist was created on September 27, annotations began on October 4 and weren’t completed until the 10th while in Staatsburg, the talk break script was drafted on the 12th followed by recording of the first hour, and the second hour and pickups were recorded a week later on October 19. I was going to record on the 13th, but my time mismanagement skills reared their ugly head, and I had a breakdown while rushing to complete errands. Thank goodness WCWP station manager Pete Bellotti talked me down. Per his advice, I suspended production on this show until after Homecoming Weekend, and production was completed on videos of two Saturday shows (Bernie Bernard; Mike Riccio and Bobby G.).

I usually have a wealth of inside information about this reference or that reference, but I’ve wasted enough time. So, click here to download the scoped aircheck or listen below:

Since writing the above text on October 19, I’ve published posts about Homecoming Weekend and what I now call the Dutchess County trip. Listening to “Far Away” by Robben Ford took me back to how far away I felt at times in the AirBNB on Connelly Drive. Watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on 4K Blu-ray on Tuesday (November 22), I realized I forgot to acknowledge Chuck Bennett’s trombone was also the “voice” of the adult Charlie Brown spoke to on the phone.

Happy Thanksgiving. Here’s hoping you get the long end of the wishbone like Woodstock (the bird, not the town half an hour northwest of Rhinebeck/Staatsburg).

Instrumental Invasion, 11/2/22 November 3, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Film, History, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Politics, Radio, Sci-Fi, TV, Video.
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I replaced my thumbnail/show banner photo with a selfie taken with my new camera. You can read all about that tomorrow. (11/10 UPDATE: Read here.)

The November 2 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded and mixed entirely on September 19, the first one-day record/mix since June 27 when I worked on all of the August 17 show and the first segment of August 24. I made a timing error when remixing the third segment, which I didn’t notice until September 20. An extra liner and a pickup were required to add five seconds so that “+:13” on the playlist below was true. Additional pickups were recorded on October 10 (after returning from Dutchess County) to correct a factual error about bassist Harvie S‘s “Pyramid” composition, and then to react to a shorter replacement liner.

The playlist was created on September 10 (a day after last week’s show) and annotated on the 14th (after completing last week’s annotations). The talk break script draft began on the 16th, but didn’t resume until the 18th once production was completed on the prior show.

“Incumbent Waltz” is the seventh Vince Guaraldi-composed music cue for a Peanuts special that I’ve played, and a timely one with the midterm elections next Tuesday. Here’s where you can buy those Glenn Cronkhite Custom Cases I referenced in the backsell.

Two songs that aired previously are listed below with the first air date (in parentheses) and the reason for playing again:

I originally had the 2011 version of “Altair and Vega” by Bob James and Keiko Matsui in mind last July 14, but a different timing error – miscalculating the song’s duration – required a replacement. I made up for that this week, complete with the story of Tanabata/Hoshimatsuri, a festival centered around the two titular stars. You can read the Wikipedia entry in the previous sentence, but I also recommend this short video by GTV Japan:

Coincidentally, the show last July had a Star Trek reference leading into the first song. This week’s first song, complete with my paraphrase of the opening spiel, was Maynard Ferguson’s cover of the “Theme from Star Trek.” I had no idea Larry King adopted it as his radio show theme.

Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:

Instrumental Invasion, 9/21/22 September 22, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Comedy, Film, Game Shows, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, News, Personal, Radio, TV, Video, Western.
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The September 21 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded on July 24 (third and first segments) and 25 (all the rest) with a pickup on the 26th.

The playlist was created simultaneously with last week’s show on July 17. Annotations followed on the 19th and the talk break script was drafted on the 22nd. I didn’t realize I had put so many blank-and/n-blank songs in the playlist until drafting the script.

I made another cartoon reference this week – to Freakazoid! – while talking up “Primal Scream” by Maynard Ferguson. The “Candle Jack” segment of episode 2 starts with Joe Leahy announcing that the cartoon would be “presented in SCREAM-O-VISION.” The excerpt leading into “Primal Scream” had Jeff Bennett as the prompter – “scream” in deadpan – and Tress MacNeille as the screamer. The day after I recorded that segment, I learned that David Warner, voice of The Lobe, had died of cancer. Paul Rugg – writer, producer, creator, and voice of Freakazoid – reminded his social media followers of The Lobe’s musical turn in episode 14, “Dexter’s Date.” In the spirit of “Hello, Dolly!,” Lobe, Freakazoid (as Louis Armstrong), and ancillary characters (including Jeff Bennett) sang “Bonjour, Lobey“:

Regarding the Dancing with the Stars tangent I went on in the third segment, a premiere date for season 31 hadn’t been announced when this week’s show was recorded. That date ended up being earlier this week – Monday, September 19. It’s their first season on Disney+, and that platform’s first live show. As noted last night, there are two hosts again, but the dynamic has shifted. Tyra Banks remains in the lead host role originally held by Tom Bergeron with Alfonso Ribeiro (season 19 champion) in the secondary role last held by Erin Andrews. Jessy J had a tenor sax solo during one of the dances!

In a similar vein, playing “Treasure Hunt” by Dan Siegel allowed me to refer to the two iterations of the game show Treasure Hunt. The New Treasure Hunt had a great closing theme: a jazzy rendition of Elmer Bernstein‘s “Main Title” piece for True Grit.

For the second week in a row, songs made their return appearance:

In between the two songs, I played “Don’t Stop” by Paul Brown, leading to my early Mike Chimeri Show anecdote. Go to the 2:13 mark in “anecdote” for my “wouldn’t you know it, they stopped” quip. Jay Mirabile also brought it up at the WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony in June.

Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:

For airchecking, I scheduled timer records in Audacity on my computer and the one in the guest room. The loopback recording on my computer was flawless, so I deleted the alternate guest room recording, loaded what I kept into Adobe Audition, and went through the usual post-production process.

Instrumental Invasion, 9/14/22 September 15, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Audiobooks, Books, Comedy, Computer, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Technology, TV.
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The September 14 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded from July 22 to 24. The fourth segment was recorded on the 22nd because I rightly anticipated it would be the longest. That was followed on the 23rd by all but the last segment, which was recorded on the 24th along with pickups. I started recorded next week’s show later that day.

An additional pickup was recorded on August 26, the day after the untimely death of organist Joey DeFrancesco, who appeared on Lee Ritenour‘s “78th and 3rd” with drummer (and future collaborator) Byron “Wookie” Landham.

The playlist was created simultaneously with next week’s show on July 17 with annotations on the 18th and 19th. The talk break script was drafted on the 20th and 21st.

Three songs made their second appearance, one of which I’ll elaborate on in the next paragraph (two weeks in a row with a false memory):

I played “Angela” in order to correct my January 19 mistake, a mistake I also made in my pre-recorded 2019 Homecoming Weekend show. Listening to Jimmy Burrows‘s memoir on Audible, Directed by James Burrows, set me straight about the “Blind Date” episode of Taxi, featuring the titular character Angela Matusa (Suzanne Kent). (Oh, Suzanne was an original member The Groundlings! No wonder she did Pee-wee’s Playhouse!) Angela wasn’t literally blind; just gruff and cynical, the opposite of her answering service persona. I don’t know where the false memory originated, but I regret the twice-told error.

Nowhere else will you get a reference to SpongeBob SquarePants after playing “Secret Sauce” by Paul Brown (adjacent to the Krabby Patty secret formula that Plankton tries to steal) or to Phineas and Ferb after playing “Candice Dance” by Richard Elliot and a song featuring guitar solos by Perry Hughes (hence, the Perry the Playtpus reference). As noted on the air, Candace Flynn spelled her name differently.

After recording last week’s aircheck on my new PC, I noticed that audio levels were bumped up when certain songs faded out or on vocal pauses in liners and talk breaks. Those bump-ups were replaced with audio from an alternate aircheck on the Dell PC in the guest room. I chalked it up to an audio enhancement setting and thought to have that enhancement off this week. Sadly, the problem was still there this week. I wasted nearly three hours figuring out how to stop that from happening. I now assume it’s related to the motherboard’s “Audio Boost 5” feature.

Finally, at around 2:45 this morning, I came across this webpage. The solution was option 2:

Don’t have a Stereo Mix option? No problem. Audacity has a useful feature that can record the audio coming out of your computer – even without Stereo Mix. In fact, Audacity’s feature may be even better than Stereo Mix, assuming you’re willing to use Audacity to record the audio. This method takes advantage of a feature that Microsoft added in Windows Vista named the Windows Audio Session API (WASAPI) [link added by me]. The feature also functions in Windows 7, 8, and 10, and helps make up for the lack of a Stereo Mix option on modern Windows PCs.

In Audacity, choose the “Windows WASAPI” audio host, and then choose an appropriate loopback device, such as “Speakers (loopback)” or “Headphones (loopback).”

Click the Record button to start recording the audio in Audacity, and then click Stop when you’re done. Because you’re using Audacity, you can easily trim and edit the sound file when you’re done.

How to Record the Sound Coming From Your PC (Even Without Stereo Mix)

It’s ironic that the solution came via free software while a program I paid for years ago – Easy MP3 Recorder 2.0 – and one I pay for monthly – Adobe Audition – are no longer useful on the new build for recording system audio.

The angst caused by the problem is the reason this post wasn’t published until afternoon. I still needed to add these paragraphs and then scope the aircheck.

Click here to download that scoped aircheck or listen below:

Instrumental Invasion, 8/3/22 August 4, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, TV.
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The August 3 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded over two days: four segments on June 8 and two on June 9. Pickups were recorded on June 12 and 15.

The playlist was created alongside next week’s show on June 5 and 6. I worked on each show’s first hour and middle of their second hour on the 5th, and the 2017-present segments on the 6th. Annotations for this week’s show began on the 6th and carried into the 7th. Each show’s talk break script was drafted on the 8th. I hoped to start recording that day, but was preoccupied with setting up my new iPhone 13 Pro.

I tried to get as many segments as possible recorded before the WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony on June 11 because I knew I’d be busy with post-production afterward. I was right. While I recorded nine segments combined in two days, it took four days to record next week’s second hour.

Picking up on an idea from last week, I purposely allowed myself to go under 18 minutes in a given segment to allow for more time in one that runs long. I only had three seconds of extra time going into the last segment, but they came in handy.

The “you latched onto Instrumental Invasion with Mike Chimeri” line coming out of the Dan Ingram liner referenced the gasser promo for WABC in 1964. (More WABC promos can be heard here.) Be sure to listen on September 7 as I pay tribute to Big Dan by playing songs that start with letters in his radio station call letters.

The quip coming out of “Take That” by Julian Vaughn – “where do you want me to take it?” – was a nod to Mark Evanier‘s great line for Binky the Clown in the “Binky Goes Bad” episode of Garfield and Friends:

Judge: Take the stand.

(Binky takes a chair and presents it)

Binky: Where do you want me to take it, huh?

Early in the show, I noted that “The Jive Samba” by The Cannonball Adderley Sextet (on Jazz Workshop Revisited) incorporated the Minsky Pickup, one of many things I’ve learned from TV Tropes.

Click here to download this week’s aircheck MP3 or listen below:

Instrumental Invasion, 7/13/22 July 14, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, TV, Video.
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The July 13 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the third straight show with the 1-3-2 recording configuration: one segment on May 20, three on the 21st, and two (and a pickup) on the 22nd.

The playlist took three days to create: May 15 (the segments with singles), 17, and 18 followed by annotations. The talk break script was drafted entirely on the 20th before recording the first segment.

The show led off with “Is It James or Charlie?”, a cue from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving found on the second Lost Cues CD. Until reading the linked Wikipedia entry earlier this year, I naively thought most incorrect track listings were correct. This is the page I referenced on the air, cited in the entry.

Five songs made their second appearance, two of them singles on the smooth jazz radio charts at the time of recording, which is why I worked on those segments first. In order of appearance, the songs are:

If that wasn’t enough, I played both of Nelson Rangell‘s studio recordings of “Sonora” by Hampton Hawes in honor of his latest live whistling and piccolo rendition at Smooth Jazz for Scholars in April. Watch the performance here:

Marion Meadows also performed “Marcosinho” that night.

This was the first show with instances where the second song of the set will start, and is faded down for a liner before going back to full volume. I did that at the start of “Fantasy in D” and “Throw Yo’ Hands (In the Air)” by Gerald Albright.

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:

Instrumental Invasion, 7/6/22 July 7, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, TV, Video, Video Games.
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The July 6 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the second consecutive show with the 1-3-2 recording configuration: one segment on May 17, three on the 18th, and two on the 19th.

The playlist was created on May 15 and annotated on the 16th. I drafted the talk break script for the first segment before recording on the morning of the 17th and completed the draft in the afternoon.

For the first time, I recorded segments out of sequence as I was eager to get the last segment out of the way. The talk-up for “Hello Beautiful” by Blair Bryant included this moment from The Simpsons episode “The Principal and the Pauper“:

I initially used the audio from this video, but didn’t like the skip on “we’ll see about that,” so I replaced it with audio recorded from my ninth season DVD set.

My voice was comprised on May 18, though less so on the 19th, after screaming in a moment of frustration about two hours after the one segment on the 17th. I was satisfied with the two segments I recorded on the afternoon of the 18th, but redid two of the last segment’s talk breaks on the morning of the 23rd. (A pickup was required on the 29th.) My pacing was better, which meant I could play the Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster arrangement of “The Red Wings” in its entirety rather than fade down early. All talk breaks in the fourth segment (first of hour 2) had to be speed compressed, 95% of original speed.

I didn’t have time to mention, but GTV Japan has a great video on Final Fantasy IV, posted around the time of its 30th anniversary a year ago next week:

And while working on this show, StrafeFox posted a Splash Wave video on the Wonder Boy and Monster World games:

I’d occasionally thought about playing “Frankenstein” by the Edgar Winter Group, and finally committed to it this week.

I eventually learned that Gerald Albright wrote “G-Wiggle” (from G-Stream 2) for his grandson Gavin’s blueberry dance, but adding that fun fact to the talk break would make the segment go over a few seconds.

This year’s Smooth Jazz for Scholars once again influenced the playlist as the third segment included two songs from the first night and one from the second. One first night song was “Treasures” by Marion Meadows:

“Amore” by Julian Vaughn was first heard last May 26, replayed as one of four current singles, three that were charting at the time of production. This time, I played up the references to “That’s Amore” and Dean Martin (“pally”). I had two more singles I wanted to include, but couldn’t, so I got a head start on next week’s playlist.

Before then, click here to download this week’s aircheck MP3 or listen below:

A community calendar spot I voiced runs at the 8:14 mark.

Instrumental Invasion, 6/1/22 June 2, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, TV, Video.
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The June 1 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the third of three shows produced in eleven days. Recording took place from April 4 to 6 in the same 2-3-1 configuration as the May 18 show: two segments on April 4, three on the 5th, and the last segment and pickups on the 6th. An additional pickup was recorded on April 18.

The playlist was created on April 2 after recording the first hour of last week’s show and annotated on the 3rd before recording its second hour. The talk break script was drafted on the 4th before recording the first two segments for this week.

June 1 was the first day after Dan Cox’s retirement as Director of Broadcasting. Long Island University is going to make that position part-time upon hiring his replacement. At Dan’s request, I continue to work on shows even if some of them don’t air, assuming the worst case scenario: where the university terminates WCWP after 57 years on 88.1 FM and 61 years since its carrier current launch. This is the only time I’m acknowledging the station’s uncertainty unless the worst comes true. (6/9 UPDATE: Pete Bellotti became the new director on June 6 and stated that the current FM lineup will continue through at least Labor Day.)

Getting back to this week’s show, in my back-sell of “Vinyl” by Euge Groove, I referenced an (original) Animaniacs segment called “Please Please Please Get a Life Foundation” (from episode 73):

Online pedantry goes back farther than you think.

I’ve since watched the first two seasons of the reboot, which I enjoyed.

This show’s second segment was the hardest to record, compounded by my new habit of zooming in the waveform to see mouth clicks I can edit out. If every song fades out and you’re light on information, the last resort is to do the talk breaks at a slow pace. I recorded the third talk break slow, but there was still too much left, so I had to redo the second. The third segments of each hour required careful editing of their second talk breaks to avoid running over. It was in the last segment that I realized it makes more sense looking for mouth clicks in a talk break after editing out flubs, but I’ve since reverted to the old way.

It marked the second time I paired songs by Wes Montgomery and Earl Klugh, coincidentally recorded the week of the show with the first time. The inclusion of “Midnight Madness” by Skinny Hightower after “Midnight Sun (Extended Version)” by Darren Rahn was serendipity. The first segment of hour two needed a song around 3:45 and I came across “Midnight Madness.” Then, I noticed it had vinyl record crackling just like “Vinyl”; two callbacks in one.

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below: