THE RADIO PRODUCER’S ULTIMATE TASK

LEAP OF FAITH RADIO PRODUCTION with Bobby Ocean

Only da bes’.

It’s the names of the other people on my resume. They sure do validate my credentials, almost helping me overlook the fact that they also age me as clearly as the rings on a sliced redwood.

It has been my good fortune, and many times, depending upon, of course, which Program Director we discuss, comedic sit-com through madcap melodrama, to work with the best.

Each era seemed to have spawned it’s army of keen radio minds and leaders. Almost as if to add another exhibit to the “like minds think together” maxim, we seemed to all be drawn together.

I was always a corporal, never a General. I think that’s a contributing reason to my being able to meet so many different examples of the extremely good programming minds while in the thick of it, and these were the best of the best. My ego was in an performer’s arena and didn’t compete with the PDs ego because we wanted to work WITH one another and win.

As a good, always giving 110%, sharpshooter soldier, I always brought up the rear with extra effort in all Image Production. After meeting with the Program Director, Operations Manager, whatever the decision maker in Programming was called, I hopped into my workspace, wrote the Liners, matched up and plotted their music, communicated specific style points to engineers, voiced and/or coached voices, produced them and generally made sure they were airworthy. What a control freak.

This task array wasn’t in my job description, those things were what was necessary to get our boat afloat and its Image Sound up to its best. Also missing were my operation orders as Staff Psychologist, Soul Searcher/Sealer, Interpreter, I-Ching Reader/Question Designer and True Believer. Format needed it, I noticed that and pitched in with it. We all instinctively did what we could.

But all those irregular techniques and tasks fell from one compass heading and fit into one mental folder, created for one process I had developed and regularly practiced, probably best described by the word, “Aligning.”

When allowing my empathy, support and forces to fall in line with someone else –aligning my soul with another’s, man to man, spirit to spirit (‘that beyond identity’ to ‘other referential being’), essence to essence– enormous understanding is possible. Much wisdom flows and is absorbed, questions are answered, love and reverence are deeply, profoundly felt, and blossom, BEing is recognized as both facets of who we are and the language we use, naturally, spontaneously.

We all experience this aligning process, to one degree or another — [“He likes you, I can just TELL about these things,”; “It all sounds great, the numbers back everything, we have budget for this investment, but THERE’S JUST SOMETHING that tells me…”] — without realizing it is a normal process, something that can “be done” by anyone, can even be taught. We haven’t been educated to the degrees and levels we may be steered by different methods and systems, that by aligning, the process becomes more dimensional, thus changing everything, all the time. That’s a lot to find out and we have to do it ourselves.

Sifting through, I might guess the service of most value and effectiveness we in Image Support are able to provide, both for our boss and our listeners, is that of interpreting. To best accomplish this, my experience clucks at me to keep my eye on the course, free from competition, free from desire.

Seems almost beyond notice, doesn’t? Stupid simple, but it was that very freedom that always made it easier for me at comprehending, then clarifying what it was that those great, constantly moving and often troubled minds were trying to put into humble words.