Some weeks ago, my friend and co-worker Luke threw around an email looking for volunteers. They had to be passionate about movies, movie theatres, and be willing to be interviewed for CBC Radio.
Hopefully, I don’t need to say what I did.
About an hour later, my phone rang. It was an outside number, which is a bit of a rarity for me. It was the CBC, specifically a woman by the name of Judy, who was screening me to see if I would be appropriate for interviewing. We talked for a bit, and she decided that I was vocal enough to interview.
Me? Vocal? Never…
After a few aborted attempts to get together for the interview (despite the fact that Judy lives just down the street from me), we finally made arrangements for a lunchtime interview. Of course, this was during the annual Mercedes-Benz USA planning sessions for my account, which (as a manager) I participate in. We get about an hour for lunch. I almost missed meeting up with Judy.
We drove down to Famous Players’ Paramount Chinook, at Chinook Mall. This is one of the premiere theatres in town, and one of the most expensive. Getting out of the CBC van, Judy pulled out her Minidisc recorder, a microphone, and started the show. After a quick run outside, we ventured inside to finish off.
I ranted. The problem is that over the phone, I had ranted much better. But with a microphone thrust in my face, it was a little harder to form coherent sentences. So some of it didn’t come out quite as well as I’d hoped. Ah well, such is the joy if being thrust into the limelight.
The interview lasted about a half hour. At that point, Judy quickly raced around to interview a few more people quickly before taking me back to the office. I got back just in time to get into the afternoon planning session.
Judy told me she’d let me know when it was going to air. Of course, like things always seem to end up, it was “on-again, off-again”. So we were in waiting mode…
This morning, I arrived at work at my usual time, having done my usual Monday morning routine at the gym, read my usual run of comics, and went downstairs to have my usual breakfast (lately, eggs and ham — part of my diet). I ran into Amanda (our Project Director for Mercedes-Benz) as I entered the Bistro. She said: “I heard you on the radio this morning!”
Unusual.
Amanda wasn’t the only one. Several people heard it. Near as I figure, the radio show had been on about 7:45 this morning, catching people on the way into work. As I don’t walk to work with a radio, or listen to CBC at work, I had completely missed it.
So I wrote Judy. She had been a bit surprised by the broadcast herself, but told me that it would be posted on CBC’s website by the end of the morning. Sure enough, true to her word, shortly before lunch there appeared a link entitled “Movie Madness”.
It wasn’t my entire interview, and consisted of only two sections of it. The segment opens with my rant about this giant pharaoh’s head inside the theatre. Until a couple of months ago, it used to be part of a “show”, which included flamethrowers (no, I’m not kidding), lights, and “Egyptian” music. The “highlight” of this show was when the pharaoh’s head split open, and laser beams fired out into the cavernous lobby. I hate that thing.
The second part was how I’d like to see ticket prices drop. You might remember part of that rant from another entry. The segment then goes on to talk about how the smaller independant theatres will continue to succeed because of how they cater to their clientele.
So if you want to listen to this story, just point your browser to the segment on CBC’s site. It’s RealAudio. Not my favourite format in any way. Actually, I rather dislike it. Especially since Real Networks went to a pay-only player. What’s with that? If you don’t already have Real Player, you can download a free one.
So tune in, and find out how your tax dollars are being put to putting me over the Canadian airwaves again!
