When you’re on the air live, mistakes happen. Ken shares some of his and others — some very embarrassing and amusing. Included is how Ken personally pissed off a President of the United States (and it’s not the President he wants to piss off).
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16 comments :
Thanks for a funny (and painful!) episode. I haven't done much broadcasting, but one pre-taped show I did I had to re-cut because my downfall was "Arm & Hammer Oven Cleaner"
I said, "Army Hammer Of a Cleaner. Excuse me...Arm a Hammer OF A Cleaner..."
Which is one of the reasons why I am not included on any of these on-air mistakes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAfu09o4-v4
Almost had my own faux pas listening to your podcast, Ken. I was listening to it while in the waiting room for a Zoom interview for a job and almost forgot to turn off my audio. The people interviewing would have heard your voice when they let me in!
My voice has cost many people jobs. Actually, that's not true. It just cost ME jobs. Good luck on the interview.
Thanks, Ken.
Friday Question
Traditional multi-cam sitcoms play an important role on Netflix. Otherwise the streaming service would not pay the huge licencing fees associated with shows like SEINFELD or FRIENDS. How come Netflix hasn't tried too hard to come up with their own multi-cam sitcoms? They certainly would have the budget to greenlight handful of shows each year.
Ken, could you please share your email address?
I have some thoughts I'd like to share with you privately.
Thanks in advance.
Stern
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Stern#Controversies
Mr Blooper’s bloopers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_Schafer
I'm reminded of the track on Albert Brooks' "A Star is Bought" album that parodied the Kermit Schafer releases. The Brooks track is called "Pardon my boner," and it's a hoot. I still have my copy of "A Star is Bought."
My email address is HollywoodLevine@outlook.com.
Recovering from my Moderna booster, lying in bed feeling down, when I listened to this and laughed aloud scaring the dogs when you said, "...and Elvis is...off the top of the wall." Even writing this out makes me laugh again.
Say, this booster shot reaction ain't so bad after all when laughter happens. Thanks!
Tom Straw might remember this one when I was on the air for him doing nights at KSD in St. Louis. "...and the Cardinals game is over now so watch out for traffic leaving Busch Stadium."
It was an away game.
- Mr. Smooth
Cursing on the air. Brings back such fond memories! Late night guy bantering with me before my overnight shift, don't remember what we were talking about. However, he's responding to me and suddenly I hear a "No shit?' over some comment I made. I paused, thinking "Did I just hear what I thought I heard?" Go to break, and asked him if he just said "shit" on the air. He thought a minute and said "You know what, I did." Since the station had announced they had been sold and a format change was coming earlier in the week, his response was "So what if I did? It's not like they're keeping any of us on after the format change." A couple of days later we were all gone.
Overnight gal at another station I was at and I was listening about 3:30 AM and all of a sudden I hear cursing [about a malfunctioning piece of equipment] that would have caused a sailor to give her a standing ovation. I called the hot line and screamed "Open mic! Open mic! Shut it off!" She basically said "Oh shit! I am so fired" since at the time the late night and overnight people had to tape their shows and the PD or Station Manager would listen to them for "critiquing purposes". Apparently she got lucky as about a minute or so before her meltdown the PD stopped the tape and said he was satisfied.....so she kept her job. Oh, we never received ANY calls from the listeners, if we even had any, [VERY low ratings] over the incidents.
One time I was reading some news copy (Reuters) and I hit the word "hooligan." For some reason that word struck me as hilarious. I totally lost it. My board-op had to cut away to a PSA. I eventually got it together, but it was very embarrassing at the time.
When I first started at that station I was a weekend, overnight board-op playing recorded/syndicated programs. I had just turned on the mic to give the station I.D. when an aftershock to the Northridge earthquake hit. It was a fairly big one. I was in the 12th floor and the building swayed violently. Panels fell from the ceiling and it scared the shit out of me. I may have even uttered an expletive. There were several seconds of dead air because I had jumped up and ran to the door. The phone rang. It was the program director. He was able to calm me down, I got back on the air and business continued as usual.
I admit it was completely unprofessional and extremely embarrassing. But if you had been there...
M.B.
Ken - Fantastic podcast.
Still chuckling...
"You can't lateral a horse!" hahaha good stuff Ken
Kermit Schaefer did indeed make his mark by issuing and reissuing his blooper collections. What he did NOT advertise was that some of them were recreations and some (especially one collection on Kapp) had canned laughter added. If you listen closely, one of the blooper actors is Pat Harrington, Jr., so you can hear "Schneider" cuss!
The YouTube link I referenced was from a collection called, "The Naked Microphone" on Radiola and while some of the bloopers overlap the Schaefer compilations, TNM is all original, no re-recordings and by comparison, not a lot of editing.
The "Kermit Schaefer of the UK", was Jonathan Hewat. He used mostly actual sound clips or he would interview broadcasters about their own "clangers".
When I did volunteer work for the Georgia Radio Reading Service (https://garrs.org/) a fine organization that reads aloud newspapers and novels for those who cannot see, I was working the board for a live reading of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I worked the mics and announced the next program. The AJC readings always end with the comics, and one of the guys thought the funniest strip running was "Judge Parker", which was a comic strip serial that, he felt, took itself SO seriously, he'd do all he could not to crack up laughing at the dialogue. One night, he lost it, and it got to me. I struggled my way through the announcement, but I worked the cough button quite a lot!
Another time, I was reading the AJC with two other fellows and we finally hit the story we probably should have skipped. It was about how the Atlanta Zoo dealt with elephant droppings. We laughed so hard, one of the station heads came over to the booth and asked if we all needed to be taken out back and beaten. She was joking, of course, but we got the message and we apologized.
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