KLAY covers Freedom Fair for South Sound listeners


Bill Ogden and Mike Franco hosted 3 hours of interviews and an overview of the events happening during the 4th of July Freedom Fair. The weather was overcast, rain threatened to fall, but the blue sky broke through early in the Airshow portion of the day. Pictured, Bob McCluskey-General Manager/KLAY, your humble blogmaster, guest host-Bill Ogden, and Mike Franco-Owner & Managing Partner of KLAY.

[Bill Ogden has a better radio voice than his face belies. Nice strand of beads given to Bill from unnamed fair-goer. Rumors that Ogden later lifted his shirt several times during the afternoon in an attempt to get more beads remain unconfirmed.] The three-hour run-up to the airshow portion of the day’s festivities was a most entertaining treat for the ears. The best one-liners were from Mike Franco and one of the guest interviewees, a vendor at the event. Bill Ogden lent his talent for interviewing, putting guests at ease and giving listeners one of the best live remote broadcasts a local station could present. No dead air, awkward pauses, or dull moments. Bob MCluskey deserves huge credit for lining up and scheduling interviews.

Kudos to Technical Wiz [that is what it says on his business card I am told] John Burton. The broadcast quality of the event was top shelf, at both the KLAY booth and on the Les Davis Pier for the airshow. KLAY remained at the Freedom Fair late into the evening for the presentation of music synced to the “HISSSSSSSS”, “POP!!” and “KA-BOOOOOM!” of all the evening’s fireworks show. This was the radio version of a great Tacoma tradition. Let’s hope the live, local remote broadcast remains a tradition for KLAY.



1 thought on “KLAY covers Freedom Fair for South Sound listeners

  1. mikec says:
    July 5, 2016 3:57 pm at
    the current state of Internet technology makes it very cheap ‘n’ easy to do live remotes with good quality & mostly glitch-free. Small, legal “Part 15” FM transmitters can extend the range if need be owing to difficult or sketchy access to required wi-fi or modem access. IP-based audio streaming is getting more reliable, easier to set up & use, & cheaper all the time. Live remotes are an important connection & interaction with one’s listeners & reinforce the idea that a radio station isn’t just some hard-drive spitting out music, ads & VT

    pugetsound says:
    July 5, 2016 7:35 pm at
    All good points. Today’s tech beats the marti and phone connections we used to have to set up.

    AudioJohn says:
    July 11, 2016 11:22 am at
    Also have to thank Mick Daugherty for running the board back at KLAY, otherwise the remote couldn’t have happened. I would have snapped more pics, but used my phone as a hot spot to get the signal back to the station. As for the tech to make it happened, I had my four channel Behringer mixer connected to my laptop which shot back to the station with Skype. Rock solid connection for my wireless connection through my phone this year, so I didn’t want to jinx that by taking more pics.

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