Post by Travis on Apr 3, 2005 12:07:23 GMT -5
Wow... What a treat to hear Mason's final show from 9/72 again. And this time I got to hear it in its entirety. When the show went beyond 2 AM I had to push myself to bed due to early morning commitments which would arrive all too quickly.
Part 1 begins with my favorite MLD poem known as Harbinger (Mankind Beware). Mason was never happy with the way in which he had pronounced the french word "macabre." He felt that he had put too much emphasis on the "bre" making the word sound as if it had 3 syllables. He had recorded several takes to get the effect he wanted. He got it, but then noticed that "macabre" wasn't right. But, rather than risk recording the lines again, and possibly losing the effect, he chose to let it stand as is.
Also in Part 1, there's a small reference to J.J. Wright over on WKLO, which I thought was pretty cool. And note the balsy station ID. I was once able to imitate that ID perfectly. It was generally used at the bottom of the hour while the Philly Story ID was used at the top. I'm sure it was felt that the Philly Story ID did not sound appropriate going into, or during, the Mason Dixon Line, so the bottom hour ID was used.
This recording also gives us a small taste of the late Jim Miller, who was also known as Mark "the spark" Anderson on WTMT at the time. It was also interesting that Bill Bailey was up at 2:20 AM and took the time to call in. Chances are he had been out bending his elbow (if you know what I mean) and just happened to catch the show. I was on twice and did not realize how down I sounded until hearing these recordings. I had really gotten into Mason's show, his poetry and the Mason Dixon Line and did not want to see him go.
The talk show was not tape delayed that night. Generally, the show was tape delayed by 7 to 11 seconds via a special cartridge which was loaded in the only Spotmaster cart machine in the room. The Spotmaster can be seen in many of the photos that are currently on this site and in some of the images you can actually see the unusually wide cartridge loaded in the machine. The cartridge had an endless loop of tape, which was threaded around a series of wheels & shafts, which created a 7 to 11 second delay between the record head and the playback head. There were generally problems with the cart and Mason would just do the phone portion LIVE as he did that night.
My thanks to Gil Herbig and John Quincy for making it possible to hear this broadcast after all these years. I'll be in Louisville this summer and will pay Mason a visit at the BP. By the way, Mason was 27 when he did that final show. A Capricorn born on Christmas Day in 1944, he is 60 years of age and still in touch via the internet.
Part 1 begins with my favorite MLD poem known as Harbinger (Mankind Beware). Mason was never happy with the way in which he had pronounced the french word "macabre." He felt that he had put too much emphasis on the "bre" making the word sound as if it had 3 syllables. He had recorded several takes to get the effect he wanted. He got it, but then noticed that "macabre" wasn't right. But, rather than risk recording the lines again, and possibly losing the effect, he chose to let it stand as is.
Also in Part 1, there's a small reference to J.J. Wright over on WKLO, which I thought was pretty cool. And note the balsy station ID. I was once able to imitate that ID perfectly. It was generally used at the bottom of the hour while the Philly Story ID was used at the top. I'm sure it was felt that the Philly Story ID did not sound appropriate going into, or during, the Mason Dixon Line, so the bottom hour ID was used.
This recording also gives us a small taste of the late Jim Miller, who was also known as Mark "the spark" Anderson on WTMT at the time. It was also interesting that Bill Bailey was up at 2:20 AM and took the time to call in. Chances are he had been out bending his elbow (if you know what I mean) and just happened to catch the show. I was on twice and did not realize how down I sounded until hearing these recordings. I had really gotten into Mason's show, his poetry and the Mason Dixon Line and did not want to see him go.
The talk show was not tape delayed that night. Generally, the show was tape delayed by 7 to 11 seconds via a special cartridge which was loaded in the only Spotmaster cart machine in the room. The Spotmaster can be seen in many of the photos that are currently on this site and in some of the images you can actually see the unusually wide cartridge loaded in the machine. The cartridge had an endless loop of tape, which was threaded around a series of wheels & shafts, which created a 7 to 11 second delay between the record head and the playback head. There were generally problems with the cart and Mason would just do the phone portion LIVE as he did that night.
My thanks to Gil Herbig and John Quincy for making it possible to hear this broadcast after all these years. I'll be in Louisville this summer and will pay Mason a visit at the BP. By the way, Mason was 27 when he did that final show. A Capricorn born on Christmas Day in 1944, he is 60 years of age and still in touch via the internet.