What Do I Have to Do to Lose These Two?

TriumRiverCity.JPGAfter an otherwise pleasant local shopping trip turned sour the other day, I tried again by moving a block north (of 4th Street) and west (across Division Street) to River City Books. Drat it all, they found me again.

Had I only known what I was getting myself into two years ago when Griff first approached Tracy and me to do this community interest podcast show. I didn’t even know what a podcast was, I still don’t own an iPod (still a few shopping days left Mr. Governor), and I was highly skeptical that anyone but a handful of geeks would be interested in hearing from a Planning Commissioner and an EDA Member.

The first few shows were posted on Northfield-dot-Org. The powers-that-were at that site complained that our “click and play” format was slowing things down and they weren’t going to let us use it anymore. Vic Summa was already having trouble understanding my instructions to “just hit the play button” when all he could see was a little triangle pointing to the right, so we were all thinking that requiring a download to an iPod was going to cost us our only listener. Someone, perhaps it was me, suggested that for fifty bucks we could get our own dang website and Locally Grown was “launched”.

Then Griff suggested that a weekly podcast did not a website make and maybe we should each write regular posts. He suggested two per week. Tracy and I fell off our chairs laughing and eventually Griff twisted vague commitments to try to post once a week from the two of us.

At some point, Cameron Nordholm heard about us. He was a Carleton College student at the time, so he understood the term podcast and offered us KRLX’s studios for our recording purposes. We were promptly seduced, journalistically, by KRLX News Director Morgan Weiland and a long and creative partnership was conceived.

Oh, but those indolent college students can only study nine months out of twelve and so in the summer we were reduced to broadcasting from coffeehouses and bars. Not that I’m really complaining. Griff figured that KYMN had studios and why wouldn’t they let us use them. That smooth-talkin’ Jeff Johnson responded with a proposal to actually do a radio show that was part of their weekly format.

It continues to spin out of control. We received a buy-out offer from an emerging media empire but it fell apart when they found out that we were like Factory Records and there was nothing to buy. We’ve had offers of massive foundation grants but are unwilling to fill out the applications or agree to anybody else’s rules. And now we’re hosting a State Senate Candidate Debate.

So help me out here, distract Tracy and Griff so I can live my life in peace. 7 pm tonight at the historic Grand (at the corner of 4th and Washington Streets).

7 Comments

  1. Griff Wigley said:

    GPS collar Ross, 

    Here’s your xmas present from me and Tracy: a GPS collar that alerts us to your downtown whereabouts.

    Globalpetfinder is non-invasive, requires no installation or surgical implantation and does not use electric shock of any kind and is safe and causes no harm to your pet/colleague.

    December 20, 2007
  2. Tracy Davis said:

    Griff, I’ll send you a check for my share today. Since Ross doesn’t have a cell phone (at least not one that we know about), this’ll do just fine.

    December 20, 2007
  3. Gilly Wigley said:

    Ross, I just saw a picture of you from way back when the other day that Athena had uploaded. It was quite amusing. The dangle earing was what topped the whole picture off!

    If this is something you dont want others knowing about, feel free to delet this comment. 🙂

    December 20, 2007
  4. Ross Currier said:

    Oh gosh, don’t let them see any of the ones where I looked like, according to a former employer, “Jesus”. I’d lose my alleged membership in the Republican Running-Dog Lackey Club.

    December 20, 2007
  5. Gilly Wigley said:

    I didn’t see any of those, but that would be funny to see.

    December 20, 2007
  6. Lance Heisler said:

    I have always said it would take three very interesting, diverse, articulate, and talented people to pull this locally grown thing off. I was wrong. The three of you did it!!!!!! Awesome. We are all in your debt.

    December 20, 2007
  7. Griff Wigley said:

    Lance, we don’t deserve you.

    December 20, 2007
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