Topic: Coast May Need A Woman's Touch?

[11angeleyes11]

Well, I am not sexist at all.  I just like a good host, but what we have here is a stable of male hosts.  My thinking is that there has not been a woman's voice associated with Coast since Rolleye James departed.  Then, years ago there was Barbara Simpson.  I like to hear a diverse mingling of opinions and style.  With the current line-up that is not available.
 
I am not seeking replacement of any of the current hosts.  I just see a gap.  I really don't even know who to recommend as I start the thread, but I was just curious as to how other listeners felt about this and who they would recommend.  That person, whoever it may be, could be a fill-in host, when there is no one else.  For instance, Ian is doing a set of three shows, and it makes you wonder if he is up to the task.  There may not have been anyone else to fill the slot. 

[mikemcc]

I don't have any suggestions for women hosts, but I agree with you. I thought Barbara Simpson was very good and Rolleye James was excellent. She was maybe a step behind Art, but then again, for me, *everyone* is a step behind Art. Rolleye was always engaged in a true conversation and she brought out the best from her guests. She was intelligent in the same way that Ian is intelligent and I wish she had gotten the show instead of George. I was never sure why she left -- I may have missed something -- so I don't know if it was because she had other opportunities or if the powers that be let her go. In any case, I wish she was still there.

[11angeleyes11]

After I made my post, it came to me the natural choice for a women's contribution would be Linda Moulton Howe.  I don't know if she would be interested or not, but she could do her segments or even that and an interview.  She could be a relief host at the minimum.  Again, I am not attemping to usurp George, just introducing some divesity into the mix. 
 
You know it is rare, that they even have a nite to fill, but it did happen a week or two ago.  The schedule said George was going to take off, then Ian was supposed to fill in and then George was back on the schedule.  It is sort of like any sport, you need a deep relief bench, and with the conmitments of the other guest hosts, you may need someone as a backup if someone needs a nite off. 
 
 

[punkinpie]

I didn't realize Rolleye James departed.  I just realized how long its been since we've heard her. 

A female host might be nice from time to time. 

[Michael Vandeven]

my two favorite fill in hosts, coincidentally enough, were barbara simpson and rollye james.  a lot of people slammed barbara simpson, and i never understood that.  i also am baffled by the fact that the network let barbara go and we never heard another peep from or about her.  kinda lame, if you ask me.


rollye james is someone i have a lot of respect for.  she's very well read, has the best memory of nearly any human i've encountered, and is a true radio-type.  in other words, unlike george, her placement in radio isn't merely incidental.  however, you'll never hear her on coast to coast am again.  for more details as to why, i submit an oldie but a goodie:  an email sent to a friend of mine by rollye and forwarded to me...



Many apologies for not seeing this sooner-- still recovering from the flu/pneumonia.

I will hold you to your word about not sharing my thoughts-- or at the very least not sharing them unless you run across attribution that doesn't lead back to me.  Too many people inside the industry would know from whence most of this comes.  Not sure how much you know about the inner workings of radio, so if I expound of points obvious to you, forgive me.

Randy Michaels at Jacor wanted a syndication division,  He ultimately bought Premiere, and then in 1998 bought Coast to Coast.    I laughed at the press release with Randy saying he'd been a long time fan of the show.  Randy in 1997 had never heard the show--  I know because we were on the phone while I was driving to LA listening to Art while I was on I-10 in Arizona.   I was telling Randy about "Mel's Hole".  He got excited and said 'let's go find it!'  I had to assure him it was nowhere to be found, this being an Art Bell caller.   He confided that while he'd certainly heard of the show, he'd never actually heard it for himself.

So Randy bought the show and put it under the Premiere banner.  I doubt Premiere had a clue about how the show made money.  Let me digress further and say that when Herb Jepko's wildly successful overnight show, "The Nitecaps" was bought by Mutual in 1976; the deal was that Herb would pay the landline cost of transmission from Salt Lake City to the network's DC headquarters and pay the salary of an hourly newsman.  Mutual, for it's part would clear stations and sell time.    Herb was grossing over $2 million before this deal. Within 18 months he was bankrupt.   

Networks sell on a CPM model (cost per thousand listeners) but head count is only viable in the day. Many national advertisers don't want night time inventory for any reason (let alone overnight inventory) and those that do which pay on a CPM basis are paying a fraction of what a daytime spot would cost.  (When hosts spout off ratings, they are talking Shares-- percentage of people listening to the radio while they are on who are listening to them-- so as you can see, a 10 share in morning drive will produce exponentially more listeners than a 10 share at 2 a.m-- many more people listening to the radio at 7 am then the middle of the night.  Hence  advertisers don't care about shares-- they want to know about many Persons they reach.  Further, when hosts spout of numbers of listeners, like millions-- they are talking Cumes-- the cumulative total of people who are listening during a week, as opposed to Average Quarter Hour which is roughly the number of people listening at any given time-- a number exponentially lower than the Cume.   National advertisers buy on Average Quarter Hour Persons because they want to know how many people are available at the minute their message is airing, and AQH Persons is the closest they'll come to assessment,  assuming there's any validity to this rating scheme but I won't belabor that. Nor will I get into demographics, another big factor.)   Mutual using the standard network model of selling time based on CPM produced very little revenue for Herb.

So how did Herb make that $2 million?  On direct response-- concentrating on advertisers who could measure results.  He targeted companies who he believed would be of interest to his audience and when he produced enough revenue to make it worthwhile for them to continue advertising, they did so.  Icy Hot can thank Herb Jepko for their start.  Apart from ads, he had conventions, did tours ('the all riding no walking tour of Hawaii' was my favorite), and had a monthly newsletter "The Wick" and was cleaning up until Mutual came along.  He died a drunk.

Art was a fan of The Nitecaps (it's why he has so many phone numbers for different regions of the country-- that was a Jepko bit I also won't belabor), but he either didn't know the inside story or didn't understand what he was getting into  with the sale to Jacor/Premiere.  The deal couldn't have happened without Art's approval.  I cringed when he put out a press release saying the new owners gave him total programming control.  I was yelling at the radio saying, 'Dope, you need SALES control.'   TRN (Talk Radio Network, which at that point had no other product) understood direct response and they were doing a good job at selling the show.  They took the $9 million they were offered because they realized Art could walk if they didn't.  Bad blood still exists, though TRN has done very well with Savage, Ingraham, et al.  (Let me also say that Direct Response is often these days what PI spots are called-- but PI-- Per Inquiry spots pay radio and television stations or networks based upon the number of responses which is a gamble. I 'm referring to Direct Response advertisers that pay a set rate for spot schedule.)

First thing Premiere does when they got the show was to inform stations they'd be requiring two units of daytime inventory a day in order for them to carry the show.  (This was not an uncommon request back in the days of wired nets.)   The stations, almost en masse, informed them, they could go to hell.   What Premiere was trying to do was to fit Coast to Coast into their CPM model... they knew they couldn't sell overnight CPM and had no idea how to sell Direct Response, and wouldn't want to expend the effort anyway as their mode of operations was so different.   When that failed, they had a problem on their hands.  But not immediately-- a lot of the Direct Response advertisers were loyal to the show, so revenue they didn't solicit continued to come in.

A year or so later, Jacor was bought by Clear Channel. This was actually good for Coast to Coast in the long run financially because Clear Channel could force the stations it owned that were talk formatted to run the show-- and force them to carry that daytime inventory.  Problem solved.   Further, as time progressed, it became the norm of all current syndicators to force clearance of shows that stations might not want in exchange for shows they did want.  --Want Rush Limbaugh in the day? Gotta run Dr. Dean Edell (for many years).  In short order, Rush was so successful they were able to charge cash for the show (only one able to do that currently) in addition to the standard barter arrangement where stations run network spots within the show.  Down the road Premiere was additionally able to force other product on affiliates who wanted Rush.   I can name some eye popping non CC owned call letters (not many but in one case. a huge market) that were told if you want Rush, you'll also carry Coast to Coast, or we'll give Rush to your competition who will carry Coast.    (Today that hijacking scenario is so common among syndicators that it explains how some obviously secondary product winds up on primary radio stations.)  With Coast it's not the norm as there's little competition and many of the affiliates are already owned by Clear Channel, but it's happened.

So what we're seeing happen in his scenario is that the revenue Coast brings comes more from outside the show.  Secondarily there's a small stream from things like the newsletter, streamlink, and amazon products (i.e. the bumpers) on the site.  Nevertheless, the hope is always that the revenue inside the show will be sizable. I doubt Art was thrilled with some of the sponsors they began to amass.  I'm going to skip over his leaving the first time, and the choice of Mike Siegal-- that's another soap opera.  (Let me cut to the chase and say it worked out well for Art--  when he left the first time, the contractual restrictions on him were so severe that I joked he couldn't even appear in a public restroom.  When he came back after Siegel, he made sure those restrictions wouldn't continue to exist should he leave again.)

BUT..  by the time Art left again, I strongly suspect the choice of George (made unilaterally by Kraig Kitchin at Premiere) was based solely on his malleable nature. In George they have everything they want, if their goal is to have someone so grateful for their job that they'll never complain.  He is and he won't.

Who else would read a commercial for The Psychic Pill?!   I'm sure you can point out many examples. 

The downside of possible losing stations is a non factor-- consider the previous info and add that there is no real competition and likely will not be in radio's current incarnation.    The downside side of losing listeners, is virtually unnoticed:

Ego ratings will continue to look great.  The way ratings are currently taken, news/talk stations are favored during late night periods (boring reasons I'll spare you).   Since Coast has no viable competition, it continues to have great ratings.  But remember, those ratings hosts love to cite are Shares-- the percentage of people listening to any station that are listening to them.  If people turn off the radio, it doesn't affect Shares.   It also doesn't affect Share when people listen to non-commercial stations, such as public radio (because ratings are used for sales purposes, they don't factor stations that can't sell-  you can find them if you know how to look, but the publicly stated data doesn't factor them).   

This is actually a not uncommon radio dillemma. I've always said if you don't know why you're winning, you won't know when you lose or what to do about it when you finally do.  Ratings lag performance, and in very successful products. by years.  For instance when I was programming a station in 1979 in Los Angeles, KABC was #1.  I said at the time they were already slipping-- I could feel it. (I was not a direct competitor, I was PD of a music station.)   In 1982, KIIS, a top 40 station became an 'overnight' #1--  overnight my foot.  KABC was probably not in the top 5 in reality by 1980.   The inverse is true too.  By 1987 I knew KFI was gaining great traction, but it wasn't until the '90s that it dominated any demo.

Now that you've waded through all that, you get to the reality--   over the past several years the show has become virtually unlistenable to the bright, hip crowd that Art fostered.  Some have left entirely, some listen with less enthusiasm because there's nothing else.  They're replaced with the brain dead-- those who think George is the ultimate host. (Believe me,they're there-- they complain when anyone exhibits personality, or interjects a comment. And they're cruel.  I can figure out why George Knapp wouldn't want to see Fast Blast.  Unless you've been doing this for decades and nothing bothers you, most of it will shake anyone up.  I found it funny though sad and telling at the same time.)

The behind the scenes people working on the show are emboldened because they're working with George who likely has no say or control over anything-- and theyr'e able to lord over most weekend hosts who are either inexperienced or totally new to radio. They've got producers telling hosts what to do.  (This is completely backward it the real radio world-- producers work for hosts, not the other way around.)  And all have consumed the kool-aid that this is a terrific show with a wonderful living heritage on which they self-righteously expound at the drop of a dime.  It's the blind with an attitude leading the brain dead without a clue.  I strongly doubt anyone in the equation has enough radio savvy to remotely understand that their indicators of success belie the truth, let alone enough insight to know what makes good radio.

I snobbishly say a host better learn how to play records before they play the talk hits--  Art did. Rush did.  Rush's success came not from his politics.  It was phrases like 'feminazi' not what he thought of feminists.  He, in his build up days, was truly an entertainer.   Art had a good deal of that too.  And when he stumbled upon the paranormal genre, it was perfect (actually not a lot different from what Long John Nebel was doing in the '40s and  '50s in New York). 

I suspect unless there is a major change, Coast will continue to devolve with no one there aware.  I also suspect unless there are major changes in radio, there will be nothing that immediately threatens them.  The losers are the listeners, at least those who are not drooling.    The move toward 'conspiracy', to my programming ears, is catastrophic, but the staff embraces it.  True conspiracy fans are so beyond George's questions that it defies elaboration, and those that don't know much about it are less likely to be interested in it.   Producers (I worked with Lisa Lyons and did not enjoy the experience)  also shun many of the paranormal avenues worth exploring.

So why did I ever agree to do the show again?  In small part because I didn't realize how much it had devolved, since i rarely have a chance to listen to it, and in major part because a wonderful friend at Clear Channel corporate asked me to do it because it was his opinion that there was no one on the show with a real radio background.  So I did for awhile.   But it really was a drain, and increasingly I saw no upside given all the above.  On an emotional level, it hurts me to the core that this venue has over 500 stations and programming is either an afterthought or the product of people without the necessary knowledge to make it work.  Probably some of both-- but the combination of expedience and ignorance is likely a symptom of radio today which is why I'm so blessed to be able to do my show on my terms and actually profit from it.  I keep that in mind each time I grouse about having to be responsible for every facet from engineering to sales, but in the end, it's the only way I could possible survive.  Too old and too impatient to actually be in a radio station or syndicator these days.

Well [removed], I'm sure that's more than you wanted to know and more than I should have written. Again I'm trusting you to not make it public.   

I'm at a horrible stage where I'm really no longer to answer most of the emails (I guess I should be glad because it means people listen, but it really does bother me I can't physically answer them all and still do anything.)  I'm still sick and have been lying in bed today, hence the luxury of a response I'll probably never be able to give again any time soon.   Plus it got me to further delay a bunch of projects I'd probably rather not do

I'm thinking I might have to act like a parent and limit my net use to two hours a day, or something.  I can't imagine how you spend all the time you do online.

Great to have you listening to my show.  I hope you'll call some night!

Rollye

[EvZe]

I called Rollye James' XM show about a year ago and won a t-shirt!

[punkinpie]

Oh, Hey MV!

I've read that before and found it very interesting, but I didn't realize that it came from Rolleye!  She was good on the show.

I just looked at her website.  Her voice doesn't match the picture.  She's so much younger and prettier than I pictured her to be.  Not that she has an old lady voice or anything, it just wasn't the mental image that I got from listening to her. 

[Michael Vandeven]

I called Rollye James' XM show about a year ago and won a t-shirt!

haha, i, too, have called in on rollye's friday trivia show and walked away a winner.  she sent me a packet with 45RPM records and stuff.  pretty cool.  the winning trivia question:  who sang the 1973 hit "keep on truckin'?"  i'm thirty now, and i believe at the time i called i was probably 27... and live on the air...  i answered, "eddie kendricks, and there's no reason i should know the answer to this question.  i am a complete loser."  haha.  classic.  sometimes i get a kick out of me.

[EvZe]

I called Rollye James' XM show about a year ago and won a t-shirt!

haha, i, too, have called in on rollye's friday trivia show and walked away a winner.  she sent me a packet with 45RPM records and stuff.  pretty cool.  the winning trivia question:  who sang the 1973 hit "keep on truckin'?"  i'm thirty now, and i believe at the time i called i was probably 27... and live on the air...  i answered, "eddie kendricks, and there's no reason i should know the answer to this question.  i am a complete loser."  haha.  classic.  sometimes i get a kick out of me.

Nice! I had to google the answer to mine ... I admitted that to her, but she was non-plussed and I still got a vintage radio t-shirt!

[guildnavigator]

This thread makes me wonder just how much indirect influence Ramona held on the show during the classic period.

Some of the great bumper music that helped to create atmosphere: ABBA, Black Velvet, etc... those are all "girl songs"

What with the broadcast originating from their home, I'm sure that her sensibilities were incorporated to some extent as a matter of course. I know that she loved the station that they ran together. Very different from the situation with the show now.

Back then you could hear it in Art's voice every night: someone who loved radio and made a damn entertaining affair out of the whole thing.

well I hope we get to hear his broadcast on ufo's later this month...

[11angeleyes11]

This thread makes me wonder just how much indirect influence Ramona held on the show during the classic period.

Some of the great bumper music that helped to create atmosphere: ABBA, Black Velvet, etc... those are all "girl songs"

What with the broadcast originating from their home, I'm sure that her sensibilities were incorporated to some extent as a matter of course. I know that she loved the station that they ran together. Very different from the situation with the show now.

Back then you could hear it in Art's voice every night: someone who loved radio and made a damn entertaining affair out of the whole thing.

well I hope we get to hear his broadcast on ufo's later this month...

Wow! Your post opened a new perspective for me.  When I started the thread, it was simply to suggest that maybe Coast needed to add a female guest hostess.  Now, I think you have made a possible connection.
 
How about "Year of the Cat"?  I love that one and always think of Art, but is that also a girl's song?
 
The perspective that I am addressing is the loss of Romona and the change in Art and the show.  He and Ramona created it.  I think that is something that is lost when we say we wish we had Art back.  You may have Art, but could it be that without that subtle interchange between he and Ramona that Art would not be as he was?  You cannot recreate something that is not possible.
 
Sure, Art is a master host, but that nitely intimacy is lacking?  I don't know.  When Art hosted from the High Dessert, he was totally into it and that was an undertone that ran throughout the show. He attempts to create it in Manilla, but it is like a note that may be just slightly offkey to the trained musical ear.
 
As for the woman's touch now.  Well, you have Lisa Lyon, who as I understand has been with the show from almost day one, but as I understand she is not involved in the day-to-day produciton of the show.  It is a man thing normally. 
 
No, it just made me think that Ramona's influence on the show just ran much deeper than anyone on any of the forums realize when they want Art back.  It was not simply Art that made the show, it was an interdimensional affect. 
 
George might consider getting a studio cat, or at least add a few more cave crickets to the background mix.  Make sure they are of the female gender.

[Michael Vandeven]

i hadn't considered the ramona connection, here.  in retrospect, it's perhaps the most relevant observation made thus far on this topic.  i know for a fact that ramona had a huge impact on the show in those classic days. 


think about your own business or professional pursuits and how your spouse affects those.  if you have a healthy relationship, you typically don't do things alone.  your spouse does those things with you, particularly when they are on the level of hosting a nationally syndicated radio show from your home in the high desert during the wee hours. 


in my life, an example i can cite is the expansion of my business with the recent opening of a new office.  nabila was with me every step of the way helping to make decisions, generate ideas, and guide the progression of things.  i couldn't have done it without her.  we really are inseparable.  i suspect things were no different between art and ramona.


to provide specifics, i do know ramona was a filter for prospective guests either on occasion or regularly.  i recall reading a transcript of a pre-interview she did with a prospective guest in which she asked this goofy guy some questions, conversed for a few moments, and then informed him, bluntly, that he would not be appearing on the show.  it was one heck of a read.  i believe the conversation was transcribed by the failed guest.  that is one among many examples of ramona's involvement, be it direct or otherwise.  after all, she and art met while working at a radio station.  radio broadcasting was not new to her.


guildnavigator... great observation.

[mylesstam]

There is no doubt that Ramona was a huge part of Coast to Coast. From here being into witchcraft as spoken during the Paglini interviews to just being a supportive wife to Art Bell. There is no way Art could have pulled off 4 and 5 hour shows every night without the help of someone who was also very invested in the program. I can only project out how different it is for Art to do the show without Ramona and maybe even the memories of those happy times are relived.

[Michael Vandeven]

you mentioned "happy times."


does anyone else get a vibe from art when he's on these days... a vibe that suggests he's not very happy in his life as it currently is?

[guildnavigator]

he used to collect so much around him and yet he was so isolated.

now it's really just hard to paint a picture of what's going on...

[M. Knight]

you mentioned "happy times."


does anyone else get a vibe from art when he's on these days... a vibe that suggests he's not very happy in his life as it currently is?

 
Yes.  Despite living with his wife and children, he is out of his element.
 
 

[anomalies]

I'd do it, but I lose my voice often, so am not a good pick.   

[Michael Vandeven]

I'd do it, but I lose my voice often, so am not a good pick.   

i would LOVE to host that show for one night.  i'd show all of those noory fans how a complete nobody who does an irrelevant podcast from his extra bedroom is 10x the host.  if only...

[M. Knight]

I'd do it, but I lose my voice often, so am not a good pick.   

i would LOVE to host that show for one night.  i'd show all of those noory fans how a complete nobody who does an irrelevant podcast from his extra bedroom is 10x the host.  if only...

... that's better than from a basement in St. Louis.  (by the way, all kidding aside, you would rock as a C2C host from the little I've heard on your podcast.)

[Michael Vandeven]

I'd do it, but I lose my voice often, so am not a good pick.   

i would LOVE to host that show for one night.  i'd show all of those noory fans how a complete nobody who does an irrelevant podcast from his extra bedroom is 10x the host.  if only...

... that's better than from a basement in St. Louis.

HAHA

[anomalies]

I'd do it, but I lose my voice often, so am not a good pick.   

i would LOVE to host that show for one night.  i'd show all of those noory fans how a complete nobody who does an irrelevant podcast from his extra bedroom is 10x the host.  if only...

I bet you would be better than many.  Ha!

I almost had a sportscaster radio gig in high school, but my mom wouldn't let me take it.  I was picked because of a combination of English skills and voice.  (I later became a local singer for a time, but quit that, too, because I didn't want to travel.)

[Michael Vandeven]

I'd do it, but I lose my voice often, so am not a good pick.   

i would LOVE to host that show for one night.  i'd show all of those noory fans how a complete nobody who does an irrelevant podcast from his extra bedroom is 10x the host.  if only...

I bet you would be better than many.  Ha!

I almost had a sportscaster radio gig in high school, but my mom wouldn't let me take it.  I was picked because of a combination of English skills and voice.  (I later became a local singer for a time, but quit that, too, because I didn't want to travel.)

why wouldn't she let you?

[anomalies]

I'd do it, but I lose my voice often, so am not a good pick.   

i would LOVE to host that show for one night.  i'd show all of those noory fans how a complete nobody who does an irrelevant podcast from his extra bedroom is 10x the host.  if only...

I bet you would be better than many.  Ha!

I almost had a sportscaster radio gig in high school, but my mom wouldn't let me take it.  I was picked because of a combination of English skills and voice.  (I later became a local singer for a time, but quit that, too, because I didn't want to travel.)

why wouldn't she let you?

She needed the only car we had for work and she worked varying hours.  I needed to get home from the radio station which was near school but a good 4 miles or so from where we lived.  I also needed the car to go to games.  Later that year (end of my junior year) I won a reconditioned old car, and I immediately got a job.

[Michael Vandeven]

I'd do it, but I lose my voice often, so am not a good pick.   

i would LOVE to host that show for one night.  i'd show all of those noory fans how a complete nobody who does an irrelevant podcast from his extra bedroom is 10x the host.  if only...

I bet you would be better than many.  Ha!

I almost had a sportscaster radio gig in high school, but my mom wouldn't let me take it.  I was picked because of a combination of English skills and voice.  (I later became a local singer for a time, but quit that, too, because I didn't want to travel.)

why wouldn't she let you?

She needed the only car we had for work and she worked varying hours.  I needed to get home from the radio station which was near school but a good 4 miles or so from where we lived.  I also needed the car to go to games.  Later that year (end of my junior year) I won a reconditioned old car, and I immediately got a job.

my dad won a  car once from a radio station.  it was a '95 dodge neon.  what a piece of shit.  first off, the quality of the car its self was just bad.  secondly, the station apparently had owned it for some time, and their staff had driven the piss out of it going around promoting the fact they're giving away a new car.  it had been smoked in, and simply did not feel like a new car by the time he got it.  as a matter of fact, by the time he got the keys, it had over 8,000 miles on it.  no wheels, no ac, no power locks or windows, no cd, no automatic transmission... just garbage.  whatever.

[anomalies]

I'd do it, but I lose my voice often, so am not a good pick.   

i would LOVE to host that show for one night.  i'd show all of those noory fans how a complete nobody who does an irrelevant podcast from his extra bedroom is 10x the host.  if only...

I bet you would be better than many.  Ha!

I almost had a sportscaster radio gig in high school, but my mom wouldn't let me take it.  I was picked because of a combination of English skills and voice.  (I later became a local singer for a time, but quit that, too, because I didn't want to travel.)

why wouldn't she let you?

She needed the only car we had for work and she worked varying hours.  I needed to get home from the radio station which was near school but a good 4 miles or so from where we lived.  I also needed the car to go to games.  Later that year (end of my junior year) I won a reconditioned old car, and I immediately got a job.

my dad won a  car once from a radio station.  it was a '95 dodge neon.  what a piece of shit.  first off, the quality of the car its self was just bad.  secondly, the station apparently had owned it for some time, and their staff had driven the piss out of it going around promoting the fact they're giving away a new car.  it had been smoked in, and simply did not feel like a new car by the time he got it.  as a matter of fact, by the time he got the keys, it had over 8,000 miles on it.  no wheels, no ac, no power locks or windows, no cd, no automatic transmission... just garbage.  whatever.

The reconditioned old car I won?  Shop guys put nails in the tires!  Yeah, that was real funny!  Other than that, though, the car lasted a long time.

[Michael Vandeven]

to provide specifics, i do know ramona was a filter for prospective guests either on occasion or regularly.  i recall reading a transcript of a pre-interview she did with a prospective guest in which she asked this goofy guy some questions, conversed for a few moments, and then informed him, bluntly, that he would not be appearing on the show.  it was one heck of a read.  i believe the conversation was transcribed by the failed guest.  that is one among many examples of ramona's involvement, be it direct or otherwise.  after all, she and art met while working at a radio station.  radio broadcasting was not new to her.

anagrammy just sent me a PM to say she found the transcript referenced above.  how she found it, i'll never know... but kudos.  here it is... scroll about a quarter of the way:
http://www.testament.org/new_testament/t216s2.html

[anagrammy]

I found the legendary Ramona's Transcript still on the net.  This shows you the level of participation and authority Ramona had screening guests and also demonstrates her deft instincts about a lame guest.  She was her own woman, no doubt about it.  In tribute to Ramona, enjoy:

http://www.testament.org/new_testament/t216s2.html

Anagrammy

[Usagi]

They would sign this crank on for a show right away these days.

Loved Ramona.

[SomeVelvetMorning]

Thanks for the link Anagramy!  I distinctly remember one show where Art admitted on-air that Ramona did most of the background work for the shows.  She researched and interviewed potential guests, read the books, and handled scheduling.  Art was the best at on-air interviews but it is the behind the scenes work that makes it all happen.

[YNOT]

Wow.  Sadly, this makes me think it is less likely that Art would come back on the air.  Without the wind of Ramona in his sails, it is probably much less a labor of love, than it is just plain work...

This does put in perspective just how much of a team Ramona and Art were...As a couple and with Coast to Coast.  It's easy to understand the level of devastation Art had at the time...

Who knows, maybe Airyn could learn the trade...

sigh