(New: Talking To Animals Podcast. You can also download Simple Radio app and hear the WBTN that way)

Thomas Toscano, a lifelong composer and conductor,  a Toscanini look-alike, and now Executive Director of WBTN, was stunned.

Toscano, who has devoted his life to music, is now devoting much of his life to keeping this tiny community radio station afloat and growing again. I think he will do it. There is something undeterrable about him, and he is now doing 22 hours of live radio every week.

An  hour into our show”Talking To Animals,” we got a call from Antonella in  Trieste, Italy, she had a question about her dogs not getting along too well.

Fortunately, Thomas speaks Italian and welcomed her and translated her question. We were both tickled, but Thomas was thrilled. “This is our first international call ever,” he said.

Antonella, a reader my blog, was lucky to get through. I gather most people couldn’t.

Show biz is like that, as Ethel Merman once sang.

One week nobody calls, the next week, nobody can get in. My inbox is flooded with messages tonight from good people who tried to get through but got busy signals. I’m sorry for that, I hope they don’t give up.

The stations equipment is as old as I am, and there is no “holding” for waiting callers, as is usually the case for call-in radio broadcasts. If  one person is on the line, there is a busy signal. Sorry for that, but the truth is, the station doesn’t usually get a lot of phone calls, they are working on that.

I’ve been on a lot of radio stations and talked into a lot of microphones, but never one I had to practically put the mike into my mouth to be heard.

Being on community radio is a romp, a test of ingenuity and humility.

There is a lot of drama going on behind the scenes – theme music that won’t stop – phone lines that mysteriously freeze, dozens of buttons that only Thomas can safely push, wobbly equipment struggles.

Outside, in the “lobby”, which is two ratty old sofas and a table, the boxes from Amazon were stacked up. Thanks for supporting the WBTN Amazon Wish List,  you cleaned this one out in a couple of hours.

We had a blast today, this show was almost everything I hoped it might be.

It was just what I had been dreaming about – a show about dogs and pets and other animals  for real animal lovers  that is thoughtful and civil and compelling. I had the greatest callers, Susan from Virginia, Lee from Lexington, Barbara from California, Antonella from Trieste, Anne from Maryland, and more stacked up and waiting.

Wow.

The calls were impressive and challenging, they offered me the great gift of thoughtfulness, experience and openness, just what I hoped for, and what is so often missing in our media.

The questions were stimulating, interesting. I’m getting some lovely responses to the show, which is not always simple for people to hear or call (I thank all of you who did and hope the others will try again – 866 406-9286, or for people who live in the radio signal area, 802 406-9286.

Today, Thomas told me the station had set up a podcast for people who couldn’t hear it live or stream it: go to WBTNAM.US, scroll down, pick a feed,  click on the date (10/24) to hear it. This podcast will be updated every week, You can also go to the Apple App Store and download Single Radio or any radio app and hear WBTN that way.)

I managed to get to a few of the many e-mails I’m receiving from people all over the country offering their questions. I am enjoying them, they are compelling and valuable.

I will get to all of them in time.

We talked about the worldview of animals, stopping marking, where dogs go after they die, calming dogs down, make sure new encounters are peaceful. Next week I’m going to talk more about the idea of stewardship.

So I don’t know why there were so many calls, but I’m grateful, we are beginning to build a real animal call-in show, today was a real conversation about animals, and I see that I have been hungry for that.

I love working with Thomas Toscano, he is bright and interesting. The station is surreal, a far cry from the fancy studios I used to encounter all over the country on my book tours. But that is also the charm and comfort of it. No snooty people there.

 

Thomas and I were all alone during the two-hour broadcast, there was no receptionist, intern, engineer or producer. Thomas is all of those things. A hundred things went wrong, Thomas patched all of them up. I hope you will stick with us, we are not only supporting animals, but the critically important notion of community radio, our voices, not their voices only.

Please continue to send me your questions: [email protected]. If you can, please stream the broadcast next week: Wednesday, one p.m. to 3 p.m. WBTNAM.0rg.

Also please check out my new Friday talking to animals column on my blog, these are some of the questions I couldn’t get to on the air but want to talk about. Some are just too good not to talk about now.

I am so grateful for this opportunity, I don’t really know why I waited so long. Thomas and his station appeared at the right time, I guess, these things are mystifying for me.

Thanks for supporting this somewhat mad venture, the odds against us are long, but I have a lot of hope. So far, so good. Sometimes, faith can make things happen when all else fails.