Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

Tomorrow, Thursday, October 11, from 11 a.m. to noon, we’ll try a test run, a pilot, to see if it makes sense for me to do a one -hour weekly radio show on WBTNAM   called “Talking To Animals.”

I can talk about dogs for hours and hours but I’d love the show to be a conversation, not a lecture, so I hope to get some  questions. There are several easy and free ways to send me questions:

One is to e-mail me, [email protected], in advance of the show, as Cynthia has done. I’ll be happy to read and answer your animal questions on the program.

Another way, if you live within listening range of WBTN is to call 802 442-1010. If you live outside the listening range, as the vast majority of people reading this do, you can call the station and ask me a question by calling 866 406-9286.

In addition, people are asking me if the show will be  podcast, i believe so, but I will have to check.

You can also stream the broadcast by going to WBTNAM.org (1370 AM) on your smartphone, pad or computer,  and just click on “live.” Simple as that.

I want to thank Kathleen for being the first member of the Army Of Good to donate to  WBTN, currently struggling to survive in the Corporate Media Nation.

They were grateful to get your donation.

I also want to thank Cynthia Dobbs for being the first person to e-mail me a question to read on the show: “Would you please discuss what you think are essential commands to teach one’s dog?”

Another question followed shortly: “What do you think is the best  way to get a dog?” That could be an hour right there.

A third asked if there is any data on how many dogs are actually abused in America. There is.

Those are good questions and i’ll answer them on the program tomorrow. E-mail questions are a good way for people to connect with me,  especially if they have to work or be outside of their homes during the broadcast.  Or if they are just shy. You can also stream on a smartphone or tablet.

I first learned of Community Radio on my books tours, I loved their energy and interactivity.

Corporate media does not care to give voice to ordinary people, community radio does. Just watch cable news to see what a horror corporate media has made of our civic life.

So I’m signing up to do something for them and something for me. I’ve always wanted my own radio show, and this is also a very good cause.

I’ll be joined tomorrow by Thomas Lawrence Toscano, who will help me run the studio board and get me through the first trial run. He is the Executive Director of WBTN, and is a warrior for Community Radio.

He is working  day and night to keep WBTN going.

He is from the Bronx (enough said.)

The station is 96.5 on FM, but they don’t have an FM transmitter yet.

I don’t want to just be talking to myself, although I could talk about dogs and animals forever.

So call or e-mail your questions about dogs, cats, donkeys or any other animals. Live stream the show if you  can and wish to. And feel free to live stream. It’s free and simple to do. It just takes one click right here.

And if you want to talk to me or ask a question or propose a topic, just call 866 406-9286. It’s free. So is my e-mail address: [email protected]

And if you like what you hear, please consider sending a donation to WBTM. You can donate right here. I’ve suggested that the station set up an Amazon Wish List to help with their urgent needs.

We can’t buy them the new FM transmitter they need (I don’t think we can) but we can help in many other ways.

They’re working on it.

The leaves turned quickly, just in the last  few days, our big lush green Maple leaves are now an orange yellow, quite beautiful when set against. While I was looking through the lens, I saw the donkeys framed so beautifully, and I switched focus quickly. An image that touched my spirit.

I told Red to “come bye,” that is, run clockwise around the sheep, and was startled to see that he had company. Bud ran the entire outrun right alongside of Red, keeping up with him, looking every bit like a champion herding dog.

Bud moves fast and doesn’t tire, and it is a warm day, the kind of day Boston Terriers aren’t supposed to like. Bud loves being out in the sun. And he loves to run.

Most border collies wouldn’t like that company while they work, Red didn’t mind at all. Bud amazes me more and more each day as he gets comfortable and reveals himself. He is a very good dog for us.

I’m sure Thomas Toscano has a life outside of WTBN, but whenever I go there, I see him, and he is most often alone. He seems to program the entire show, he is Executive Director, the Program Manager, the lead producer, engineer, and visionary.

He is very smart, and he can be very funny and also outraged at the way things work. he talks like a mystic or a prophet.

It is not a simple or peaceful thing to try to save a Community Radio station in the age of Big Media like Fox News and CNN.

Thomas has devoted almost all of his life to it. We sat and talked for more than two hours today, and I found him fascinating, easy to talk to, compelling. He is definitely David up against Goliath.

I shudder to think of all the obstacles standing in his way of saving that little station – government regulations, community apathy, few donors,  no money, hardly any volunteers, savage big-time competition.

We both are a little bit lit up at the idea of creating an animal talk show that might do some good for the station.

But the thing is, Community Radio was created to give voice to the voiceless and the unheard, and it is important, especially in the Corporate Nation. It’s important to me, too.

We are both big boys, Thomas and I,  we have few illusions. The odds of success are long if not impossible, my expectations are very realistic. The station doesn’t yet have the money to buy an FM transmitter, it can only be heard on AM 1370, but it is loud and clear there.

Steve and I are in, we shook hands today on the idea of giving it a go. So my name is up on the big board for Thursday at 11.  And there it was, right up on the “Big Board.”

“Jon Katz – Dogs.”

I’ve dreamed for a long time about my own radio show, and whatever happens, I relish a shot at it. Thomas says if the show works, he will ask me to run the board all by myself, and he also said I might have to bring in enough sponsors to pay the costs.

I am not at all certain right now that I can do either of those things, so I want to see  how it goes. Thursday will give me a sense of it. I’m bringing some of my beloved dog books to read from if necessary, and there are no or few calls.

If you live within range of the station, you can call 802 442-1010. If you live anywhere else in the country you can livestream the show for free, listen to it, and also call in: 866 406-9286. In American, anything that can be streamed is now a national broadcast.

Check it out here.

Audio: Call Me

I was startled to see Maria’s blog post today in which she announced that this weekend’s Open House, our 8th, would be the last Open House, at least the last one on its current form.

I knew she was moving in that direction after this weekend, but I was away most of the day, and I didn’t know how certain she was about it.

I agree completely with her reasoning, although I do feel sad about it.

Each year, the attendance has declined, even as the audiences reading our blogs and buying her art has steadily increased.

Maria wants to take  her ideas about art and creativity online, where so many people are now.

This is the conundrum of our time. It changes.

We are not the kind of people to sit on our hands. We changed every single thing in our lives to move forward, and we are committed to keep moving forward. Nostalgia is a trap for the backward-looking.

And wow, have times changed.

I believe almost everything involving any kind of commerce or connections with people seem to be moving online, including books, and including us. I read all the time that people are spending  more and more time online, and less and less going to see other people.

The irony is that my blog is soaring with traffic and has never been more widely read. That is also true of Maria’s blog.

But the number of people who want to come here to see us and meet us and see our animals and and buy the art of rural artists is diminishing every year. Part of this is about me, I think, I haven’t published a book in a couple of  years and my books drew many people here to see us.

And also, there are our blogs. People can get plenty of us without stepping out of their homes.

The books and my work was never the point of the Open Houses, they were meant to be a celebration of Maria’s art and creativity and encouragement, and the rich art in rural life,  to the end, they were faithful to that.

We are both so grateful to the good people who came to see us, sometimes from  great distances.

So many people found inspiration and encouragement here, we were so touched by their visits and testimonies.

But from this side, it was hard to witness the toll it was taking on Maria.

She had to dismantle her studio weeks ahead of the Open Houses, and it took weeks to put it back together again. In all that time, she couldn’t work and didn’t have the time to make enough art to sell.

It was easier for me, my job was helping prepare and taking the dogs out to herd sheep and hosting donkey visits.

It was financially as well as physically difficult, and we had to spend hundreds of dollars on banners, posters, help and repairs. The Open Houses were not ever really profitable.

Talking yesterday with me, Maria she said had had enough,  she wanted to think of new creative ways to celebrate her work and the art of rural life, ways that didn’t involve exhausting her and shutting down her work. She already met with some of the artists to plan something  different for next year, something smaller.

We don’t wish to measure our lives or art by the numbers of people who come to see us. The small crowd stirred us up, we both felt the idea and time of an event like the Open House had passed.

In my work and Maria’s, we have been on the cutting edge, forward looking and in our minds, quite successful. So Maria has decided- and I agree –  that this Open House was the last of its kind, we will no longer expect or seek to draw large numbers of people here.

I suppose anything that seems familiar can seem humdrum, but I will never forget the faces and stories of people who traveled so far to thank us or meet us or just see us. They are etched in my memory.

And I will miss the sheepherding talks and demos, they were the most fun for me.

We will come up with something that fits into the scale of our lives, and especially Maria’s art, and also of the community of artists she cares so much about. Something that takes better advantage of the many people who follow us every day but who can’t come to our Open Houses.

Perhaps something online.

I enjoyed this Open House, ironically, as much or more than any other. The small crowd worked for me.

Because so few people came, I could actually talk to them. And I loved that.

Change is at the heart of creativity, and if you can’t change, the creative spark goes out. Believe me, we will come up with something new and interesting.

“It’s just time to move on,” Maria said, “it’s not a big deal. We will think of something different to do.”

It is time.

I told Maria Sunday that something felt wrong to me. More than 99 per cent of the people who follow her art couldn’t come, didn’t come and wouldn’t come. The same is true of my blog and book readers.

That doesn’t make sense.

Next year, online or off, we need to build a better and bigger tent, one that doesn’t involve so much disruption in our daily lives, and that lets more people come in and see.