Saturday, February 03, 2007

Live from Ft. Worth

(Ft. Worth) Less than thirty-minutes before showtime at the Chop House on Main at Second Street, the room is in sensory overload.

Three sound sources assault the senses: we’re connected to the station for bi-directional audio, and that monitor has laid a low-level layer of general noise, including the station’s commercials, jingles, and talk hosts.

Overhead, the restaurant music blends with the cacophony of conversations at tables that are usually vacant this time of the morning at the Chop House.

There are guests for the show, and their families. There are family members of Shivaun Palmer, here to lend their support for the program. And there are people who’ve happened by off the street, stopping in to take advantage of the Chop House opening for lunch on a Saturday.

At two minutes before Noon, Ed Moyer, the on-site producer of the show, re-sets the audio connection with the station, and the crowd’s attention is directed to the broadcast set, at the rear of the dining room. The final three minutes before the broadcast feed begins are the longest 180-seconds for the hosts and guest.

The Mayor Pro-tem for Ft. Worth, Kathleen Hicks, shares her vision for the future of this city of 700-thousand (and growing).

Justin Anderson, a 19-year old Sophomore at TCU, drops by with his home-made moist granola product, Anderson Trail Mix. Anderson is attending TCU on a Horatio Alger Scholarship Award.

The Chop House in Ft. Worth is in the old Plaza Hotel building that was built on this site in 1098, and owned by Winfield Scott. It is long and narrow, as was typical of the construction in that era, with the “guest rooms” on the upper floors, and the bar and saloon on the ground floor.

The present-day bar is in the same place as the original. Obviously, the modern ways of operating a restaurant are far-superior to the technology that was the norm in Ft. Worth at the turn of the last century.

Running a live Radio show from inside a restaurant isn’t the easiest thing to do, but the payoff is great: Good guests, good fun, and good food—and hopefully, some good Radio for you!

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