Since Son Tony's in town, Hubby Tony took a couple of vacation days to spend some time with him. For lunch today, the three of us headed out on an adventure. Every Tuesday a local sports talk show that Hubby Tony listens to broadcasts live from a bar and grill in South St. Louis, and we decided to go. I've seen remote radio broadcasts before, but they've always been music; I was interested to see what a talk show was like.
The place we were headed turned out to be a typical corner bar tucked into an older residential area. I didn't know how many people would be drawn to this broadcast, but parking was easy; Tony found a spot on the street just a block away. As we walked up to the door we saw the radio station van with its huge remote antenna parked next to the building.
The door opened into the dimly-lit bar area. There were a couple of people sitting at tables. One of them greeted us and pointed the way to another room where the broadcast was taking place. The second room was much larger. A variety of bar games lined the room, and there were televisions on every wall, but no one was paying attention to them. Everyone's attention was focused on the table at the front of the room with a jumble of wires cascading down from it. Two people were sitting at the table. One of them was the host of the show, and the other one was the producer.
After we got situated at a table, Son Tony went and got some popcorn from the machine at the back of the room. The waitress was there quickly to give us menus and take our drink order. Instead of ordering our food off the menu, we decided to get some of the "sports specials" which were being offered in the beer garden area. I stayed inside to save the table, and "the Tonys" came back laden with hamburgers, brats, nachos, and chicken wings. Each item came in its own food tray; the table was quite full!
We watched the broadcast while we ate. The content was interesting, but there wasn't much to see. The host didn't spend much time talking with his live audience. After a while we wandered over to the room's two pool tables, which were covered with promotional items, and signed up for some giveaways.
When our bill had been settled, we waited for a commercial break before we got up and left. It just seemed like the respectful thing to do.
It's good that you got to spend time with your hubby and son, too bad the host didn't do a better job and involve those who were there. I'd venture a guess to say that if the host was including guests (customers) that the place would be busier.
ReplyDeletei agree. i've been to those talk shows at bars and there's very little interaction. everything is so scripted now, seems to me. glad you had a good time. food sounds goood:)
ReplyDeleteI've never been to see anything like that. Very interesting. I think the food sounds yummy! Love all that kind of stuff! ha. Thanks for helping me celebrate my birthday today! xo
ReplyDeleteAges ago, I attended a taping of the Jay Leno Show and was SHOCKED at how tiny the theatre was. It looks so big on TV, but it's really small. It's all about the illusion (lighting, camera angles, etc), and I'd imagine radio could be even more sneaky with their sound effects in making the room/audience seem bigger than it really was.
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