We tried to do a few new things this time, some things worked and some things didn’t. Believe me, we learned a lot from the experiments we tried, and this will just make subsequent Weird Medicine shows that much better.
First we hit O&A…prostate exams all around, but the most important being the physical exam of Tippy Tom. There was a lot of stuff going on in the background, we’d made arrangements to get Tom medical care at a local community health center; he was very interested in getting a partial exam done on the air. I explained to him that I was nothing more than a “concerned friend” with a medical degree, but he wanted to get checked out. Tom cinched “line of the day” on the air…if you haven’t heard it, it was classic.
Tom has subsequently decided not to pursue further medical workup but I’ve asked Keith the Cop to keep an eye on him and try to get him to go the second he shows signs of changing his mind. While he was on the air, he decided to see what it would be like to sit in a “fancy man’s” seat and play with his toys.
Ant was thrilled, of course. Meeting “Big A” was a thrill, as well, though I always seem to get to know these people a bit more intimately than I’d really like, if you catch my drift.
Ron and Fez were in rare form that day; we had a front row seat at an “Earl Chokes Dave” event, a Big A vs Fez “SNAP!” competition, and a visit by the legendary GrandMaster Flash and comedian Doug Benson.
Our Third Show (aptly named our “Turd Show”) was a lot more fun for us to do, though I’m not 100% sure it was more fun for the audience. It was a show of firsts…I did my first “Celebrity Interview”, my first “Phoner”, and we had our first sort-of “debate”, and we had our first comic and third (and fourth) mic. I thought PA Jill was a great addition to the show, but she’s kind of “eh, it’s ok” about being on the radio (probably why she sounds so good on the air). Pat from Moonachie was scheduled to be on during the Dr Z segment, but we liked him so much we had him on the whole show. PA John invited comedian Mark Riojas to the show and we slotted him in during FM Jeff’s segment on health care. Mark, by the way, is a very nice guy and is very funny on stage. We didn’t give him much of a forum to be funny on a show about the problems with healthcare in America, so check him out at http://www.myspace.com/markriojas.
One thing I figured out this show was that comedy and medicine don’t always mix. When someone is calling in about blood coming out of some part of the body where blood is not supposed to come out of, the last thing they want to hear is quips about their prognosis from some funnyman. On the other hand, I think having someone funny in the studio can be a big help during the lighter parts of the show…topic segments and phone interviews. This is something we’ll be working on in months to come.
Weird Medicine is constantly evolving…at least it will be as long as we’re footing the bill and there’s no money coming in from it. Yes, we do it for free…XM pays for us to have a bottle of water during the show and pays for satellite time and Danny Ross to produce (which is a lot, I’m not complaining), but PA John and I pay for everything else. Once we have a sponsor, or we have a regular paid gig, then someone will tell us “this is how it’s going to be”, but until then we reserve the right to play with the format until we think it’s perfect.
Speaking of money, this little adventure of ours is very expensive; if you want to support our corner of wild-west free-wheeling radio experimentation, feel free to sign up for our “premium” section (https://www.doctorsteve.com/forum). You get pretty much nothing for it, but every penny will go to defraying the cost of travelling to NYC once a quarter to do the show. You don’t have to, of course. We’re ok without it, but if you want to…
Our listeners are why we do this; we’ve gotten such great response to the show. Thank each and every one of you for your support.
The next Weird Medicine is scheduled for October 18th. We’ll get the Weird Medicine Addendum podcast up within a week. It’ll be a long one…we’ve been overwhelmed with emails this time.
Also, I’ll try to post some information on Health Care in America and some possible solutions to the problem; I really enjoyed the segment with FM Jeff and I think we just barely scratched the surface before we had to break. We’ll have him on again to discuss this stuff just before the election in October. Look for a post on Health Care Savings Plans in the next week or so.
yr obt svt,
Steve
