If You Tape It They Will Come — Part II
Imagine seeing your favorite band in an intimate, 400-seat venue where the worst seat in the house is 25 feet from the stage. Imagine the show starts and ends on time, and the artists will show the offstage side of their personality. Then imagine the venue is acoustically perfect. Add free parking and it sounds too good to be true.
But that’s what the folks in the audience of the public TV show “Soundstage” experience each time a live concert is taped at WTTW-Channel 11’s Grainger Studio on the Northwest side.
“You never hear the artist sound the way they do when they’re here,” says “Soundstage” executive producer Nicolette Ferri. “It’s an absolutely magical experience, because you’re seeing the artist in an intimate setting. And because it’s TV, the artist doesn’t go straight through a song and stop. You end up seeing a whole different side of the artist — you get a sense of who they are. They talk to the audience, and between songs they may be patted down with makeup. They’re always making jokes. It’s just a whole new experience.”
Tour buses for everyone from Tori Amos, John Hiatt, George Jones, Steve Winwood, and Lucinda Williams have pulled up in front of the pubic TV station in Albany Park. Since the show started in 1974, guests have included Al Green, Janis Ian, Henry Chapin, and Benny Goodman as well as parings such as Wilco and Sonic Youth, Ronald Isley and Burt Bacharach, John Mayer and Buddy Guy, and Lisa Marie Presley and Peter Wolf. A special featuring Sheryl Crow in New York will air May 11th at 9 p.m.
The show is shot in high definition and mixed in surround sound by director Joe Thomas. At press time they were planning to resume taping in spring 2006.
Tickets can be obtained by becoming a new member of Channel 11 once a concert is announced. The “cost” for a pair of tickets ranges from about $85 to $125, and they’re given away on a first-come basis. New concerts are announced via the “Soundstage” hotline (773-279-2111) and Web site (www. wttw.com/soundstage), which explains how to become a member as well as where else tickets can be obtained (“Soundstage” does giveaways through local radio stations and artist fan club Web sites).
“Our motto is that it should be an unforgettable experience from the minute they pull into the parking lot until the moment they leave,” says Ferri. “We feel this is a wonderful thank you gift that we can give to people for supporting the station.”
LIVE RADIO: Although some have dismissed “terrestrial” radio as passe, watching radio performed live can be an amazing experience — and there are still a handful of places where you can.
The fast-paced public radio news quiz show “Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me!” tapes most Thursday nights at the Chase Auditorium (10 S. Dearborn). Hosted by Peter Sagal, the show features veteran newsman Carl Kasell keeping score and a panel waxing clever on current events. Guests include comedian Paula Poundstone, former “Daily Show” correspondent Mo Rocca former Rolling Stone foreign affairs writer P.J. O’Rourke, and Chicago’s own Richard Roeper.
Tickets are $20 and can be obtained via the Web site (www. npr.org/programs/ waitwait) or by calling (888) 924-8924. Other Chicago Public Radio shows that occasionally perform in front of a live audience include “Stories On Stage,” “Sound Opinions,” and “This American Life.” For more, go to www.chicagopublicradio.org.
The AFTRA/SAG Senior Radio Players are veterans of old-time radio who perform live just as they did in the old days, standing in front of mics and holding scripts. But the real draw is the sound effects people, who make the work seem effortless. Their next free performance features a script from “The Lux Radio Theater,” which was hugely popular in the 1930s and 1940s. It’s Wednesday, May 10th at 7 p.m. at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Claudia Cassidy Theater, 78 E. Washington (312-744-6630).
The religious program “Unshackled!” has been taping in Chicago since 1950, making it the nation’s longest-running radio drama. The outreach program of the Pacific Garden Mission focuses on real-life stories of people who have been redeemed after behaving badly, and is performed by professional actors and live sound effects. It’s heard on some 1,550 radio outlets worldwide, and re-dramatized in several languages. Free tapings take place most Saturdays from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Garden Mission, 646 S. State. For reservations, call (312) 922-1462.
ODDS N SODS: A fond farewell to recently retired WBEZ-FM (91.5) jazz DJ Larry Smith, one of the most unique voices in radio . . . Former WZZN-FM (94.7) jock James VanOsdol recently returned to WKQX-FM (101.1), where he holds down the graveyard shift from midnight to 5:30 . . . Also last month, famous son Ozzie Guillen, Jr. launched a new, mostly-Spanish radio show, “El Beisbol Latino de Hoy al Estilo de Chicago,” which airs Sunday nights at 10 on WSCR-AM (670) — a gig we’re sure has nothing to do with the fact his father is the manager of the world champion White Sox . . . A swift kick to the Jack FM stations (most of which are owned by CBS Radio Inc.). They went commercial free for 24 hours last month to promote the return of the Fox TV show “24,” which stars Kiefer Sutherland as a special agent named Jack. Like that’s not a commercial. If only they’d renamed the format “Rupert FM,” and changed the tag to “playing what Mr. Murdoch wants.”
— Cara Jepsen
