Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

RFC Notes: The Sojourner’s Show, part two

Part two of the Sojourner’s Benefit Concert special edition of Radio Free Charleston is online now! This episode features music from The Synergy Collective and an all-star line-up of the evening’s guests that includes John Lilly, Sean Richardson, Karen Allen, Rich Allen, Mark Davis, Ric Cochran and Brandon and Lacy from The Synergy Collective. You’ll also hear from Margaret Taylor, director of the YWCA Sojourner’s Shelter, and Ric Cochran of V100, who organized the concert.

As with last week’s episode, we put the animation and mind-hurting weirdness on hold for a good cause. Don’t fret, the next episode will see a return to Radio Free Charleston’s trademark demented humor and fast-paced insanity.

In another huge departure for RFC, we have interviews in this episode. Anyone who knows me knows that I really hate doing interviews, but it was important to let everyone know about the good work that Sojourner’s does, and there was no better way to do that than to go to the lady in charge, and Margaret Taylor, the director of the Sojourner’s program, was gracious enough to give me a few minutes of her time so that we could explain why Sojourner’s is such an important cause. Likewise, it was important to hear from Ric Cochran, who did such an incredible job pulling the benefit concert together.

With our next episode, the “No Interviews” rule goes back into effect. We’ll go back to letting the music and film speak for itself.

It was a bit of a strange experience interviewing Ric, since it was the first time I’d set foot in the West Virginia Radio Corp. building since the day I went to collect my last paychecks when I left in 1990 following the cancellation of the RFC radio show. I barely recognized the place. It’s amazing the changes they’ve made. Of course, with the station now being managed by people who actually know what they’re doing, there were bound to be major differences from the days when I roamed those halls. Back then working for 96 FM was like being a passenger in a speeding bus with no driver. Now they really have a great facility, and great people working there. Ric is one of the truly nice guys in broadcasting in Charleston, and he went out of my way to make me feel welcome.

It was a real kick seeing that the studio where Johnny Rock from Go Van Gogh accidentally dropped an f-bomb is now the MetroNews control room.

Our show also features music from The Synergy Collective, who previously brightened up RFC in episode 33. They’re one of the more exciting new bands in town, and you can see them Sunday at the Blue Parrot as part of a benefit show which I will write about extensively tomorrow. The Synergy Collective song from this show was the only tune that I recorded using two cameras, and I was running both of them, which is something I can’t really recommend. The video came out great, but I nearly forgot that I had a camera in each hand and almost started to applaud, which would have been disastrous.

At the end of the evening, Ric, John Lilly, Rich Allen, Sean Richardson, Karen Allen, Mark Davis, Brandon Hughes and Lacy Dix all took the stage to perform “Will The Circle Be Unbroken.” This closes out our show, and it’s special enough that it makes up for the fact that I only had one camera for most of the night.

So that’s the story behind our two sedate, respectful shows dedicated to the Sojourner’s Benefit concert. Next time we’ll be back to our old crazy selves, with music from Blue Million, animation from Frank Panucci, and some other strangeness.

1 Comment

  1. Elvis Capone

    I like your new RADIO FREE CHARLESTON EPISODE THIRTY SIX show. It has a good beef and I can prance to it.

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