KCRW Engineers' Blog

The political race…and race at the conventions

nobody@vox.com(KCRW Engineers) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:58:02 -0700

Recently an LA radio trade publication published an objection by a reader that another station’s reporter commented there weren’t many persons of color at the Republican National Convention. The reader felt it was a cheap shot and everything shouldn’t be turned into a racial issue.

I agree that everything definitely should NOT come down to a question of race. Yet this is an election of contrasts.

Contrast an older white war veteran running against a younger African American who was raised in Hawaii no less.   Contrast a white Washington insider VP running mate vs. a relatively unknown governor who is young, attractive woman running mate who has had family issues which many average Americans can identify with.

Contrasts.

I’m writing this from St. Paul as I wait for my flight back to LA.   I’m not a political wonk or claim to have any expertise on who has done what for whom. I however have been at both conventions for the last two weeks and I have eyes.   I watched the speeches with groups of locals in both cities at public spaces. I’ve spoken with and listened to delegates, cab drivers, bus riders, cops and other behind the scenes worker bees. I’ve heard from those who hold a viewpoint on the left, middle, right, right to life proponents and others somewhere in between. I’ve been impressed at the conviction which people hold their views and beliefs, whether I agree with them or not. I’ve not expressed a viewpoint when listening so much as I’ve engaged and listened. Last night I walked around the arena at the seating area as the RNC program was underway, prior to McCain appearing. Here’s what I’ve noticed.

In Denver the make of the attendee’s “looked” a lot like the population of Los Angeles. There were people of all colors and creeds.   There was electricity in the air as most had the feeling they were there to witness a piece of history, the nomination of African American as the democratic candidate for President of the United States.

In St. Paul the overwhelming majority of the attendees were white.   You can’t hide that.   Were there other colors and creeds? Yes.   Was there large number of women there? Yes.   But without fail, the majority of those in attendance where white.   On several occasions I took the bus back to the hotel from downtown St. Paul just a few blocks from the convention site.    Greater than half of those on public transit in the evening were non-white, much like LA. Looking about the streets, bars and hotels, the population here is largely white, but not to the degree seen at the RNC. Any number I’d attach would be a guess but based on my observations, there is a far higher ratio of non-white faces here in the host city than those who attended the RNC.

The air at the RNC was energized by the selection of Sarah Palin, but the tenor was not that of making history, but rather to prevent Obama from winning this race.   We heard from the Republican Party ideals many of use would like to see: smaller government that stays out of our business, fiscally restrained and pro-American.   There’s nothing wrong with that. Having been at the last two presidential conventions, these sound like the same points which were made in those cycles.

So what? Why do I make these observations and dare write them down, being a white guy from the Westside of LA?    Because if these parties and their delegates represent America, it’s pretty telling which part of America they are representing.

It’s not about race, but you can’t deny race is a driving factor this election.

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Swimming with sharks....no really!

nobody@vox.com(KCRW Engineers) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:19:25 -0700

After spending two weeks with two legged lawyer type sharks here at the convention sites, I had an opportunity to experience REAL sharks, you know the aquatic type at the “Underwater Adventures Aquarium” located at the Mall of America.

Mike Newport and I headed there very early this morning to swim with the fishes at the Rainbow Reef exhibit, touted as their newest EXTREME adventure. It's an artificial reef filled with over 60 types of tropical fish, including puffers, stingrays and some sharks. Two Zebra sharks appropriately named "Obama" and "McCain" were swimming about the tank with us. (Obama is slightly larger than McCain).

As a long time diver, ocean swimmer, surfer and underwater hockey player, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to slip into the tank and experience this up close and personal.

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The water is about 72 degrees and I certainly didn't need a wetsuit but the aquarium felt it was a good idea to have us all insulated and so we wouldn't get scraped up on the artificial reef.

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The exhibit is a series of tanks with a large acrylic tube stretching through the reefs so you can experience the setting without getting wet. I prefer getting wet myself! This next video was shot from the tube in the shark tank area which I'm told I could have dived on scuba had I brought my "c" card with me.

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One find I wasn't expecting was their alligator. I wonder if this is where the fair gets the fried alligator??

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Underwater Adventures Aquarium is located at the Mall of America located near the MSP airport in Bloomington, Minnesota. Before today I'd never have thought I'd go diving in Minnesota with tropical fish at an aquarium at a mall?

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an evening at the Minnesota State Fair

nobody@vox.com(KCRW Engineers) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:59:47 -0700

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After flying from Denver to the twin cities and setting up our equipment yesterday, TODAY was my day off. It turns out in addition to the Republicans about to begin their National Convention, Minnesota is hold it’s state fair here, not 5 minutes from where we happen to be staying.

We got Warren Olney’s goat at the fair and later with tip of the hat towards “Good Food”, I snapped a few shots of some of Minnesota’s offering to fair cuisine. Deep Fried Alligator and Teriyaki Ostrich on a Stick stood out for me, but under the “I can’t believe I saw it there…” category, Deep Fried Spam Curds are at the top of my list.

For the record, I lost nearly 3 lbs in Denver and probably put it all back on tonight. My night at the park was fairly tame: BBQ Beef Sandwich with fries, a strawberry shake, strawberries and cream, and a couple of beers. I can’t believe I passed by the funnel cake!

See below for some of the stands I noticed…

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More behind the scenes at the DNC

nobody@vox.com(KCRW Engineers) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:29:01 -0700

Obama look-alike with some delegates and media Monday afternoon

Yesterday I wrote about some of the behind the scenes technical & logistical aspects which goes into our setup at the DNC. Today I thought I'd share a bit more of what happens behind the scenes.

I'm really the advance man on these convention remotes. I was at Pepsi Center in June to get a preview of the venue and what the organizers had in mind for us. From there I put together and tested our equipment shipped it from L.A. Next I got up at 4am Friday morning 8/22 for a 6:30am flight from LAX to Denver, rented a car and got to the site about noon Denver time.

This is a video and first look of our location and workspace in the parking lot at the Pepsi Center Friday.

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I worked from noon until nearly 9pm Friday night solo to turn it into this, a behind the scenes look at our broadcast from the workspace approximately 15 minutes into Tuesday 8/26/08's program.

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After the broadcast each day, we break for lunch at the only nearby food venue we have nearby.the Hot Dog Stand. While waiting in line however, who should show up but Barac himself?

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Security is one of the biggest issues at this year's convention site. While tempted I'm not going to show you the layers of Secret Service, local police, state police, swat teams, more cops and paramedics on bicycles and others who make up this fort we call a venue, but know there are several rings you have to access before you can get on site.

Tonight I visited my friends from WBUR radio who are in a separate Pavilion (aka tent) who happen to be near one of the entrances. This next clip shows a building you may have seen in the media already and probably 1000 delegates or more hopelessly delayed as they wait for the secret service security screeners to check everyone out quite thoroughly. Think of TSA screens with lots of guns and little humor, aka the secret service.

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This video was shot from inside the security parameter and is not exactly a friendly scenario as all these delegates are waiting to get through about 7pm Tuesday night. That's it for now I hope to share with you some more of our view of the convention, in the outside.

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Behind the Scenes from the DNC

nobody@vox.com(KCRW Engineers) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:00:22 -0700

My name is Steve Herbert and I’m the Chief Engineer for KCRW. One of the many roles I fulfill for the station besides technical support is that of logistical support. As such, this election year marks the fourth presidential political cycle for which I’ve been sent to by the station in bringing you our programming.

This time we are broadcasting “To The Point” (TTP), live from “workspace” provided by the political parties at both venues at the host cities of Denver and St. Paul. In Denver, our workspace is located in one of four, 40,000 square foot tents set up in the parking lot of the Pepsi Center, the indoor stadium home to the Denver Nuggets here.

If you are reading this, you’ll recognize that while To The Point from a technical stand point is a fairly straight forward topical interview program, the show itself draws on a vast and varied database containing contacts of 10’s of thousands of people who can speak intelligently on nearly any subject which is in the news of the day. As such, the guests are invited to the program.

I mention all this because in a typical radio setup at these conventions, there is something called “Talk Show Row”, which consists of rows and rows of tables, clustered together so someone with a point of view and credentials to get past the perimeter security of the venue can effectively appear on dozens of talk shows and radio programs as they work their way down the lines of tables, with radio stations with their link up back to their studios & host sitting at a 3’wide portion of the table, side by side with the next station or organization.

Because of the nature of To The Point, we do not have our setup on Talk Show Row or a similar ghetto found inside the convention center (or in this case Pepsi Center) called Radio Row where the radio guys can be found under stairwells and crevices along the rings of the arenas. NPR & American Public Media (two separate organizations) are found in such a crevice behind an awkward segment on the second floor ring of Pepsi.

TTP by contrast typically is housed among the print journalists in workspace a bit removed from the circus atmosphere which engulfs these rows. In Denver we have 10’ x 15’ piece of real estate backing space occupied by the New York Times and the Boston Globe in our “Media Pavilion”, aka tent.

To the Point's makeshift studio

While we are furnished the floor space free of charge, EVERYTHING contained in that space we pay for at trade show rental pricing. Those who have exhibited at a trade show can relate to what I’m about to describe. Everything is rented. The tables, chairs, partitions for sound isolation around the parameter, phone lines, internet connection, carpet, electricity…EVERYTHING which makes up the temporary broadcast facility is rented from one of two large trade show “exhibition” companies.

Most of the equipment we utilize is owned by the station and used for these remotes and the likes of Morning Becomes Eclectic when on the road. But unlike MBE, we are dealing with the very quickly shifting sands of politics and time blowing around, attempting to make sense of it and present it to you, the listener.

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Fortunately my role is not to produce the content you listen to, but rather plan, create, assemble, order, design, ship, wire, and support everything needed by the producers, technical director and of course Warren to broadcast this from the space. There are only five of us in total for each political convention. This means in addition to the above, I get to be a go-fer, meet with guest who are live from the space instructing them on what to expect when they get in front of Warren, how to use the microphone, headphone controls and to remember it’s live radio. I deal with issues as they arise. At one minute I may have to create a routing path which lets Warren and the technical director hear the producers at the studios through their headphones without being resending it back to the studios as part of the program. Another minute I may be meeting a guest and explaining what is about to happen with them. The next minute I may be correcting a paper jam, fetching a pen, headphones or anything else needed at that moment. This is not a job a vocational counselor ever will tell you are suited for, and yet it’s something that most people never have an opportunity to experience. Those producing a program are very demanding and for good reason as they have to have it, and have it now!

In future entries I hope to share some of the encounters we have behind the scene with the delegates, media operatives, action groups, support staffs and volunteers, cops, fire fighters, food vendors and other folks who make up a major political convention like this and some of the contrasts you’ll run into.

Here’s a small bit of irony to start. Pepsi and Pepsi products are the only beverage sold at the Pepsi Center, but our media Pavilions (tents) are furnished with Coke machines.

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