a midway bikelog

RIP, Paul Harvey. I was a real fan of his little news stories and homey, midwestern delivery. Amidst the snark and venom of most modern radio, ol’ Paul was a reliable source of sincerity and wonder at the world.

It’s fitting, in a way, timing-wise, that we’re on the verge of TD Mischke’s return to a webcast version of his radio show. After being unceremoniously fired by KSTP shortly before Christmas, the City Pages announced that Mischke was joining their staff to write for the paper and produce a week-daily show broadcast online.

Even though Paul Harvey was often the butt of some hilarious jokes and mash-ups on the Mischke show, in a lot of ways Mischke is the heir of Harvey’s radio legacy. Mischke’s take is more overtly wacky, but no less sincere in his wonder at the world or the drive to make some sense of it all. He could spent an hour talking baseball or music just as easily as he could dispatch a drunk caller or interview a professor or author. It was the sheer range of topics plus the humor and intelligence he brought to the show that made it one of my favorites.

It’s a portentous step for both Mischke and for radio, with the move to an webcast version of the show. The radio market is an inherently conservative business in the sense of sticking with profitable material, and Mischke was an acknowledged odd fit at the politically conservative KSTP. Politics aside though, it was clear that there is really no good radio home for a show like Mischke’s locally, and difficult to find even nationally. With the exception of Paul Harvey, there seems to be little interest in a modern version of the old time radio variety and call-in show, and even ol’ Paul was reduced to a 5-minute bit.

Even more than the Howard Stern move to satellite radio, with the instability of that business, Mischke’s move to webcasting is an experiment testing the viability of the webcasting model. Podcasting has proven to be a perfectly viable and popular delivery model for a shit-ton of content, and a wonderfully democratizing platform for content producers. I don’t know of any other radio personalities with that sort of (not large, but dedicated) following that have left radio entirely for the web world. Lots of radio shows are also available by podcast, but to make the switch entirely may be a new thing.

To be fair, i’ll bet that Mischke would have been happy to make an online presence while keeping the steady radio gig, but this City Pages deal looks pretty sweet. It’ll be interesting to see what sort of direction the show takes creatively, as he hinted in the short CP piece, especially given that the show was reigned in somewhat after his move from the late night to mid-day time slot on the air. It’ll also be interesting to see some numbers of how much of the audience tunes in during the live show -vs- listening by podcast. At 2-4pm, he’s in prime-time at-work listening time for those of us who are connected and can listen at work, but with increasing restrictions on streaming content and the inevitable interruptions, i’ll mostly likely join the podcast side most of the time.

I know i’ll be listening, come March 4th. It’s just too bad that ol’ Paul couldn’t have made it a few more days to pass the pickle.