WKNO Listener Testimonial

Regular readers may recall that I did a listener testimonial for WKNO a year and a half ago. I never actually heard it play during the pledge drive, but Justin Willingham swears it did. Well, Saturday I had a chance to do a "do over." I was determined to sound peppy and give them a good sound bite to play over and over and raise thousands and thousands of dollars.

As Justin and I planned my visit, I asked what he thought about me bringing the monkeys. "Absolutely! If they want a tour, I'd be happy to do that, too. And if they wanted to say a few phrases for me and maybe a phone number or website, I could really use some new kids voices," he enthusiastically responded.

How could I pass up that kind of offer? I got the monkeys in a TV commercial this year, why not get them on the radio, right?

As we drove out to the station, I pointed to the voice in the radio and explained to the monkeys that we were going to visit my friend Justin and record some things to be played on the radio. I went over how I expected them to be quiet, to listen, not to run, and not to scream. They said they understood the rules. We even talked about going to Game Stop to look at potential birthday gifts as a reward.


The monkeys were charming and delightful until Justin showed us into the recording studio and let the monkeys put on headphones and talk into microphones.

Oh my god.

They giggled, they screamed, they burped, they sang the diarrhea song, they embarrassed the @#$! out of me. Finally I had no choice but to send them into the hall with my iPhone. I was finally able to record my spots, which again, Justin swears were good. Then I brought Jiro in to record his part. He was still kind of giggly, but he managed to do a pretty good job. He tried really hard to speak slowly and clearly. I hope that they can actually use him on the radio. I mean, how awesome of an achievement would that be for Mr. Four Speech Therapy Classes a Week? When Jiro was done, I sent him out and brought Satchel in. He put on the headphones, leaned into the mic, and completely froze!! Seriously. It was actually cute, but annoying too. Oh well.

Next it was time for the tour. The monkeys got their second wind and tore through the office building like, well, monkeys. Justin was all, "Let's be quiet, people are working," but that only egged them on. He took them to see the classical music library and before he could say, "Kacky and Darrell have a very tight system in here," Jiro was pulling CDs off the shelves and rearranging them. (I can hear Kacky cussing now!) Luckily, Satchel, who was using a conference chair as a Go-Kart, distracted him. Justin and I tried to turn off the lights and lock them in, but they followed us out.

I could go on, but I think you guys get the point. My favorite Justin quote of the day was, "Come on guys, I know you can behave because I've read about it."

Poor fellow, I hope he doesn't believe everything he reads!