I LOVED last night's show! If this is what the Best Show is turning into, this is going to be a great year. It had all the ingredients of a classic FMU-era Best Show.
BEST:
- Long Island City, Queens call... the brief "mute" moment, especially.
- SPIKE!
- Gregg vs. Tim... Very reminiscent of previous calls by Tim & Eric, although Gregg's deadpan optimism was sooo dry and amazing. I expected him to be funny, and his ability to not flinch at all throughout the whole call was even funnier than expected. It probably helps if you've been following Gregg Turkington's various outlets.
- Darren: I love the Newbridge calls where Tom finds out he's left out of the most amazing event ever right in Newbridge, but especially as the key narrative.
...
And this was the first show with an ad. I agree it was painless. Maybe it would have been a little jarring to new listeners, but Tom has done very similar when he's had guests on the phone or in the studio on WFMU, where Tom goes out of his way to plug certain things for guests e.g. Todd Barry. The ad was basically just that, but without the company on the phone or in studio, that's all. I'm really happy Tom didn't break character at all throughout it either. It's actually reminiscent of old radio ad spots where the DJ recites the ad, except relatively unscripted here.
Also, I'm looking forward to THE HALF-HOUR OF POWER. That final stretch of quick unscreened calls in the finale is one of my favorite parts of the Best Show, so if the plan for the HALF-HOUR OF POWER is basically an extended version of that, it will be truly awesome.
"WORST" in quotes:
- not really "worst" at all if it's a cost-saving measure, but having to play music from the Free Music Archive and announcing that. Nothing wrong with the Free Music Archive at all, but it felt that Tom was constrained on the Music portion of last night's show. That said, I understand that if it's a publishing fees issue, they are punishingly expensive, having been in college radio before. I just really hope the BC'ing falls under Fair Use, so it can continue, and at least live out its full life. Also, if this means that small labels can work directly with Tom on something, maybe this will blossom into something unique too. (I did see the tweet calling out for "Cool Labels" to make contact.)
- oh, and I guess we won't have calls about the Jeff Bridges meditation album, for obvious reasons.
SO happy with last night's show overall.
