interview

Yesterday I interviewed a WWII veteran for my show. Rod Hungerford served in the US Navy from 1943-1946 and we talked for about an hour about his experiences during the war. The show will air on Veterans Day weekend.

This was my first time doing an actual interview where the content hadn't been planned out in advance. Instead we met beforehand to get to know each other and discuss what the interview would be about (I guess that would be a pre-interview, huh) and then yesterday I asked him questions based on that. I think it went really well, mainly because Rod was such a good interview subject. I really didn't have to draw him out. I would just say "Tell us about ..." and he would be off.

My only minor disappointment is that he told a couple of stories less colorfully for the interview than he had when we met beforehand. For instance he mentioned that while he spent most of the war on a destroyer in the Atlantic, he only set foot in Europe once, a 24 hour liberty in Palermo. In the pre-interview he told me during those 24 hours he got drunker than he had ever been before or since. Yesterday he didn't mention that part. I guess I can understand wanting to clean the stories up a little for posterity.

I had borrowed a mic from the WXDU news department, which worked really well. The sound quality is fantastic. I had to hold the mic between us for the entire interview (it has a stand, but not tall enough) and I was concerned that having a mic in his face would make Rod nervous, but not at all. In fact the only problem with holding the mic was that I couldn't move my hand at all -- it was so sensitive that it would pick up the sound of my fingers moving -- and my hand was numb by the end of the hour.

Also I'm a little annoyed at myself because I said "uh-huh" way too often. I was trying not to, but the interview was so conversational that I slipped into it without realizing. I hope I'll be able to edit them out.

After the interview we had dinner with Rod's family (I met him through his daughter-in-law, who works with me) and he joked that they were going to want his autograph now that he's going to be on the radio. I tried to reduce expectations, reminding everyone that we're talking about college radio here, it's not like being on CNN!