This is going to be fun: today, I can announce that I've been asked by KCRW-FM 89.9 to be their Orange County go-to guy.
OH DEAR…
So what does all this mean? First and foremost, I ain't stepping down from this infernal rag–far from it, us Weeklings are going to have more fun than ever before.
Secondly, I'm going to start a weekly commentary on Orange County life (first one will air during All Things Considered Dec. 10, and we'll do them weekly come January at a to-be-determined day) that will supplement my monthly OC food reviews on Good Food with Evan Kleiman. My weekly rants won't be scripted pieces, but rather four-minute conversations with the KCRW news anchor on whatever the big story is in OC that particular week, with” occasional” forays into DESMADRE–did I say occasional? I meant “constant”!
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I'm also going to bring back my much-missed monthly “Gustavo's Awesome Lecture Series!” (held in conjunction with Cal State Fullerton and the Fullerton Public Library) in which I sit down with authors/musicians/historians/locos and interview them in front of a live audience–now that radio people are involved, maybe we can podcast them! With KCRW, the Weekly will also host town hall meetings on the big topics in OC–we should've been doing these already, but I've been a bit busy this year learning how to be editor, promoting a taco book, and other crazy shit.
In addition, I'm going to work with KCRW to get Weekly stories and reporters on the airwaves–we're going to be the Cabeza de Vacas for KCRW so they can sonically conquer our wildlands. And I'm might even do some stories myself, once I learn how to work that fancy Marantz recorder I bought years ago but never bothered to learn how to use.
You can read the official KCRW press release here.
About the only bad thing regarding this is that I will no longer appear as a contributor on KPCC-FM 89.3, specifically the semi-weekly “Orange County Roundtable” on AirTalk with Larry Mantle. I was the last of the Mohicans on that segment, having joined it almost at its inception in 2003, and I want to thank Larry and his crew for not only allowing me the chance to enliven their airwaves with my lunacy, but also for taking a chance on Orange County as a place deserving of serious radio coverage. But opportunities are opportunities, so to paraphrase the Beatles: tomorrow may rain, so we'll follow the 10 Freeway (via the 55 to the 5 to the 91 to the 605 to the 105 to the 405) to Santa Monica.
Oh, I almost forgot: I'll also be an occasional token Latino for KCRW, too–but no Maná with me haha!
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