Assignment 4

I am not a fan of talk radio or radio shows. Pod casts and the like do not hold my attention in the least. I find that listening to interviews without being able to see the subjects or the interviewer allows me to be easily distracted. That being said, I was surprised to find Dick Gordon's show, "The Story" capable of maintaining my interest.

I chose to listen to a broadcast telling the story of an undercover police officer and a career waitress. The first story featured Gordon interviewing April Leatherwood, a Memphis law enforcer who went undercover as a junkie for a year. She spoke of breaking contact with everyone she knew, transforming into a dirty drug consumer, and accepting the new life she had to live for that year. While it was this story that caught my eye, Leatherwood did not provide an exceptionally interesting interview. I was easily distracted by the fact that she used the phrase "y'know" more than twice every sentence. Her anecdotes weren't that exciting. It is almost like she was too good at playing the role to make it exciting to retell. Gordon did his best to ask questions that would provoke some kind of harrowing tale from Leatherwood's year undercover, but she failed to talk about anything that I would consider memorable.

Ironically, I found Sammi DeAngelis' story about her forty year career as a waitress much more interesting than the life of an undercover cop. DeAngelis sounds exactly like the kind of waitress you would find in any typical sitcom diner. She seems to fit the caricature perfectly. While it might not sound like a waitress could provide a good interview, Gordon asked questions about aspects of the job that the rest of us would not generally think about such as getting into the business, relationships with cooks and other players in the kitchen, and the wear and tear the job leaves on people. DeAngelis' personality showed throughout the interview, and just from her account and her discussion of her job, I can tell she would be the kind of waitress I would want at a diner. She also talked to Gordon about the impact the down economy has had on the diner business, and that allows listeners to empathize greatly with what DeAngelis and others are going through. Overall, it is Gordon's ability to provide context and ask thought-provoking questions that draws an audience for his show.