Rob Delaney Interview

For those who missed it, Marblehead native and Los-Angeles-based comic Rob Delaney called in to the show last week to talk about his experiences in comedy, his upcoming SciFi TV series, and what it's like to sing the National Anthem before a Red Sox game. Check it out in this delicious MP3 download:

Rob Delaney (18:40)

Astute listeners will also find a special code word that will get you half-price admission to his two shows this Saturday at the Calderwood Pavillion in Boston. That's just plain nice.

This Week: Rob Delaney

This week, the Hear It Wow phone lines burn from coast to coast as Los-Angeles-based (but Massachusetts native) comic Rob Delaney calls in to talk about comedy, television, and his upcoming shows at the Calderwood Pavillion on May 23.

You may have seen Rob as the "spokesman for Warner Brothers" on YouTube (semi-NSFW) or you may have seen him sing the national anthem before a Red Sox game. Coming soon, you'll be able to see him on the SciFi original series Outer Space Astronauts.

Brian Joyce will be joining me in-studio along with local comic Steve Albert, and Nick Zaino checks in around 8PM with an update on Boston's comedy happenings from FunnyGrownHere.com.

You get all this show for free, simply by tuning your radio to 91.5 FM in Boston or by streaming CD-quality audio from wmfo.org.

Janeane Garofalo Interview

On Wednesday night, comic Janeane Garofalo was kind enough to talk to myself and Brian Joyce on WMFO. Over nearly 80 minutes, she touched on her favorite comics, going to college in Providence, liberal thought and the "meaning" of alternative comedy.

Here's the interview, broken into four easy-to-download segments. All are around 30 MB in size:

Part 1 (her experiences in Boston comedy) (20:19)
Part 2 (Janeane's take on current politics) (21:17)
Part 3 (her favorite comics) (19:24)
Part 4 (her life at Providence College) (18.25)

Many thanks to Janeane for her time and her candor. If you're in the Boston area, be sure to catch her at the AltCom Comedy Festival tonight at the Somerville Theater.

This Week: Janeane Garofalo

Back at the start of the year, I made a commitment to take all you nice listeners inside the world of standup comedy. So far, we've had great interviews with Donny Soares, Tony Moschetto and Shane Mauss. This week, it's a former Boston comic who'll be checking in, former Catch a Rising Star regular and current 24 cast member Janeane Garofalo.

Janeane's heading back to Boston this weekend, and she'll be appearing at The Somerville Theatre on Friday night as part of this year's AltCom Alternative Comedy Festival. On Wednesday night, she'll be calling into the WMFO studios at 7:30 to talk about her experiences in standup. I'll be joined in-studio by Brian Joyce, and Nick Zaino of www.funnygrownhere.com will be checking in with updates on what's happening around town.

It all starts at 7PM Eastern on 91.5 FM in Boston, or listen free on the Web at wmfo.org.

Spring Is on the Air

Something vaguely approaching spring has arrived in Boston. The Red Sox are playing again, which is a sign, but it's still rainy and cold more days than not, which is actually another sign. Once we get our first one-day blast of 85-degree weather followed by a late-season killing frost, we'll know that spring is here for good.

To welcome this lovliest of seasons, my much-delayed tribute to spring hits the air tonight at 7PM on 91.5 FM in Boston and wmfo.org on the Intertubes. You'll hear spring tunes from the likes of ELO, The Beatles, Blossom Dearie, Tom Waits and Minnie Ripperton. That's right, the annual playing of "Loving You" will represent the first challenge of WMFO's new digital sound system with the fabled "high E."

All of this, plus Nick Zaino calling in with an update on Boston's comedy scene to the tune of his favorite song, "Jai Ho." Not to spoil the surprise, but we hear a certain Boston comic (who I'll be appearing with in Auburn a week from Saturday) will be making his debut on a late-night talk show.

Despite Disaster, Really Cool Guest

First, the bad news. It seems that Kris Earle and I made a huge mistake when we left the new Rivendell Automatic Playlist system in "Live Assist" mode after the show last night. It got a little hot under the collar and burned the station down. I'm really, really sorry about this, especially after all the work I put in building the new record shelves in Studio Dee, and the superhuman effort to move the sleep sofa in there, where I know it was a source of endless delight and admiration from On the Town's chief engineer, Joel.

I appreciate Drew and the rest of the WMFO staff for covering for me. It was an honest mistake. Who knew Linux servers could be so flammable? That really ought to be in the user documentation.

Obviously this presents some challenges to broadcasting, but our tower is still up and standing on top of Ballou Hall, so tonight at 7, I'll be climbing a ladder along with Boston comic Shane Mauss, who's been featured three times on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and was named Best New Comic at the 2007 HBO Comedy Arts Festival. We'll be talking about life on the road and what it's like to be on a network talk show.

Nick Zaino will be sending carrier pigeons up to the tower at 8PM to let us know about all the great things happening on the Boston comedy scene. Tune in by setting your radio to 91.5 FM in Boston, or by tuning your Web browser to WMFO.org. We've managed to keep the Web stream up thanks to a complex adaptor soldered together by Andy, that grabs the on-air signal through a Sony Walkman plugged into a USB drive.

As this is probably my last show before my permanent ban for burning the station down, I do hope you'll tune in.

A New Day for WMFO

That's me tearing apart the old DJ turntable setup in the richly appointed WMFO studios. After a week of tearing out Reagan-era cables and replacing them with nifty Ethernet-style connections, our all-new Araxis digital broadcast system is up and running. It's pretty freaking awesome, but long-time fans may miss the obnoxious electronic hum from the old mixing board or the tendency of the turntables to pick up random FM radio signals.

The stuff we can do now is impressive. We've got direct communication between the studios on the air, two working phone lines and an automated playlist system that will keep us on the air even when there's nobody to DJ. This is a huge step forward for our little station, and one that I'm sure you'll enjoy.

Along with this new equipment comes a need to retrain our DJs, and part of my show has been scheduled for training time. So I'm putting off the Spring show for two weeks. Tomorrow night I'll be playing songs about radio from 7 to 8, then busting out R.A.M. Pietsch's spectacular Norwegian Wood during the 8 o'clock training hour. I don't play that one in its entirety nearly as often as I should; if you've never heard it, you're in for a real treat.

Next week, I'll be celebrating April Fool's Day with one of Boston's top rising comics, Shane Mauss, who's appeared on Comedy Central and Late Night with Conan O'Brien and won Best New Comic at the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. We'll be talking about life on the road and what really goes on behind the scenes at a TV talk show.

The time's still the same, 7 to 9 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time, on 91.5 FM in Boston or online at wmfo.org.