Whidbey AIR has been assisting the Home Connections School in Oak Harbor with a radio lab class again this semester, and oh what fun! It is our 2nd year working with Home Connections.
Adding some spice to the class this year, Home Connections teacher Kelly Hall contacted KIRO Radio’s Rachel Belle and asked her to come to Home Connections to share with our students what it’s like to be a “real” radio host. In her usual bubbly fashion Rachel agreed !
December 14th – Rachel came to the Home Connections campus in Oak Harbor, held an assembly for the students, showed them some of the equipment she uses to record and produce her show, and answered student questions about who, what, why and how she became a radio personality, produces her shows and find ideas for her subjects.
Then they all loaded up into parents cars and mini vans and headed to the Whidbey AIR studio for an on air LIVE interview with Rachel.
If you missed that interview it will be available again in Feb. IN conjunction with the Home Connections radio show “Home Connections Radio Magazine” – stay tuned.
If you have a kid who’s interested in recording, radio, music or hosting a show – contact us at feedback@kwparadio.org and we’ll set up a meeting time to help your young broadcaster what it takes to get involved with Whidbey AIR.
I moved to Whidbey Island in 1991 and, needing a job, I advertised myself as a cello and guitar teacher. I was actually doing very little playing at that point although still singing with a band in Seattle in a cabaret setting. I got a pile of students and connected with Linda Good who was looking for a partner/teacher with her Island Strings program. We worked together for ten years and founded the Island Strings Summer Music Camp that met for many happy summers at Greenbank Farm. Through Island Strings and my private teaching, I met many, many kids and grown ups, all of whom I consider my fellow musicians. I always say, I love hanging with the musicians and I don’t care how old they are!
My cello remained bound up in the conventional classical music role until 1993 when Randy Hudson, Linda Morris and Devon Ossman asked me to join No band Is an Island. This was a very inventive and creative endeavor. We played a lot of original material that had strange and difficult arrangements. I started to translate all my chord knowledge from my guitar playing to the cello, lots of pizzicato and strumming. I discovered I knew tons about vocal harmonies from all the singing and the biggest discovery was that I can sing and play the cello at the same time. I don’t see hardly anyone doing that. We had a sell out WICA show in January 1994 and that was a peak experience for me. I have worked in public education these last 11 years to raise my boy but I am thrilled to be taking a leave this year to devote to my creative life. Each day is a new adventure and I have only scratched the surface with my electric cello playing. I am the luckiest person in the world! – Siri Bardarson
We heard from a, culinary loving, bird that Gordon Stewart, of Gordon’s of Blueberry Hill, has applied to be on the Food Network show CHOPPED! Can it be true ?
We’re not sure how one is chosen to be on the Food Network show Chopped, but we do have a contact page for the Food Network – if you’d like to drop them a cyber line go give them your vote for Gordon.
