Got a call this morning from the UK office of my publisher, Continuum. That is actually the company's main office and Sarah called to say they had a last-minute request for me to do an interview with Radio Europe in Spain. The station has 500,000 English-speaking listeners, so it was too good an opportunity to pass up. I had a jam-packed day at work but of course I found the time. The host's name is Morris, and he's originally from Ireland, and we talked for about 20 minutes, not just about the book but about the whole crisis facing the Roman Catholic Church. I was grateful that Morris mentioned my book and Amazon's UK website several times. He did mispronounce my name as "David Yonk," which is understandable -- I've been called worse! I tried to be polite about it when I corrected him, and I hope he didn't mind.
This fact that a European radio program, in Spain with an Irish host, was interested in the book is proof enough to me that this story appeals to people far beyond the Toledo area.
Any more radio hosts out there looking for a story that will enthrall their listeners?
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A week ago Sunday, on Feb. 18, I was interviewed on WBGU-FM (simlucast on WFAL-AM), A college radio station at Bowling Green State University. The show, slyly called "Dead Air," runs for two hours, live in the studio, and it amazed me that any radio program would devote that much time to any topic. Thank God for noncommercial radio.
The show's hosts were terrific -- Jim Barnes and a couple who go by the radio names of Haley Comet and Frank Black.
They read the book, cover to cover, and asked informed questions. They also had fun, pretending, for example, that we were broadcasting live from the Space Shuttle.
We took phone calls and email from listeners, and the callers were articulate and asked some very good, and sometimes very tough, questions.
Even though the show was two hours long, the time seemed to zip by... Frank said he wishes we had had 4 hours to talk. I'm looking forward coming back to "Dead Air."
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A Toledo TV program called The Editors, on which I appeared last year, was rerun recently. I think more people saw it this time than on the original broadcast. I had so many people say they saw me on TV, and it took a while to realize they were talking about a rerun. I guess the folks at WGTE-TV must have liked the show or they wouldn't be recirculating it.
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I have a friend who runs a public relations firm and he has been patiently waiting for me to give him the go-ahead to make an effort to promote me and my book. I've been putting it off since Continuum has a publicist assigned to the book and I didn't want to step on any toes. But I ran into Jon at a concert Friday (for 91-year-old bluesman David "Honeyboy" Edwards) and gave him the go-ahead to contact Oprah's producers. Sure enough, Jon called on Tuesay and reminded them of my book... It seems like he handled it well and renewed their interest. I can't imagine how many proposals they get. But Jon reminded them that they had asked me for a copy of the book and then a dvd of me on television shows. I guess they had forgotten about that part of it. As busy as I am at The Blade, with all the books and press kits I get, I know how things can slip-slide away, even stories I am interested in, and I'm sure Oprah receives a hundred times more proposals than I get. Maybe a million times more. Anyway, Jon's phone call appeared to have been well received.
If Oprah doesn't come through (but I think she would recognize a great story when she sees it), perhaps the European connection will catch on first and then spread from Europe back to America. A lot of artists know that sometimes it's best to get away from your hometown if you want to get noticed.... and maybe out of your home country, too.
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I spoke to a class at BGSU today and enjoyed it immensely. Every time I do that, I get the bug to teach journalism in college again. It just feels like a perfect fit. I get to share my experience with students and we have fun as we do it.
With the way The Blade continues to is disintegrate from labor strife, I am feeling more motivated to look around at possible teaching positions, hopefully in this area.
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More trouble is brewing in the Toledo Catholic Diocese. I'll have a posting about it shortly.

Sylvania, Ohio, February 28, 2007