Into the maelstrom

an odd choice for a winter trip

Well, I guess I’m gonna do this (the Bitterroot Beacon Radio promotional interview tour).

How’s that for bold and resolute? Cut me some slack- it’s not that I’m noncommittal about BBR and the need for honest local radio; I just don’t know what’s going to work best, in getting this thing going. Here are some questions I’m mulling over:

• stay with the bare-bones internet radio, file uploading and content management system, which requires learning somewhat complicated procedures, or pay the bucks for a monthly plan on a whiz-bang, easy system that any doofus can use.

• spend time on social media promoting the station and selling myself (oh joy), or eschew blessed Twitter and Instagram and just let the great content somehow attract listenership.

• quit my day job and take a leap into full-time broadcasting work, or keep my job and regarding BBR efforts, burn the midnight oil at the most, or just dabble like a hobbyist at the least. Herman Melville kept afloat working as a customs inspector for 19 years. Though he never knew it, his position and income “were protected throughout the periodic turmoil of political reappointments by a customs official who never spoke to Melville but admired his writings: future US president Chester A. Arthur” (Olsen-Smith). For now I’m planning on going back to the salt mines Perky Pelican in mid/late March. The ponds are my customs house.

• don’t even think about money or donations or BBR as a job and just do it in your spare time and build a team of regular working-stiff volunteers, interdependent with common goals and visions, putting in the time after work and family and Costco and Home Depot, or run it myself and let the buck stop here. The first option is the kla.tv way, and it works pretty well. For one thing they are beholden to no money interests. Any needs they have come right out of the volunteers’ pockets. How they stay tight and focused as an organism is a miracle however and that could take a bit of effort. And it might take me a while to reach their level of 2,000 volunteers.

• stay home and start the station or go on an interview tour? This one is decided.

• stay up in the north or go south to avoid freezing to death during this active winter storm season.

• Get all the interviews lined up- dates, locations, lodging, etc. or just go.

On the last one, I’m on the cusp of saying to myself, “You’ve got a couple good ones lined up, now just go!” and see what interviews present themselves. After all, I don’t want to be arrogant and only attempt to interview big shots in Chicago one week and big shots in New York the next.

-You don’t want to be arrogant? What’s arrogant about having a good plan and mapping things out?

13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. James 4:13-16

A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps. Prov: 16:9

-Take that, fastidious planners!

So it looks like I’ll be taking the northern loop, with a foray down to Nashville

A lot of driving, but three weeks should make it doable without too much rush. Heck, Sloan Younglove, travelin’ salvation trucker, would scoff at this little circle around the block.

I can’t wait for this conversation at a diner in Bismarck or Fargo, while I’m cooling my coffee with my frozen hands:

-You decided to take a vacation here?!

-Yeah, it was either Bismark or Cancun, and I just flipped a coin.

me in a North Dakota parking lot:

(NW midwest accent) Well, what the heck ya doin’ here anyway? Mr. Gundstrom doesn’t do in-person interviews. Plus, he’s in Cancun! Sheesh.

So here’s the deal. Take a look at that route and let me know if you have someone in mind in one of those 14 states who might be a good interview. And tack on the NYC area in case I take a cheap flight from Chicago. It could be someone you don’t know personally but follow their work. It could be a friend who might have a great tale to tell in BBR’s Everyone’s Got a Story feature. Also there might be a don’t-miss place on the route that I can do a report/feature on. Any ideas are welcome. You can post them in the comment sections here in Substack as I blog about the trip, you can tell me on my new Twitter handle*, or you can let me know in my subscriber chat below. (Or if you’re a local Montana friend just tell me the best way, face-to-face.)

I live here. What’s your excuse?

*actually no, forget Twitter/X for now, because I can’t access my new BBR account myself. The usual stuff. user name here: - now password- unusual activity: type your phone number here- that’s not on our records- try email instead- not on our records- bluuu, whatever. First Instagram bans me before I even put up a picture/post, and now this. The heck with social media.

-Well, we like the plan, DW. We really do.

-Great! I guarantee BBR is going to be a big success!

-And we think your figures are good. This would be the principle you need to get the station on the FM dial, correct?

-Yes, give or take a percentage point or two.

-Fine. Now, what percent of the business do you expect Engstrom and Associates to hand over to you. One and a half percent? One and three quarters?

-Hand…hand over??

-Yes, DW, we’re not a bank. We’re looking at this as an investment, not a loan, for goodness sake. If we pay for the radio station, we own the radio station. Now what’s your cut?

-Oh no. You misunderstand. This is my deal here. For truth radio, I need independence. I…I…

-I think we understand, DW. You’re saying we put in all the money and you collect when it pays off. (laughter)

-Oh no. It’s true that I’m going to be the sole owner. But I pay you back 100%, plus interest- I’d go, heck, let’s say, 2% over prime?

-DW, like I say, we’re not a bank. But we like your idea. And we think it has potential here in North Dakota, and over there in the Bitterroot Valley. I assume if our little deal here doesn’t go through you won’t mind if we move on it.

- ………………………………..

photo credits:

rabbit in snow: Chris Bird on Unsplash

Fargo scene Youtube screenshots: Grammercy Pictures