The Official Cable Guy of The Stephanie Miller Show!!!
July 13th, 2008 . by Alexander FisherOn Monday July 7, 2008, I was named The Official Cable Guy of The Stephanie Miller Show. How, you wonder did I do that? (or is that Why?)
I asked. But I had to work for it.
Press the PLAY button to hear my performance on the
The Stephanie Miller Show!
For a couple of years now, I have been subscribing to the podcast of The Stephanie Miller Show and listening to it on my iPod almost every week day. It is a popular political comedy radio show that is carried locally on WVKO 1580AM (Columbus), nationally on other syndicated radio stations, a live Internet stream, an iTunes podcast, and is carried live on Sirius Satellite.
A couple of weeks ago, Stephanie mentioned on the show that she wanted listeners to send in a new version of their comedy song, You’re a Lying Sack of Crap. The original song is very well done and there is a version by a cute little girl named Audrey that they play. They usually play the song when they have an audio clip of or talk about a politician or other celebrity that is obviously lying about something.
I gave it a little thought. Although I thought it would be cool to submit one, I didn’t think I would. Every other time except once when I have contacted them, they have ignored me or not been entirely friendly. The producer, Chris Lavoie answered me once about a podcast issue and was very nice. I e-mailed Rebecca Baker, the assistant producer, once about a similar issue and her reply felt like a “go jump in the lake” kind of an answer. I know the more successful they get, the harder it is to please everyone. There were few ways for me to impress them enough to get their attention with so many other witty people calling and writing in. I understand.
I sat down one night and worked out the song on guitar, I assume it is pretty close to the original, but I’ve never seen the sheet music. I added a few notes here and there and an instrumental intro. I played all the music, acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar, drums, and keyboards, I also sang three vocal parts.
After about four days of working on it , It was finished. It is nice having a standalone digital multi-track. I also have a computer dedicated just to music applications and did all the final mixing on it. I played it for my wife, Jill, and she said it was good, “for a song like that…”
I sent it to the producer Chris Lavoie on July 4. I sent it with a version without the intro. I thought that maybe the shorter it was, the more likely they were to play it. I played the song several times again, but by July 12 and a week full of vacation I had forgotten about it completely and had listened to only the first five minutes of the July 7th broadcast during that week.
Jill, and I had to be at my niece’s college graduation party in Xenia and I decided to listen to the rest of the episode that I had already started on the way. We were just about to get on I-70 when they announced my song and played the long version of it. Jill just about jumped through the roof and I about drove off the road. Jill thought I already knew and was just surprising her. Believe me, I was just as surprised as she was, maybe more.
Both Chris and Stephanie called it beautiful and Jim Ward, the voice guy for the show, was very excited about it being real instruments. I could tell from his voice he was impressed. I must admit that that pleases me more than any other comment, because Jim is a talented musician and singer. All were convinced it was an entire band, which it sounds like. I take that as a compliment too, but I’ll probably tell them someday.
This is the first attention I’ve gotten from the live show. Many other people are recognized and some listeners are regular features on the show. Some are great, some aren’t. My life will probably not change because of this, but it is something that I can appreciate as a fan of the show, to have contributed to it at all.
