Lowell Folk Festival Day 2

["Mark" <markwats@netway.com>]

Day 2 of the Lowell Folk Festival yesterday ended up being cut short,both
on and off the air,thanks to Mother Nature's fury.Here's what went down on
the radio:

WCAP was on hand at JFK Plaza with PD/Morning host Kevin Dunn anchoring.in
between acts,he interviewed local politicians and some folks just passing
by for thoughts/reaction to the event.Also filled with music from past and
present Folk fest acts when there were no folks to talk to.The JFK stage
was the last to shut down,in the middle of the first thunderstorm(about
5:45PM).They filled with the previously mentioned Folk Fest music till just
after 6PM,then went back to it's regular schedule of birdfeed
talk.BTW,today's scheduled WCAP host from JFK is none other than Bill
O'Neill,a familiar name and presence on this list.(Hope you don't mind me
giving you the free plug Bill).

WCCM also was on hand at JFK Plaza,their "Costa/Eagle Pepsi Thunder Van"
parked about 2 or 3 car lengths in front of WCAP's "That 70's Mobile
Studio" with Frank Sunday(Messina) anchoring WCCM's coverage.(maybe Bill
and Frank can meet up for lunch!!<g>).Their marti feed a bit noisy at
times,not surprising IMHO given the distance from JFK Plaza to the studios
on Rte.110 in Methuen (almost into Haverhill).WCCM did get knocked off the
air sometime between 5 and 5:30PM,and did not return to the air till after
8PM,as the Spinners' game was in progress.

WJUL also had JFK Plaza coverage,no hum in their audio this time,they went
back to regular programming after JFK Plaza's show was cut short.

WGBH-FM had Boarding House Park's afternoon schedule on the air as part of
their weekly "Folk Heritage" show with Dick Pleasants hosting on stage and
on the air.I had a chance to see WGBH-FM's set up"behind the scenes". They
fed the signal back to Boston via an ISDN hookup.Inside the "Green Room"(a
kitchen/storage room in a restored row house just to the left of Boarding
House Park) was a makeshift studio w/2 mics and a small mike mixer for any
interviews that needed to take place along with DAT recorders capturing the
event.About 5:30 Boarding House was shut down by the weather,WGBH-FM went
back to regular programming.

There was an attempt to resume the evening portion of the
festival,however,about 20 minutes into the show at Boarding House Park
round 2 of the wild weather arrived,thus closing down the event for the
night.No radio coverage of this brief resumption took place,although WJUL's
booth was set up there.

Still no sign of WLLH or Mega 1400 bumper stickers.

Hopefully the rains will hold off today until things wrap up at 6PM.

Mark Watson

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