Success!!!!

It was not easy tonight. I arrived at the studio later than I ever did fearing that I would not be able to tolerate the cold. It turned out that the temperature was not the biggest problem. I set up and Ellen could not get sound out of either of the two microphones. I was prepared to pack it in once again. Finally after at least ten minutes of fiddling around with the controls and my saying "testing, testing, testing" about a hundred times, she finally said, "ok I got it." We both echoed the same "whew" as we began with the introductory slideshow. "Wait, there's another problem," she suddenly indicated, "Stop the slideshow." I did and we began again. This time it seemed to work and off we went. This was the show which wraps up the Cinque Terre area where we spent three days in May. So, now the only remaining material I have for broadcasts that we acquired from the trip we took in May/June 2014 are the amazing Tuscan towns that we went to alone and Lidia took us to, namely Lucca, Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, Eglio-Sassi, Montecarlo, Seravalle, San Miniato, and Vinci.

I began the show by discussing the trials of public access television, and the concepts of determination, commitment, and challenge as the bywords to putting out a broadcast on live television. I used the story Bart Friedman and Tobe Carey had related to me when I interviewed them a few years ago on one of my shows in which they told me that when they began broadcasting from the town of Lanesville, not far from here, they had to bring a cable up the side of a mountain to find the highest point for the best reception. That's it. Public access television is exactly like climbing a mountain. It is not for the faint hearted and any attempt at broadcasting must be undertaken with the understanding that it will be a very difficult challenge filled with disappointment and failure. However, when it works, it is a wonderful feeling, and I feel privileged to have now broadcasted 105 shows on Italy.

We try again two weeks from this evening.