On Monday, KUSP’s “Talk of the Bay” was to host a 20-minute verbal spar between Vinny Lombardo (V-Man) of Freak Radio Santa Cruz and Dick Jenkins, president of Christian translator networks Air-1 and K-LOVE. K-LOVE just put up a translator that broadcasts into Santa Cruz on Freak Radio’s frequency.
As the segment began, the V-Man was in-studio and he and host John Sandidge chatted while the show’s producer tried to raise Dick Jenkins via phone. Four minutes in, the message was passed: due to “back trouble,” Jenkins could not appear on the program. An act of God, perhaps?
The in-studio reaction to this last-minute dodge is beautifully cynical, and crops up throughout the rest of the show. Sandidge made more hay out of it than the V-Man did, much to his credit. The entire segment went off quite smoothly, with V-Man holding forth in pointedly impressive fashion. “Hooray for you guys,” said Sandidge at one point.
He also vowed to schedule a re-match.
Listen to KUSP’s archive of the show here (Real audio player required) – the Freak Radio segment begins about 26 minutes into the show.
Since KUSP is a public radio station the entire broadcast was underwritten – by a regional chain of clinics and hospitals, a local nursing home, the Monterey World Music Festival, and the John F. Kennedy University Graduate School for Holistic Studies. The show paused periodically while a noticeably abashed Sandidge rattled through them as quickly as possible.
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