acvaldez

In the last several months, I’ve started working at America Abroad, it’s a documentary program on public radio, hosted by Ray Suarez and a few other very talented people, and I’m the main producer.

What’s a radio producer do, exactly?

Well, I recruit reporters in places like Australia or Mexico or elsewhere, who actually go out and do the reporting, work with them and our editor to figure out what the story should sound like once they’ve done some interviews, I actually put the reports together in a rough form, I research issues and guests, and script interviews. I work with our web team to find interesting content that’ll fit the theme of the show. I try to make sure every last detail is right. And then I send it off to stations, which air the show once a month. It’s a hell of a job, and I learn a lot. I kind of have to if I want to keep up.

I’ve also been lucky enough to work again with my friend Bill to launch a new band. We’re calling it The Originators, and we sound a bit like this:

A while ago, my fiancee and I had a hot sauce party. We provided food and drinks, our guests brought a non Tabasco hot sauce, and everyone had a great time burning their mouths with capsaicin.

Then a couple of years later our friends decided to have a cookout and do the same. We showed up and tried out a bunch of hot sauces, and a conversation with a new acquaintance managed to get me into McSweeney’s (I’m the dude having a conversation with the author at the end of the first entry), an Internet humor publication I highly recommend. Just another oddly-appropriate-to-living-in-Washington story.