Flashback: Walter E. Williams on the Casey Lartigue Show with Eliot Morgan (April 28, 2007)

Prof. Walter E. Williams was the featured guest on the Casey Lartigue Show with Eliot Morgan on April 28, 2007, on XM 169 The Power (the only national black talk station). The discussion topic was reparations for slavery.

YouTube link

Prof. Walter E. Williams

Random Thoughts:

1) Live unscripted radio

Wow! At any time, a guest could call in, call you a knucklehead, talk about your momma, or trip you up with a difficult question. It was live, it was dramatic. I hated getting prepared for the show but loved every minute I was on the air.

The audience...yeah, at times they were keepin' it real...at other times, real dumb. We started to get some regular callers, a few people softened on us, stopped calling us sellout. A few were hostile until the end.

2) Problems

Yes, there were many. I had no support from the station. The technical producer...I don't want to to get started. The rich get richer, and in that case, the poor (first time host) got poorer (a first time technical producer).

During the show linked above, I expressed relief at Walter Williams being on the line, its because there were several other times with guests that they weren't on the air when I expected them to be. During one show, the guest got caught off. My co-host got caught off. Then I got caught off!!!

3) Producer, directed, and hosted by...

As I mentioned, I had almost no support from the station. I was my own producer. I booked my own guests. I made the sound clips to be used during the show. During the week, I wrote my own promos to run during the week. Everything except run the sound board. And I tried to learn because I didn't trust the technical producer (yes, he overslept once and the senior producer and assistant producer had to rush to the station to run it).

4) Eliot Morgan

That is one busy guy. But he was willing to come on the show with me every week he was available to be my co-host. He was also willing to defer to me, especially during the Williams interview, he knew how hard I was working to put on a quality show by myself.

As soon as I was told that I would have a radio show, I made two calls. The first one was to Eliot. The second one was to Walter E. Williams.

5) Walter Williams

I called him to ask if he could be a regular guest on my show. He paused...then said he could do it. I asked if it was a problem.

One thing about Walter E. Williams: He don't do nuthin' he don't want to do! I asked if it was a problem, he said that it wasn't, because it was Saturday morning, he would be at the hospital waiting for his wife to have some medical treatment done.

Well, the time worked out for him, so he agreed to be on. This was the same guy who made so many jokes about the gifts he gave his wife for her birthday or Christmas (such as a shovel, so she could shovel the snow for him.

6) The show started off wrong. The technical producer didn't play "Controversy" by Prince, the official theme song of my show

More thoughts and recollections later...

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