Once Rabbi Berger was settled in to Ottawa, he wanted to start a Sunday Jewish radio show. He found a small station willing to host it, but it was about a 2 hour drive each way.
For a few weeks he made the trip, but it was taxing. They offered that he could send them the show pre-taped, but he didn’t have a source to get that done.
Well…. I had some half-decent stereo equipment and a pair of stereo mikes… So I volunteered to record the show. He would come to my apartment, where I had a cardboard box set up as a table to position the microphones. I would cue Jewish music on my turntable between his talks, and record the whole thing on a cassette tape. Quite unprofessional, but it worked! We had some good laughs about these sessions.
The tape would be mailed, and aired the following Sunday.
I think we only did a few shows like this… Maybe only ten or so. Then I went looking for another option. I dropped in a few times to talk to the staff at Carleton University’s own FM radio station. They were sympathetic, especially since I worked for Carleton, but had no free Sunday time slots.
Incredibly, a few weeks after I first spoke to them, they called me to say that another “cultural” show (I believe east Indian) had unexpectedly cancelled, and they were eager to fill the slot with a Jewish show! So Motty was now able to do a more professional radio show in a real local studio.
I still have fond memories of those early recording sessions in my apartment. (In an earlier post you can see the stereo equipment that I actually used)
