🎧 #TPPSeason5Rewind | Episode 2: Jed Distler

So I show up at the station, and instead of talking about his show, he and the general manager of the station start interviewing me and saying, well, what kind of show would you like to have? And I thought, what? What is this? And I just started winging it, and I said, oh, you know, I want to have a piano radio show where every week is different. Like, one week I'll play all the Chopin études with one different pianist in each étude without repeating a pianist. Or then maybe the following week I'll have a composer like, oh, I don't know, Terry Riley or Elliott Carter— even though he was dead, I could still ask Elliott Carter, you know, somebody have them be a guest DJ or put a playlist together. Or I, I was just, you know, winging it. And they said, you know, that sounds like a good idea. Well, let's give you a show, and we will also make you our artist-in-residence. Oh my goodness! And I thought, whoa, this is all falling into my lap. It was all happening so fast. And so I quickly learned how to use their recording software, Adobe Audition, and I learned about the parameters of, you know, within 58 minutes and 30 seconds I can do whatever I want, but I do have to do some station identifications, you know, every once in a while. So I thought, this is amazing that I have a show where I have complete freedom. At the same time, I really try to use the freedom responsibly. For instance, you know, I'm not going to play 58 minutes of unlistenable 12-tone music, you know. You know, I'm not going to play the Ralph Shapey Fromm Variations, or maybe I will sometime, you never know. But, uh, but to really, you know, treat