Texas Radio and the Big Beat

I've been on the hunt for a new gig, one that might possibly suit my talents. My skill set is such that most of the jobs in the classifieds and on the various search engines are either completely unsuitable, or the pay is lousy, or somehow involve sales. For instance, Mediarecruiter.com advertises heavily in Television Week magazine, so I checked out their offerings. 99 out of 100 jobs listed were "account executive," while the other one was "captioner." Sure, I'd love to bring my editorial skills to the closed-captioning business (we leave the captions on all the time at our house, because of the frequent screaming of our 16 month old daughter a/k/a "Leather Lungs"), having suffered through the horrible transcriptions of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. Unfortunately, I can't type 250 words a minute.

Another factor is that my wife has her heart set on moving to Austin. Hey, if its good enough for Willie Nelson and Quentin Tarantino, it's good enough for me.

A while back, I had been approached by a certain "Kiloh" about doing a podcast for TexasPsychRanch.com that would be a Texan version of Florida Rocks Again!, an eclectic history of Texas music from Buddy Holly to the Butthole Surfers and beyond, with an emphasis on bands like the 13th Floor Elevators, the Golden Dawn, and Red Krayola. Working title: Texas Radio and the Big Beat. Circumstances conspired to prevent that show from happening, namely my TV job, my other radio show, and most importantly, fatherhood.

Lo and behold, I was searching the job search sites for Austin when I came across something that was actually a good fit for me: on-air correspondent and producer for Morning Edition at KUT, the National Public Radio affiliate at the University of Texas at Austin. I quickly put together a demo CD of some long-form interviews I'd done for Florida Rocks Again!, typed up a stream-of-consciousness cover letter, and popped 'em into the post pronto. I don't know if I'll get it, but I hope I do. So if you happen to be David Brown, not the David Brown who played bass for the 31st Of February, or the David Brown who was an exec at 20th Century Fox in the '70s, but the David Brown from KUT, please hire me. I need the gig, and I'll totally hit it out of the park, believe me. As an added bonus, I'll produce Texas Radio and the Big Beat for you, and it will absolutely kick ass. It'll be a bubblin' cauldron of Blues, Rock n' Roll, Soul, and Outlaw Country, with a pinch of Tex-Mex, and a heavy dose of Prairie Fuzz.