A text message from my friend Mary arrived about a quarter past noon yesterday. She wrote, “Hey Frank – I’m at KLOS. I can’t get a signal in here. We’re going on air in a bit. Do you have the TuneIn Pro? Can you tape it for me and email it?”
Mary worked on the Mark & Brian show for many years. She started as a volunteer phone screener and would also put together small orchestras any time we needed classical musicians for a comedy bit or a live radio play. She had stopped by the station to say goodbye to Mark Thompson on the day before his final broadcast.
I wrote back that I didn’t have TuneIn Pro but that I would try to record her segment on my laptop computer when I got home. I did pull up KLOS on my regular TuneIn app so I could listen to the show while driving. I heard the Red Cross presenting Mark & Brian with an award for promoting the KLOS Blood Drive every year.
I hoped I hadn’t missed Mary’s appearance. Melissa Gilbert was the in-studio guest when I clicked on the station’s audio stream from my computer. I tried recording the show using Audacity but my version of the free software only gave me the options of recording “line in” or “microphone in.” It wouldn’t let me record something from the Internet. I’ll have to try downloading the latest release.
It finally occurred to me to use my DAR.fm account. By this point, it was 1:00 p.m. and the program guide assumed the Mark & Brian show had ended. I found the manual record button and set it to run for 30 minutes, figuring that they would wrap up the show before 10:30 Pacific time. I heard Mary and her friend Laura, who was the original phone screener on the show. The recording worked and I was able to share it with Mary. While I was at it, I set up DAR.fm to record Mark’s final show today.
