Would You Let This Guy Interview You?

Ragazzi! Did anyone happen to notice an innocuous little comment left in Italian on one of my recent posts? In case not, here it is:

sono lo speaker di una radio Romana,volevo intervistarla.
mi chiamo Emanuele e la mia mail è info@ilblocco.com
il sito.
www.ilblocco.com

i miei più cordiali saluti

Basically it's someone saying he's a DJ on a local radio station and wants to interview me. At first I thought it was a joke or some comment spam, so I checked it out. I looked at his website and it seemed legit, so I went ahead and sent him an email.

He responded, telling me he wanted to interview me in studio, and that he has a radio program here in Rome from 8 am-10 am, the so-called "prime time" of radio. His name is Emanuele Artibani and he hosts a show called Artibar.

I got curious. His show is on Tele Radio Stereo, 92.7. I asked Ale about it, he said it's a famous local station. Boh. I listened to him yesterday and was pleasantly surprised. He's funny, witty, and you can see why they gave him the morning show. Have you ever noticed how radio morning show people have to be funny? I mean, nobody wants to be going to work, so their job is to cheer people up. What a job. I think it would be great. Maybe he'll give me a job as his co-host. I mean, all good morning radio shows have to have both a male and a female counterpart, no?? I could get up early to do that.

Anyway, he's funny, but not in that super over-the-top annoying way I found with a lot of American radio morning shows. No bells and whistles. He just launches some questions and asks his listeners to write in SMS messages to respond, and he reads them on air, commenting and having a sort of conversation in this way with his listeners. And in between there's music. Yesterday he even threw out the idea of having a big dinner here in Rome for all his listeners. It's like a little community...I was hooked.

So yesterday after I spied on his show, I wrote to him telling him I'd be happy to do an interview, but what did he want to talk about? My blog? My experiences in Rome? I told him if he interviewed me, it would only be fair that I interviewed him too for my readers. Take a few pictures of him in the studio, ask how he got to be a Roman radio talk show host (I mean, come on, that can't possibly be easy! Aren't you curious?).

He writes back and tells me he is a big fan of the States (Yay! I love these people! They are hard to find in Europe these days!) and asks me to call him. I was busy so didn't call. But I turned the show on again this morning, and...

that's when I heard him launch an all-points-bulletin to all of his listeners:

"I'm looking for Shelley! She's an American, she has this website. She listened in yesterday. Shelley! If you're listening, send us an SMS! We want to talk to you! If anyone out there knows Shelley, call us!"

Laughing out loud. He basically did this throughout the entire morning show this morning.

"Shelley! My American almost-friend! Where are you? If you're out there, call! We want to talk to you!"

He reinvented the pronounciation of Shelley, but we'll forgive him for that, won't we? I'm leaving his listeners in suspense until I hear from you guys. It's only fair that he gives US an interview too, right?