I have always loved listening to the radio. Not the huge corporate radio stations that play the same songs every hour, but local radio stations that are in touch with the community. I can remember listening to a station, KWON, in Bartlesville, and having a crush on a particular DJ, purely based on his voice and how he conveyed a sense of knowing everyone who was listening. I used to imagine becoming a news announcer for an NPR station. I dont know how or why I didn't follow this dream, but there you go. Twenty-some-odd years later and I'm still a big radio fan. For the last ten years, I've been dedicated to 98.1, KBAC, dubbed "radio free Santa Fe." They play an eclectic selection of music, from Bob Dylan to Death Cab for Cutie, and every Friday night they have a show, "The Friday Funk" which is fantastic. Although they were bought up by Clear Channel a few years ago, Clear Channel has had the sense to leave them pretty much alone with their programming format. KBAC broadcasts here in Santa Fe, Las Vegas (NM), and in Albuquerque. So KBAC started running spots featuring local people saying things like, "This is Bob Smith from the Santa Fe City Council, and you're listening to 98.1, radio-free Santa Fe." Or, "I'm Mary Jones, director of the Santa Fe animal shelter, and you're listening to your local, community radio station--98.1, KBAC." You get the idea. I had been listening to these spots for awhile, and one day last spring I called the mid-day jock, Luther Watts, and said, "I want to do one of those spots for you guys." He laughed but said, "Write up what you want to say, and come to the station this afternoon." I was floored. Luther put me in a recording booth, right up next to a microphone, and I recorded my spot: "This is Amy Kieffer, president and director of nothing, and you're listening to 98.1, your local, community radio station." This spot has now been running intermittently throughout the day since last May. The teachers at Owen's school have heard me, as well as some other folks around town, who've called and said, "Did I hear you on the radio?!?" I was at my hair salon recently, and the receptionist recognized my name from hearing me on the radio. What can I say? I told Luther that I've always wanted to be on the radio, and that I would volunteer to do voice-work for free just to feed my ego. He's been more than kind to indulge me. Now I am occasionally doing voice work for ads. It's not always easy--in fact, it's harder than it seems to make yourself sound something that you might not be. There's been a few ads I just could not tackle, but one spot ran for ten weeks (Luther said that was almost a record). Luckily, Luther has been a fantastic coach. The folks at the station are great--now when I walk in it's like Norm walking into Cheers: "AMY!" For my "work" I've gotten a t-shirt and Chad and I were treated to tickets to a Charlie Sexton concert a few months ago. Here are a few spots that I've done for the station. Maybe if we get some snow, the Ski Tech spot will start running soon (that's the sultry voice of Luther with me on that ad). Download the President and Director Nothing spot (320 Kb mp3) Download the Pinkoyote spot (860 Kb mp3) Download the Ski Tech spot (880 Kb mp3) Download the Strictly Southwestern spot (756 Kb mp3).

7/18/11 - MP3's are no longer available after a recent site update.