What do you get when you give a well known senior his own morning show on KUPS? If you’re a student who tunes into the University’s renowned radio station Thursday or Friday mornings, you may have just found out.
Beginning Thursday, Sept. 25, Lee Pennebaker took to the airwaves and debuted his new early-morning talk show: “Ain’t Nothin’ But A Morning Show.” On the inaugural show, he sat down with Passages co-coordinators Brandon Johnson and Brad Heusinkveld, speaking with them about their experience with the program this year.
The show also featured the original poetry of student Reagan Rice, with whom he discussed the intricacies of poetic inspiration.
“I want it to be done by students for the students,” Pennebaker said when asked about his hopes for the show.
I sat down with Johnson earlier this week to ask him about his experience being one of the first guests Pennebaker had on the show.
“He [Pennebaker] was a hoot and had great energy,” Johnson said, which, when one considers how early the broadcast is, is saying a lot. Johnson went on to discuss his experience with Pennebaker as being memorable and one to which he would be happy to return.
“I’d come back, the idea of the show is good and he’s delivering on it,” Johnson said when asked if he’d ever sit down with Pennebaker again. This is certainly a ringing endorsement for Pennebaker’s skill as an interviewer and the quality of the show.
Perhaps even more telling of Pennebaker’s ability was his choice to make the first show about Passages, something that every first-year student at the University of Puget Sound experiences. This choice of topic is inarguably a strong one when considering his goal for the show.
Pennebaker’s hopes to encompass all the goings-on around campus, and is planning to interview students, staff and professors alike in order to reach a broad audience. The second episode, which aired on Friday, Sept. 26, demonstrated his student-based motivations quite clearly.
In Friday’s show, Pennebaker sat down this time with Associate Professor of the Arts and Art History Elise Richman and again featured original poetry, this time from student David Mucklow.
The content of Friday’s show revolved primarily around this week’s Race and Pedagogy conference, as Richman is on the conference’s planning committee. Through interviewing guests like these, it’s clear that Pennebaker aims to outline all that is going on around campus for his student listeners.
When asked about what he hopes for the future of the morning show, Pennebaker answered that he was currently working with students to create promotional art for it and that he hopes the show will one day become a staple to the University’s student community.
I sat down earlier this week with Andrea Eaton, Business Director for KUPS, who is currently working on advertising for “Ain’t Nothin’ But A Morning Show” and asked her for her opinions about the show.
“Lee Pennebaker is one of our most excited DJs,” Eaton said. Currently she’s working on promotional posters for the fledgling show in order to get more people to tune in. It’s clear that Eaton believes in Pennebaker’s message and his show’s potential for success.
“It’s going to start out on campus and will expand and become well known. He’s well known on campus and it shows,” Eaton said.
Johnson agreed. “I think he’s gonna do great and what is awesome is he can present something new each week,” Johnson said. The ability for the morning show to be connected with the campus’ students and staff, its ability to remain original and its general laid-back atmosphere are all qualities that will undoubtedly deliver the success that so many have predicted for Pennebaker.
“Ain’t Nothin But A Morning Show” airs for an hour every Thursday at 8 a.m. and Friday at 7 a.m. It’s safe to say that after discovering all the great things the show has to offer, it will have a lot more listeners tuning in.
