Charo. Teri Garr. And me.
What do we have in common? The Spanish-American singer-comedian, and the actress whose break-through role was as Inga in “Young Frankenstein,” apparently hold records for the most frequent late-night television talk show appearances.
And I was told at a radio taping last week that with five appearances, I’ve become the most frequent guest on “The Chuckanut Radio Hour,” a ‘Prairie Home Companion’ inspired show hosted by Village Books in Bellingham, WA. (Motto: ‘The City of Subdued Excitement.’)
It can’t be my dashing good looks, because this is radio. Nor is my wit in all that much demand. But I am, like Charo and Teri, available. In the monthly show’s 58 airings to date, as a nearby author (45 miles) I’ve managed to get on to plug four of my novels, plus the ‘Hotel Angeline’ compendium I contributed to with the Seattle 7 Writer’s Group.
It’s pretty easy. Show up, answer questions from veteran television journalist Floyd McKay, and enjoy the corny jokes and lively music. The group taped last week was the sweet-voiced female duo Tara Wolfe and Dianne Bochsler of Cabin Fever NW.
The show is recorded in front of a live audience at the Leopold retirement home (really) on Tuesdays once a month. It airs, in a rotating sequence, at 6 p.m. Saturday and 9 p.m. Sunday on KMRE 102.3 FM. I have no idea if anyone listens, but was told its reach now extends beyond Bellingham to include Lopez Island, population 2,177. Can Manhattan be far behind?
Featured Northwest authors have included Sherman Alexie, Elizabeth George, J.A. Jance, Jim Lynch, Tom Robbins, and Garth Stein, to name just a few.
The Chuckanut Radio Hour is the brainchild of Chuck and Dee Robinson, the delightfully decent and hard-working owners of Village Books in Bellingham’s historic Fairhaven neighborhood. It’s one of the nation’s great independent bookstores, founded by the couple in 1980, which has weathered big-box competitors, Internet book sales, and E-books. Village sold its own books over the Internet as early as Amazon did, and has hosted literally thousands of authors over the decades. The Robinson’s are whip-smart about the book business.
And talk about hands-on! Chuck and Dee live in a condo upstairs.
Chuckanut Radio Hour was one of their countless ideas, started in 2007 and still going strong. Each month cast and crew put together a script of groaner humor, poetry, essays, music, and author interviews. This last time they dramatized a section of “Emerald Storm,” including appropriate water noises as Ethan Gage was dunked by torturers.
Why “Chuckanut?” That’s the name of a bay and arm of the Cascade Mountains that extend to the Salish Sea just south of Bellingham. According to Washington DOT that maintains scenic Chuckanut drive, the goofy-sounding word is an Indian term for “beach on a bay with a small entrance.”
In an anxious and frenetic age, I find the laid-back radio hour reassuring. It means Village Books, radio, and moi are all still going. And if we ever tire of the gig, we tell each other, we can just move into the retirement home.
