Visiting the Wally Show at WAY-FM
On mornings when we are out and about early, we usually listen to The Wally Show on WAY-FM. It is an faith based broadcast that offers practical advice from people who are willing and transparent about their own struggles in life. The girls and I often learn new things by listening to their stories, and we often have a good laugh because the broadcasters can be hilarious.
Recently, we were able to meet Wally, Betty Rock, Beckah, and Zach from The Wally Show. It was nice to be able to see the faces behind the voices. We visited the station with our local homeschool group. Beforehand, the kids were told to come up with a few questions to ask the DJs since this would be an opportunity to interview them. Not only did they get the opportunity to ask them questions, but during the visit they were on Facebook Live for the majority of the experience. You can watch if you would like here.
I believe they are reading the list of those who've contributed to the station.
Our time at WAY-FM primarily consisted of the children asking the DJs questions, and the DJs asking the children a few questions too. One young guy even took a chance at giving us a stand up comedy show since this is his dream career as an adult. I appreciated that Wally and the gang encouraged him in his quest even though he was a bit caught off guard.
I had few questions of my own which I didn't ask during the broadcast because I thought the interview session was only for the children, but I did ask afterwards. I wanted to do know if Betty Rock and Wally were their actual names or pseudonyms, and of course they are the latter.
After all the questions, we were able to take a sneak peak inside the studio. WAY-FM broadcasts in many cities around the U. S., but all the broadcasting and behind the scenes work happen at their station in Franklin, TN. I didn't get to hear much of Wally's talk about how radio works, but our visit to WAY-FM reminded me of our first radio station visit to WCIC in Illinois. On our tour to WCIC, we learned that a lot of the talks were not live, but instead prerecorded to be fit into spots between the music tracks. There is a lot of work to making the station run smoothly, and there has to be caution when with working the technology. Betty Rock ( I believe) shared that she knocked the entire radio station off air because she had so much static electricity going through her that when she touched some component in the studio the station went off air.
Visiting WAY-FM was a fun home school adventure, and I would highly recommend catching a tour of a local station in your area whether it is in a group or solo.