Minnesota DJ's Thoughts on Spinning Live at the Fair

I've heard about college radio stations broadcasting live from a variety of remote locations, including concerts, out of town festivals, laundromats, record stores, and now, state fairs.

A college radio DJ from University of Minnesota station Radio K shared some thoughts about broadcasting from the Minnesota State Fair. Ally W writes:


"...I was at the Fair because my college radio station (Radio K Where Music Matters Most aka Suck It, Mark Wheat) was broadcasting live from the stage designated for the University of Minnesota for two hours a day. I had giddly signed up two weeks prior, knowing that while it might just be me playing indie rock songs on all three of my college radio station's anemic signals, that did not change the fact that I would be playing indie rock songs at the State Fair, a place where every local radio man/woman I idolized as a child had performed...As small as it might have been, it was still doing a live broadcast in front of possibly thousands of people. I guess it's sort of like performing the sound checks at Woodstock or designing the guest brochures at the Louvre - you might be a pissant but god damnit you're there..."


As Ally W points out, it's a very different experience for a radio DJ to get up in front of a huge crowd of people to spin records vs. doing a show at a radio station for an unseen audience. The post continues:


"I took the stage after the show started and looked out on the fair fare in front of us - the...Pronto Pup cart, the Buffalo on a stick place. Directly in front of me about fifty feet was Love 105, the radio station where you will probably hear a Burt Bacharach song. No, you will definitely hear a Burt Bacharach song. As a sort of war cry in the middle of our set, me and my partner for the day Josh played "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond, which caused all the people to dance and (I assume) the Love 105 DJ to curse, knowing that his 5 o'clock hour was now screwed up..."


What are some of the most interesting live remote broadcasts that your favorite stations have done? And if you've done a live remote, how different did it feel to see your audience?