A New Chapter — and the Close of Another

Elwood Folse | WUWF 88.1| Week 1

As the summer begins, I’m excited to announce the launch of a brand-new blog—and with it, the closing of my previous one,  and previous portfolio Lens & Pen. That blog served me well during my last chapter, especially while I was interning with HellCat Productions, a video production company that taught me a great deal about storytelling through film. But as I begin a new internship and update this website, it’s time to turn the page.

This summer, I’ve been given the opportunity to intern at WUWF, the local NPR affiliate and radio station. While the internship is just getting started, I’ve already had the chance to shadow at one of their live concerts—and it was a truly eye-opening experience.

The concert took place at the Museum of Commerce, located on 201 Zaragoza Street. The evening featured a range of folk and country artists performing solo, as duos, and in full bands. But the standout for me was without a doubt Dillon Warneck. He performed songs from his recent album Now That It’s Over, as well as a few unreleased tracks from an upcoming summer project.

Warneck’s sound is hard to describe, but if I had to make a comparison, I’d say he has the cadence and spirit of Tom Waits. His vocals have that loose, almost intoxicated swagger—not in a sloppy way, but in a way that feels completely intentional, like he’s letting the rhythm guide his annunciation. At times, you'd swear he was drunk if it weren't for his incredible skill on the piano. His musical dexterity allowed him to glide effortlessly from honky-tonk to soul-rock to jazz within the same set. (Naturally, I bought a vinyl.)

While I was there mostly to observe, I learned a lot just from being present. I got to see how a live radio concert is orchestrated from the ground up. From microphone placement—not just for vocals, but for each individual instrument—to staging and transitions for the broadcast, everything had a purpose. Acoustic performances, I learned, require a very different setup from the fully electric shows I’d grown used to.

There were mics for the drums, the piano, backup vocals, and even ambient stage mics to catch crowd reactions or allow for quiet underscoring during commercial breaks. Between sets, the announcer would speak live to the audience while stagehands subtly swapped out instruments or repositioned performers.

One of the coolest things I witnessed was the live video operation. Sitting just behind a camera operator, I saw how they smoothly transitioned between performers—camera one on the vocalist, camera two ready to catch a close-up of the guitar solo. It was like they could anticipate the flow of the music, almost dancing with it.

But maybe the most educational part of the night came at the end: the teardown. As with any production, disassembling everything taught me the most. I learned to distinguish between mic cords and auxiliary cables, between quarter-inch and half-inch plugs, simply by being told where each one belonged. I watched how the amps, speakers, and stands were packed—then mentally reverse-engineered the setup process from there: rugs first, then amps, then stands, then cords, then mics, then instruments.

It was a full, 8-hour day—and a fantastic start to this new internship.

I’m incredibly grateful to WUWF for this opportunity and look forward to sharing more stories with you here as the summer progresses.

Stay tuned.