Tag Archives: Lizz Rantze

New Orleans VoiceOvers, The Radio Days/Daze

Mike McCann/John Saint John… Goes Country?

September 19, 2019 Micheal Leave a comment

The now-vacant 45-story Plaza Tower, towering over the New Orleans skyline

With Ken Burns’ epic PBS mini-series documentary on Country Music now being splashed across flat screens all across America, someone cue the “flash-back” harp music….

One of my more obscure contributions to the media DNA of New Orleans was performing as morning drive air personality on the ill-fated rockin’ country WQXY, Y-96 FM.

While continuing to operate the Airlift Productions studios, then on Iberville Street just off Carrollton and Canal Street, early mornings in late 1989 and early 1990 found me on top of the Plaza Tower building near the Superdome waking UP the Big Easy.

And, WHEW! What a view.

Today in 2019 the same frequency is under Entercom rule and plays classic rock under the Bayou 95.7 banner.

L-R.GatorAndMikeMcCannQ-93in1989AirliftProductionsNOLA — “Mike McCann” (seated) in the Airlift Productions Iberville studios, along with ‘the Gator’, circa 1989

But 29 years ago it was a different game in a different town.

Y-96 FM was an ill-fated attempt to unseat NOLA Country mainstay WNOE … from, ironically, an ill-fated building, that since Katrina in 2005 has remained vacant, and a subject of asbestos-tainted controversy.

But that’s another story all together.

Here’s mine.

As the radio fates would have it, a former on-air buddy from the old Nashville days at WLAC, Smokey Rivers (Fred Flanzer), had stepped-in as consultant to Ric Frances (WQXY GM), and I was offered the morning drive position.

AirliftProductionsNewOrleans1992StudioPromoPic — Airlift Productions – as it looked in 1990 on Iberville Street … Reel-to-reel analog decks, outboard gear & mixer, the way recording used to be done. Oh, if only you’d lived then, kids.

So, while continuing to operate Airlift Productions with all my freelance jobs – WGNO-TV, Ronnie Lamarque, The Esplanade Mall, WNOL-TV, The United Way – I also covered mornings for the Y-96 FM Waking Krewe!

Sample just a taste of “your morning M & M on the FM”, sandwiched in-between Dolly Parton, George Strait, Ricky Van Shelton, and Roseanne Cash, here …

** “Mike McCann” WQXY, Y-96 FM, January 1990 **

Ironically, John Volpe (mentioned here as a fellow air personality) today in 2019 is still a super salesman for the Entercom krewe, which today operates this frequency 95.7/Bayou; and Terrell Robinson (featured here) just recently hung-up his “spurs” & headphones after decades of plying his trade as traffic reporter in New Orleans.

Funny, isn’t it, how some things change, and others remain the same.

Here in 2019, country music sure has changed, the radio stations and owners (like an adult game of musical chairs) sure have changed, but the one now-decades-long constant in the whole NOLA media mix?

Airlift Mike and Airlift Productions.

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“My experience with Airlift Productions was top notch from the start. My company is based in Los Angeles and I had a client that needed to do a last minute VO session in New Orleans. Micheal was incredibly knowledgable and accommodating, not to mention a blast to work with! Our session turned out beautifully. ” — Lizz Rantze, Executive Producer, Rantze + Raves Productions, Los Angeles, CA

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Airlift Music Sessions, Airlift Productions RADIO work, Reflections

It’s A Wonderful Life ~ At Airlift Productions NOLA

December 24, 2015 Micheal Leave a comment

As I pause to reflect on this Christmas Eve 2015, I am ever so thankful to have been blessed to live this most authentic life in this most authentic city… in the most interesting of times.

While way too many today commute to jobs they really don’t like, working at hours and tasks they really don’t care for, I’ve been fortunate to spend every single day of my life through the past thirty years living between the arts and the sciences. In New Orleans, Louisiana!

Music, Theater, Radio, Television and high-end, state-of-the-art technology all collide at hyper speed in the land of my dreams at Airlift Productions in NOLA.

AirliftProductionsRecordingStudioNewOrleans — Airlift Productions, New Orleans

It’s where the warmth of analogue lives … and the lightning speed of digital delivers. Anywhere in the world!

And I get to create digital magic and give clarion focus to dreams and visions with the most fantastic collection of gifted people anywhere on earth.

Just a few cases in point from just the past month here at the Airlift studios…

Jake Landry of Right Lane Bandits Records At Airlift Productions NOLA, December 2015

Let’s start with music. Jake Landry, front man for the Right Lane Bandits, is one gifted spirit, I’ll tell you. He’s a cross between Jason Mraz and John Mayer, with some crooner Michael Buble’ thrown into the mix.

Together with his running partner Paul Piazza on backup vocals and harp/harmonica, Jake paid a visit to Airlift Productions just this past Saturday to lay-down tracks for one of his originals – “Playing You”.

Oh, these women.

*** Jake Landry & Paul Piazza “PLAYING YOU” December 2015 ***

They want to come back with the rest of the boys to beef it up a bit with bass, drums and keyboards, but even at this level, the musicianship, style, and talent are just off the hook, dontchathink?

Meanwhile, Christmastime trolls the internet.

ManattLoyolaVocalists-Betsy.Taylor.Tyler.AirliftProductionsNOLA.11-20-15 — Betsy, Taylor & Tyler cozy-up to the Airlift Studio mics for a Holiday Classic

Tasked by a Chicago-based advertising agency to coordinate sessions and record the audio for a web-based “politically correct Holiday greeting card”, I went to work.

Playing-off the original “Deck the Halls” tune, and inserting a few terrifically fun and funny interruptions accented by sleigh bells, I recorded this new holiday classic with a trio of very talented professors from our Loyola University here in New Orleans. Now playing at an internet near you.

** A “Politically Correct” Deck the Halls from Airlift NOLA **

And as if music weren’t enough, I get to warm-up the mics for myself as well. Gee, you can take the guy out of the radio… but you can’t take the radio out of the guy!

Mike Church putting in another day at the office on the VERITAS Network .... with some help from Airlift Mike — Mike Church putting in another day at the office on the VERITAS Network …. with some help from Airlift Mike

My relationship with the famous (or infamous, depending on how you choose to view him) Mike Church continues. Mike, of course, is known around the planet for having had the longest-running show in the history of Sirius/XM satellite radio, and has just recently launched his own network and channel.

Yours truly has been tagged to set the pace for the Crusade!

As Imaging Voice & Producer for Mike’s VERITAS Network and the Crusade Channel, I get to throw pop culture (?), movies, television and news makers into the audio Cuisinart – and hit the blend button!

** The King Dude’s ‘Blazing Saddles’ homage re-joiner **

Or imagine, if you can, mixing former Ambassador John Bolton with Homer Simpson — and adding Gregorian chants?

** Mike Church Imaging for the Crusade On Veritas **

My, my, my… this “Wonderful Life” of mine is certainly never boring.

And always a challenge. But forever a gift!

MichealZiantsAirliftProductionsNOLA — Airlift Mike working the Children’s Hospital Telethon in NOLA on WDSU-TV

To have found this most unique way to take all the skills and talents that I was born with – and then blend them into my own business and have it all play out from this most fascinating city is, to my way of seeing it, the most authentic way to live a life.

And it is my fervent Christmas & New Year’s wish and prayer for the reader of these words that, if you haven’t yet, you somehow find yours!

Merry Christmas! And here’s to Living YOUR Dream in 2016.

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“My experience with Airlift Productions was top notch from the start. My company is based in Los Angeles and I had a client that needed to do a last minute VO session in New Orleans. Micheal was incredibly knowledgeable and accommodating, not to mention a blast to work with! Our session turned out beautifully.” ~ LIZZ RANTZE, Executive Producer, Rantze + Raves Productions, Los Angeles, CA