James Carville & Mary Matalin on Meet the Press, along with former BFF Tim Russert
In my now over 40 years of recording voice overs, radio/TV, AudioBooks & musicians at Airlift Productions in America’s most fascinating and interesting city, you could say that I’ve encountered quite a few characters.
Dr. John ‘da Nite Tripper records at Airlift Productions NOLA
The late Doctor John (aka Mac Rebennack) has spent hours with me, recording voice-over tracks for awards shows, and even cartoon voice tracks for Quincy Jones’ Take it Back Foundation.
I still can’t get over that, not even asking if he could smoke, at the Airlift Productions Iberville location, he pulled out a cheroot at the mic and lit it up! (We rushed an ash tray in to his rescue.)
** Dr. John at the Airlift mics telling the story of N’awlins’ bawdy, infamous Red-Light District, known as “Storyville” **
Archie Manning recorded radio spots with Airlift Productions
For several years in the 90s, Peyton & Eli’s dad Archie Manning had the Gold’s Gym franchise here just outside NOLA in Metairie, and I served as a one-man ad agency, writing, voicing & producing all the radio ads for the gym, which brought Archie & his partners regularly into the Airlift Productions Studios.
** Archie Manning’s Golds Gym Christmas Radio :60 Classic – with Airlift Mike as Santa, along with Archie, at the Airlift mics **
The cast of characters – from the mayors (both Morial & Landrieu), to all the city council members, Morgus the Magnificent, the notorious Gypsy-Rose Blanchard, Steve Scalise, stand-up/fall-down comics, radio rebels, misfits, in-laws and outlaws has become, frankly, the stuff of legend.
But I would have to say the most memorable and colorful character of them all is none other than James Carville!
We’ve spent dozens of hours together one-on-one – with only a producer, long distance on a phone-patch Skype connection – recording three separate audio books, among them, ‘It’s the Middle Class, Stupid!’ and, along with wife Mary, ‘Love & War’.
Now, by his own admission, James has untreated ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). He’s tried the drugs but didn’t like how they made him feel, so he and Mary just ‘deal with it’. Add (ADHD) me to the list.
Imagine working through hour-after-hour with someone in this situation and condition. Add to that, someone very highly opinionated (ya think?), outspoken, given to tantrums … and ‘caged’ for an extended length of time! Yowza & Yikes!
But we worked through it all and laughed, bonded, and created several very memorable and collectible audio books available from that amazon crowd.
James’ reaction to his experiences at Airlift?
“I’ve been in studios from the Bayou to the Beltway and I can say after recording my last two audio books with Mike that there is no better place than Airlift Productions. The quality of the production, the studio, and quite frankly, the comfort, make it the only place I want to record now or in the future” ~ James Carville
And, needless to say, but I will anyway, the out-takes are simply priceless! Perhaps a tale for a blog for yet another day.
A candid shot – through the studio door into the Airlift ‘green room’ – of Carville on the cell, taking a needed break, talking to George Stephanopolous in DC, with his feet ON my ping-pong table! Really, James?
Original Airlift Productions LOGO – 1984 by Harrel Grey
It’s kind of strange the way inspiration works. I was sitting at a bar here in downtown New Orleans that no longer exists in a hotel that no longer exists while dreaming of a business that didn’t yet exist – and it struck!
In my second year on Q-93 radio ( WQUE-FM, New Orleans ) as afternoon air personality Mike McCann, I was frustrated and, to be honest, somewhat frightened and more than a bit concerned.
After all, I would not have been at Q-93 had a format change not led to my being terminated/fired from my on-air job in Philadelphia! And wouldn’t have been in Philly had they not let the entire air staff go in Nashville! A similar story – station sale & format change – led to my exit from St. Louis.
Short story longer, I used to wake up in a cold sweat on the waterbed (hey, it was the 1980s) in the middle of the night wondering where I’d be when I reached age 40, to say nothing of 50 or 60 if I stayed on my current path.
So, my Q-93 partner in crimeRon Chatman and I were sitting around the bar at Bert’s, a bar on the first floor of a now-imploded and long-gone hotel on Canal Street, having a few and comparing battle scars while musing about our collective futures.
Bing-Search-Generated Image page for Airlift Productions
I grabbed a bar napkin and started doodling, sketching, dreaming – and came up with the first crude version of the Airlift Productions logo.
Airlift – as in ‘to the rescue’, with all it’s heroic connotations. If all radio & TV commercials are indeed sent over the air, “Let me give your Air a Lift!” Alphabetical listings being what they are, I’d also be listed first in all the recording studio listings.
** Airlift Mike narrates James Patterson’s best-seller “The Chef”, now available on worldwide AudioBook platforms **
Plus, I somehow knew all those years ago that the studio would be involved in projects bigger and loftier than just commercials, so it just had to be Airlift ‘Productions’. I knew that I was on to something.
The year was 1984.
After hiring local artist, the late Harrel Grey to fine-tune my crude bar napkin logo rendering, I trademarked it with Baton Rouge officials, got my first bonafide freelance account – WGNO-TV/Tribune Broadcasting – and was off to the races.
Airlift Productions Logo Reboot ~ re-imagined by Digital Artist Ethan Anderson ~ 2012
Today in 2024, if one were to do an internet search with just those two words ‘airlift productions‘ in a search engine – with no qualifiers, no country or state, nothing else – out of over several million possibilities worldwide and worldwide-web-wise – there I am.
Hard to believe that as I write these words it is forty years later, but that’s what the calendar tells me.
Meanwhile, the technology, the recording gear & the delivery methods somehow grew into my dream & vision.
And the jobs? Well, Airlift Productions has today recorded and delivered audio all around the world – literally!
Mandarin Chinese-translated video for the Port of New Orleans, Shell Oil Industrial Narrations for Melbourne, Australia… Arabicaudio for MBC (Middle East Broadcasting) in Dubai…and AudioBook production for every major player on Manhattan Island in New York City.
Furthermore, the latest “plum” fallen from this marketing tree?
I am now heard nationwide as the Imaging/Announcer Voice for iHeart Radio’s Michael DelGiorno & his “Your Morning Show” Talk Show every weekday morning – from Sacramento to Nashville and from Tampa Bay to Youngstown/Akron.
With Anchorage and Washington D.C. waiting in the wings….
As I provide the “Ed McMahon to his Johnny Carson” – Four breaks an hour through three hours of conservative talk every weekday morning across America!
Yes, while most my age have thrown in the towel, walked away… or passed away, here in 2024, I find myself still writing new & exciting chapters.
So, what’s in a logo? In a word – Everything!
And I do mean every little and BIG thing.
Airlift Productions Recording Studio, New Orleans, Panoramic Studio Pic
Steve Scalise & Airlift Mike during a break from “Back In The Game”, Airlift Productions NOLA, October 2018
“Mike, I can’t thank you enough for the great job you did coaching me through the audio recording of my new book, ‘Back in the Game!’ Since this was the first book I’ve ever written (and recorded), it was all new territory for me. You made the entire process go very smoothly, and I am incredibly happy with the final product.
I appreciate all you did to bring this book to life. You know you are really good when both James Carville and I are in complete agreement that you are great to work with!!” – CONGRESSMAN STEVE SCALISE
Hired by the Hachette AudioBook Group, based in Paris & NYC, my job was simple.
Or was it?
I would host the congressman, along with his body guards the Capitol Police, here at Airlift through the month to record and capture his personal memoir reading of “Back In The Game” for worldwide distribution.
The AudioBook recording process, even to the pro, can prove a daunting task. To a newbie, like Steve, it can prove most intimidating.
Even though as Majority Whip the congressman could and would speak on the floor of the United States House with conviction, confidence & fervor – THIS was something else altogether.
Alone. Isolated. Pensive. Painful. Hopeful.
While reflecting on a life-changing event. And one that damn near took his life.
“Back In The Game” details the congressional baseball practice shooting in June 2017 – what could have been the biggest political assassination in U.S. History – and the remarkable efforts of the police, first-responders, doctors, and surgeons who saved Steve’s life.
Not exactly light reading.
It was harrowingly frightening, desperately challenging… and ultimately inspirational and hopeful.
Through our three weeks of recording, I hosted and made all the Capitol Police comfortable, engineered the sessions, operated the phone-patch with our director in New York, delivered the wav files via FTP to the final producer – and bonded with the congressman.
Steve Scalise at the “hot mic”, October 2018, Airlift Productions NOLA
Steve and I recorded for hours (over two dozen), had lunches together, shared anecdotes from our respective life-walks, laughed long and hard, and talked of God, politics, and country.
Incredibly, to this audio engineer, two of our recording sessions followed lunches he had just come from with U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and another with our U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (and former two-term Georgia Governor) Sonny Perdue!
Ya know, not exactly my lunchtime cohorts down at the Subway.
Although after this rather unique month, I can now look upon this affable, personable & warmly sincere congressman as more than an acquaintance.
So, Steve, if you just so happen to be reading this – you’ve got more than just a constituent on Pomona… you’ve got a friend.
Steve Scalise & Airlift Mike during a break from “Back In The Game”, Airlift Productions NOLA, October 2018
“Mike, I can’t thank you enough for the great job you did coaching me through the audio recording of my new book, “Back in the Game!” Since this was the first book I’ve ever written (and recorded), it was all new territory for me. You made the entire process go very smoothly, and I am incredibly happy with the final product.
I appreciate all you did to bring this book to life. You know you are really good when both James Carville and I are in complete agreement that you are great to work with!!” — CONGRESSMAN STEVE SCALISE
But I would have to say the most memorable and colorful character of them all is none other than James Carville!
A candid shot – through the studio door into the Airlift ‘green room’ – of Carville on the cell, taking a needed break, talking to George Stephanopolous in DC, with his feet ON my ping-pong table! Really, James?
