Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
I try to be a man of the people, when it comes to the radio show. If there's something which is mostly disliked, I get rid of it. I remember having these arguments with Micon back in the NWP/DD days, where he demanded we continue doing certain very unpopular segments, and I told him that we needed to stop doing any segment which the audience hated, no matter how much he personally liked it. He didn't agree.
The laugh track is a tough one, because I think it has a place in the show, especially when used derisively/sarcastically.
Still, if it were mostly hated, I would get rid of it. However, whenever I talk about doing away with it (and I actually did kill it for awhile, a few years back), I get text messages and PMs the other way. "I love the laugh track", "It's one of my favorite things in the show", etc. You may think these are people trolling me, but they're totally serious.
When I walk the dog and put on the call-to-listen line to hear a random episode being played, sometimes I'll hear the laugh track and really enjoy it. Other times I will cringe and feel it was poorly timed or placed, but most of its usage seems to work well, at least when I listen back. That's my opinion, of course, and it's very biased because I'm basically evaluating my own work. But I should note that there are plenty of times I go back and hear a past show, and think "Wow, this segment sucked" or "I don't sound very good on this day", so I'm not just patting myself on the back all the time.
I will keep in mind the laugh track criticism, though, and maybe tone down its usage.