1978: My embarrassing student radio interview with Frank Zappa! - Mr. Media Interviews by Bob Andelm

Today on Mr. Media, I’ll reach back into the vaults to 1978 for one of the first celebrity interviews I ever did: the incomparable Mother himself, Frank Zappa.

I was barely a month into my freshman year at the University of Miami, working at the student radio station, WVUM 90.5 FM, when I found myself in the right place at the right time.

Although you may soon think I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The station manager, Bob “Bear” Mordente, was looking for someone willing to go out to the Royal Biscayne Hotel in Key Biscayne to interview musician and pop culture legend Frank Zappa.

I said I’d do it if no one else volunteered.
FRANK ZAPPA audio excerpt: "Americans are so stupid. They think it's impossible to do anything creative without (being on drugs)... You don't need to be ripped to do something creative. Don't be wasted. Just do it." 
You can LISTEN to this interview with musician FRANK ZAPPA by clicking the audio player above!

Then, as now, I wasn’t afraid of interviewing anyone. Then it was foolish; I had no on-air experience and even less experience interviewing anyone for broadcast. Oh, and I knew absolutely zero – ZERO! – about Mr. Zappa.

A time was set for the next day and I went back to my dorm to see if anybody had any idea what I should ask the man.

Lucky for me (not really) the drug dealers – I mean students – in the room next to me had piles of Zappa and the Mothers of Invention albums and purported to be experts on the man.

Experts on the myth, as it turned out, but “urban legends” as a buzzphrase was still a good 20 years off.

Anyway, these two knuckleheads filled me up with wide-eyed stories of ridiculous things that Zappa allegedly had done on stage over the years and I took copious notes.

The next day, Mordente and I drove out to the Royal Biscayne Hotel and our moment with destiny. Mordente handled recording the sound on a reel-to-reel machine so I could f