This week, we bid a fond and grateful farewell to our Technical Director and sound designer, Joe Hardtke. If you’re a regular listener, you’ve heard his name in the show credits for years, and maybe wondered what, exactly, a TD does. The answer: pretty much everything. Record and sync interviews, EQ levels, finesse edits, mix field sound, write and record music, master the final show mix, and every Friday, upload a finished product to 200+ member stations. That’s just the beginning though, because Joe was all about turning up the heat – literally, when he was cooking tapes for our whale show and metaphorically, in his last field-recorded story about the perfect French fries of Kewaunee, his home town. He's also a singularly talented host whisperer, as I know from personal experience.
I spent my first 20 years in public radio behind the scenes as a producer, and I was pretty insecure and uncertain when I started hosting TTBOOK. Without ever saying much about it, Joe set about building me into a host. "Hey, rock star," he'd say when I sat down at the mic. Then he'd joke around for a bit until I relaxed. "Just tell it to me," he'd say, when I was stiff with nerves. "That's the one," after a take that worked. I don't have a big voice, so he layered warm, ambient music under me to make me sound richer. He designed tiny sonic signatures: the reason I say "P, R (pause) X?" So Joe could drop a dollop of sound into that pause. My propensity for self-criticism extends to the way I edit myself. Less is more, I always think. People want to hear the guest, not me. But Joe made me put the humanity back in — all my awkward laughs and fumbling questions. It's been a lesson in self-acceptance.
If you spend enough time practicing any craft, immerse yourself thoroughly enough in it, you get to the point where you realize it’s not just a skill but a wisdom tradition. The things I learned from working with Joe go beyond the radio studio. The mystery of deep listening — finding the song beneath the words, the echo of what's unsaid — is a never-ending gift. It affects what I notice in the world, how I pay attention and how I try to show up for friends and family. And that’s priceless. So as Joe heads off on his next big adventure, we wish him well and thank him for opening up a world of sound.
– Anne