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El Paso Times, Texas, Doug Pullen column: El Paso native dials in Lady Gaga tour
Mar 16, 2010 (El Paso Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
At one point in each show on Lady Gaga's recent "The Monster Ball" tour, the daring dance music diva would call a fan in the audience.
A guy who was born in El Paso helped make the connection.
Fans had to sign up at a Virgin Mobile booth before the show for a chance to get a call from the in-your-face singer, who has taken pop music by storm over the past year.
A model would hand-deliver a cell phone to the lucky fan who was selected each night, and Gaga, whose new single is "Telephone," would ring her up for a brief chat, which could be heard throughout the cavernous arenas the tour visited over the fall and winter.
"It seems like a simple bit, but the way house sound systems work, it's very complicated to work off feedback, loops, talk-back on a phone. It's a hairy problem," says El Paso native Ron Stephan. "In fact, a couple of the guys with her road crew were dubious it would happen at all."
Stephan is a veteran radio production man and CFO and general manager of Broadcast Support Inc., a "special event production company" in Torrance, Calif.
"We solve specialized technical needs," he said by phone. "It's kind of a boutique."
A boutique that helps the Navy launch ship launches, helped Colbie Caillat promote Xbox on a recent tour it sponsored and gave Gaga an inventive way to plug tour sponsor Virgin Mobile.
Stephan and partner Scott Ramsay spent two weeks working out the bugs.
"The real story is the North American tour went up through Canada, and
Gaga's tour decided to do it on their own and didn't have very good results," Stephan explained. "Scott caught up with the tour in San Francisco and with our package was able to pull it off, everybody was happy and they had a phenomenal result. The energy in the house when somebody in the house gets a call is amazing."
Stephan was born on the former Biggs Air Force Base (now part of Fort Bliss). He lived here until he was 3, when the family was transferred to California, where he grew up.
Stephan is still called a Texan by friends and associates and thinks fondly of the place where he was born. "In a lot of ways, El Paso is a great town. It's kind of everything -- Texas, Mexico and New Mexico all in one," he said.
He started as an intern at Los Angeles radio station KLOS-FM, then moved to Westwood One radio network in 1986. He was its production director for 20 years, earning the nickname "Elvis" for imitating the King during work site lunch announcements.
The gig required a lot of travel and working major events, mostly live concert broadcasts by the likes of U2 in Dublin, Van Halen in Cabo San Lucas and Garth Brooks in Central Park.
Stephan's job was to deliver crystal-clear audio from the live event to the radio listener. He compared it with what the TV production people do with ESPN's "Monday Night Football."
"You've got to find a way to make both technical aspects happy, the radio and TV shows, at the same time," he said.
Today, Broadcast Services does the audio production for awards shows, including the Latin Grammys, and whenever the Navy commissions a new ship, including the March 6 launch of the U.S.S. Dewey in Seal Beach, Calif., and the U.S.S. New York last Nov. 7.
A favorite memory? Doing audio for a Mick Jagger interview in Los Angeles. "He's the coolest guy, a total pro," Stephan said.
Doug Pullen may be reached at dpullen@elpasotimes.com; 546-6397. Read Pullen My Blog at www.elpasotimes.com/blogs.
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