Personality Profiles : WITF 89.5fm An interview with Ellen Hughes,

Personality Profiles

Being interviewed while interviewing a true interviewer...
An interview with Ellen Hughes, host of Desert Island Discs, on WITF 89.5fm

by Scot Giambalvo

"Hi Ellen." "Hi Scot," she said, "I just have to get something out of my office here before we start the interview." Ellen zips into her shared (closet) office in the basement of WITF, (radio is never glamorous), and grabs an accordion folding green paper palm tree, and a bright red plastic beach crab. We walk down a hall, saying hellos to folks on the way, and step into a "fairly large" recording studio. We sit at a round table, Ellen carefully places the palm tree and crab on the table, sits down, crosses her arms, smiles and says: "Sets the mood."

I didn’t expect this to be a dull interview. I didn’t know what to expect. But when I found out that Ellen has been faithfully airing Desert Island Discs on WITF since 1990, I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy interview.

Ellen’s show brings guests, usually local, regional, or national celebrities in as castaways. They are told, simply, that they can bring their eight favorite recordings (discs), one book, (not the Bible or the Complete Works of Shakespeare), and one luxury item to the desert island they will be stranded on. The guests bring these items, (or a list of them) into the studio, and Ellen encourages them to share their feelings and reasons with the listening audience. It is a program that has successfully entertained and informed listeners for over seven years.

Previous castaways have included Ron Mynard of Harrisburg Magazine, Bruce Bond of the WINK Late Afternoon Show, John Vartan, James Galway, Mark Singel, Richard Westerfield, and even Hugh Hudson, director of Chariots of Fire. Ellen has recorded over 350 shows to date.

Then I said, "So, what are YOUR eight favorite Desert Island Discs Ellen?" Ugh, how naive a question. Ellen wasn’t even willing to tell me if she had eight, much less what they were. She said, "I could never pin it down to just eight." "But those are the rules." I said. "I made up the rules, I govern the rules, I can change the rules whenever I want, and I can choose not to obey the rules. I’m the host!" She said. The smile on her face, and the chuckle in her voice clearly told me that she has a lot of fun with this show. (As if the plastic crab didn’t give it away.)

I asked this self-proclaimed "Classical Music Freak" if the guests always chose classical music. "No," replied Ellen, "as a matter of fact, except for the guests strongly related to classical music, like musicians or conductors, some choices are really diversified. I have had guests pick Spike Lee recordings, Beatles anthologies, good ole Rock-n-Roll, white noise, (figure that one out), someone even wanted to bring a teach-yourself (German?) language course." The rules don’t specify that the eight discs have to be music. After further prodding, I finally got Ellen to admit that Abbey Road and Danny Kay would make it on her top eight if she had to castaway tomorrow. Although in retrospect, I’m pretty sure now she was humoring me to pacify my incessant hounding inquiries.

There is something to be said for interviewing what could be considered Harrisburg’s top interviewer herself. It’s not easy. It was like being in with a psychiatrist whose answer to every question would be "And how does that make you feel?"

I would ask Ellen about her years of guests, and she would interrupt with "Enough about me, what about you Scot?" I had to remind here several times that this was HER interview, not mine.

But what of this icon of Sunday afternoon radio? Ellen was born in Clearfield and raised in Harrisburg. She was a speech therapist when she began volunteering at WMSP radio (Market Square Presbyterian Church’s station) back in the early 80s. When that station sold its license Ellen let WITF know she was interested in working with them. It took a good nine months, but on the air in January of 1990 went the quiet and reserved Ellen Hughes, unaware that her new show would become a staple for the people of Harrisburg well into the 90s.

"So, you’re not going to tell my your eight discs," I asked Ellen. "No." She replied. "How about your book?" "Nope." "No luxury item either?" "Sorry." She said, "I need to keep my preferences for the show out of the limelight. I want to focus on the guests, not on me. Ask me something else.

Half an hour later I had learned that Ellen‘s current favorite color is blue... no wait, green. And even though she has several cats, her favorite animal is a rabbit. But seriously, Ellen related that she has continued to do Desert Island Discs for so long because she loves to communicate with people, to draw them out. She helps them share a side not often heard by the public. She always learns something different from each new guest. I asked Ellen what made her such a comfortable interviewer, why was it so easy to talk to her? She replied, "I’m genuinely interested in what my guests have to say. Yes, some shows can be a little stuffy, but other shows are absolutely fantastic, and every one of them has been worth doing."

"Why can’t you bring the Bible?", I finally asked. "It’s already there." She said. " Too many people chose the Bible, and Shakespeare, so we had a previous castaway leave them on the island when they were rescued. I also bend the rules too."

Desert Island Discs airs every Sunday at Noon.