Taking Cues

Rob Sachs is the Director for Tell Me More.

What does that mean?

Each morning as the program "goes to air" from NPR's Studio 4B, Rob is responsible for giving host Michel Martin the precise time cues necessary to keep our hour-long broadcast honest in length and running smooth. He raises his hand, points to Michel — who sealed off by glass in a sound-proof suite with our guests of the day — and ... Michel speaks. One wrong cue (even if only off by one second) can potentially derail the broadcast, throwing things off not only for us here, but also for our local affiliate (or member) stations around the country that carry Tell Me More.

The lighter side of the job? Rob typically handles the music "beat" for the program. Whenever you hear segments that feature musicians, often billed as "performance chats," Rob's fingerprints are usually somewhere on the scene.

Here's Rob with more:

My two favorite segments, my two favorite guys.

Lee, one of the great things about working on the music projects at Tell Me More is that it has allowed me to reach out to groups that I've long admired. For instance in the world of hip-hop we talked with my two of my all-time favorites Q-Tip and Questlove.

Q-Tip was on to talk about his solo career but I, like many others, came to appreciate him through his work leading the group A Tribe Called Quest. Songs like "Scenario," "Bonita Applebaum," "Award Tour," and "Check The Rhyme" were all staples on all my high school mix tapes.

As a native Philadelphian, it was great to have the opportunity to get Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson on Tell Me More to talk about the group's new gig as house band for Jimmy Fallon's late night show on NBC. As with A Tribe Called Quest, I've been following The Roots since they started, back in the early 90s, and have attended many of their live performances (if you haven't seen their live beat boxing, you're missing out).

I was really pleased with how both of these segments turned out. But of course the icing on the cake was afterwards when I got to talk to both Q-Tip and ?uestlove to ask them about their musical tastes for our "In Your Ear" series.

Thanks, Rob.