Silent Night

This is arguably the most famous and memorable show. Mischke does not talk the entire show. Unfortunately, a recording has not surfaced, and the date is still unconfirmed.

Here is what Derek had to say about the date of the show:


 * Thursday -- September 18, 1997. This APPEARS to be the air date of the Silent Night episode of the Mischke Broadcast. The program where Tommy remained silent for almost the entire two hours. Just thought I should post that bit of info. here -- just in case someone has some old taped archives. If you have them dated -- look for that September 18th date.


 * Previously, I had said I thought this show aired around 2000, but I'm definitely wrong on that. I just listened to a broadcast from September 24th, 1997 and Mischke was commenting on how bad the show was going. It was going so bad, he was contemplating about just staying silent for the entire show -- like he had done last Thursday. Thus the September 18th date. I am guessing this HAS to be the Silent Night show.


 * I've already dug through my trunk of tapes pretty throughly, but have not found that date so far. I have found at least three other shows from September of 1997, so I'm hoping to maybe still find it. Mischke does not have all the tapes labeled with a year, so there is still a small chance I could stumble across it. But if anyone else out there has access to old tapes -- try to hone in on September 18, 1997. You could make a lot of people happy.

Here is what Mischke had to say about the show when the topic was brought up on the tenth anniversary:


 * Just a quick correction. I did not start out the show saying anything.There were no first few words. I was silent from the start. Without that, the show would have been less interesting to me. Some were not entirely sure I was even there.


 * Many nights I started out with "I have nothing to say," and went silent for long stretches of time. That was not unusual. The "silent night" was different. This was a night where the show started and I wasn't quite ready. The microphone was off and I was getting my papers in order. When I turned on the microphone I realized I had just had 14 seconds of silence. The silence intrigued me. I wondered if I should maybe go another 14 seconds. Then I went for a minute. I did indeed have much to say that evening. I had prepared an entire show. But the silence was intoxicating. I went for four minutes before taking my first call. I didn't answer the phone, I just put the call on the air. The person didn't hear a voice but knew his phone had stopped ringing, and he began to talk. That's when the real show began. People listening at home picked up on what was going on. Every type of caller chimed in that night, but I said nothing. After close to two hours the show wound to a close. With four seconds left in the program I said "sleep well," and the show ended. Those were my only spoken words that night.