Ever wonder about your air-conditioning service technician? The producer of this drop-in wondered enough to accompany him during a sweltering summer day in Mesa, Arizona where the temps are in the triple digits and upstairs in the attic the heat can hit 125 degrees. Bats, spiders and scorpions are an a.c. techie’s occupational hazards. Once a.c. man Russ Wichterman came across a rabbit in an attic!

Russ is one of those big, friendly lugs who, on his first call smoothly equalizes his relationship with his customer by addressing her not as “you” but with the first-personal plural “we” as in, “How we doin’? I hear we have a condensate problem.”

If Russ is laid back, so is this piece’s background music. Oddly, it’s reminiscent of 1940s Big Band dance tunes. The third of these half-minute cuts, “Summer in the City,” goes back to 1966 but sounds as though it could derive from days before air-conditioning was invented. It’s definitely pre–rock ’n’ roll.

Speaking of hazards, Russ mentions his concern about falling through an attic’s floorboards. The producer’s mic is sensitive enough to catch him knocking on floorboard wood when she records him saying, “Luckily [knock knock] I’ve never fallen through an attic.”

As for her only direct question to him, “What do you set your thermostat to at home?” he answers, “My house is never above 70; I sweat enough during the day.”

What is it about this piece that makes me want more? It’s interesting enough but sort of bland and predictable. Not that I want a description of the virtues of freon-based air-conditioners as opposed to swamp coolers. Or Russ’s admission that he’d really prefer to live in Point Barrow, Alaska. But something is missing here – I’m not sure what.