{"id":148338,"date":"2026-02-28T13:39:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T13:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/148338\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T13:39:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T13:39:31","slug":"brooklyns-on-air-fest-wraps-up-its-ninth-annual-appearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/148338\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn\u2019s On Air Fest wraps up its ninth annual appearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>WILLIAMSBURG \u2014 The ninth annual On Air Fest wrapped up its final day of programming on Thursday, Feb. 26, with appearances from Wyclef Jean, Alec Baldwin, Malcolm Gladwell, Jacob Collier, Seth Meyers, Philip DeFranco and many more.<\/p>\n

The two-day festival, which spanned the grounds of the Wythe Hotel, Arlo Hotel and XXV Venue in Williamsburg, was attended by hundreds of podcasters, artists, creatives and fans. Thursday included 27 different panels and performances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The storytelling summit with podcasting origins also hosted booths from NPR, B&H Photo and others.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>A projection of the On Air Fest logo is displayed inside the XXV Venue Creator Hall on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. Photo: Owen Lavine\/Brooklyn EaglePodcast Recap: Wyclef Jean tars and towels himself, then relives recording with Whitney Houston<\/p>\n

Following a live recording of Seth and Josh Meyers\u2019 podcast \u201cFamily Trips with the Meyers Brothers,\u201d hip-hop hitmaker and Brooklynite by way of Haiti Wyclef Jean held court in the Wythe Hotel with Sam Sanders of SiriusXM\u2019s \u201cVibe Check\u201d and music journalist Justin Richmond of the \u201cBroken Records\u201d podcast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jean kicked things off with a retelling of how his \u201cfirst\u201d song was made.<\/p>\n

It was Mardi Gras in the small Haitian village where Jean spent his first years, and he needed a costume. \u201cSo, I put a bunch of tar on \u2026 and then I put a bunch of rags [on],\u201d the Fugees member explained.<\/p>\n

\"Musician<\/a>Musician Wyclef Jean, left, and podcast hosts Justin Richmond, center, and Sam Sanders, right, speak during a panel at the Wythe Hotel during On Air Fest on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. Photo: Owen Lavine\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

However, not everyone took a liking to his costume. Jean had befriended a pack of stray dogs in his village, and his new getup left him unrecognizable to his friends. \u201cThe dogs see me and they literally all come to attack because they couldn\u2019t recognize me,\u201d Jean said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jean let out a melodic yelp as they jumped on him. To his surprise, \u201cthey all just started licking me.\u201d His mom dubbed the yelp his \u201cfirst song.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the \u201cworst song I\u2019ve ever written,\u201dJean said. \u201cBut it saved my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Musician<\/a>Musician Wyclef Jean, left, and podcast hosts Justin Richmond, center, and Sam Sanders, right, speak during a panel at the Wythe Hotel during On Air Fest on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. Photo: Owen Lavine\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Later, Jean relived his time working with Whitney Houston, the \u201cmost intimidating\u201d person he\u2019s ever been in the studio with.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the recording of their 1999 hit \u201cMy Love Is Your Love,\u201d Houston had dropped a note he thought was \u201cflat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMs. Whitney Houston,\u201d Jean said squeamishly, reenacting the way he said it to her. \u201cYou\u2019re gonna have to do that one again. It came out a little flat.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The panel\u2019s audience went silent, as did the studio, Jean said. \u201cI was like, I\u2019m f\u2014ed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBaby, it\u2019s not flat \u2026 I bent the note,\u201d Houston replied. Jean went back and replayed the tape. She was right.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat just blew my mind,\u201d Jean said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WILLIAMSBURG \u2014 The ninth annual On Air Fest wrapped up its final day of programming on Thursday, Feb.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[156,2571,2572,98,100,99,9,24,63,62191,7994,2578,2579],"class_list":["post-148338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-alec-baldwin","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-bklyn-live","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-owen-lavine","tag-podcasts","tag-premium","tag-premium-content"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}