On the air...

Well I've only been living in Nelson just over 2 months and have already made it on to local radio two times. The first time was about a month back when the office I'm temping at won some sort of contest. The receptionist had submitted the office for something and we ended up with morning tea (pastry, pies, etc). So a couple of the radio crew came in and did a quick interview. Of course the two of us in the office at the time were both from the States. They picked up on this rather quickly and announced to all their listeners. The guy interviewing us was live and ended up conversing with his colleagues back at the station after all of our statements. His part of the conversation was littered with short responses like “yeah” or “That’s right” or “I bet” followed by laughing. Great. Since our radio was turned down, I can only guess at what they were saying.

Today was time #2. We won another contest – workplace of the week - through another station and received Subway sandwiches and cookies. The mentioned we would get called throughout the day to be interviewed and make requests. First time they call I’m the only one there. Lady asks me some general questions about what I do and what I’d like to hear. We weren’t live at the time and I figured she’d just play the request. Come to find out we were being taped and 30 minutes or so later our edited conversation was played on the air. Probably about 20 seconds of our chat. She took out all the parts about my musical tastes (I think it was the mention of alternative and punk that helped get that cut) and the station that I usually listen to (not hers but ironically owned by the same parent company).

My initial request of Angels & Airwaves was turned down (not sure if she’d even heard of them) and I figured Nelly Furtado would fit in nicely with their play list (see previous blogs about music). Amazing how difficult it is to think of a song to request when you are under that type of pressure – I’m going to carry a list of requests for when this happens again. They ended up playing an older Nelly song since this stations format doesn’t really cover her new stuff (either that or they had just played it).

Next time the lady calls back and I’m still the only one in the office. Was pretty clear she wanted to talk to someone else – made even more clear when she said, “can I talk to someone else” and I informed her I was it. She said she would play the Bee Gees per our request and call back later – she hung up before I said not to do me any favors playing that 70’s trash. I changed the station so I wouldn’t have to listen that the high pitched crap. Final call and the head recruiter requested Pink – even though they had just played her 5 minutes earlier.

So there it is, I’m now the voice of Nelson. I’m thinking of making it a career, I’ve already added the spots to my resume. I’ll end by quoting a famous radio philosopher: “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.” Or maybe that was a yoga instructor?