- 2:30 PM, Tuesday, June 6th,
1995:
- Meeting #1. So I'm nervous as
shit. Both Mike and Bill are extremely nice. They
don't make me read anything, we just sit around this
little table and talk. I make a kick ass impression. I
said how I went to a remote for WBNS and met the
jocks, and watched what they did. Bill thought that
was pretty cool I took the initiative to do that. He
said he liked my attitude. I also said that I had the
entire summer, night and day, open since I lost the
Gatorade job. This was good. He assured me some sort
of job doing something even if I don't get the DJ
thing. He said that he had to (by law) interview more
people, but if he had to go by tape alone he'd go with
me! However if someone came in with on-air experience
he'd have to go with them. He suggested I sit in with
Dave Meckley this Friday, and run the board for
awhile. Then Saturday night I could go on from 2 to 4.
So they're basically giving me time to get on-air
experience. It seems as if they want me and will give
me opportunities to get the job. I also asked them
about BJ and they sort of laughed at me like "oh,
well, uhh..." like he sucked. Mike said that he had
"puke on his voice", and that DJ's at B97 seem to do
that. Anyway there is absolutely no competition
between me and him. I said that he had more experience
than me, and Mike said "not for long". It was a great
meeting. Can you believe this?
-
- 10:00 PM, Thursday, June
8th, 1995:
- Meckley called me and talked to
me about Friday. Dave was my training buddy my first
quarter at Otterbein, we kind of hit it off. He was
the Production Director at WOBN and the overnight DJ
at WTVN, I really looked up to him. Strangely enough
I visited him at WTVN last fall, he even put Burg
in a WOBN
promo. He really spruced
up WOBN with his access to digital production at WTVN.
Then when the administration changed, like it does
every year, I got the Production Director Job...and
now this? I asked him not to go into prostitution
- I couldn't handle following his career that
close. He dropped out of school and now is ending up
having to quit his WTVN job and now here I am. He
seemed excited, and I was ready to do all I could to
get this job.
-
- 10:45 PM - 7:15 AM, Friday -
Saturday, June 9th - 10th, 1995:
- Whoa. It was nice seeing Dave
again. We went in and started show prep, basically
getting stories from the AP wire. The first hour was
crazy. I said that there was no way that I could do
this. It was almost too loose. All this dead air to
fill. Sometimes you talk, then you play a song, then
maybe read off the stories, or... I wanted it like
WOBN, play this, then this, then here, then there. But
no. And none of this get within 5 minutes of the top
hour ID. You had to hit it on the second. So I was
scared. After the first hour, I started manning the
boards. I would even talk when Dave pressured me into
it. I screwed up a couple of times, but did alright. I
told Dave that the next night I would have to be on
and alone for at least 4 hours. If I was going to have
the job after this weekend, I wanted to be tight. So I
struggled through a few more breaks, and felt a little
more confident. I figured out the routine, and it
seemed pretty easy, but doing the top hour thing
seemed impossible. After the shift Dave and I went
into the production room and messed around, and he
told me the real reason he was quitting and why no one
had seen him for so long. Before he had told me he was
just burnt out, but that coupled with the fact that he
tried to kill himself, and after they pumped his
stomach he was in a psycho ward for 4 and 1/2 days,
well that kind of made him reevaluate his life a bit.
So that's why I got this great opportunity. Man,
opportunity knocks in strange ways.
-
- 10:45 PM - 6:15 AM, Saturday
- Sunday, June 10th - 11th, 1995:
SHOW 1
- Tonight had a whole different
feel to it. I would be on from 1:00 to 5:00 (taping
from 3 to 5), and for the two taping hours, that would
determine my job. I was controlling my own destiny. We
did our show prep, and at midnight Dave went on and I
watched him like a hawk for anything I could use. Then
at 1 it was my turn. Dave went and played video games,
and I.....kicked ass. It all came together once he
left. I told him I may need his help getting to the
top of the hour, but back timing was really pretty
simple and I nailed it. As the hours passed I was more
and more comfortable. I stumbled a bit on a break (the
only one my father happened to be listening to), but
hey, I'm human. Overall it was awesome. At 5:00 I took
my tape out and went into the production room and
listened to it. I also made a quick version of "Danny
Boy" on the AKG. What took me 6 hours before (because
some fuck-up was engineering) took me under 4 minutes.
When Dave and I left, he said "good luck", and I said
I had done "everything I could to get this job, now
it's up to them to go with me." We said goodbye, and
that was it.
-
- 1:00 AM, Monday, June 12th,
1995:
- In the heat of an argument
about a grill (an argument in which I was in the
wrong), it comes out that Burg is extremely jealous of
me getting this thing at WTVN, and that she regrets
leaving OU, because there she had everything and now
she has nothing. ALRIGHTY THEN. There went my heart. I
was two seconds from leaving her the moment she said
that. She was jealous because I was getting the
opportunities and she wasn't. What was I supposed to
say? It was totally unfair, she was right. I don't
even want to be in broadcasting. I'm a
singer/songwriter, I basically fell into this job that
Burgundie's wanted for a long time. I knew that she
needed to deal with this on her own time and I
couldn't help her. It sucks that we're in the same
field. I got the chance quicker at Otterbein. And Burg
left OU for more reasons than just me, I hope. So this
blows up and gets nasty. By the end of the night, we
make up, and she feels that now since she told me
she's jealous she'll be fine. I guess, but it still
seems like a matter of time until this all happens
again. Or she'll hold it in for years until we're
having our first child, and then right there, in the
delivery room: "You knew I fuckin' wanted to be a
DJ...."
-
- 12:30 PM, Monday, June 12th,
1995:
- Mike calls me and says that he
wanted to make sure this weekend was open, and that he
needed someone for this Wednesday. I said yes on both
parts. Bill also wants to meet with me at 2:30
tomorrow. ?!?! They don't even have my aircheck
yet.
-
- 3:15 PM, Monday, June 12th,
1995:
- I dropped my tape off to Mike
Perkins personally, and had my fingers crossed, then I
went to a movie to relax. I saw Die Hard 3, but I
tried to relax anyway.
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