On the Radio

I attended a fundraiser about a month ago for SLMOSF.  It's a fantastic organization, founded by my good friend, Keath Hausher, who also runs Shark Fitness (boot camp).  I was bidding on a basket from radio station 106.5 (the arch!), that included an hour on-air.  I would get to pick the music and serve as the guest DJ...SWEET!

I didn't think I'd do well off-the-cuff, so rather than tape the show live, I opted to pre-record my segment.

On Wednesday, I showed up at the radio station, stepped into the booth and had a microphone shoved under my nose.  Actually, that's not true.  Rick Wallace was incredibly kind and helpful.  At first I though I could wing it with just a few notes (just get the call sign right, I kept thinking), but, hey, I'm a writer, not a speaker.  So, I took Rick's offer of a notepad and pen, and I wrote - word for word - what I wanted to say each of the 7 times I was on-air.

Let's get this straight - I'm no DJ. But I do love music. I pulled together a list of my top 30 songs, which was cut down to about 12.  I won't divulge them here, as that would kill the spontaneity and joy of listening in.  Geez, the 70s and 80s were such great decades for music, weren't they?

But I digress.

I sweated through the first 20-second intro, and then got a little more confident with each reading.  Poor Rick - he kept trying to get me to bring my voice up a few octaves, but I was having none of that.  I hate the sound of my voice.  Most of us would say the same, I think.  It has something to do with our ear drums, and the vibration of our jaw.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I don't have a great voice - jaw vibrations notwithstanding.

At the end of my hour, Rick was kind enough to tell me I wasn't half bad.  Even thought I had a "cool" voice. (um, really? No, my new friend, you have the voice, which is why you have the day job!).  But, who knows? Maybe I've got a second career ahead of me... if the full time gig, the three kids, and the freelance writing thing are just not keeping me busy enough, (I've got a plethora of responsibilities as it is - that was for you, Rick) maybe Kevin'll want to put me on-air!  You know, during the holidays, 5am on Saturday, or hey, Sunday nights at 8:00.  I could have my own show...

"Just Beth!  Comin' atchya from Beautiful Downtown Ballwin!  Shakin' things up and slowin' things down... Turn it up and get down! Don't you go changin' (that dial)...we'll be right back with more of your favorites right after these messages..."

Ha, ha.  Reminds me of an awesome tv show from back in the day...

Les and Johnny on WKRP in Cincinnati

I'm thinking I can bring back old-school radio.  It must have been quite a feat for those DJs back in the 70s who had to cue up a song, drop the needle, talk the talk, answer the phone (hey! you're the fifth caller!) and read the news, weather and traffic updates.  Whew!  I barely got through 7 taped segments that all together added up to only about 2 1/2 minutes.  And I gotta tell ya...I was mentally exhausted!

But... it sure was fun.  Listen in if you get a chance.  This Sunday night at 8pm.  On... you guessed it...

Kevin? Rick? Whaddya think?  Good stuff, eh?