Stayin' Awake

Last night I didn't get enough sleep. It was totally my own doing, but things happen for a reason. It reminded me of one of my first overnight stints @ the radio station now some 10 years ago.

I had just been given the morning hours of 12am -6am with 2 hours of production at the end of the shift. It was actually a great shift, got to get up late in the afternoon, then go to work and get home when everyone else was getting to work. I had just bought my first car and things were going great for me, until I started to realize that working odd hours was starting to goof up my sleep rhythms.

I remember I had already arrived at work one day late and wasn't about to let something like sleep interfere with the work I wanted more than anything before that time. Our format at the time differs greatly from what we have now, back in the day we actually ran the control board as well as read the news at the bottom of every hour. Now, due to the wonders of computer technology and various boxes of silly string, we can set the station on auto-pilot and leave the studio.

Back then, we couldn't.

I remember I was seriously behind on some of my show prep work and really needed to prep for the newscast around 12:30am, but was so damn tired, so my efforts on air was a little sub-par at best. I fumbled thru the scripts of the previous hours newscasts and never checked anything before reading them and it showed. I was glad it was over, I had shut off the mic and threw my headphones across the control board in disgust and annoyance of my lack of focus.

Then I got the phone calls.

Not from management, God knows no one in management wanted to hear the early morning jocks doing news updates, but the people who are working in warehouses that were listening to the shows on at that time. They had heard my really sucky attempt at being the next Edward R. Murrow and wanted to chime in on it. It was funny, apparently my voice on the radio sounds different than the one on a telephone apparently, cause this is how the phone call went:

Me: AM Control, how can I help you?
caller: Yeah, I was wondering, who do you guys have reading the news for you now? The guy sounds like he isn't prepared or organized when it comes to reading early morning newscasts and was wondering if everything was OK?
Me: (hurt, but accepted the criticism) Well, the guy we have reading the news [me] is a newbie from school and this is his first time behind a microphone, so he's got a lot to learn.
caller: Oh, he's new? I didn't know.
Me: Yeah, the other guy who was here for the longest time retired and this is who they were able to get right out of school.
caller: Oh, OK, well, I hope you let him know that there are people listening and just let him know that its a tough road out there but to hang in there and he will get better soon.
Me: I will let him know that. Thanks for calling.

I will try and post audio of my voice via a :30 second commercial I did for a non profit out in New Hampshire, but my voice is the same there and on the phone. I don't know whether or not this guy realized during the middle of him talking to me that I was the same person or not, but it was pretty damn funny.

I reminded myself of that while trying to stay awake here at the front desk at the radio station.