I had no idea there were so many things to keep track of when deejaying. Every new form of sound that you use--voice on mic, mini-disc track, CD track, mp3 file--requires that you push the correct, poorly labeled button and often push up the little scroll-y bar thing. What the hell are those called? Anyway, for each transition, I’d panic, trying to figure out which thing to fade up and which thing to fade down. Plus, people kept walking in and giving us suggestions for things we should add to spice up the show--during the show! For example, the silly trumpet news theme music was added at the last minute. Because BU doesn’t have an abandoned radio studio for students to practice on, we couldn’t really practice unless we practiced on air, or at least that is what they told us. And to top it all off, we had to write intros and modify stories on the fly while the mini-disc tracks were playing. It was quite exciting. I think I had enough adrenaline pumped into my veins to lift a car. I didn’t come down for another hour at least.
I didn’t even get into the writing part of it. I hadn’t realized that most of the writing on deadline that I do involves knowing the stuff before hand and then writing it all quickly. The time I spend beforehand is what I call “percolation time.” You don’t get any of that in the newsroom. Plus, radio writing needs to be a lot more interesting to hold the listener’s attention. Or, perhaps all of my writing needs to be more interesting. Hmm…I’m thinking I am learning more than I thought I would from this whole experience. We’ll see how it goes next week.
To listen to the archive, follow the link to the WTBU website. Go to “Schedule” and look for the 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm “Rock Block.” You have to scroll to about an hour and a half into the show to hear Nina and me.
[Image from: http://www.uncleozzie.com/trips/reviews.html]
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