Well that wasn’t a complete waste of time – I did (quickly) learn how to run the radio station during a crisis.
Now, a lot of people learn best from a book or a lecture in school. I don’t.
See, I grew up with an older brother who belongs in MENSA. So I didn’t get a chance to learn like a regular kid growing up. I didn’t get to use the “instruction book” on my legos, I couldn’t read “Clifford” because I was supposed to be reading Faulkner, and God forbid I actually want to collect baseball cards for fun – it was an investment for the future, of course.
I was always in the shadows of intellect. And that shadow was cast by someone only three years older than me.
So I learned how to learn by screwing up. Because when your brother can build an erector set from the picture you learn pretty quickly how to improvise when stuff breaks. Because it did. Because I, too, didn’t use the instruction book. And when things did break, I refused to acknowledge it.
How could I, really? Doctor MENSA could do it… so could I. Except, I couldn’t.
Anyway.
As most of you probably gathered the show had a small hiccup about 14:43 into the show when the interview abruptly stopped, paused for a good minute, and then Top 40 radio resumed. Well, when uploading the original interview between myself and Colt Murray the file was chopped and screwed – and cut off at a little over four minutes.
That isn’t a HUGE deal. I’ve had interviews end abruptly/unexpectedly on me before – and they were LIVE! Having a pre-recorded interview end early is odd, but nothing too crazy.
The HUGE deal? I was in the other room and no where near the board.
Or a speaker. More specifically, a speaker with the live-feed from the station.
Whoops.
How long was that dead air anyway? 15- to 30-seconds? A full minute? Something even more frighteningly illegal?
Once I realized NOTHING was being played over the air, I froze – literally. My heart stopped. My lungs stopped expanding and contracting. My brain function ceased for a good three seconds.
It hit me in waves, really. First wave: There is nothing coming out of the “program” speaker. Second wave: There must not be anything playing on the air. Third and final wave: OoooOOH NoooOO!
I haven’t moved that fast in years. I made it around the corner and into the booth on two steps. I stood in-front of the board, automation computer, CD players, Phone patch, compressor and EFT and realized something: It was probably time to learn how to run everything in the booth.
I scrambled to get SOMETHING on the air. After another few seconds of debate I pushed a button I thought I knew the function of, but had been told by the Program Director of all people, “I don’t know what that does..”
The “Fade-N-Go” button as it turns out is made for my exact situation. When a track stops making noise but continues to play. The reason no one knew what it did was because no one (I imagine) had ever gotten themselves into a predicament quite as precarious as mine.
So moments later, crisis solved. Take that FEMA.
The only problem was the interview was half over and I had no way to make a nice segue-way back to the show from half an interview, a minute of dead air, and music that no one expected to hear from another hour and half.
Who does? No really… If you know a good segue-way, please let me know.
So, I frantically called up Colt, frantically cued up some music and frantically thought the best way to handle the situation.
That’s when the seven-year-old in me kicked in. I felt like Big Brother was watching me all over again. And so I did what I did for the majority of my childhood, I refused to acknowledge any fault occurred. I hit the red mic button and moved on like nothing happened at all. It was all planned.
And I learned something… Podcasts are WAY easier.
The Podcasts of the show (below) include the full interview with Colt Murray, the crisis edited out and no Top 40 music
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