Today turned out to be my craziest day so far. The plan was for me to go out into Kenwood, dressed as Uncle Sam, and talk to people while handing out stickers to promote the show. More shameless promotion for the show as my efforts were going to be videotaped by Mark the producer. We started out by going over to Dick’s Sporting Goods and Barnes and Noble. We were able to grab lots of good footage over there. Then we made our way over to the Kenwood Towne Centre to interact with people and hand out more stickers. Most of the people I interacted with were pleased to see me and got a few laughs out of my appearance. However, after getting about an hour’s worth of video footage, we were confronted by a security guard who told us we couldn’t videotape in the mall. So we went outside to get a few more shots and then we’d leave. However, the security guard who talked to us came rushing out after us as we approached our car. He told us that we couldn’t tape outside the mall either and if we didn’t leave immediately then we’d both be arrested. This is the extremely short version of the tale, but it covers all the bases. After we were kicked out, we made our way back to the station to finish the show. Comedian Josh Sneed had joined Mo in the studio for the final hour. Towards the end of the show, Mark and I went on the air to tell our story of the day. We got a ton of laughs at our tale, and my characterization of Uncle Sam got everyone cracking up. The edited video will be available on Mo’s blog and my blog at TheLotD.com very shortly. This day didn’t just teach me about promotions, but I built some character too. I have never been that close to being arrested before, and I shouldn’t have because we didn’t do anything wrong. Nevertheless, I gained a lot of respect from my peers for taking one for the team.

I was asked to bring in my iPod so that we could find new bumper music for the show.  Bumper music is the small musical clips that are used to lead the show in from a break.  We just hit the shuffle songs feature on my iPod to find music to use.  Some of it went over well, some not so much, either way it got people talking.  I got through most of the show performing my usual tasks very well.  However, in the third hour Mo called me into the studio to be on the air.  The day before I had called into the Jim Rome Show, a nationally syndicated sports talk show that we carry at 1530 Homer.  It is very hard to get through to the Jim Rome Show on the air, but I was able to get through the many screens and procedures and talk to Jim and the rest of the nation.  Mo wanted to talk to me about the experience because he thought many of our listeners would be interested to know how the process works.  We even found the audio from my call and we replayed it on the air once again.  I felt very grateful to have some more airtime; the more exposure I can get, the more it helps me get a job in the future.

In anticipation of Mo’s return, I decided to step up my game even more. Mark, the show’s producer, had showed me his method of sending Mo topics for the show the night before so Mo could think about what he wanted to talk about. I decided to do the same thing. Therefore, the night before I went out to some websites that they frequent to find some topics to talk about, in addition to the sports news of the day that was obvious, such as the Reds game the night before. When I made my way to Mo’s office before the show started, he took a few moments to say how much he appreciated me taking the extra effort to become a part of the show so fully. I really felt good knowing he took the time to talk to me so seriously. After we headed down to the studio, I was put in charge of calling potential guests to come on with Mo later in the week. I ended up calling some of the most respected and famous baseball writers in the country. I booked Bob Nightengale, a baseball writer for USA Today, to come on the show Wednesday at 10:30. In addition, I performed my usual duties of helping to run the production of the show plus my air-check assignment.

 

Mo had to go out of town to see his younger brother graduate from high school.  That means we were going to have four shows of guest hosts.  From listening to 1530 Homer, I knew that things were not the same when the regular host is not around.  This was also true for the behind the scenes work that goes down on the show.  With Mo out, I had no crazy publicity stunts to do, just basic show production.  However, since I was still new this was a blessing in disguise.  I had an opportunity to really practice running the boards, using the advertising software, and screening calls more efficiently.  Kevin, a producer for Jim Scott's morning show on 700 WLW, showed me how to do air-checks.  Air-checks involve going into the recorded material from that day and locating live commercials that the talent does on-air.  The portion then must be sent to the advertiser so they can give feedback as to whether what they're hearing is acceptable or needs reworking.  I was honored to be given such responsibility in my first couple of days and Kevin said he'd let me do them every day.  Overall, these days were not the most action packed, but I did learn a lot about how the Clear Channel stations work and ways I could make the show better.