Over the past few weeks, I've been "time-shifting" the posts on this blog by writing them one one date and setting them up to publish anywhere from a day to a week later. Don't tell anyone, but I used to do something similar when I was working at Radio Metro 105.7 (listen to them online here) while living in Surfers Paradise, Australia.
As part of one of my Master of Arts and Media degree, I had to spend a certain amount of hours working in a media organization for one of my classes. Thanks to my well-connected professor, I was able to get a position as the morning traffic guy for a 105.7, a local radio station.
Two mornings a week, I had to be in the studio by 7am to prepare for the 730am traffic report. It was fun, but it got in the way of prime surfing time (the wind and waves are the best between about six and eight in the morning). Eventually, I managed to get out of traffic report duty and started doing the news on Sunday afternoons.
What this involved was getting into the radio studio about an hour before my 4 o'clock broadcast time to read the day's news and put the appropriate info into the station's news template: a world news story, a Australian news story, a local news story, some sports items, two entertainment or celebrity tidbits, the odd news of the day then banter with the DJ.
Most days, I wouldn't feel like hanging around until 4 to read the news, so the DJ and I would just prerecord it.
On one such day, I woke up at around 10 and hit the beach with only the magnetic keycard for the radio station in the pocket of my boardshorts and my board under my arm. After a couple of hours of surfing, I strolled over the radio station and got ready to read the news. Since I was still soaking wet and sandy from the beach I had to do the news standing up and it felt like the BBC announces in their tuxes from the golden years of radio broadcasting. I was just a little less formal.
My apartment in Surfers Paradise, Australia: on the Radio Metro building behind me, the beach only a few blocks away.
Later that afternoon, I went to a barbecue party at a friend's house and had a couple of beers. A few minutes after 4pm, I was introduced to one of my friend's friends who had just arrived at the party.
"Your voice sounds really familiar," she said. "I think I just heard you on the radio on my way over here."
I told her that it was indeed me and, confused, she asked how I'd gotten to the party so quickly.
"These are the mysteries of radio," I told her, and left it at that.
These days, it is just the mysteries of blogging and not enough surfing.
-Parker