It's Been A Long Time

Wow. It’s been a while since I’ve written. Let me bring you up to speed. Since my last post - the nervous breakdown one, I’ve taken a vacation. The week after that I did nothing. I slept until I woke up (which was usually around noon or so) and then did whatever I wanted to do. I only had a few things that were “scheduled” for me to do that week, and that was it. The rest of the time, my time was mine. It was great. I got to see my good friend Stretch while he was in town and nearly everyone else that I am friends with up there that week. While some plans fell through, there will be other weekends.
I came back that Saturday afternoon to get a head-start on all the computer work necessary for the station. I got back to Effingham and realized how tired I was and didn’t do squat on Saturday but read and watch TV. Sunday I started and worked a few hours doing prep work for the change-over. This was mainly downloading and editing audio elements for the change. I then went to church, watched The Simpsons and called it a night. Mainly because the next morning I was asked to fill in for my boss who normally does the morning show. This was also the reason why my vacation was cut a little bit short. That, and I was pretty sure I didn’t take out the garbage and it must have been pretty bad by this point.
So, I took care of the morning show and did what I needed to do at the station and a bit more prep work and called it a day. I watched 24 (the best show on TV) and called it a night.
I went to work the next morning and hung out with my boss for a while and then buried my nose in my work. She was called into the boss’s office and was in there for about ten minutes. She came out and went straight to her desk. I finished typing whatever I was typing and went over to find out what that was all about. “I was just fired” she let me know. I started to smile, assuming she was kidding. When she didn’t crack one, I knew that she was serious. “WHY?” I asked. Before I got an answer, the boss called me into his office.
“Oh crap. I’ve been through this before.” That was what was going through my head. But, instead of a pink slip, he just wanted to let me know what had happened and was trying to gauge my reaction. Shock had completely set in, so I’m gathering that he didn’t get much out of me. It was a lot of quiet “yes” or “no” responses from me. Even from open ended questions. This surely must have scrambled his egg.
So, I went back to the now assembled support circle around my boss. They looked up at me to ask if I was out too. I just shook my head and we all went back to helping her get her things together. I paused for just a minute to put Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” on loop on my work computer to set the right mood as we got her files and CD’s together. (We’re in radio - majority of our personal belongings are in audio form)
And in what seemed like minutes, she was gone. And it was then time for me to be on the air. And pretend I was happy and chipper. I was going to be doing the morning show until the company figured out what the hell they were going to do. The night girl was going to do my shift and then her shift was going to be covered by the weekend guru. So, in a game of musical chairs of on-air people, we got things covered - barely. But, should one of us fall ill, the entire system would have gone out of whack. Luckily, it didn’t.
I was approached during my show with the question of whether or not we would be ready to start the satellite programming that evening. “Absolutely not” was my quick statement. The boss was a bit taken aback by my direct response to his question, but knew immediately, without hesitation that we were far from being able to take over this satellite crap.
I did the morning show the next day. I let the listeners know about my boss’ firing several times on the air that day and the others to follow. The first day on the morning show, the second I got off the air, I got a call from someone in management. They said that the corporate offices were up their ass trying to figure out when our station would be on board with this satellite junk. I let her know that I was still waiting for some audio elements for the broadcast for things to sound good. She asked for a date when we would be up and rolling. I let her know that as soon as I got them in, we’d be good to go. “So, if you got them today, you could go tonight?” I then told her tomorrow. Tomorrow we’d be up and running. That was what she wanted to hear - a date.
So, I put some extra work on me. Fun stuff. So, long story short, that was a good 14 hour day. Maybe more. But, we got all the bugs worked out and things were rolling on the stupid satellite. (btw, as of today, I still don’t have that audio!) Things don’t sound perfect, but the damn thing is up and rolling.
The next day, the boss asked me into his office and asked if I wanted my boss’ job. How weird. My best friend in Effingham had to get fired for me to move up in this company. I took it. Hell, I was doing it already, why not get another thing to put on my resume’ and a bit more cash. Well, a lot more cash. And I got her blessing before I was asked, so I took it.
So, I’m now managing two radio stations at the same time and I am reminded of Howard Stern’s movie “Private Parts” when he says something like “Me. I was program director. I had no idea what I was doing. But, these people bought it. They thought I was good. And I was making more money.”
So, it began. I’m still doing mornings. We are still looking for someone to help me with the 10,000 things that I’m responsible for. The stress that I was feeling in the last post is now over, but I’m afraid it will be back. Hopefully I will be back on afternoons so I can still sleep until 10 and enjoy my nights. where he says waking up at 5am really sucks. And there have been several times where the snooze button has become my worst enemy.
That, in a huge-ass nutshell, is what has happened since my last post. I’ll keep you posted (no pun intended) on any new developments. And, no. There is no female news. Jeez, who can think of women when you are responsible for two radio stations. Well, I can. Screw the radio stations, there are more important things in life! Shalom (That’s for all my Jewish readers celebrating Passover)