The Start of a Dream

Hey, see I told you that posts would be coming more frequently now. lol...the only reason for this one is I'm sitting on my couch and feeling like complete shit :( Hardly got any sleep last night, I have a headache, the chills, aching all over, a fever...and more (if you know what I mean with that.) It's kind of weird. Last night I felt completely fine and then I try to go to bed and an hour later I'm up and feeling like this. It's probably the bug that's been going around. I know what you're thinking. Spring break is over and I just don't want to go back :) Not right though. I had every intention of going back today...but it looks like that isn't happening. I just hope I feel up to par for Tuesday because I have to go to my internship...I already didn't go on one day in February because I was sick, I don't want to do that again. Anyway, I have frequently been asked how I started in radio or what got me interested in radio. So to come today I answer all of those questions. If you are trying to break in or are just interested as doing it as a hobby, make sure you read this. Everyone does it differently, but I have some suggestions too. So I'll start at the beginning. I was a sophmore in high school when I became "obsessed" with a local radio station--a Clear Channel station (97.9 KISS-FM). I went to their "Survival Island" that they held that year and observed things. At that point I was only about 15 years old, so of course I was into guys. So one of the guys they had working for them was totally hot!! lol...seriously though. Anyway, I started listening more to the radio and I became a very lucky listener. I won just about every 30 days off of the station...in 2002 I won tickets to an *NSync concert, a Backstreet Boys concert, the TRL tour, and an O-Town concert. In 2002 I won tickets to a Mary J. Blige concert and a Sheryl Crow/Michelle Branch concert. Plus so many CD's I lost count. Also in between times I would win for other people. So because of that many of the DJ's began to know me by name. I developed a couple nicknames from them. Kenny, who is the promotions director and an on-air person, at the time was on in the evening with his co-host Roadrunner. I would call in to win something. They would ask who it was and I would say "Kim." Kenny would laugh and say "Dunner." Then the guy in I mentioned earlier (the "hot" guy) had his own nickname for me. Shaun (that's his name) would call me K-Dunne whenever I won from him. Anyway, I was hooked on "hanging out" with these people. Thus I got many of my friends doing it too...Steph, Amanda and Amanda were a few of my friends that I often would go up to the station with. So as time went on I gradually started to think that it would be cool to be on the radio and have people listening to you. So both Kenny and Shaun told me they had went to Herkimer County Community College to study Radio/TV Broadcasting and it was the best decision they had ever made. So I started to look in to HCCC. In my senior year, during this search, a whole bunch was happening in my "relationships" at the station. Kenny was so full of himself and was positive I liked him. He said some very mean things to me (which I'm not going to go into). Then Steph and Shaun started to date (I think they still do). And in the end, Steph and I stopped talking. We went to HCCC together and we're both at UC together now, but we don't talk very often. So by the end of high school, I didn't talk to anyone at the station anymore and I didn't win anything from them. Fast forward to HCCC. It was the best decision I had ever made...for many reasons. I took many classes in both audio production (using Cool Edit Pro) and television production (using Avid Editing) Plus Sales classes and all of those fun legal classes. So in my freshman year there, I was online one day and I was contacted by Peter Naughton (the Program Director of Lite 98.7 at the time). He had left me a message and asked me to e-mail him sometime because he was looking for part-time people at the station and he previously employed people from HCCC. So we exchanged a few e-mails and then I went in to have an audition. Of course I totally sucked at that. lol...but in my senior year I was hired mainly for overnights. I did overnights for about a year before moving in to days. You should listen to air checks that I did when I first started and listen to them now...sounds like a totally different person in my opinion. Then soon I was on during the holidays when the full-timers were off and then I started to fill in for mid-day and afternoon drive, and that brings us to the present, where I'm working every weekend and alternating working the all 80's Saturday Night. So now as I promised to those reading this that want to break in to the business, some suggestions that I have come up with. For one, if you bomb the audition process, it's not the end of the world. Befriend those at local radio stations (it didn't work for me) but it could lead to an internship or a job at some point. Or they may give you some life changing guidance. Practice your speaking skills. Know how to say W (double-you). Lastly if you have the ability to make a demo tape/CD on your computer, then do that. Just something that shows that you can talk and know the format of the station that you are applying for. So that was my experience at becoming a DJ, a dream that did come true...to end the post, I'll say that I saw Kenny in the store around Christmas and he acted as if nothing had ever happened between us. He said he listens to me now. My mom suggested that it's because I'm more mature and am doing what he does now. I didn't give him the time of day...I said "Hi" and walked away. Hey if you have any questions, feel free to ask me! Lastly, being that I'm under the weather today, there will probably be another post coming, so stay tuned!