I’ve been on air for more than a year!

I was dreading the broadcast of Rotary at Your Service during this year’s February Fair. Why? Because I never forgot that last year, I was learning the ropes at the LBFM radio booth, and I was committing major blunders on air… many seconds of dead air, leaving the microphone on while the music was playing (therefore, the supposedly off-air discussions were broadcast live), and appearing obviously rattled about it while continuing the broadcast. I had no excuse, except that I was learning how to operate the consoles on my own, without any formal training at all. To add to the pressure, I was co-hosting with one really good journalist (Tito Johnny, of the Rotary Club of West Bay).

Fast forward to 2006. I have been going on board on my own for many episodes (when Tito Johnny was covering news assignments in Manila), and I was gaining confidence in the format of the program, and in my skills. After all, I was more relaxed and I no longer needed to prep the night before just to check if my script would last for an hour of monologue. But then again, it’s the FebFair broadcast, and anything was possible.

Turned out that there really was a surprise! I was going to do the broadcast on my own (which wasn’t the surprise). But to add to the pressure was the addition of live broadcast feeds from the Freedom Park where the Fair was being held. I was briefed about it two minutes before I started the show, and the jock before me just rattled a list of to-do’s at a certain time (add a music bed for the news feed update). As the obedient host that I was, I played the music bed at exactly the right time. But then, a lady came in informing me that I was supposed to wait for 10 more minutes because the field reporters didn’t know that I was ready for them. Some dead air passed, and I was struck dumb. Good thing the lady (the instructor for the field reporters’ class) had presence of mind to say "play something first!" So I did. Whew! Otherwise, I would have remained dumbfounded.

The rest of the Rotary broadcast, and the live field reports, went smoothly. But that episode reminds me that I always have to be on my toes for anything unexpected… this is why broadcasting is exciting!

Since I’ve started volunteering for the radio show, I have reason to be excited on Fridays. The show has been my relaxation time, my chance to de-stress after a hard week’s work.