Adventures in Hosting

You all are so sweet to put up with all my stories. {As if you have a choice.} {I guess you could choose not to read.} So here's one I'm writing partly to share a story with you and partly to chronicle a HUGE day in my life!

I remember the day I was a guest on Mid-Morning...way back in 2010. I was s.o.  n.e.r.v.o.u.s.

The same was true of the day I engineered on my own for the first time. I remember pacing around in the studio, wishing one of the guys would come in to shoot the breeze...and simultaneously distract me from my anxiety

Those levels of FREAKING OUT can compare to my yesterday...when I did my very first solo hosting. Lynne was not in the building. I repeat. Lynne was not in the building.

For the last two weeks, I've gradually taken over hosting our Thursday BLT show...first by taking the lead on the conversation from my familiar seat and then last week by actually sitting in the host's chair for the day. Both times, Lynne was right there, and had anything gone wrong, she would have 
bailed me out.

Not yesterday. Yesterday the burden of responsibility was all mine.

Jim Barron {of our morning team} served as my co-host and engineer. Jim's been in radio forever and little things like filling in with the newbie don't even cause him to blink. Me? Well, I was the one printing out color copies of the show's layout and explaining to him that everything in green was his responsibility. I was the one setting up the board and double/triple checking it to make sure everything was in place. I was the one praying this would NOT be the day I had some sort of vocabulary malfunction, causing me to say words that should never be uttered on the airwaves.

In short, before the show, here's how the two of us looked:

The show got underway and we picked and plodded our way through the format so familiar to me and so very NOT like the morning show Jim is used to doing. He was so much fun though and put up with fiction and Pinterest chatter...and then we got down to our topic for the day.

I declared the phone lines open about 25 minutes into the show and glanced down to watch them ring.

Nothing.

I casually reminded listeners about 10:30 that they could call anytime now. Annnnnnnnnnnytime at all.

Nothing.

By 10:40 I was convinced I was either the absolute worst show host in the history of show hosts or something had gone wrong with the phones.

My producer/engineer brain sped into high gear and even while I talked with Jim, my wheels turned, trying to figure out what was wrong with those phones and how I could get them fixed without leaving my chair.

No solution came to mind.

About 15 minutes before the end of our show, the midday host showed up in the studio next door to prep for his show. And that's when he found it. The one teeny tiny little button that had been accidentally activated and kept the phones from ringing. Whoopsie! He set the button free and the lines flooded.

WHEW.

I wasn't the worst show host in the history of show hosts. And with the exception of addressing one caller by the wrong name as I said goodbye, I didn't mess up any of the phone calls!

At 11:00, we closed the show and I breathed a MASSIVE sigh of relief in my chair. I hosted!! And I even hosted through the phone drama!!!

When I was struggling to pass high school speech class, I had no idea this was my future. God is pretty mysteriously wonderful.