Somebody is making me the only one in the room....
Sorry that it's been a few days since an update but my schedule from Thursday through yesterday was sleep and work. That's all I did. Every year we do a radiothon for the Children's Miracle Network and all the money we raise stays local and benefits our local children's hospital, T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital. In 3 days, everyone on staff worked 40+ hours.
Thursday:
3:30 a.m. - Get up, shower, get dressed
4:15 a.m. - Leave for work
4:45 a.m. - Arrive at work; dub in Ace & TJ network spots and set up radiothon BBars.
6:00 a.m. - Special radiothon Ace & TJ on the air
10:00 a.m. - Special radiothon Ace & TJ off the air
10:15 a.m. - Arrive at Shoney's on Shallowford; set up table and buckets to collect donations
12:00 p.m. - Leave Shoney's
12:10 p.m. - Arrive back at station and take advantage of free lunch from Rib & Loin
1:00 p.m. - Begin going over material in the radiothon "on air notebook."
2:00 p.m. - Co-host radiothon with Heather
3:30 p.m. - relieved from co-hosting duties
4:00 p.m. - arrived somewhere (I honestly can't remember) to set up table and buckets to collect change
6:15 p.m. - arrive back at station from above task
7:45 p.m. - leave station for home
8:30 p.m. - go to bed
Friday:
3:45 a.m. - get up, shower, get dressed
4:20 a.m. - leave apartment
4:35 a.m. - pick up Andy
4:50 a.m. - arrive at work
5:00 a.m. - go over logs and traffic sponsorships, etc
6:00 a.m. - special radiothon edition of Ace & TJ
8:20 a.m. - During a power hour, I break down a cry on the radio. It's pure gold. The CMN radiothon consultant says nothing gets listeners to call more than hearing a jock be affected by what was just played. We had played a montage of a 5-year-old girl who'd had a tumor in her stomach the size of a watermelon. As I was sobbing on the air, haha, I was saying, "At 21, I had my appendix removed and I thought that was painful. I cannot imagine a 5-year-old small girl with a tumor the size of a watermelon."
8:30 a.m. - Heather had been listening in the break room; accuses me of trying to kill her.
10:00 a.m. - Ace & TJ off the air; I work as mediator between the hospital people in the conference room and the jocks in the studio; Andy wants us all to be emotional on the air.
10:20 a.m. - Mike & Heather cry on the air when talking to a girl who's in the hospital with leukemia.
12:00 p.m. - LUNCH!
1:00 p.m. - review notes again
2:00 p.m. - Co-host with Heather
3:00 p.m. - off the air
3:15 p.m. - head to airport to pick up Yankee Pete
3:40 p.m. - back from the airport; pick up the Kiss vehicle and Cara and head to Wal-Mart
4:00 p.m. - Set up tables and buckets to collect change at Wal-Mart
5:00 p.m. - Andy makes me cry by interviewing his mom about the death of his infant sister at 6 months
6:00 p.m. - pack up and head back to the studio
7:00 p.m. - Spainman's goodbye party at Smokey Bones
8:30 p.m. - Take Yankee Pete to his hotel room
9:06 p.m. - Go to bed to the sounds of my roommate's girfriend screaming and moaning "Oh baby, oh baby...yes, yes...oh yes...right there...yes yes yes."
Saturday:
5:40 a.m. - Roll over, look at clock and think I'm running horribly late.
5:41 a.m. - realize it's Saturday and go back to sleep
6:45 a.m. - get up, shower, get dressed
7:30 a.m. - leave apartment
8:00 a.m. - arrive at work, begin voicetracking
9:00 a.m. - pick up Yankee Pete at hotel
9:15 a.m. - back to station
9:45 a.m. - Hospital people arrive; bring breakfast
11:00 a.m. - go into the studio to listen to Cara's story
11:05 a.m. - crying
11:10 a.m. - more crying
11:15 a.m. - still crying
11:20 a.m. - crying stops as we go into commericals
11:30 a.m. - Riverstreet deli sends sandwiches, chips, and pickles for lunch; Red Lobster sends 3 dozen cheese biscuits....I have a pickle and 4 biscuits for lunch :-x
12:30 p.m. - Pack up the vehicle and head with Cara to Wal-Mart
1:00 p.m. - Set up table and buckets to collect change at Wal-Mart
4:30 p.m. - pack up and leave Wal-Mart
5:00 p.m. - arrive at station; sit in the break room and do nothing but rest
5:45 p.m. - pile into the studio with 35 other people to begin the beginning of the end.
6:00 p.m. - Radiothon ends; thanking of people begins
6:04 p.m. - Final total raised over the three days announced; lots of cheering, applause, noise makers, and those things that pop and shoot confetti.
In case you're wondering, over the course of three days we raised $37,000 for the Children's Miracle Network and T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital. Last year we raised $39,000. After we went off the air, the chairperson of the radiothon from the hospital, Judy, wanted to speak with all of us in the studio. She was, like, "I know that you were all concerned with meeting what you raised last year. However, over the course of the past three days, each and every one of you have stopped me individually at different times and told me how much doing this radiothon, spending time with these Miracle Children, and spending time at our hospital has changed your life and that, to me, is a bigger reward than the money you raise. I look so forward to working with all of you again next year."
I'm gonna close this entry with a quote from a cystic fibrosis patient at T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital. I said it a lot while I was on the air because I really like it.
"Yesterday is a memory, tomorrow is a mystery, today is an opportunity."