The breakfast radio diaries 001 - Swing too hard

It's been a solid and very busy 7 years since I was last in the breakfast radio chair. And now I'm relearning everything from the ground up. Like today when I over-hyped myself up to the point where I kept tripping over things..

The alarm was set for 4:30 am and then just in case another was set at 4:35. It turns out I didn't need them as I woke up every two hours anyway, looking at the phone to make sure I hadn't accidentally slept in (every breakfast announcers worst nightmare.)
Then the cat swung by and nuzzled my face ten minutes before go time - I'd like to say that was for good luck but no, she sensed I was awake and wanted me to get my food.

A quick shower, got dressed in the dark with the clothes I'd left out the night before then headphones on and into the still dark morning to stroll to work.

Actually scratch that - it was more a determined strut on account on the fact that I'd decided to both wake myself up and also hype up the excitement of day 1 after such a long time away with a 'punch the world in the face' play list.

Which included everything from Dave Brubeck jazzing away on his piano: 

To the Demigodz making me feel like I could out punch Rocky Balboa by listening to this quite a few times over the 2.5 kms to work. (Seriously if you need a pick me up, this is brilliant.)

And after a few rounds of Bill Conti and hard hitting hip hop, I was super pumped by the time I hit the studio. 
Actually a little too pumped.  

I'd managed to amp myself up so much that when six o clock rolled around and the show started, mentally my tacho was well and truly stuck in the red zone. So intent on making this new show the best show ever on top of a bout of nerves after so long away from working with someone (hi Lu) in a live as live gets environment, I actually made more little mistakes than if I did had I walked into listening to something a little more sedate. Like a podcast or the songs we play before the show starts.I talked faster than my brain could catch up to, stumbled over words and effectively felt like I'd run through walls rather than walked smoothly into people's radios and broadcasting devices. 

Still, I kept us on air and didn't drop the F bomb. That's definitely a win in my book!

Let's see if we can walk in with a cooler head tomorrow hey? :)

'HOW'D YOU GO DAY ONE?'

I got this question from a few co workers this morning and I likened it to holding a brand new sledgehammer in your hands. You're going to need just enough swing to knock out that wall ahead of you in the most satisfying way.

Over-revved me however swung enough times to level the entire place and look confused in amongst all the rubble. Whoops. But hey, it's early days right? By the end of this week we should have some smooth sailing ahead! (Fingers crossed)

CLUSTER ME CONFUSED

'It probably wouldn't hurt to have a box of cerial so you can eat something after every show.' -Awesome wife

A great idea so over the weekend I went and grabbed a box of supposed clustures of oats and chocolate bits. I figured they'd be tiny slithers of chocolate too but no..

Seriously, it's like they built the clusters, looked at the box cover and went 'Hold on, the chocolate is supposed to be part of it!' and just threw a boatload into the box to cover all bases.

I don't think I need this much sugar straight after talking at a million mph across three hours..

HEY THANKS FOR THE WELL WISHES

It's been a truly busy time in the lead up to this morning, day one - press releases, interviews, Facebook posts and promos. I get a massive kick when my name ends up on a radio website somewhere and it's turned up on a few over the last fortnight. But as good as that's been, nothing's beaten the level of response I've had from some amazing people in the lead up. I'd name them all here but I know I'd miss a few with the amount of emails, texts, Facebook messages and calls I've had recently. 

What I will say is thank you - when I first kicked off my breakfast radio career back in 07, I don't think I had a quarter of the response that I experienced for the second go round.

From friends to family, current co-workers to the legends I've worked with in other stations - each well wish and has meant so much so thank you.

FIRST DAY DISASTERS

Hilariously, this was our first talk topic - those jobs you've had where you start at 9am and stuff up so badly, you're out of work again come lunch. For me this was my very first week in radio way back when, when I'd foolishly agreed to look after the Thursday night football show.

What do I know about local football? Nothing.

And after a quick lesson on the old panel desk that the show would be going through, I thought I'd be good to go no matter what happened. Just click the phone button 3 times before putting someone to air and you're good to go.

Like this but even older!

Which of course I completely forgot to do. And so the first time I introduced local footy expert Max on the phone, he wasn't there. He was there holding the line but the desk didn't bring him through (only clicked the button once, should have been three times. Some kind of antiquated fail safe perhaps?). I played a song, came back and tried again.

No Max. Well he was still there lurking on hold, just not going to air when he should.

I played some ads, came back and reintroduced Max to the world. Then yelled 'Where the F### is Max?' rather loudly in frustration, completely forgetting the mic was live. The general manager then called and reminded me that I needed to click the button three times and hold back on the swearing.

Still kept my job though, winner!

Let's see what happens on the second day though...wish me luck! :P

-Almigo