I'm Quitting My Day Job to be a DJ!

Not really.

I guess I need to recap all that's gone on since posting about doing a "Your Turn" hour on a local radio station. I didn't know what to expect when the show finally aired. I thought it might not be horrible, but also feared it might be pretty bad.

I was wrong.

In the days leading up to the show, I would hear the promos for it. I'd hear my voice talking over Derek and the Dominos' "Bell Bottom Blues" (which was the first song on my playlist). Those promos freaked me out at first. They helped me calm my nerves though. They allowed me to hear myself on the radio before the show was broadcast. I do have a pretty good speaking voice when I turn it on. And you know I turned it on for this! So by the time the show was actually on the air, I was past all of the "Is that what I sound like?" obsessiveness. I'd already moved onto, "Hey, I don't sound half bad."

It's not hard to sound good for 20 seconds. Anyone can hold it together for that short a period. My fear, then, was that I would screw up the commentary somehow. It's not like anything was written down other than the promos. I was told to talk about the songs on my playlist. Period.

On more than one occasion, I'd heard "Your Turn" DJs say nothing interesting about their playlists. Nothing. And those were shows that I would just turn off. Well, I didn't want anyone turning off my show! I guess you could say I crammed . . . a bit. I'd planned to really write some things down the day before the taping. My son was to have six teeth removed while under oral sedation. I figured I could bust out some thoughts while he was under. Of course, the world being what it is, things did not go as planned. The person who administers oral sedation was not there the day we went in (to the School of Dentistry at a local university). The child was not amused. And it took a lot of talking, and some bribery, to get him go through with the extractions. Needless to say, I wasn't thinking about my show while all of that was going on. I was holding my kid's hand, talking him down off the ledge, etc. By the time we got home, he was toothless but fine. I was exhausted. That night, I just jotted down a few thoughts about each song and left it at that.

When the show finally came on, I was a bit nervous. I thought I'd rambled nonsensically about everything and anything while they were taping. My notes seemed to confuse me at times. I lost my place a few times. This is why I truly feared a trainwreck.

Alas, the show turned out well. People said they liked what I said about the songs I chose. Almost everyone said I sounded relaxed, like I was an honest-to-goodness DJ!

I'm glad it's over. I can't say I wouldn't jump at the chance to do it again!