DAY 152: 26 JUN 08

Well today did not start off well as Michelle and I kind of got into it early this morning when I was not sleeping well. It was totally my fault as I miss her so much I jumped about basically nothing. I called her when she was on her way to work and got a little bit of the cold shoulder. Everything will be fine I just need to get through these 20 odd days or so.

On the up note things at work went well today. I went in and anchored the newscast which you can see at the bottom. Then I had my radio show from 10:30 to 2:30 at which point I took the time to clean the studio and put ALL of the CDs away. Aside from music CDs we have production CDs that have music, and other elements that we use to produce commercial/ ad spots. Its more announcements because obviously we do not have product spots which are annoying anyway (satellite radio does not have them and that is it's main angle). Anyway I got all of them away and some even rearranged as well. With the new crew coming in this weekend I figured it would be a nice thing to do. We are having what is called a GI party on Saturday night where we all get together at work and clean. We are going to get some pizza and probably watch a movie as well.

I want to side step here for a moment and mention something that I rarely talk about. For those who do not know after I graduated college I started working for long time running top 40 station B 94 in Pittsburgh. Not as a DJ but as a sales person. It was after some training and guidance from the late Mr. Bob Zimmerman, that I would try to do broadcast sales instead of broadcasting itself. Well I worked there almost 3 months that summer, and never sold one spot (advertisement), but in my defense also saw them switch from top 40 to Rock because they were getting Howard Stern. I remember having a meeting with this executive from WYSP in Philadelphia who was there to pump us up to sell Howard Stern, telling me he is main stream and all of this BS. I disagreed and voiced my opinion as usual. Anyway the situation went flop totally. I think there were at least 4 of us who quit by September, Stern left for satellite radio the following spring, the stations ratings hit an all time low, and management after everyone tried telling them, brought back B 94 a couple of years later. Pittsburghers do not like change and this was the main reason. I also found that my boss, who was a nice guy but full of BS about our product and its rates, is now a general manager for a little group of stations in West Virginia.

Basically broadcasting is not broadcasting any more but narrow casting as Mr. Zimmerman said. With corporate conglomerates ruling most sales industries, no sales person can make a decent wage anymore selling air time. Not to mention the listener/ viewership is so segmented now it is crazy. Think about how many niche channels and stations you have now a days. The days of having 3 channels and everyone watching the same stuff are over. Because of that all advertisings, salaries, and even fame are skewed within this industry of broadcasting which I love. Eventually we will all have TVs with computers in them and the internet and television programming will almost be one. We are half way there.

I mention all of this because as I sat there sorting CDs today in the studio, I had to admit to myself that even though I am in Afghanistan, I am in a much better place in my life than I was in Pittsburgh PA the summer of 2004. I feel like I found a broadcasting cove with what I am doing. I am very thankful for my life right now but just miss Michelle so much right now.

So anyway while I am on air I notice that the same full bag of garbage is sitting in the print office where I was originally assigned at the beginning of this deployment. My direct supervisor was pissed because it was there for 3 days with no signs of anyone taking it out. After I put a song on I went into the news room and started acting like a news reporter live on the scene of this ‘Garbage stand off.’ Basically all of these guys did not want to take it out so it sat there for 3 days. Well after my show my supervisor told me he wanted me to do my live reporting impression so we could produce it as a joke and send it to them in order to motivate them to take out the garbage. Absolutely hilarious in my opinion. Thank God for YouTube…



Well they ended up taking it out!

Promotion rates for E7 and E6 came out today and the few people whose name I was looking for were not on the list. I was very surprised because I thought my supervisor in Germany would have made it after getting a purple heart last year in Iraq. O well what can you do but try next year. They release the names and scores pertinent to me around August 15th. Hopefully once I get back and test for E 5 (Staff Sergeant) I will know sometime by October.

Making Staff for me is not about being a sergeant (the jump from Airman to Sergeant is HUGE) as is it about having more options for assignments once it comes time to reenlist (assuming I decide to do that). Anyway that was the big news today.

I need to go eat and then call Michelle so that’s it for today. I hope you enjoy the prank news reporting and real newscast. Today is our version of dirty jobs so if you like the tv show then you make like our version. Ok take care and thanks for reading.