Radio Gaga

You may all remember a few weeks ago when I was interviewed on a local radio show. It was a lot of fun and I posted pictures of the haunted factory building where the station is located. Well…earlier this week, I received a newsletter from the organization that runs the show. It turns out that the host is taking a leave for several months and if they couldn’t find a second host to fill in, the radio show would be cancelled. I thought about it for a minute—running a live radio program all by myself in a studio at the heart of a haunted warehouse? That sounded super stressful. So I did what any normal person would do—I immediately composed an email to say that I would be happy to fill in. Then I hit send…Then I had a panic attack. Was I going gaga in my old age? What was I thinking?! Didn’t I already have enough on my plate? So I poured myself a glass of wine, and consoled myself by thinking that probably a ton of people would have offered to do this—I mean, who wouldn’t want to be on the radio? They were probably inundated with emails for this very cool gig.

The next morning, I was feeling less stressed…until I got a reply. Yes, it would be amazing if I could fill in—I felt faint. But it’s only one afternoon a month, my logical brain reminded me. Then I talked to my daughter, whose equally logical brain reminded me that I’m a very competent person, and that I shouldn’t let my anxiety get the better of me. “Mom,” she said, “you’ve been a radio host before AND a club DJ—you can do this!”

Well, yeah, sweetie, but that was 40 years ago—believe it or not, my first actual DJ-ing job was at the exact same radio station when I was in university, a job for which I had to audition in their sound booth (which was located on the university campus as opposed to a building that could use a good exorcism). I did well enough for university radio—I’d been a club kid for years and was pretty familiar with that scene—and was given a position subbing in for a friend when she was unavailable—her show was called “Your Grandma’s Tractor”, and it was alternative music featuring bands no one had ever heard of. Then I was offered my own show. This might sound amazing, but they needed to meet some kind of broadcasting regulation, and they’d just lost their Classical Music DJ. Yep. Classical music. Luckily, I’d grown up on that sh*t, and my parents had enough albums to start their own record store, so “Symphonic Gestures” was born. I did that gig for over a year, putting together intro notes from the backs of record covers, then just letting the music play for the next half hour. I didn’t have any listeners per se—I know this, because one time, the radio station ran a contest during my show for prizes but the only person who “called in to win” was my Mom, to whom I’m forever grateful for making it seem like I had an audience. I was like, “Hey random caller, guess what?! You just won a five dollar gift card to Tim Horton’s” and she was like, “Oh wow! This is my lucky day!”

It was great experience back then, but being a DJ now is most likely very different from the days when I had two turntables and a microphone. However, I will be receiving professional training, and I’ll be able to job shadow the current host, so by the time I have to fly solo, it should be fine. More than fine, because I’ll be interviewing other writers and listening to them read their work, which is always a fun thing to do. And I’ll be in a super-haunted factory, so be prepared for some wild stories. And if you want to read more about my illustrious and DJ-ing history (and why I once shut off the music and walked out of the club), you can go to My Week 81: When I Was A DJ.

28 thoughts on “Radio Gaga”

  1. This in and of itself belongs in a book! I’m literally laughing so hard right now! Hahahaha!

    I’m reminded of the time when I was a little girl and my parents threw this dinner party the year we moved to my second home. My parents decided to throw a dinner party at the last minute, and instead of inviting friends, they instead invited people they couldn’t stand. I will never understand why they did this, and even more confusing to me was the fact that they continued this practice for several years.

    Parents are weird. You are cool, and therefore, the exception. Thanks for all the laughs!

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  2. Was that a Beck reference? (Two turntables and a microphone).

    You definitely attract cool jobs and as always you will be awesome. Weirdly, I have another friend called Suzanne who also DJs on a local radio station in Lincolnshire.

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  5. A friend of mine once was the sole DJ at our college radio station for the entire week of spring break. He slept when he could and a couple of restaurants delivered food in exchange for being mentioned on air. A determined person can do anything and I know you’re determined enough to do this.

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  6. Omg! This is awesome Suzanne, I mean what an exciting opportunity. I think that as we get older, we tend to second guess our abilities a lot. But we shouldn’t because you’ve done this before. Yes, it’s different that 40 years ago but, so what? You are great at talking to people and have the ability to make them laugh. I’ll just throw in that there is a local DJ where I live whose name is Suzanne, she has a morning show here, called Morning Coffee with Suzanne D, because her last name is Dominguez. You will be awesome!

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