Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Finally, A Public Statement...

.:Hey, Vader... Why Aren't You On Air?!?:.

After a mere two days of being on radio, some friends of mine were surprised to listen and discover that I wasn't on air the succeeding night. There were quite a few questions asked about it, and while I wanted to immediately address the issue, I didn't think it would be a good idea until I gave myself enough time to be able to speak about it soberly.

To respond to the question of why I'm no longer on air after a mere two days, the answer is painfully simple: I got shot by the Triggerman.

By "got shot", you know I mean that as my potential boss, the Triggerman didn't think I was good enough to put on air at this point, and so yanked me off the air by the third day I was supposed to report as a jock. As I was in Megamall that day just biding my time before going to the station, I received a call from Joe Spinner, giving me a shopping list of things the Triggerman felt I was doing wrong with my on-air, and telling me I'd be paired up with Piper that night.

I was a bit nervous by then, but I took it in stride. When I was given a handshake agreement with Campus, I was specifically told that there are "no promises" to be made, and I understood that this meant I had no guarantees of being a true-blue jock for the station. Joe Spinner told me that I should work on my shopping list of kcuf-ups, but I'll be fine. So yeah, there *were* some issues that needed to be worked out, but thankfully, according to the initial call, it was something we were going to ride out.

But then, after all that, I received an SMS from Joe Spinner, this time telling me that the Triggerman changed his mind, and asked me not to report to boardwork that night. While I understand where they're coming from and all, to say that I was disappointed would be an understatement. It almost felt like a cruel joke where I had a wonderful dream one night and woke up to find out it wasn't true at all. I was subsequently told that they would review the situation and get back to me afterwards.

Well, it's been close to a week already, and still nothing. I still have no idea whatsoever if they've effectively fired me, or they plan to retrain me, or whatever. I dare not ask them about it too much, lest I step on their toes and end up losing any remote chance of getting back into radio that I had altogether. Right now, I just texted John Hendrix to ask about my status and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

It would seem that when it comes to the things I *really* want to do for a living, i.e., teaching and radio, it just isn't in the cards. I know I have a lot to learn, and I respect that it's the station's prerogative whether or not to hire me, but I'm sure you understand why I feel extremely affected about being embarrassingly pulled off the air a mere two days after debuting. It was quite a slap in the face, and people know I don't take my work lightly and work as hard as I could. I was there on my first day a good eleven hours before my show was set to begin.

I've loved radio since I was a kid. It's something I've been into for as long as I can remember, and despite my obvious limitations due to my braces and verbal habits, I've been more than willing to retrain myself for this. Anything's better than suddenly finding myself out of radio all over again after finally rediscovering my passion for it.

So yes, I respect where 99.5 is coming from, and I don't begrudge them their right to reject me as a jock if they deem me unfit to be one. What I wish though was that I would be more informed at this point whether this is the case or if they still have something planned for me. I don't want to keep hoping on empty the way it happened to me in the academe before... it's just too much already.

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