Entries this day: Dad KTRU

Dad

8:17am Sunday 2 July 2000

Yesterday Wende and I joined my dad and my dad's-girlfriend's-daughter Elise at the movies to see Chicken Run! Erika at my work said it was as funny as The Wrong Trousers. (I have to disagree; Wrong Trousers had more laughs *and* was a shorter movie, so the laugh/minute ratio was much higher for Trousers.)

Anyway, Chicken Run was still pretty funny, and got funnier as the movie progressed.

After the movie, we visited The (new) Container Store and were joined by Karen, Elise's mom. We got my dad some cool gifts for Dad's Day and then went to munch at Souper Salad.

Then Elise went to work at Whole Foods near me-an-Wende's house. Dad and Wende and I cruised toward home, but stopped by his new "office." I was so astonished... my dad has an office just for his hypnotherapy practice! Wow!

How inspired I am at his positive role modeling - if he can do it, I can do it... I don't really have words for it, but I'm inspired by and proud of his efforts and success. So absolutely great!!

We hung out at his house for a bit and then had to go home so I could do KTRU.

Yay DAD!!!!!!!!

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KTRU

7:49am Sunday 2 July 2000

KTRU was pretty fun last night. I got a couple of calls from Erin, another DJ who requested some cool songs. I am amazed that she told me other DJs wouldn't play her stuff! I mean, if they have a specialty show with a format, then yeah, but she asked me if my show was a general shift before she made her request. Very odd.

KTRU is a station that broadcasts Emergency Alert System messages. These are the messages that interrupt the broadcast signal

BEEEEEEEEEEP

"The National Weather Service has issued a severe
storm watch in effect for Montgomery and Liberty
County at 9:01pm until 9:45pm" etc etc

and we have no control of the message as it is playing. (The messages are received by the EAS receiving device and if the message is directed at our geographic broadcast area, we have 3 minutes to broadcast the message manually. If it is not broadcast within that time period, it will broadcast automatically. (This allows the DJ to finish a song or finish speaking or something.))

We got two EAS messages last night. The first one did not broadcast automatically. I called Will, the general station manager who explained that the message will only broadcast automatically if it pertains to our broadcast area. While I was talking to him, we received another EAS message, and the song I was playing ended. So I was all kinda rushed and verbally relayed the message that we did not have to send, saying we would keep people informed. Then I read through the list of songs I had just played and then put on the next song.

During this song, the second EAS message automatically broadcast itself (it had been 3 minutes since I received it while on the phone with Will, while I relayed the previous message and the other song titles and then played part of this song) bang

The National Weather Service has issued a severe storm
warning for the following counties...  blah blah blah

This is being broadcast over the air, totally obliterating the song (and I didn't think to pause the CD) and THEN, a commercial was tacked onto the end of the message!!

GASP!!! A commercial?? On KTRU? Unthinkable!!! Inconceivable!! Well, it happened baby, and I was there. Will called back and goes "[product name], eh?"

"I had no control!"

"I know, just log it in the Engineering Remarks section of the log."

So the other station (101.1 FM KLOL) errored and added the commercial to the end of the EAS warning. Very funny in a way.

I wonder if they will be fined? How ironic that would be! If so, [product name] should pay the fine.

The remainder of the shift was pretty bland compared to all that.

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