The Misadventures of Eddie Turner AKA DJ SleepyHead #3
“Late Night With Engine 7”
Week three into writing this journal, and I guess that I’ve gotten some of the back story stuff out of the way. Now it’s time to jump into some of the good stuff. It was maybe like my third week DJing and I offered to cover an overnight shift so that I could get myself some more experience. The shift started at two in the morning (on a Monday) which was lucky since I had class in the afternoons on Monday. So it wasn’t going to be so bad being up that early. However, I was going to be the only person in the station at that time, which made it a really big deal for me. I had woken up at around one and left as soon as I was dressed so I could get my playlist made before I went on.
As I arrived at the station I saw that there was a DJ in the studio that I hadn’t met yet. She was playing some pretty good stuff as I went into the Music Library and began to pull albums from the shelves.
“Hey, you’re not Sarah.” I turned around to see the DJ standing in the doorway to the studio.
“No, I’m Eddie. I’m covering Sarah’s show today.”
She stepped through the door, “I’m Emma. Yeah, I think she said something about not making it tonight. So how long have you been a DJ?”
I continued looking through the shelves, “Not long, just the last few weeks really.”
“Ah, a new guy…what’s your regular shift?” She asked
“Um, Wednesdays at three.” I said
“Oh, that’s a good time slot. I kinda wish I had that shift instead of the middle of the night.”
“It was really the only open time I had outside of classes and stuff.” I said collecting my albums and moving them into the studio. “So do you do anything else at the station besides DJ?”
“Oh, yeah I’m currently working on the Music Staff. We review all the albums that come into the station.” She said picking up one of my CDs. “See these reviews, that’s what Music Staff does. Makes sure that the station is playing only the best and making sure DJs don’t play something they shouldn’t.”
“Sounds pretty cool, how do I get in on that?” I asked as I queued up my first track.
“Just come to the meeting this week. I think we’re meeting just down the hall. Let my give you my number and I’ll let you know when and where.”
I handed her my phone as I hit the mic one button, “Hello everybody, DJ SleepyHead here at your service. I’m filling in for Sarah this morning, hopefully I’m up for the task. Why don’t we get this show started and remember not to touch that dial, you’re listening to KDSK 91.1 Your Music Education.” I hit the button for the CD player and then the mic button again to turn it off.
“DJ SleepyHead, eh?” Emma handed back my phone.
“It’s early morning and I am still a bit tired so I thought it fit pretty well.” I said sitting down.
“Well, all right, I should probably get out of here and let you get to work. I’ll see you around SleepyHead.”
“Yeah, see you around Emma.” She left the station and now I was alone, at least for a little while.
The show went on pretty normally, for about two hours. I was resting my eyes quickly during a rather long song, when I started seeing flashes through my eyelids. I looked at the phone to see if it was a call, not a call. The flashes were coming from a small red box near the door that read fire alarm.
This was not what I expected to happen when I agreed to sub this shift. I had no idea what to do, so I did the only thing I could do which was to leave the station and go outside, since that’s what they always teach you to do when the fire alarm goes off.
It was rather dark outside being like four A.M., I was the only student around at that time and the only other people I saw were the few janitors that were working the overnight shift. The fire truck arrived making the front of the union a blaze of red and blue as the lights flashed on the truck. I sat staring at the truck as it was really the only thing I could do as I waited to go back in. It took about thirty minutes or so, before the truck left and a cop on a Segway rolled over to me.
“You with KDSK?” He asked.
“Yes.”
“Well, it looks clear now, but the lights haven’t gone off yet, they should soon. It seems like the sprinkler systems water pressure was low and that triggered the alarm. So I can’t tell you to go back in, but I can’t stop you either.” He balanced himself nicely on the Segway.
“Thanks, for letting me know.”
He rode away as I walked back into the building and down to the station. I explained that I had to leave due to the alarm going off and apologized that nothing had played for the last half hour. The rest of the shift was relatively quiet after that, even though the lights from the studio’s fire alarm didn’t stop flashing during the rest of my show. My replacement arrived and I told him what was up and that I didn’t know when the lights would stop.
So there you have it one of my most interesting shifts that happened within my first month of being a DJ with KDSK.
Signing Off,
Eddie, DJ SleepyHead.