Radio 101

It’s Monday, 8:30 a.m. I’m inside the radio lab, as usual. I’m just glad I’m not late today. Jane’s got this if-you’re-late-then-just-don’t-fucking-come-to-class-at-all thing going on in class. Well, actually, it’s still up to us if we wanna come in and learn something from our classmates’ productions. And that’s if we prefer to get shouted at and humiliated in front of 14 other people. Yet, I like that. It’s not like my classmates and I are not close friends. Getting that stuff from Jane is just a laughing matter. At least, it is for us.

We get to learn a lot of things in class. First, the basics of radio and other lecture crap like that. Yup, perhaps it’s apparent now why it’s actually called Radio 101. Then, we also get to practice how we’re supposed to talk on radio. I mean speak on radio. Whatever (And I’m doing a W-sign). Radio interview, newscast, DJ, everything. We might get good at it after some time. We might not. Who the fucking hell knows? It’s just a might. Next, there also is a fun factor during the learning process. We get a lot of fun laughing (and still laughing more) at our classmates’ screwed productions. It’s just so fun laughing at them (even the producers laugh at their own) without minding that they might get a 5.0. I just love this class (classmates, instructor, and everything in between).

Speaking of screwed productions, mine didn’t go any better this morning. There was a tape insert requirement for the newscast production. So, meaning, you’re not in any way going to get any grade other than 5.0 if you don’t have it. And what’s a tape insert? It’s basically a recording of a report (fabricated or otherwise) done in some remote place, on a cassette tape. Okay, so, I was saying, I had a tape insert, but it wasn’t on tape. ‘Twas on CD. So technically, that’s a CD insert. I knew everything was messed up. But I had this brilliant idea. I got a blank tape, told my technical director to play it in sync with my spinner. I loved the idea. I had loved acting since God knows when.

What went wrong is that my spinner didn’t follow my signals. I was mouthing a really big STOP to her but she still kept playing the track. What happened is that my professor knew my technical director had already stopped playing the tape (she was just beside her). So she got kind of surprised because she didn’t know where the hell the sound was coming from. I was just thankful it was her only reaction. She didn’t think we’re doing a whole acting thing. Finally, I covered it up by saying, “Ma’am, maybe something’s wrong with the tape, or the player.” Thank God she bought it.

Okay, so a 2.0 for that screwed-up production is not bad, right? Mediocre, yes, but not bad.