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Recap Time.

On my final day of One-Week Job, I was a little nervous. When I got to the studio, I couldn’t find Niblett. The turnaround between radio shows is very quick; I had become used to only having five minutes to relax in the studio before going on air. However, I had also become used to Niblett running around, using those five minutes to prepare.

At six minutes to 6pm, he was nowhere to be found.

I sat in my chair and waited, pretending to write something on my notepad. I started to wonder what I was to do if 6pm were to hit. Maybe I should go find someone, I thought. Two minutes later, Niblett came through the door, confirming that I had internally overreacted for nothing. He was carrying all of his belongings, and wearing a Candy 95 Polo shirt and a grin.

I was relieved that I wasn’t going to have to do the last show alone, but I was curious about the routine changes. During talk breaks, Nibs told me what was up.

A DJ’s time isn’t always spent in an official studio. Sometimes a DJ does remote broadcasting, which is on-air broadcasting from any place outside a studio. Certain businesses or organizations can request this type of broadcasting, so any event they may be holding can gain more awareness. DJs can also show up to certain events sans broadcasting. As I said in the previous post, DJs are public figures, and while many people hate public figures, many people love them.

And kids, of all people, LOVE public figures, ESPECIALLY DJs.

Hi. It’s been awhile – missed You all!

I know you’re curious, so let me just tell you that overall, i traveled roughly 8619 miles and 139 hours during the first session of the One-Week Job Program! If you do some dividing and…thinking, you’ll see that when I say “rough”ly, I mean it, but it’s a good estimate.

Dang, I traveled a lot this summer.

Yes, I’m proud of myself. But on to more details about my eighth one-week job:

While working in the studio with Niblett for a week, one thing fascinated me a lot, and that was the response from the listeners. At Candy 95, listeners can interact with the radio station in two major ways. First, they can call in. This method is the most common for radio stations, and most people call in to request their favorite song, in hopes that it will play on the radio. Second, listeners can text the radio station with whatever thoughts they have. I personally had never heard of the second method until I worked at Candy, but I don’t listen to the radio all the time, so who knows.

Since Bryan-College Station isn’t the biggest area, in addition to the fact that I was in the studio the week before the week before classes were to start, things were slower than usual. Calls into the studio were extremely few, and most of the texts we received were from pre-teens who were trying to be rebellious by letting someone know that they were staying up past their bedtime. Very funny stuff. But, regardless of who was contacting the station, the content wasn’t always nice. Some people really take things personally!

“HOWDY!” from College Station, Texas!

For those of you who have never heard of the place, it is the home of the Texas A&M Aggies, and the place where I earned my undergraduate degree.

This week, I’ve been co-hosting with Radio DJ Niblett of Candy 95! I’ll be ending the Program as I started: In a laid-back fashion (Remember when I worked with a virtual company during Week #1??). My blogs this last week will follow that atmosphere. Each day, I’ve been working the nightshift: 6pm to 11pm CDT.

Night radio is a lot different from radio at any other time. You have fewer people in the car, and as result, less outside interactions with listeners and less time to develop character and emotions. A night Radio DJ has to rely a LOT on quick and funny bits to keep listeners listening. It’s not easy at all. The wrong person could easily buckle under the pressure of having to constantly be on their toes.

Blogging takes time and energy and I have been running low on both! I have been traveling a ton lately for the One-Week Job Program. I just finished job #6 after having a busy week in Dallas, Texas.

I am so thankful I got to spend week #6 at the Dallas Market Center to learn about the wholesale business. If you missed my first blog about DMC, read it here.

A special thanks is due to Meredith Hite, Dallas Market Center’s Director of Public Relations. She is also the logistical genius who offered me the job, arranged my schedule, and ensured that the week was absolutely fantastic!

I love meeting people who are so gifted like Meredith and so on top of their game. For Meredith, public relations is her forte’ but there were many other young professionals with exceptional talent at Dallas Market Center.

My schedule was tight from Wednesday to Sunday since I was booked to be in a different place and with a different employee every hour! I’m thankful for the chaos though because I learned as much or more about the business than some of the long-time employees know.

In my next blog, I will give a breakdown of all the departments I visited and the role they play in putting on the Market.

For now, I can’t help but share the main things that stood out during my week.

“Welcome to Dallas, Texas!”

I received a warm welcome from Sydney Holt (Dallas Market Center intern) on Wednesday morning as we met at the Dallas airport. This week is likely to be my busiest week and also the best learning experience!

The World Trade Center at the Dallas Market

I’ll be working for the Dallas Market Center in Dallas, Texas. The Market contacted the One-Week Job Program to participate and I’ve never visited Dallas so after a few calls, emails, and a short flight, here I am! This week is different since my work week is Wednesday-Sunday.

When I initially heard about the Dallas Market Center, I thought of a shopping mall. I was partially right, but there’s a big difference between the Dallas Market and a regular mall: the Market is not open to the public. Only qualified buyers are allowed!

To clarify my role here, it’s important to explain what the Market is all about. The DMC is a set of four buildings that house hundreds of showrooms (stores).  To give you an idea of how massively big, I got this fact from their website:

The four buildings total more than 5 million square feet; larger than the Sears Tower and roughly twice the size of the Empire State Building.

Buyers from retail stores, boutiques, and other businesses come to the market to see new products and buy products at wholesale prices.