Friday, August 28, 2009

My First Event!

So for my first event I met up with the crew at the office -- it was just me, another girl Eva, and this guy who's been working there for a while, Mark (maybe it's Marc?). Anyways, we met up there and got the supplies and then drove off to the event. Eva and Mark went into the van and I followed them because I wanted to drive my own car. It ended up being over 10 exits away, in Brookhaven or something like that, but it wasn't so bad. It was actually pretty fun.

Mark had two of his friends come, it was nice to meet them. We set up and just gave free coupons and did raffles with the people that showed up. Some got free gifts too. I was a little shy at first but I think I did alright afterward. The event was for a movie night of Hotel for Dogs, out on the lawn. The location was huge. At one point a little girl ran up to me crying hysterically because she lost her mom, but we found her mom's best friend which was equally as nice for her and she ran over there and that was it.

The crew I worked with was very nice, we made friends easily. I was supposed to do the next event with Eva, but another intern who is so ridiculously sweet and I'm so thankful for, switched my Saturday event with her Monday event so that I could stay at my dad's longer. I was very appreciative. So instead of the Mother Cabrini's Festival by the zeppole eating contest (which I have to admit does sound cool as well), I'm going to be doing an event for WMJC at Walt Whitman Mall on Monday, which is ironically my first day of classes as well. I know it'll be good because I'll be so pumped from my first day of class already.

I now also know my information for the morning show, which is good, because I really needed it. And other than that, I am ready for the internship! I think I'll be able to handle this all just fine!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

My First Entry!

So, I've decided to create this blog to archive all the things that I'm going to be doing for my 13-week long internship with the Long Island Radio Group. The company, which is based on -- you guessed it -- Long Island, owns many popular radio stations including, but not limited to WMJC 94.3, B103, and KJOY 98.3.

My schedule for the internship is every Monday from 2-6pm, and every Tuesday from 6-10am. Today was my first day however, simply because I needed to meet the guy I will be working with in the mornings on Tuesday. I won't be seeing him again until after Labor Day which is when my Tuesday shift will commence. I am also required to attend one event per week to help out with. Tonight is my first event as well!

So here goes what happened today.

My shift started at 10am today, although I came in 15 minutes earlier. I parked right in front, only a few spots away, and went up the elevator only to the second floor. It seemed like a lot longer though because I have a fear of elevators that I've had since I was a little girl living in an apartment building. After I battled the fight of terror, I quickly made my wait to the office where I had a nice greeting with Jamie, one of the sweetest women I know I'll meet. I had met her on Monday at the internship orientation, along with a few other people I would be working with this semester.

Neil came out to the front and met with me, and we walked around for a little tour of where exactly I'll be going and doing when I come in for the morning shows. We sat down and he discussed a few of the most important things that I'll have to do and remember, telling me to keep in mind that sometimes it may get crazy but it's never me. I appreciated that word of advice because sometimes, I admit, I can be sensitive so it is nice to know in advance not to worry if these people I work with like me or not. As we were walking around, I met one of the radio personalities, Jim "The Big Voice Guy" O'Brien. He seems like a great guy, and someone funny too, so I hope I can work with him more as time goes on.

After that, the busy work started. First, Neil sent over a 60 second commercial for Remax's mortgage ad and I had to transcribe it. I decided to do it through typing because I type over 90 words per minute, so that's what I did. I was at Phathead's office though and when he came in, I was a little nervous I was in his way but he said I wasn't. His office was great though. He had tons of photos of his daughter and his dogs, which, I may add, were all ridiculously adorable. He seems to be quite a character and I'm excited to get a chance to work with him as well. The transcribing didn't take long at all, and the next thing I knew I was working for productions. I didn't do anything mind-blowing, but I did make a really nice and neat board of events for them for the upcoming week. When I was done with that, they decided I could do databasing -- one tedious task. For databasing, I just sat down in front of a computer and inputted all the yellow flyers they had received from one of their B103 events. It was a bunch of people trying to win a prize, giving us their information and email addresses for future reference. So there I sat, putting in email after email, name after name, address after address, and number after number. After about 100 of those, another Jamie from LIRG, along with a fellow intern, stopped me to teach me how to input commercial information for her continuity department.

They were both surprised at how fast I picked it up, the other intern that was there saying he was embarrassed that he hadn't gotten it so fast. It was all a joke though -- that Jamie seemed really nice too, and had such a strong Brooklyn accent. She's such a sweetheart. Rob, the intern who was showing me how to do the stuff on the computer for continuity, brought me to productions after I was done and we cut and edited commercials. Then we recorded them onto another computer that would later be used the following week to AIR the commercials. I felt so cool just clicking the button and watching it record.

By the time we finished that however it was almost time for me to leave, so I finished as many more database entries as I could to keep it neat and gave it back to Frank at productions. Then I was on my way.

Throughout my first day I got lost a couple of times -- only finding my way from someone finding me or hearing someone's familiar voice, like the first Jamie I had mentioned, who sits at the front desk.

Overall, it was a very productive day and I did learn a lot. It was exciting to have been giving all these chances already and met the people I met, and I can't wait to meet more of them. Now, I have to go get ready for my first event -- it's a movie event for Hotel for Dogs, which I will not be embarrassed to say was quite awesome. All those dogs? You gotta love it. I definitely do.

I'll be talking about my first event later on tonight so stay posted!