My First Radio Experience

I called in to my friend Dan Kirk's radio show "Chilling Briefly" on 90.3 the core. It is an independent radio station shared by Piscataway High School of New Jersey and Rutgers University. Piscataway owns the rights to the station but Rutgers runs it. Kirk has a 2 hour radio show every Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. where he plays mostly music but does solicit calls from viewers who request songs and briefly chat. He doesn't get many calls needless to say because it is a small, unfamiliar show, but I figured I would give him a surprise call anyway. I wasn't able to tape the call but I will give a quick overview of what transpired.

I called in during commercial and his partner Ryan answered the phone who acted as the screening producer so to speak. He asked me my name, where I was calling from, and what about. I told him I was a friend of Dan's from home and just wanted to say what's up and request a song. He said "ok, hold on, I'll put you through in a second." Then I heard Kirk's voice and we greeted each other and said hello. He asked me what song I wanted to request and I told him "Three Weeks" by Perpetual Groove. He responded with "good choice" and I said thank you and then we said our goodbyes.

I wanted to keep the call short and sweet because I wasn't quite sure what the nature of his show was because I had never previously listened. I didn't know if he preferred to just have his voice heard and play music or if he enjoyed having other people talk. So for better or worse, I kept it short and sweet.

Overall, it was a quick experience as it didn't take much time for me to reach the station due to its relative anonymity. This was my first call in to a radio show ever and I have to say that I definitely enjoyed the experience. It was especially cool because it was my friend's show but it was also neat because I got to hear my voice on air shortly after. I definitely plan on calling in again either to his show or perhaps to a bigger station.

Calling in to a radio show is like nothing else I have experienced. The closest thing came when I was 13 and sat in the car and listened to my mom called into WDHA 105.5 and win lunch with the band Default at the studio; but this was more personal. It was my voice that I heard on the radio, not my mom's. I think that after this project I will attempt to listen to my friend's radio show more often because I doubt that many people have friends with their own show and this is something that I now plan to not take for granted.

Kirk's show can be heard from http://thecore.fm/public/shows/people/dkrl.htm every Friday from 11-1. He plays a variety of music ranging from jam to reggae.