Inspired by Jim Mitchell’s post, I Really Hate My Dumb Job, in which he talks about the time he went to Hollywood and almost got a job on radio. I dug deep into my past life.
I had quite a few side gigs back in the day, especially when I was stationed in Germany during my stint in the military. Some of these gigs paid like waiting on tables at various Officer’s Mess shindigs, others we’re done for free for fun and to learn something new, or hang out with some cool people.
One of these gigs was the on-base radio station. It was mostly run by a bunch of Americans who were on base with us Brits, those who had access to the right facilities and know-how at setting up the needed equipment. They had wrangled this cool gig somehow and both their Colonel and our Group Captain, the base commander, had agreed to it.
I stumbled into it by way of making friends with Ken, a US army staff sergeant who ran the whole shebang, taking care of the staffing side and lockup. Ken was a man who loved to dance, and when I got invited to disco night by a friend at the American Bar on camp, I ended up spending most of the night dancing with and talking to, Ken.
It wasn’t my iffy dancing skills that got me the gig with the ‘boss’. It was my voice. Yanks love a good British accent, and I had what Ken referred to as ‘a come to bed’ voice. I was asked if I would like to try out for an evening slot, and duly went along to meet the crew after a late shift. I hadn’t even changed out of my uniform into civvies, or gone for a late dinner, but instead, found myself talking into a microphone for a solid 2 hours.
You could say, I was hired on the spot. Though the truth was, no one was paid. Everyone involved did it for the love of music and DJ’ing. I should point out I never chose the music, or lined up the jingles, or had to worry about anything technical, they only wanted me for my sultry tones.
It was me and the mike, and the listeners.
I often wondered if after my life in the military I should have skipped going on to civilian air traffic control, and gone straight into radio or, something more lucrative?
This is Alexandra, coming to you live from nine zero point five FM radio!
𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧
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