A Song of Thanks..............

Beautiful, full of grace and outspoken. These are words that describe Carmen Brown of the Morning Cruise. She is a great person all around and I was really blessed and happy that she took time (which she could have used to sleep) to be interviewed by me. Carmen is known for her laugh and snorts that brightens up everyone's morning and her great big heart that keeps on giving even though physically she is exhausted. I watched her every day of the Summer Cruise 5 as she did the morning and afternoon broadcasts ,along side Dave and Bill, with a huge smile on her face. She greeted many people, laughing and crying at the stories she was told. Though she was running on empty, she never showed it and was happy to pose for pictures and sign autographs. This is what made me admire her so much.
When I first meet people I am a sponge. Instead of jumping right in, I try to absorb their personality and feel out the kind of person they are and then..... watch out, because that is when I get talkative. It didn't take me a long time to figure out the kind of person Carmen was  and it also didn't take me long to realize how much I admire her and how someday I seriously want to be like her.
Not realizing where she was suppose to end up, and what plans God had for her, she got her degree in public relations and was working at a museum afterwards. As time went on a radio station who was doing promotions for the museum Carmen was working at, snatched her up and to make a long story short, God placed Carmen at the Joy FM. Carmen now serves as program director, making sure that the station keeps a positive image as well as on air personality for the Morning Cruise. She is one busy mama, and when asked how she deals with her busy life and spending time with her family she said that when the weekend comes or when she goes home in the evenings it is family time. Carmen time is Carmen time, and work time is work time. From my observations Carmen works VERY VERY hard ,but she does know how to have fun which is seriously a healthy balance. She sovles problems and issues quite well ,and as stated before, she truly has the biggest heart I have ever seen. One thing she just has to master is teleporting which would be her super power IF super powers were real and if she had any.
All in all Carmen gave me some good advice as to  what I needed personality wise if I wanted to make it in promotions. If I want to succeed as a promoter, I have to be structured and organized yet flexible. Also, I would need to know that mistakes happen and to freak out is an absolute no no; and lastly  being able to multitask many different details and ideas to bring one big idea together is a must. The Summer Cruise has taught me this and so has working with the Promotions Department (Mary the Money Saving MAMA! who is a definite pro and an absolute blessing and angel to me also). Carmen has opened my eyes to many things and has answered many questions that I have had for a long time and have struggled to find the answers to, and she did this all without knowing it. So next time I see her I have to say Thank You. Or since you said you wanted to read this I think I will do it here. Thank You so much Carmen for giving me a role model and someone to look up to. You and Mary have given me something to aspire to, and I know the road to a career that you enjoy is long and hard, but due to the way you carry yourself and act you have given me hope that there is something out there for me. I someday want to be in the position you are in, in which you don't look at your career as just a career, but you look at it as life and your way of helping people. So thank you for that so much. I am looking forward to spending time with you.

That is it for now, my next post will be coming soon. Tomorrow I am headnig to Port Richey to help Bryan get ready for Freedom Fest. Oy Vey I wish there was a way to way to make the summer never end. I am seriously going to miss everyone :'(

Inspiration that has changed me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0704_oGFX1w&feature=related

Summer Cruise 5

So I have been trying to update my blog every day, but you know what I am seriously living the life of the real world and everyday in this line of work isn't possible. So the Summer Cruise 5 was last week and last week this time I was in a hotel preparing to get ready to wake up 3:00 in the morning to be at the station by 4. We traveled all over Florida with Christian artist Josh Wilson, who I must say is such a wonderful awesome guy. I mean I was never star struck with him because he doesn't act like your typical celebrity. He doesn't let the love of fans get to his head and truly looks at being a singer as doing work for Jesus. He doesn't care about the glamor and the glitter of things and he is a real person who is surrounded by love (and don't even get me started about what his wife is like. So Sunday I went to the hotel that was close to the Sarasota Airport and met Mary the next morning bright and early. This kicked off the first day of the summer cruise. I helped Josh's wife Becca with Merchandise and greeted people and handed out the T-shirts that was promised to the first hundred people through the door. Before I get into the logistics of what I did, let me first explain what the summer cruise is. Let me tell you what you are thinking it is, it isn't. The summer cruise is when the Joy FM goes around to different cities in the state of FL with an artist and do live broadcasts from a diner/ restaurant. This is to promote the station as well as promote the artist we are traveling with. We went to numerous places (Chick- fil- A, Cafes, regular restaurants ) it was just such a great time. The reason we went to restaurants and diners is because of the homey feel that these places give. We didn't want people to think that they had to be stuffy and that what we were doing seemed rehearsed. The atmosphere of the summer cruise is that of a family reunion because that is how the station views their listeners. It was such a great time. I seriously enjoyed it!!! I got to feel what it was like to be in the position I want to go in for my future career. The hours were long, the sleep was short, but it was worth it. I enjoyed it beyond words and it helped me grow as a person. I feel like I matured and that my faith blossomed because of this. The stories of how God has helped so many people and the down times that people had has helped me realized to just not take anything for granted. Josh and his wife Becca were so amazing to the point that I cried when it was over. This whole experience was so great that I cried because it was over. Though I was running on E by Friday, I enjoyed it. I love these people and I am seriously learning soo much due to this internship. I will never forget the tears I cried because of the stories that touched my heart. I will never forget the day we surprised a man whose wife just died with josh Wilson. I will never forget the special time I spent with the special people in my life and the new friends I have made. I pray to God and thank Him for this. My next post will be about my interview with Carmen who is the on-air personality of the morning cruise and the program director. :-)

One of the Best Weeks of My Life

it's The Summer Cruise 5
Coming to a town near YOU!

June 21st -25th

with Special Guest this Year:

Josh Wilson

DATE		CITY	LOCATION
Monday 6-21	6-10 AM	Tampa	Chick-fil-A3019 Cove Bend Drive MAP
	4-6 PM	Gainesville	Gator's Dockside 3842 West Newberry Road MAP
Tuesday 6-22	6-10 AM	Ocala	Chick-fil-A 3558 Southwest College Rd MAP
	4-6 PM	Brooksville	The Rising Sun Cafe 10 S. Main St. MAP
Wednesday 6-23	6-10 AM	New Port Richey	Christo's 3136 Little Road MAP
	4-6 PM	Lakeland	Fred's 2120 Harden Blvd. MAP
Thursday 6-24	6-10 AM	Sebring	Dee's Place 138 N Ridgewood Dr, Sebring MAP
	4-6 PM	North Port	Olde World Restaurant 14415 S Tamiami Tr. MAP
Friday 6-25	6-10 AM	Bradenton	Chick-fil-A 5206 73rd Lane E (State Road 70 near I-75) MAP

Last Day w/ Mary

Sooo my day with Mary in the promotions field was good but I felt a bit bad because I felt in the way. I know how Mary operates in a way because as far as I know Mary and I operate the same way. When one knows what they want to do and how they want to do something it is hard to explain it to people and with the summer cruise the less than three days away, Mary was really busy running around. I was also suppose to help her with Chonda that night so the plan was, get to the station at noon pack for the summer cruise, and then head off to Chonda and be back around the station at made 11:30pm. However, I  ended up leaving the station at three to go home, because physically with the week coming up was (is) gong to be crazy.  So after some calls were made it was official that we didn't have to go to the Chonda show.  That day  I just took time to think about life. I am starting to realize that  life seriously is serious. It isn't a game, as the artist that I am traveling with says in one of his songs, Life is not a snapshot. The context that I am putting it  in may not be the exact one that the song is portraying, but it has many meanings to me and this is one of them. Life doesn't pause  you know. There are the sayings that say a picture is worth a thousand words, and pictures last forever. Life doesn't last forever, you seriously can't freeze time. I guess I am just full of cliches hahahaaaa. But yes I am learning more about life and how I want to live mine and I have come to the conclusion that this life isn't up to me. I just have to have faith in everything, just have to have faith in God. I seriously am growing. I am hoping that the lessons I am learning and the people I am meeting continue to have this affect on my life. Well that is it for now! <3

Thursday w/ Mary

At this point I am so tired, but it is a good tired.  Today I reached at the station at 9:00am and got to working on the binders. (Making tabs and labels and using the paper cutter). I then began to help Mary with things for tomorrow in which I put tickets together for winners of last weeks contests which we will be handing out tomorrow.  After doing that, I got to get the database ready for tomorrows "free for all" contest.  After helping with that, I was also helping answering the phones,especially in the beginning because Luisa seemed to be having a hard day. My day wasn't as hectic as the past days but I am waiting to see what tomorrow brings.  I am trying my best and working as hard as I can. The people at the station are really nice and special in their own way. I know I am just an intern and my helping may not be that much help because the people that I do help do have to double, triple, and quad-triple check my work and progress but I feel like I am learning.  Tomorrow I am going in at noon to help load the vans for the summer cruise next week. At about 3pm, will be going to Gainesville to work the last Chonda show, and then I will be in Summer Cruise 5 mode with the Morning Cruise Team

Day 3 with Mary

Today I really see how God has worked in my life and many people may not realize it, but God has set my life up for me and I can't believe it was so plain as day. I saw how God is helping gain the experience I need for my future and how he is working. Today I helped Mary with the flyers for the summer cruise and her first question to me was are you familiar with Microsoft publisher? My answer was YES I AM. I was a Resident advisor for two years and had to put on events. As a result, I had to use publisher many times and got acquainted with it. If I never was a RA I would have never known what publisher was. So God lined up the resident advisor job for me, which gave me the experience that I needed to do this job. TO be honest I used all of my creative juices today. I made two flyers. One that would be presented at each destination urging people to register for the Grand Prize and a second one (which I laminated and everything) that will advertise the scavenger hunt both in the morning and afternoon. My brain did most of the work today and the days are just going to get longer. I do love and enjoy the environment and atmosphere at this internship and am rally going to miss it. However, for now I am concentrating on helping Mary with Summer Cruise 5 details!

Day two with Mary - Promotions

Forgive me because I am really tired and I am going to try my best to make what I am writing make sense.  Today my day was good and even though it has only been two days with Mary it feels longer, but in a good way.  My days go by really quickly because I am so busy.  Today I got there at 9:30 and went straight to work. I got the locations for the different stops we are going to make for the summer cruise and the hotels we are going to stay in and then made a map of every destination on Google maps with directions.  After  doing this for most of the day, we had a staff meeting which was also down time and devotion/prayer time.  After devotion and after making the maps I helped Mary make some calls to people who won tickets and a Snuggie from last Fridays Free from all.  I called twelve people too let them know how and where to get their prizes as well as when. After making the calls I went back to making the maps for next week because after discussing it with Mary we decided on a better way to do it and less confusing way. What we decided to do was make a map and direction list by the day instead of just one big map. After doing that, Mary admitted that she had so much more to do and was nervous that we weren't going to have enough time to get everything done. I tried my best to reassure her, but she still seemed nervous. After speaking with her, I helped label the boxes that contained the T-shirts.  Mary made copies of the directions and maps, and before the end of my day came I sorted everything into the summer cruise binders which Mary and I will be working on for the rest of the week. I am excited yet nervous about next week. Long hours and a lot of work, BUT I believe I am ready. This is the real world isn't it? I am going to be so sad to leave by the end of the internship. I a, trying not to think about it. Well that is all for today!

First day with Mary! Getting ready for the summer cruise!

SOOOOOO I was suppose  to do the Chonda show yesterday, but I couldn't because I went to the hospital and ended up on crutches for three days (tomorrow being the third day). So I went to the regular sarasota location today and BOY did time fly by. When I reached at my internship I said hi to people because I haven't seen them in a week.  I then checked my email and then went to go help Mary the promotions manager.  She is really nice , however we have the same personality in which we have to be reaalllly busy to be satisfied. I wanted to help her as much as possible because with the Summer Cruise coming up she is so busy getting things together. Today I sorted shirts that will be given out at each location of the summer cruise. We are going to 9 locations which means that each night I will be sleeping in a different hotel and I will be traveling a lot and working long hours.  I am up for the challenge though, it seems like it will be fun.  Sorting shirts took a majority of the day because I sorted in total 900 shirts. Shirts will be given to the first 100 people through the door  at each location.  I don't know how I am going do this but I am ready. I am working from 9:30am -3:00pm  and tomorrow I will be helping getting the maps together for the trip.  Gettiing to know Mary was also fun, I am really happy.

FIrst Chonda Event 6/12

So the Chonda event went really well. I arrived at the Lakeland venue at 3:45 and after an hour and a half of driving I was pooped, but I got caffeinated and sugared up and  went to work. When I arrived I saw the Joy FM van and Bran who was putting up signs that would later direct traffic. After helping him with that. I met more people who would be helping with the event and then I got to do my least favorite thing, take inventory again. Taking inventory is necessary because we needed to make sure we had enough bands to put around peoples hands.  After taking inventory of the bands, I was told to hang tight until there was other things to do. After a few moments passed it was time to get ready to band peoples arms and take tickets. (How hard could that be right?) Ha lets just say I never want to see wrists or ticket stubs again, BUT I am  hahaaha. Before going to band peoples arms, Bryan explained to me and about a dozen other people how to go about taking tickets, what bands were for the different types of admission (General, VIP, Gold Circle) however I recognized that he had a hard time doing so because when ever he finished explaining one thing a few more people trickled in making him repeat himself.  So with this job, I know you have to have patience and a big mouth (voice) and a bull horn.  After him explaining the process, he introduced us to two people who have been with him for many events and knows how these things work. They were the designated go to people. It was then time to band wrists and take tickets. The flow started out really light and it was a great idea to band wrists before the doors opened, so people just walked in when the door opened and the people who were just arriving were those that we focused on.  IT WAS A LOT OF PEOPLE!!!!! But the hours flew by and before I knew it, it was time to count ticket stubs and then it was over. I sat down and watched the show for a little bit before heading home but  I came to a realization. As an event planner, by the time things are done you don't get to see the end product and if yo do have time to see the end product
you don't want to because you are too tiered. All you can do is hear about it.  Before I watched the show Bryan made me give him feedback as to what I liked and what I think he should do different. I said everything went smoothly and the idea of banding people before the doors open was a great idea. I loved it. It was a great experience and I am ready for tomorrow!

Port Richey and Bryan Scott

You see, I would have updated my profile yesterday, but I was tooo tired because I had to drive a total of 5 hours to go to the port richey location of the radio station. Though it was far, I didn't mind it because I enjoyed my day. First I met Bryan Scott who is the event coordinator and I met Lisa who also deals with the events, and I met Terri who is the Web Design person. I got comfortable in Bryan's office as he explained what he does. He was under a lot of pressure however, because of the six Chonda Pierce shows starting today through next12 Friday. Chonda Pierce is a clean comedian who uses comedy from her own life, and she is well known among the Christian community. I have never heard of her until now, but I have youtubed some of her stuff and she is a bit funny although she caters to older generation Christians.  Bryan is the one putting all of this together (with help of course) but this is his playing field and he has A LOT on his plate.  He explained to me that he does take care of  everything because the listeners are basically the costumers and they come first. With each show, we want them to leave with the experience and feeling that they will never ever experience anything like that again because it was so great. We want to meet their needs and help them with what they came for. Instantly I knew that in this business and if someday I want to be where Bryan is I will have to get rid of my shy demeanor and soft spoken nature. I will have to learn to take control. He also told me that any ideas I can contribute is great because he is really a laid-back guy and that this is a laid back environment..  After that he gave me a desk and computer and I was able to help him. He showed me  the back room and let me help him by taking inventory of the bands that would go on peoples wrists so he would know if he had to order more. After this we had a meeting and we talked about the number of people that will be in attendance at each location and depending on the amount of bands we had what colors would go to what location and person. When I say person, I mean that the type of ticket a person bought. A person could have bought General Admission, Front Row (VIP), or Gold Circle which is in the middle.  After that I did some printing of labels for the sections and before I knew it the day was done.  Before I left Bryan informed me of how to dress for the show tomorrow COMFORTABLE SHOES!!!!!! and  actually gave me "homework"  He gave me hospitality riders for a past show and insurance information. As an event planner one has to make sure the artist is really happy, you have to pamper them like there is no tomorrow and so that is exactly what a Rider is. A rider is a SPECIFIC list of what the artist wants for himself and those traveling with him. This ranges from towels to Coco pebbles, from bottled water to a case of red bull. From breakfasts to dinners and from the band room the hotel they will stay in.  This is negotiated between the event planner and the manager and the artist.After everyone is happy the things that are asked for are bought and placed in the place they want it (band room or artist room).  Insurance is basically what it sounds like and is needed in case something happens like a speaker falls on someone or if a speaker falls and puts a hole in the venues floor. Each piece of paper (insurance) per venue costs up to $100,000 maybe even beyond that depending on the policy you get. Bryan was really helpful and I enjoyed learning from him! Well until tomorrow (actually Saturday because I am working until late tomorrow) BYE!!!!

Days w/ IT engineers...

So I had my days planned with IT guys andddddd though I was suppose to do 2 days I ended up doing 30 mins with them because of technical issues they had to address. Radio transmitters weren't working. i mean we were suppose to go to Sebring and look at the transmitters there, but it didn't happen and I understood. They apologized but  you know unexpected things happen and he radio depends on IT so the days  I was suppose to spend with IT I ended up hanging around the office and helping out.  The two days were a bit tedious for me because I worked 9:30-4:30 and people only call so many times so I was just there in the great company of the people around me.  The IT guys did manage to show me a bit of stuff that if you ask me now I DO NOT REMEMBER  because all the technical stuff made my brain go in overdrive and fry up.  The things that I gathered from them is that to keep up with the technical stuff is really expensive and time consuming.  I admire them because they love what they do and they work so hard.  If it wasn't for the IT guys things wouldn't be running the way they did and I respect and appreciate them a lot.
Before I forget, I just want to say that I had a great day on both Thursday and Friday BUT  Thursday was a great day because I met Christian recording artist Dave Barnes! He has songs that makes my heart melt and  I am going to add a picture and the famous song of his (that I got to see him play in studio). I love it! I love this internship.  :-) Until Wednesday, Later!  (I am off Mon. & Tues).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI2JJ1OCz8U   

Days w/ Jeff

The above should actually be day with Jeff. So Monday was Memorial Day so that ment no work/internship so I was hppy to get that rest. Tuesday however was suppose to be my first day w/ Jeff McFarlene who is the stations General Manager. My schedule was that I was suppose to hang around Jeff McFarlene for two days, but the two days ended up being cut down to one day. When I went into the office on Tuesday, things seemed to be going haywire which taught me the lesson that things don't always go snmoothly in a radio station. My computer motherboard shut down completely and the IT gys had to come in and replace it. While I was waiting for Jeff to summon me, I realized that his door was closed. Why was his door closed you ask...a big mess happened over the long weekend which is kept confidential, and he had to resolve it. SO what did I do with my time? I helped out around the office and got really cozy with the shredder. I can tell right now that the business aspect of the radio production job is not for me.
Today, things went smoother and I got to hang out with Jeff!  We talked about my past,present and future and I must say that I enjoyed speaking with him. After a while it was his turn to talk and my turn to ask questions about his job and what he does. As a station manager he gets the say of what music will play n his station and what will get passed. He knows that he can't say yes to all the music and so he is kind of a filter. He deals with the financial aspects as well as help things move along in the workplace. One thing that I totally respect Jeff for is that although he is the manager, and the boss, he treats everyone like his equal. He lets everyone knows how important they are to the station and how much he needs them. I asked him if his life was stressful and he said that their are those days that he has a lot of anxiety but for the most part he doesn't have stress because everyone is doing their job and doing their job well. In his words, "Everyone is in the right position in the right place."  The only thing he struggles with is being an introvert in a very public business.  Jeff is a great guy and someone who, though is soft spoken, has a lot of love to give out.  Tomorrow I am with the IT department sooooo we will see how that goes. 6/1-6/2