Oct.-22-08
With leaves flying by in the blustery fall wind, I pull the cold silver door handle, step inside and catch my breath.
“Good morning,” says Carl, the security guard.
“Good morning, Samara!”
It’s Faye Saunders. Standing at about five feet tall, she hums in her chair behind a large desk covered with papers, pictures, a phone and computer. Several red and white boxes labelled ‘Basics’ are piled up beside a four-drawer filing cabinet, with more papers resting on top.
Signs about the size of car licence plates that read Ocean 100 and K-Rock hang from her desk. Bouquets of yellow, orange and red flowers surround her.
“I love seeing everybody every day and taking part in activities and being involved with the public,” she said.
The smell of fresh coffee is overwhelming and steaming Tim Hortons cups occupy almost every desk. Photos of kids, artwork, ribbons, media passes, schedules and even a pair of bunny ears clutter the space of all seven cubicles.
It’s only 8:30 a.m. so all is fairly quiet, with only Scott Chapman in the news room.
“Mornin’ Sosa,” he says as I peek around the corner into his cubicle.
Chapman went to a radio broadcasting school in Toronto and did his internship at CBC national radio sports. There he interviewed ball players such as Willy Mays and Mickey Mantle, “One of the greatest ball players of all time.”
Another time he interviewed former prime minister Kim Campbell. Laughing, Chapman recalls the day.
“She told me I had a nice voice!”
He worked in Oakville with ethnic radio programs for about a year, eventually moving on to writing national news for a news wire in Toronto. That company only lasted four months. Chapman found work in P.E.I at CFCY and Q 93.1. He started there in 1990 and spent three years as a promotions director until Ocean 100 and K-Rock were born in 2005 and needed a news director.
“I was only planning to stay on P.E.I. for a year, take my experience and move back to Ontario. I’ve been here almost 19 years,” he said.
He is happy of his choice.
“I love the camaraderie. The people here.”
The police scanner buzzes, “Insurance 4804-check that. What’s it say? Follow that car...”
The newsroom is quiet until murmurs interrupt the silence. It’s hard to make out where the high-pitched sound is coming from, so I peek around the corner and realize I should have recognized the voice.
The mile-wide smile overrides Jake’s inability to speak clearly through his cleft lip. It is Ocean 100’s biggest fan and a daily visitor of the station. As he points to the symbol on the battered Montreal jersey on his chest, he speaks words which I can’t understand, but I can tell by his wide eyes and grin is one of his most prized possessions. Everybody else at Ocean 100 is used to Jake, so they can carry on a conversation.
Receptionist Faye Saunders talks about the colder weather and it doesn’t take long for news director, Scott Chapman, to join in. The topic switches direction fast. Jake, a Montreal fan, and Chapman, a Toronto fan, quickly start to debate hockey, a conversation likely held on a daily basis. One of the only words I can make it out from Jake is “Montreal” while Chapman defends the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Jake doesn’t stay long, his departure signalled by shouts of goodbye from nearly everybody in the station.
“See ya in the mornin’, see ya in the mornin,” he calls back.
Laughter erupts. Kerri Wynne MacLeod and Kirk MacKinnon are doing their morning show. Pumpkins decorate the large, glass-bowl-like rooms where the radio announcers sit for four hours every morning and do their show, news and weather forecasts. Orange and black ribbon dance around the mug-sized microphones and skeletons stand in the corners.
You never know what’s going to happen. Sometimes it’s MacKinnon dancing foolishly, or MacLeod singing her favourite melody. The atmosphere is lively, despite the early hour.
Next door is brother station K-Rock with morning hosts Zack Bell and Colin McKay.
“Slammin!” shouts Bell as he offers me a high five.
Jane Harwood does her morning routine of coffee and a granola bar, reading and listening to the news of the day, and checking her e-mail, all while she keeps up a steady conversation with those around her. Soon things calm down again, the only sounds the typing of Chapman and Harwood drowned out by the printer and distant laughs.
“Ha-ha, that’s funny!”
It’s coming from the office of Gerard Murphy, director of programming.
“Slammin Sammy,” he calls out, accompanying it with a handshake and pat.
“You’re my best friend,” he adds.
“Hello, hello, hello!” says MacLeod while she dances in. She is interrupted by a loud beep. Heads rise. It’s the printer finishing the two-inch thick log for the day, which Saunders comes in to organize.
Nearby there is a 1950s brown record player with a real record sitting on top underneath a light layer of dust. Flowers surround it in bright fall colours of yellow, green, orange and red.
Underneath a shag of bangs and a black apron decorated with flowers, a smiling woman enters the station and walks into Saunder’s office carrying a sunflower the size of a meter stick.
“I just wanted to say hi,” she says as she hands her the flowers to add to her collection.
“Clink, clink.”
A small noise and a soft animated tune come from the newsroom. MacKinnon is bent over, twiddling with cords hooked up to the television. As he steps back he reveals a PlayStation.
“Great. The one day you decide to hook up a PlayStation and Sosa is doing her day in the life,” says Chapman, half joking.
“Wait, wait now,” MacKinnon responds. “This is for a radio station....thing. Look, there’s golf.”
K-Rock announcer Sherri K chimes in.
“Cool, and it’s my break too. Wanna come and play after our meeting?”
Their 10-minute break over, people work on news stories, leave for meetings and answer phones. Eventually, the smell of fresh pizza and chicken signal lunch.
The lunch room fills with people dressed in suits and skirts lined up behind the counter, checking watches, chatting on cellphones and anxiously waiting for their lunch.
A long climb of four flights of stairs ends at the heavy brown door that reads “Administration.” The area is filled with cubicles each personalized with piles of paper on top of phones and keyboards. Light streams in through several large windows that replace half the wall.
Here members of the Ocean 100 crew sell and produce ads. It is also where the stations commercials are written and produced.
It’s quieter here and the air is cold. Accounting administrator Amy Morrison sorts through a pile of 30-40 envelopes and hands them out to different people around the office.
“This is where it all starts, sales. It’s the advertising that keeps our radio station,” she said.
Back in the newsroom things are still quiet. Harwood is off to cover a story. Chapman and Chevrier are still typing. Occasionally chuckles come from Murphy’s room. Ocean 100 music comes from the fishbowl.
As I grab my coat and head for the door there are more handshakes and a bear-hug from MacLeod. The announcers wave.
No comments:
Post a Comment