Since one of my more recent blog entries actually brought forth an inquiry or two about what happened, I guess it would be remiss of me not to say what in fact did happen.
When last we left I was asked to fill in as producer for the Bev Smith Show. Bev's show is produced by AURN (American Urban Radio Network) in Pittsburgh, even though the studio in which it is produced is no longer actually tied to a Pittsburgh. It is heard in a handful of markets, and Bev is listed in Talkers Magazine as one of the top 100 talk show hosts in the country. I just looked and this year she was #36, sandwiched between Michael Smerconish and Kim Komando.
Anyway, as I mentioned in the last entry Laurence, her producer who is recovering from a stroke, called and emailed me on Friday about the possibility of me filling in this week as Bev will be out of town doing a couple of shows from Washington DC. I would be running the Pittsburgh studios on Wednesday for a "Best of" episode and Thursday and Friday I would be running prerecorded shows from DC. The issue for me wasn't the time or what not, I have no problem filling in, but the G 20 summit in Pittsburgh on Thursday and Friday. The studio is located directly across from the David Lawrence Convention Center, which is where the summit activities will be taking place. As a result, much of that side of town is, for all intents and purposes, closed. Concrete barriers, steel fencing, local, state and national law enforcement agencies, National Guard troops, the whole nine yards are being brought to bare in an effort to keep everything secure. Because of this, I was wondering whether I would even have access to the studios.
Well, as I told you previously as well, I placed a couple of calls in to Bev, just to make sure I would have access and what not. She didn't call me back on Sunday, and with me working 7am-3pm Monday, I was literally at work wondering if I was working that night. Since I don't have a cell phone (I hate them and refuse to buy one) I had to wait until I got home to check my messages and see if anyone called. Sure enough, Bev called, as did her other producer, Brook. I returned Brook's call and it was exactly what I thought it would be, that in order to be in the secure zone of the G 20, I had to be credentialed, and those credentials had to be applied for three weeks in advance of the summit, so there was no way I could sit in. Not that it matters all that much, sure I would like to do it and Brook told me there will be more remotes coming up in the near future that they may call me in for, one's where the security will be far less strict and getting across town will be a non issue. Plus, with the travel restrictions in for the summit, many of the newsstand employees will not be coming in, meaning that I could pull a 32+ hour shift if I really want the money that bad. I will just be camping out at the store on Thursday night, working as much as needed and then back at it on Friday. If it is really busy I will just work straight through, if it slows down I may stop and take a nap, though I haven't figured out where yet. I could come home and sleep in my own bed, it looks like my city buses are unaffected by the travel restrictions, but we may need bodies on site for any potential stupidity that may occur. So far we have been left out of the nonsense, some of the protestors are in town and a few have had rallies and what not, but nothing of major consequence has happened yet.
Well, as Paul Harvey used to say, "And that is the rest of the story." Now if no one minds, I am going to rest up for the big work shift ahead.
I was wondering how the summit would affect you. Pity about the radio gig, but it sounds like you have a few busy days ahead...good luck!
ReplyDeleteHave caught a little of the coverage about the summit, mainly to do with the protests. Do the workers that can't get in still get paid or is it just tough luck if they live in an area subject to travel restrictions?
ReplyDeleteWell, as for how the summit affected me, save for working more, not a whole lot, though there were some broken storefronts a few blocks from me, by protest standards, really not much to crow about, from an aging city population standpoint (Pittsburgh does have one of the highest average ages in the country and has more people die here than are born here annually) it was a "get these whippersnappers off of my lawn response. From what could have happened to what did happen, I would say far less exciting than expected.
ReplyDeleteThe security downtown all but made downtown a ghost town. Literally it was an economic summit with no economic activity going on. No doubt our owner took a bath on it, lost lots of business as the streets were so empty that you could have went out and played a game of stickball and traffic would have never interferred. Buinesses handled it by either closing and the employees didn't get paid or used vacation days to get paid, some opted to do business off site, tele commuting and all that jazz, and then there were the peons like me who just had to work through it. It was so slow that I actually did make it home once it became apparent most of the protesting wasn't going to be downtown at all, and in far smaller numbers than had been predicted. Original projections had guessed as many as 30,000 people, NBC News dropped that number to 2,000 by last night. So I ended up working 7am-3pm Thursday, back for 8pm-12;30am, then I ran the shop today from 7am-3:30pm. I snuck in a nap in my own bed from about 2am-6am, after I made sure the order and cigarette inventory were covered, since I would have no chance to do them Friday while running the place.