Talking To The President

For this assignment, I really didn't know where I was going to go to call in. I knew I wanted to do something related to sports, since that is really all I know. I tried to call in to WFAN New York on my way back from Spring Break, but after 10 to 12 attempts without even reaching the producer, I knew there was no way I was going to get through that traffic. I thought about calling WEEI to give a New York opinion on something related to Boston. The WFAN experience discouraged me, because there will be just as many if not more callers during the times I would be calling in.

Then I struck gold. I have only just recently started reading Barstool Sports. I don't care for it that much, but some of the links are funny and sometimes they actually do talk about sports. I noticed that the site has a "Barstool Power Hour" internet radio show three times a week. I listened in last Wednesday to get a reading on the show, since there was a call-in line. It is kind of amateurish. The sound quality is poor since it seems like the hosts are both calling in to a line. There really is no set topic of discussion. It is almost a free-for-all. But when "El Pres" was complaining about the lack of callers, I knew that this was the place to go if I wanted to get on.

I called in last Friday at around 3:15. The line went right through to the radio broadcast of the show, and then after a minute or two I was connected with the producer. Nobody was really talking about sports, and I think he was refreshed when I said that I wanted to discuss how CBS was performing as a network with its coverage of March Madness. He said he would put me right through, and I only had to wait about two callers to talk with El Pres. The entirety of my call-in can be heard HERE. Just fast forward to like halfway through? Something like that.

I talked with the guys for a good 3 minutes or so, and El Pres was very receptive of my ideas and thoughts. I didn't listen long after, but I don't think that anyone commented on my call. It wasn't as juicy as someone randomly asking whether Chipper Jones was a Hall of Famer or what superpower you would want to possess. Nobody wanted to talk about what a sucky job CBS does near the end of games.

Overall, it was a very exhilarating experience. There were definitely some butterflies in my stomach when I started talking to the producer. I was barely able to mumble what I wanted to talk about. Something clicked once my name was said on the show though, and I didn't really stutter or stammer while on the air. That was fortunate. Maybe next time I will go for insane, but this was a good time to keep it cool.