I miss my sleep
On Monday I was working the afternoon drive shift as an anchor, filling in for Mark Strashok who had moved to the morning show to fill in for Ted Henley. This sort of thing happens a lot at our station. We have people who take vacations and our line up needs to be shuffled to fill in the spots.
It’s kind of like hockey. When a player gets injured a coach must figure out what moves are best to create an even, strong grouping for each line up. So I was moved to the anchors’ desk.
But I received a call from our business reporter David Tait around 4:30 Monday afternoon. He was sick, which means someone had to jump into the business seat for the morning shift.
What you may not realize is that there is specialized software we use at the business desk to get the numbers from Bay and Wall Streets as they move. Only a few people at our station know how to use this software which limits the options for business reporters. As you may have heard from the past two mornings … I am one of those with a working knowledge of the business desk.
The problem is, I had to show up to work at 4:00 a.m. and finish my shift early at 5:30 p.m. It’s not easy to go home and fall asleep in the early evening, especially when you are used to heading to bed shortly before midnight.
Needless to say I was rather groggy when I got to work and needed a few coffees to get myself perked up. I never fully appreciated sleep until I started working morning show shifts and getting up at ridiculous hours.
So when you wake up and hit the snooze button at 6:30 in the morning … make sure you enjoy every second of it … because you never know when that precious sleep can be taken from you.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:33 am
You did an excellent job with the business report…Was actually quite shocked to hear you doing it…Great job
August 27th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Why thank you.
Don’t be so shocked next time. The only three positions I haven’t worked at this station are Weather, Sports, and News Director. I don’t think I am going to fill in for my boss anytime soon, I know sports…just haven’t had one of those shifts..I’d be useless in weather.
Although I thought I’d be useless in business when I started it. I guess if you get a brief training session and are thrown into the position then you’ll be forced to be good (somewhat) in any position.