Life in the overnite hours

It's seventeen minutes after the witching hour and you're listening to Midnite2Six. I'm Alex, thanks for joining me. Let me take you for a ride and I promise you won't see the inside of the trunk. You can even sit up front and talk with me. We'll be going down some dark and winding roads but that's the fun part as you can never tell what's around the next corner in the dark.

The radio station is a two story building with the station on the second floor. The windows in the studio face the street. Which makes it fun to people watch while you're on the air. At three o'clock in the morning that can be a blast. Across the street from the station is a niteclub that has a very popular dance club and awesome chinese food. The club is open until 4am but stops serving alcohol at two. The restaurant serves food until three am and delivers. I love won ton soup and they make some of the best I've ever sampled. At three o'clock in the morning there's nothing better than won ton soup.

I've said in the past the "grave yard" shift is different because of the folks who listen. You get the party crowd, who are coming down from whatever high they have been enjoying. They are just trying to make it to their next destination, be it home or someone else's home. Then there are the other over night workers, like Jerry or Cherie. This group is just looking for a way to make it through the night without too much boredom. I can normally help with that. I encourage phone calls, while laying down some hot tracks, as it also makes my night less boring. Talking to people at 3 in the morning can sometimes make me feel like a bartender, you know, someone who will listen to their troubles. I do listen and sometimes find that I can help some of them. Which is why I've started to worry a bit about Cherie (with a C) as I haven't heard from her since that last phone call. It's probably nothing as the graveyard shift is in constant flux, just look at Jerry. I'd like to hear from her though just for my peace of mind.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it

Ok sorry for the delay but I've got a pretty good excuse. I just spent the last three weeks in the hospital for a broken leg. Broken leg, you ask? Let me tell you the story but don't repeat it as I told work a quite different story.

So it was 6 minutes past midnite and I was meeting Jerry to search for spirits and no, I'm not talking Cap'n Morgan. As I've said the building he works in is older and so, has a history. Except for the street level facade that has been upgraded to include the store fronts as I noted before, the outside looks like any three story small town building. From my research I discovered it was built in the 90's, that's the 1890's. It was originally a hotel that was then converted into offices in the 1950's. Jerry and I had talked about the building and it's history, so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect once we got inside.

Jerry's voice is the only real way I had of identifying him, so I was taking a chance but he seemed ok despite the seeing dead people thing. So when I walked into the mini mart and looked around I wasn't sure what to expect. As it turned out I was surprised to not be surprised. Jerry was in his mid-twenties with features that can only be described as typical white male of non-descript origin with a pierced ear and eyebrow. His blonde hair hung over his ears and collar but looked clean. He was wearing one of those rock-n-roll t-shirts with a band logo I didn't recognise and blue jeans with cowboy boots.
He said, "Hey how's it goin' tonite?". With that greeting I knew it was Jerry. From my conversations with him I knew that when he got excited his voice raised an octave. Subsequently when he was confident about his subject it lowered an octave. There were times he almost sounded like Mickey Mouse with a cold and other times like James Earl Jones on helium. Most times tho he just had a pleasant everyman voice.
When I said, "Hey, back atcha", he had a surprised look on his face. It was a look I see whenever someone connects the face with the voice. It's never what they expect. That's right as I've said before the info the eye sees never matches the picture the ears have told the brain what they've "seen". That look of surprise wasn't because I have a hunchback or am lucky enough to look like George Clooney. My voice just doesn't match my appearance. I think one of the things that surprises people is my age, I'm older than they expect. I'm also older than I look so that would be the real surprise.
After introductions are made and the small talk (building courage for the real reason we're here) is out of the way, "How ya doin' tonite?, Oh fine, it sure feels weird to be up this late and not be working." We headed for the back stairwell that lead to the second floor. Which is where we expected the action to take place. It was appropriate that the stairs creaked and groaned as we ascended to the 2nd floor landing. The nite lites were burning but there were more dark shadowy patches than light. It was disconcerting to say the least. I could see the 1800's hotel influences in those lights as they looked like lamps refitted to accept electricity and light bulbs.

To be continued.....

Scared

I'll be honest with you, I'm scared. Yep the thought of going ghost hunting scares me. Imagine that, huh. I have been dragging my feet in meeting up with Jerry and he's been calling asking me when we're going to do this thing. I keep making excuses but my "grandmother" can only "die" once so it's becoming more difficult to put it off. So I think I will NOT do the bandaid thing and get it over quickly. So here's a start. The building the mini-mart is housed in, is an older three story building. I will do some more research to find out it's history. I know it started out as a hotel back in the 1890's. Then it was turned into an office space type set-up with a major renovation that gave it character. Now it's got the mini-mart and a martial arts studio that occupy the main ground floor with a very small storefront in between the two that is currently unoccupied. It used to be a local video rental store, it went out of business when a video chain store came to town. The second floor has mostly office spaces and it always makes me think of Sam Spade or Mickey Spillane, you know Private Investigators. At the moment most of the offices are empty. The slow economy does that sometimes, also there doesn't seem to be much need for a lot of PI's in this town. Oops the red lite just came on so it's off to Radio land for me.

Who ya gonna Call?

Sorry I haven't been posting lately but..... I had to go out of town rather suddenly to help an old friend from my past. They got themselves in some trouble and needed someone to watch their back. Work got put on the back burner as I had to tell the prog director that I had to go. When she tried to get me to stay it became either I go and come back or I go and don't come back. It was as simple (at least to me) as that. In case you're wondering this friend deserved that kind of loyalty and back up.
Now that I'm back I will try to get together with Jerry so we can investigate these paranormal sightings. I expect to report within the next few days or so. I really hope the happenings aren't fake. Alright the On-Air lite is starting to glow so......

It's 4am Does your DJ know where you are?

Been getting a lot of calls this morning and some rather weird ones. Which are the best kind IMO. Jerry called ( as he does most nites these days ) and we talked some more about his "visitations". He says that the frequency (Kenneth?) of appearances have seemed to increase in recent days. I'm going to visit him my next off day. I picked up one of those disposable cameras so we'll see what we see, if anything.
I've spoken with some lonely souls who call just to hear a kind voice and others who just can't help it they gotta complain about something. Either the music sucks or the musician should focus on the style from the last CD or you know why would that band tour with this other band. I hadn't heard from Cherie (with a C)(sorry that's how she ID's herself on the phone) for a few days and having not heard the sound of her voice I was questioning my previous thoughts. Was she cute, was she interested in me, am I crazy for getting involved with a "ear muff"? Then the phone rang. With the sound of her voice, I forgot all of those misgivings and felt a bit light headed. Crap, I got it good! We talked our usual and she mentioned that her shift wasn't quite over yet so she'd better go. At that point I heard a gruff voice yell at her, "Who the hell are you talking to??!!" Without a good-bye she hung up the phone. I wasn't too concerned but hoped she didn't get into trouble. And shortly I completely forgot about it as I took a call from Walter, a regular, who liked to discuss the merits of a particular band and where they were going and what the h&%$ was their manager thinking.
OMG I love my job.

On the front lines

One thing about working the grave is you mostly get to avoid the politics that are prevalent. This isn't anything out of the ordinary as every job has it's bittersweet moments. The politics in radio though are sometimes abit much as you're dealing with creative and some type A personalities. I once saw a grown man breakdown and kick a wall until the plasterboard fell on him because someone else got to interview a woman who had met a musician (relative well known at the time) in a bar and they had hung out for a few hours. Nothing earth shattering but this guy felt that because he was the "talent" he should have done the interview. The really sad part is the fact that the woman didn't really have anything to say, she just kept saying that "he" was really nice. I mention the politics because the program director asked me to come in during the day and meet with her. Turns out corporate was in town and she wanted to show me off. Ya I put up with it as she gets kudos and then looks the other way when I don't toe the party line during my shift. The amazing thing is that the suits know of me and actually want to meet me. Like I've mentioned, my past sometimes is a pain. They are getting me for a rather cheap payday but I'm ok with that.
I have talked about liking graveyard shift and it's mostly because I'm left alone. The overnite shift is a "loss leader" for the radio station. When the sales staff sells radio time it gives them an opportunity to do the "ok here's what we're going to do for you". Since no really ever buys time in the overnite there are lots of time slots to fill. Of course management loves it. For me it just means that I get to basically have 30sec fillers where all I have to do is push a button, I like it. So pretty much the "graveyard" shift for me is a win win. Alright I'm ON in 3o minutes so time to go.