Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Orange Nicole 'Orange Nicole'


I haven’t really been shouting about my mornings at Majic 94.1. I’ve been doing weather and traffic updates there since Bob & Wendy were let go. Nothing more than that… And if I ever let some of my personality come across in any of those updates, I would hear about it.

So with that being said… It’s no fun getting up at 4am to run a board at a radio station when you can’t be creative or actually try to have fun. It becomes a chore rolling out of bed, taking a shower, slapping some contacts into tired eyes, and driving 47 minutes to work.

If I were allowed to be creative and/or have fun during the mornings, then it wouldn’t be such a bitch.

Oh well… Just another bump in my road to world domination.

Every jock in radio needs one important tool… A pair of headphones.

When you cut on a microphone, everything else goes silent and the only way to monitor what you’re doing is to wear a set of “cans” over your ears.

Some folks go all out with their particular tools of the trade. I’ve seen people spend some damn good money on Sennheiser or Sony professional headphones. I just can’t seem to bring myself to pull that trigger.

I’ve got the same headphones that I purchased back in 1986 with my first fully digitally recorded compact disc.

Yep! I was so thrilled to purchase Judas Priest’s ‘Turbo’ on compact disc because not only was it going to be the first CD I ever owned. It was a digital recording!

I wanted to hear every possible thing that Judas Priest recorded on that album. I didn’t want to miss anything and the best way to hear all that digitally recorded goodness was to slap on some headphones. I wanted to hear the crispness up close. I expected to hear every nuance from K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton’s guitars, stereo effects, and Rob Halford’s powerful vocals with a pair of Sony MDR CD10 headphones that I purchased for $19.99 plus tax.



Those “cheap” headphones have been with me for 23 years and they’re still working fine. I’ve even joked with other jocks that my “cans” should have a velvet rope around them because they can be considered antiques. The plastic covering that keeps the padding over the ears have cracked, but haven’t come off. Both the left and right work fine, so I feel no need to purchase another pair. They get the job done and hold up when I screw up a voice break and toss them harshly onto the console.

They were constantly borrowed at Rock 92/1075 KZL when other jocks forgot their headphones… Mainly Coup Delicious… I never worried about someone walking off with an expensive pair of headphones or leaving them somewhere kleptomaniacs gather.

They’re not the most comfortable things to wear… When I would sit in answering phones for Two Guys Named Chris or running the board for Murphy in the Morning, they would cause my ears to question why I haven’t replaced them with something better or softer. After about 2 hours of constant wear, those jokers made my ears a little sore.

They’ve been with me for so long, I couldn’t just turn to another pair when they were working fine. And besides, I didn’t really want to spend the dinero on another pair. If something is working fine for me, then I tend not to replace it.

Just the other day, I had a scare. My voice dropped out during a break. The first thought I had… “Are my headphones giving up the ghost?”

I tested them by shaking the cord around just in case there was a problem and found nothing. So I paid close attention to every voice break thereafter. It happened again. My voice dropped out, but the music bed was still in both ears. I found out the next day that the effects rack on the microphone was the culprit and I couldn’t have been happier. My old girl is still going strong!

Even though I don’t use them with my Zune or anything else, I decided that I’m going to continue using them until they give out. They’re still going strong and can take a beating. I find no reason to change up.

--And my pineapple fetish is still going strong! I loaded up with six 16oz cans to help me through the week!

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:16 PM

    Man, a quiet Eugene on the radio doing the weather....WOW! That's almost blasphemous.

    Also, downgrade on Twitter, UPGRADE on The Venture Bros.

    You have your pineapple. I'm all about applesauce.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous4:15 PM

    Indeed she does. However, Brock Samson is the reason the show is so great. Dean is a close second. The Monarch rounds out the top 3.

    Also, that dude from Labyrinth who turns into a bird.

    Hurry up and finish season 2, for season 3 come out on 3/24.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4:22 PM

    Stop the press!!!

    How could I have forgotten the Henchmen. 21 and 24 are hilarious!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That episode with the ghost of Lincoln, the force-field protection device, and club soda was Hi-Larry-us!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous7:27 PM

    Everything about the Venture Bros. is Hi-Larry-Us!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous6:20 AM

    ~ Shocked ~

    Since when do you eat pineapple? I have always loved pineapple, infact it's my favorite fruit. Chloe loves it as well. I never thought I would see the day when you would eat the tasty fruit, but would like to welcome you to the fabulous world of pineapple.

    Pamela

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey Brain! When you take over the world, can I be Pinky? :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Pam if we can only get him to eat pickles!

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  9. ey man I just found a pair of cd 10's in mint condition for 1.50 .I must have 20 pairs of cans
    of all makes and models and I gotta say these baby's lit me up I don't give a rats behind what audio snobs have to say I am a musician (old school) and I collect reel to reels and other stuff the snobs don't like...good .Remember the beetle's recorded the white album on stuff that many snobs would think was junk.
    Sun records probably didn't have 5 grand invested in their whole studio and look what they did.... they set the world on fire. Look sometimes you have to realize that People respond to music for reasons that are not about
    what some guy who lives in his mothers basement
    and thinks about sonic clarity and his superior knowledge of the digital realm ... and Star wars trivia ...He would probably scoff at a scratchy 78 of Django Rhinehardt anyway I like my MDR CD 10's hope they last as lng as yours have .
    Ray

    ReplyDelete