There’s heavy traffic out this morning, the shine of the sunrise reflecting off of the newly turned off head- and tail lights make the city scape look as if there are even more beautiful than usual. From up here they look like the Hot Wheels cars or Tonka trucks that the neighborhood boys and I would run through the mud before our mothers called us in for baths. These cars won’t be flipping or doing loopty-loops, though. At least I hope not. (Even though that would make my job much more interesting.) I turn back to see my crew preparing for what we have ahead of us. The mix oranges, yellows, reds, and blues that cover the sky ahead of me reminds me why I wake up every morning to do this job. Even the constant fwip-fwip-fwip-fwip that makes my head spin can’t distract me from the beauty of this morning. Finally, I receive a tap on my shoulder to see my producer holding up ten fingers. “SHOWTIME!” I exclaim to the pilot and crew, overpowering the propellers with my on-air voice. I adjust my headset as my producer counts down, “Nine! Eight! Seven, Six, five, three.” He then mouths and holds up a two, waits a second, and points at me and mouths “you.” I speak into my headset in my on-air voice, “ Gooooooood morning St. Louis and thank you for tuning into 96.3 for your morning jams on the way to work! Jack Jones here trying to help you avoid the jams on the road, so you can enjoy the ones were playing over the airwaves. We’re in the Jack Schmitt Chevy chopper on this beautiful morning flying near the Stan Musial Memorial bridge where there seems to have been an accident ON the bridge that is slowing traffic. In addition, there’s construction on 255 that will cause you to take an alternate route if you are trying to get to Tesson Ferry this morning. That’s all for Jams with Jack sponsored by Jack Schmitt this morning, I wish you a beautiful and wonderful day. And remember, ‘If you don’t know Jack, you don't know Schmitt.” The producer gives me a cut-throat signal and I take my headset off, relieved. I can now daydream, bask in the sun, and get down to Earth once again.
