When I first fell in love with mass media and journalism, it was during my second semester of my Freshman year of college. Although I feel as though it was sort of my fate, I realized that I just had to find a way to start somewhere. But how? One of my friends was the Sports Director for my former school's radio station, 90.3 WKRB and told me to try it out. Speaking on-air was something that I always wanted to do, and here I was as nervous as can be. It wasn't until two of my friends convinced me that I should go for it, and I did. Just one problem: I was a day late to register for fall semester training. I can't lie, I was pretty sad about it, but I realized that I could hold out until the spring—or so I thought.
The following week was club fair and lucky for me, they decided to have a second cycle for fall training. I signed up without hesitation, excited and anxious to begin. WKRB's radio training is six weeks plus on an on-air evaluation, where you need a high score (understandable). Now at first, I thought I had it in the bag, but the truth was, I was so unprepared that I could've flunked the e-val. In time I got it together and I passed it with flying colors.
A few months after I joined, I began to co-host a show with my friend which focused on old-school Hip-Hop, Reggae and R&B. Although co-hosting Cool Vibes Radio was fun, what I really wanted was my own show. So I began to brainstorm what I'd want to play, talk about, and the show's title. I had gotten my music and talk breaks together and made a 10-minute demo clip. It was approved and debuted that summer. My show was called, "The Fix" and consisted of Hip-Hop and Trap EDM, plus a weekly roundup of all things pop culture. My creativity was coming to life, and I loved every bit of it. The Fix went on for about a year, and ended due to graduation.
I transferred to the University at Albany, and decided I'd take a look at their station, WCDB. I soon realized that it wouldn't be a good fit for me, and decided to look elsewhere. At first I considered doing a podcast, but since I was taking five classes at the time, I wouldn't have the time to commit to it. I opted to write for the school paper, the Albany Student Press, only to realize that I wasn't a big fan of print journalism. Then one day in my intro to journalism class, a classmate of mine had mentioned The Odyssey Online, and that he was the editor-in-chief. I asked him about it after class, and quickly signed up. Since then, I haven't looked back.
I love the fact that we have the freedom to express and create whatever we want (within reason, of course). And the best part? It's my intellectual property. Every article I write belongs to me, which almost unheard of these days. At first, I had no idea what to write, or if I'd be any good at it for that matter. I went for it and realized that not I only was I pretty good, but others felt the same way about my articles. So my point is, no matter how nervous you are about something, go for it. You never know if you're good or not until you try. Although, this isn't to say that my radio days are over. Who knows? I might start a podcast if I have the time to and still write. For someone who's only been writing articles for a short time, it's safe to say that these days are far from over.
