Retiring from Radio

Well it appears my 4-month vacation is coming to an end. Today I accepted the position of Member Services & Communications with the Sask Trucking Association here in Regina. No relocating – yayyyyy!

I’m extremely excited to be moving into a Communications role as my eventual goal was to transition into a PR or Communications job as I turned the corner into my fourties. As I said to someone the other day, it’s time to stop being all cool on the radio and start being an adult planning for a solid financial future some day. After all, not having kids, I don’t have anyone to pay for my seniors home do I?

I am sad in many ways to officially be retiring from my radio career. I worked my butt off for 20 years to get to where I was and wasn’t finished with where I wanted to go before someone decided I was no longer required. It’s like the carpet got pulled out from underneath me and there are many things I don’t have closure on. I’m also sad that I’ll miss talking to and hearing from listeners who’ve been so kind to me all these years in Regina and Moose Jaw. You are incredibly loyal and I’ve been blessed to have many of you as friends, even if it is just on Facebook. Keep being the wonderful people you are! To my fellow radio colleagues from all these years, it’s been a pleasure to work along side you and I wish you continued success. If I could offer any advice, it would be to have your back up plan ready to launch at any given time and a decent rainy day fund banked away. The industry is about to get very interesting over the next year or so. To my music friends who I’ve worked with all these years, some who’ve become great personal friends, it’s been a blast working this thing we call the music business together.  We all got into this crazy life because of music and we’ll always be music people no matter what.

I want to thank everyone for their support through this ride the last few months. Barb, Paul, Krista, Rob, Kim, Chari, my sister, Edward, Debra, and to everyone else for their on-going ears and advice. I’ve learned a lot about myself and my character this last little while. But I’ve also learned who my real friends were, and I’m lucky to have had such a strong support system surrounding me and propping me up.

So I have until April 2nd to continue to enjoy my time off. I think an official retirement party may be in order so we can all get schmammered together. This weekend I’m going to enjoy my rescheduled holiday to Toronto that got cancelled in November when my world came to a crashing halt. Upon my return it’ll be a little spring cleaning and then back to work I go!

Goodbye radio. Onwards and upwards ☺
Tia

Do you Swear?

Yesterday I was picking up the kiddios at their school. Each day the parents/care-givers arrive and wait outside the classroom door until the teachers release the beasts.

As I'm leaning against the wall, a woman was just down the hall within earshot talking to one of the dads. I'm pretty sure every 4th word that came out of her mouth was "shit". I should point out that this was just outside of a class for 4 yr olds and in a Catholic school to boot!

I'm not a saint when it comes to swearing, but I was a little appalled. There's a time and a place and I'm not sure that was the best choice of words given the location. God probably didn't think so either!

So when is it not appropriate to use that kind of language? Well a Catholic school would be one place. In front of kids certainly is the wrong place. But at what age of kids do you worry less about loose lips and give into the fact they'll learn it eventually? I also avoid swearing around seniors as I find it disrespectful. Swearing around people you've just met is touchy until you get a sense of what they're like  first. And despite both my parents being the type to swear up and down like sailors, I actually don't like to swear around them. It's odd I know.

Do you have any "swear rules"?

Tia

Black Eyed Tia

A friend woke up with a little bit of a black eye this week. She's not sure why or what happened, but suspects a blood vessel may have broken on it's own.

I'll admit I was giving her some grief over it and even texted her yesterday asking if she wanted me to go buy her an eyepatch. Saying that out loud makes me giggle like a little school girl. I don't think she found it nearly as funny.

I shouldn't poke fun I guess. I've had a couple of black eyes in my time. My first one was in grade 6. I got bitch slapped by my friend Stacy as we were having a dispute over a hammer we were using to build forts. She slapped me and it's true, you do see stars and tweety birds for a brief couple of seconds. The next day I went to school with a big ol' shiner.

A few days later, I was playing out in our yard at night. I was standing under the big yard light by the corrals tossing a softball up in the air and catching it. My throws got higher and higher to the point that one went up, I lost sight of it in the glare of the light, and the next thing I knew it came down and popped me in the eye. Yup, it sure did leave me with another black eye on the other eye.

The next day I went to school again with another big ol' shiner to match the other one. I remember standing by the shelves when the teacher came over with a very concerned look on her face and asked me if there was something going on at home I wanted to talk about. Two black eyes on a grade 6 kid tends to spark a little panic that a call to social services might be in order apparently. I assured her however that everything was fine, I just had a little bad luck.

What can I say, I had an interesting childhood ;)

Tia

The Mystery Jakki Cup

Yesterday I posted this picture and asked "what is the significance of this cup?". Although some interesting guesses, no one quite hit it on the head. Unless you remember my radio days from Lethbridge, it was almost an impossible question. 

In about 2000 I believe it was, I had accepted a morning show co-host position at Country 95 in Lethbridge. I was excited for new opportunities and to be heading back to Alberta. Once I got there to start the job however, the PD threw a little surprise at me after I had signed the paperwork. His words were something to the effect of "by the way, your name on air is going to be Jacqui Daniels". 

I'm sure my jaw was sitting on the floor. Jacqui Daniels? Really?? It sounded like something that you'd read in the credits of an adult film. They thought it sounded more country though. Not to mention it's very difficult to suddenly start calling yourself by another name after how many years of being a Tia. 

I hated it, there was no denying it. But I thought that if they weren't going to give me the choice of what name I went by, then at least I'd damn well spell it the way I wanted to. So it became Jakki instead. The cup is from a staff event held for us by Champs Lounge, which specifically asked for correct spelling of everyone's name. I got the last laugh after all. 

And now you know the rest of the story. 

Tia 

The Cross Canada Adventure that Wasn't

A couple of weeks ago I had interviewed for a job in Moncton, New Brunswick. For the record off the top, I didn't get the job. It's always crushing when you don't get the gig, but I was also somewhat relieved.

In my anticipation (because I'm a planner), I had prematurely started to research things like cost of living, vacancy rates, etc. In that planning, I was also eyeing up my trusty map of Canada trying to figure out how long a move like that would take. My guest-imate was that it would be a 6 day drive via an all Canadian route. That could have been shorter, however, I was taking into consideration travelling with pets and the fact that you never know what will be brewing from mother nature. There is the alternate route through the states and back up, but if you're crossing the border with pets, you need proper paperwork and it's not guaranteed they won't make you make a trip to the vet once you get there.

I was also debating pulling a small U-haul with my VW or just selling all my stuff and going with a car load and starting over. Pulling the U-haul likely wouldn't have been so bad, but risky if you hit stormy or icy roads. Pack ratting everything into my car would have been challenging, then add in the cats, and it would have been just down right interesting. It also makes me wonder how stressful the trip would have been on them.

It's all hindsight however, and nothing I have to worry about for the time being. But had things been different, that certainly would have been my epic move of all moves in my radio career. Crazy huh?

Tia

Text Peeve

I'm all for text messaging, but I have a huge beef with the way some people text. I call it the American Goodbye.

You know - when you're watching American tv shows and they're on the phone. When the conversation is over, it's over. There are no goodbyes, or see ya laters. They just hang up! That's not the Canadian way.

Yet how many times have you been texting with someone and suddenly they're gone! No goodbye, no closure...the conversation is apparently just over. I hate (with a capital H) that! It's pretty easy to tell when a text conversation has run it's course. So it's up to one of the active participants to just kill it right then and there. I don't care if you lie to me and make up excuses, just do it! Tell me you have to go do laundry, tell me your favourite show just came on the OWN channel. Make an escape route and just be gone...but say goodbye before you do! Is that so much to ask??

I know this sounds like a Jerry Seinfeld rant, but surely I'm not alone here? I guess the reason I'm bringing this up is in part because I'm a hypocrite. Last night I was texting with someone and I just left. I should have said goodnight and I didn't. And it's eating me alive. Well that's an overstatement, it's bothering me like a mild itch from laundry detergent. Better?

You'll think about this the next time you're texting. You'll see.
Goodbye :)

Tia

Whitney, Diet Coke and Me

Like millions of people around the world, I'm in disbelief that Whitney Houston is gone. Just the other day while standing in line at the grocery store scanning the tabloids, Whitney was on the cover of more than one for the alleged return of her drug woes.

Like many from the 80's, I was a huge Whitney Houston fan. I was just a teen the first time I heard "Saving All my Love for You" on the radio. It was hair-raising and phenomenal and there was nothing else like it on the radio at that time. Prior to that song, I knew at that young age that I liked music. Hearing that song, made me LOVE music.

I remember around that time that Diet Coke was doing this contest where if you looked on the inside of the bottle cap, the little rubber thingy came out to reveal a win or no win. If it was a win, you had to dial the toll free number for a chance to win concert tickets. I remember buying endless bottles of pop, then going to the lobby of the hotel in town to use the payphones to try and win. Never did I get anything but that stupid busy signal. I must have spent every penny of my allowance on Diet Cokes for that shot to see her show. I suspect Whitney is the reason I'm a DC addict to this day.

There'll be much fodder and speculation over the next few weeks about Whitney's battle with drugs ultimately costing her life and many fingers pointing at Bobby Brown for leading her down the path of destruction. I recently watched a biography on Ricky Martin. He said something that struck me as sad. He said "I have all these millions of fans around the world, but I can count on 3 fingers the number of good, close friends I have and trust". I think Whitney was a lonely, lost soul looking to "friends" for comfort. Her friends were drugs unfortunately. And they were never very good friends to her. I think many of us are sad for her loss, but also sad because we were really rooting for her to kick those friends to the curb one day, and she just couldn't quite finish the job.

In 2009, Whitney made her comeback with the cd "I Look To You". Below, my favourite song from that cd that was Whitney to the core. Rich, soulful vocals that wrap around every word like melting butter on popcorn. In light of her death, the words hit home a little more today than they did two days ago. And the end...what we call a cold ending in the business combined with those final words, pretty much a metaphor for Whitney's life.

RIP Ms. Houston. May you find your "true" friends in heaven.