The Big Show Returns!

Yesterday morning (12/26/05) the Big Show launched with Eric at the helm. We had switched our format at 11pm Christmas night from Christmas Music over to True Country 92.7 "The Coyote." Congratulations Ridgecrest, you have your station back!

I listened from about 7am until The Big Show's 9am end. Eric tested the call in system with Ray Watters, our news man in Killeen TX. Why is our news man in Texas you ask? Ray is a dislocated local. He and his lovely wife spent many years here in the valley before moving to Texas to be closer to their daughter. In fact his wife was my brother's first grade teacher! Ray still has very close ties to Ridgecrest as his son is here as well as many close friends made over the years. On with the story!

Eric flipped a switch that made Ray sound great on air. The one downfall was that Ray couldn't hear Eric. When Eric flipped the switch back......dial tone. Ray was gone! All was well because it wasn't but a few minutes later that Ray was back on air and he and Eric resumed their banter. The Madman Steve O'Neal made a special appearance to the Big Show as well. This man is a Saint! He makes the glue that holds our station together. So despite the fact that he had been awake into the wee hours The Madman couldn't stay away for the first show! John Perridge of I-Rock, the across town Rock Station, also made a guest appearance as well as brining a gift. It was great to have our listeners hear that the two radio stations do get along! Eric said that there was a lot of behind the scenes scrambling but as a listener I couldn't tell. It sounded great and like a nugget of Gold, will only shine after more and more polishing.

Our new format sounds fabulous! It is truly a mix of great country songs of the past and some of today's best country.

Eric spent the rest of the day renaming over 300 files as well as letting the computer know when the end of the song is (EOM). Kim and I spent the day on billing as this is the first day of the new Broadcast Month. We had visitors through out the day and I just can't say enough about how Welcome we are feeling.

-Sara