When I was a sophomore at Manhattan Christian College, I thought it would be a kick to be a DJ on the campus radio station. At the time this was a Christian college of about 300 students, so using the term radio station might evoke images that are more glamorous and high-tech than the reality. We had one microphone, one turntable, a cart (cartridge) player for radio spots, and a chair. Of all the equipment, the chair was the only thing that worked consistently, night after night. By the way, I can’t tell you the wattage of our transmitter, but I can report that the signal of the mighty KMCC could reach most rooms in our two dormitories if all the stars were aligned.
I pulled the late shift, so I was broadcasting for about two hours after campus curfew. In those days, the dorms were locked at 10pm so you could say I had a captive audience. That meant that several nights a week I was cooped up in a tiny room in Joliffe Hall, spinning records and talking to an audience that was theoretically as large as 300 or as small as, well one person — me. No feedback loop, no call-in request line, just me broadcasting into the blind.
The one and only time I tested my audience size was the night I forget my dorm key. In the last 10 minutes of my show, I “shouted out” to anyone in Johnson Hall, informing them of my plight and asking to be let in at midnight. While I’d like to say I was greeted by dozens of my fellow dorm dwellers at the stroke of midnight, I was actually relieved to learn that one lone soul was listening that night who was willing to admit a forgetful wanna-be DJ.
Blogging can be sort of like broadcasting in the blind. Without comments back, you don’t know if you’re writing to yourself (which isn’t all that bad) or if others are with tuned in.
So here I sit at my blogging “microphone” and as you read this post, or any others at any time, please feel free to hit the “comment” link. Profound thoughts or witty comments are strictly optional. The more comments the merrier.
Can you hear me now?
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