{"id":1498,"date":"2020-02-13T14:50:26","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T20:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/?p=1498"},"modified":"2020-02-13T14:50:26","modified_gmt":"2020-02-13T20:50:26","slug":"finding-a-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/blog\/2020\/02\/13\/finding-a-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding A Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wake up, It\u2019s Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Winona State University women\u2019s basketball team leaves today at 3:30 p.m. for games in Marshall, Minnesota and Sioux Falls, South Dakota.<\/p>\n

I, being the radio guy, cannot miss the bus as the men\u2019s team does not arrive before the start of the women\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Time to pack my bag and prepare for the fourth weekend on the road this season.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a bit nervous as I\u2019ve never really got on talking terms with any of the players.<\/p>\n

They all do their thing while I sit there quietly and mind my business.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve covered the WSU basketball teams for three years while working at the campus radio station, 89.5 KQAL, so you\u2019d think I\u2019d have a better relationship than this.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just not the case.<\/p>\n

I get to the bus stop, say hello to Coach Scott Ballard, and take my seat.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve debated sparking conversation, but I don\u2019t feel like the team is interested in my small talk, plus I feel like they discuss basketball enough as it is already.<\/p>\n

Hours later, we arrived in Marshall.<\/p>\n

They eat their team meal together at Texas Roadhouse or Pizza Ranch, I usually eat off to the side, then we head to the hotel for the night.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve said two words since the start of the trip.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Team meal at Pizza Ranch in Marshall, Minnesota.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Being secluded and keeping to myself isn\u2019t what I\u2019d like to be doing, it just happens.<\/p>\n

The nerves of saying something stupid or sitting where someone else wants to sit triggers my anxiety.<\/p>\n

My boss and longtime radio professional Doug Westerman explained that it\u2019s not unusual for radio personal to be introverts off the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just want that high energy \u2018Hey everyone! Blah blah blah we got a great day in store for you!\u2019 then all of sudden you\u2019re walking down the hallway and they give you a nervous \u2018hi.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

How could someone be an introvert and be on the radio where you talk for hours?<\/p>\n

Pat Broe, former KQAL Program Director and Sports Director, described the flipping of the switch from off-air to on-air as being trapped in a corner with no way out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something about when that red light comes on that you have to start, you can\u2019t do anything but be that person,\u201d Broe said. \u201cYou\u2019re trapped in a corner, you are live on air, there\u2019s thousands of people listening to you, and you have to figure out a way to entertain them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sounds pretty intense, but I found that to be accurate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Waiting in the hotel lobby until the team leaves for their shoot around.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the morning I checked out of my room at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n

I sit in the hotel lobby until we leave for the game at 3 p.m.<\/p>\n

5 o\u2019clock rolled around and I plugged in the comrex, got my mics into position, and waited for my producer Ryan \u201cBaby Shaq\u201d Mandli to send the call my way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s going to do it for the Warrior Tip-Off Show as Buck Wallert is waiting in the R\/A Facility in Marshall Minnesota, take it away Buck,\u201d Baby Shaq said.<\/p>\n

And I picked it right up with, \u201cWelcome to the R\/A Facility over here in Marshall Minnesota as we have a good match up in store for you tonight as your Winona State Warriors take on\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like that flip of a switch, I was in a zone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Calling the Tip-Off Show before the women’s game in Marshall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From saying two words in almost an entire day, to rattling off names, stats, and match up history, you would think I knew these players their whole lives.<\/p>\n

Anything to paint the best picture possible for the listeners back home, as according to Doug Westerman, \u201cradio is the theatre of the mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not talking at all, to saying thousands of words, then right back to not talking after the game bothered me.<\/p>\n

It just didn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n

Mike Martin the original KQAL radio jock and now the guy who keeps the radio station going, met with me the next day and explained how radio gives you confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes you think on your feet, spontaneously, and being kind of a shy kid, you\u2019re doing it in a room by yourself, so that kind of helps too,\u201d Martin said. \u201cYou\u2019re talking to people, but they aren\u2019t right in front of you. You\u2019re by yourself, but you\u2019re not talking to yourself, there\u2019s maybe hundreds of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thinking of the amount of people listening to me makes me even more nervous, do I sound okay? What if I say something I shouldn\u2019t or panic?<\/p>\n

And panic is just what I did the first time on air.<\/p>\n

Pat Broe reflected on the first time we were thrown into the spotlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a day you and I will never forget.\u00a0 I was producing and co-hosting, you were hosting, and neither of us knew what the heck we were doing.\u00a0 TJ Leverentz and Tyler Jeffries kind of just gave us the keys and let us go and let us fail, and we did,\u201d Broe said. \u00a0\u201cI think we went to commercial 25 or more times; we didn\u2019t turn our mics off one time, and there might have been a word that the FCC doesn\u2019t like that got on the air.\u00a0 Basically, anything that could have gone wrong went wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was just over three years ago.<\/p>\n

Now when I go on air, I have fun with it, take it and run.<\/p>\n

Notes or no notes I was going to think of something.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so funny too, I thought I was prepared for that day, I thought I had enough information to put a show together, but I was not even remotely close,\u201d Broe said. \u00a0\u201cNow putting together a pregame show is easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not always as easy as he says, when you\u2019re having a bad day, you still have to be happy go lucky on air.<\/p>\n

Martin explained this well when talking about his experience as a disc jockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been just having a horrible bad day or something, and I was just grumpy\u2026. Then I flip the mic on and immediately I\u2019m cheering and I gotta play the role, I gotta play the radio guy,\u201d Martin said. \u201cFlipped the mic off again and went back into grumpy mode. This other guy in the control room with me said \u2018how did you do that, how did you just change personality like that.\u2019 And I\u2019m just like \u2018hey, that\u2019s what they pay me to do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

I receive $20 for each game I call, as well as the free hotel rooms and couple of meals.<\/p>\n

But, the radio has given me a voice, so I\u2019d say I\u2019m living the dream.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/02\/Wallert-Radio-Story-video.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wake up, It\u2019s Thursday. The Winona State University women\u2019s basketball team leaves today at 3:30 p.m. for games in Marshall, Minnesota and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I, being the radio guy, cannot miss the bus as the men\u2019s team does not arrive before the start of the women\u2019s game. Time to pack my bag … Continue reading Finding A Voice<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":319,"featured_media":1500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[551,5,467,549,400,340,3,552,548,412,550,198],"tags":[554,556,558,555,557,553,6],"class_list":["post-1498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-campus-news","category-college","category-introvert","category-journalism","category-local","category-news","category-play-by-play","category-radio","category-sports","category-voice","category-winona","tag-89-5-kqal","tag-introvert","tag-play-by-play","tag-radio","tag-voice","tag-winona-state-basketball","tag-winona-state-university"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/02\/IMG_20200129_120221-e1581625753366.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1498"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1503,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498\/revisions\/1503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}