Tonight was an internet-only broadcast. As a result, the radio station's desire to foot the bill on a cell phone call for three hours is limited. Okay, it's next to nil. The phone lines are working though. Of course, we still have the long-distance access issue. At some point, I don't recall if it was tonight or last night, in a moment of weakness, the Bakersfield general manager gave me his passcode.
With some assistance from our engineer, I discover that if I punch in the phone number to the studio on this comrex gadget, then press the pound button six times, then the passcode, then it will pause long enough and the call will be completed. Viola. It works!
Still not sure how this works exactly, but the phone call to the radio station gets me connected. From there, certain buttons are pushed in the studio, certain buttons are pushed on a laptop, and my broadcast is launched to the internet. My ignorance is bliss on this.
Modesto scores 10 runs in the second inning. At some point, I don't recall exactly when, I look at the equipment and realize the connection was lost. I call. I don't get connected. I call again. No connection. I try 10 pounds. I try three pounds. I try six pounds again. Finally, I'm connected again.
This continues all night. It happened about every 15-20 minutes, or whenever Modesto hit a home run. Modesto hit six homers. I was dropped eight times.
This was incredibly annoying. I debate how to handle this on the air. Three ideas come to mind.
1. Continue to apologize on the air for the drops.
2. Pretend like it's not happening.
3. Rip Bakersfield for the crappy phone lines.
I choose number one. And a little of number three. Okay, maybe a little more than a little.
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