Difficult Day On-Air

I came to the radio station this morning expecting a normal day announcing. I opened up the newspaper to put together my news stories and saw something that brought me to tears. A friend of mine from my early years of college died yesterday. He was a Sigma Chi when I was a Kappa Delta and we were in the same social circles and often hung out at the same parties and with the same people. I lost touch with him in the past year... but today he has been at the front of my thoughts all day.

Though Utah Pubic Radio broadcasts throughout Utah and parts of Idaho... the majority of our listeners are in Cache Valley. I was always taught that when reporting news the most important thing is to report items that directly effect your listeners... basically what is local. I had to read it.

This is what I drafted up and read on-air about my dear friend Trent Walker, "T-Walk" as we called him...

"24-YEAR OLD TRENT WALKER PASSED AWAY YESTERDAY DRIVING THROUGH SPANISH FORK.

WALKER PULLED HIS CAR INTO THE SOUTHBOUND LANE ON ROUTE 89 TO PASS ANOTHER VEHICLE. HE COLLIDED INTO A SEMITRAILER HEAD-ON. WALKER DIED ON THE SCENE AND THE SEMITRAILERS DRIVER, 45-YEAR-OLD SLOBODAN (SLO-BO-DAN) SPANOVIC (SPAN-O-VIC) WAS FLOWN BY HELICOPTER TO UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL IN CRITICAL CONDITION.

WALKER WAS FROM BRIGHAM CITY AND WAS DRIVING HOME TO HIS RESIDENCE IN LOGAN."

It was emotional to report this... and difficult to give the station ID right after... but I got through professionally. Though I'm sure my emotion came through when I said his name.

Rest in peace T-Walk. We'll miss you.

Here is the Deseret News article....

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700014568/Man-killed-in-head-on-collision-in-Spanish-Fork.html

Gemma Kayte LeBeau

My niece was born today!! 7 pounds 14 ounces, 12 inches long! She is perfect.

This is my older sister, Dawn's, forth child. My mom also had four children with my dad. They both went in the same order... Girl, boy, boy, girl. So it was as if Dawn's "Jean" was being born. Dawn was in the delivery room when I was born and she really wanted me to be in the room when her little girl was born.

I have never been in a delivery room before. I had an idea of what to expect from my Family and Human Development (my minor) classes... but it was nothing like experiencing it live.

We got there at 7 am. Ready to break her water and have her come naturally after that... but like most things... that didn't go as planned. Her doctor got called into delivery and wasn't going to be there until later on in the day. We started penicillin, pitocin, an antibiotic and a IV for hydration... so many tubes. The pitocin was going to speed along the contractions and basically induce labor. The doctor didn't come until 1:30 ish and then things went fast. He broke her water and her contractions started getting very regular and she dilated up to 7 cm in ten minutes from 4.5... she was also on an epidural so she really didn't feel... well... anything. It must have been a really strong epidural mixture because it basically paralyzed her. She could not move or feel anything from her waist down. It was hilarious. I am so pro-epidural it is ridiculous.

I was not expecting the smell. Birth has a smell. Very interesting lesson to learn. Awesome. Kinda. Moving on... It was magical. So wonderful. Not gross at all, or scaring which I was half expecting... It was simply beautiful. This little person came out of my sister... this perfect being. She was so well mannered too... she hardly cried, thought the doctor wanted her to continue... she opened her eyes immediately and was looking around, opening her mouth... just seeing what the world was all about... It was so precious. I was the first to hold her after her mom and dad... I was the only family member besides them in the delivery room. My sister really went above and beyond to make me feel special today. It was so kind of her.

Dawn and Craig's oldest daughter just turned 4 two months ago. Her next is 2, turning 3 in April, and her last boy is 18 months. Now she has a newborn. Yeah... she is getting her tubes tied tomorrow morning. Good decision?

Baby Gemma is beautiful. I can't wait to see her again tomorrow!!!

Website

I bought the domain jeanwest.info from GoDaddy and am working on creating my website on iWeb here on my Mac. I am having so much fun with it! The purpose is to have a central location for my resume, sound bites, and a little biography on me. The only thing is, it is soooo time consuming!!! This week is so crazy and I really wanted to finish it so I can get the ball rolling on job interviews and sending out my resume (including my website) out to employers this week.

The sight is basically done, now I am working on putting the website and domain name together without spending too much money! I have been on the phone with GoDaddy and Apple... still chuggin a long!

It's exciting!!! Stay tuned! I'll let you know when it is done!

Speaking of staying tuned... I found out who buried my car! It was my friend Tim Ray, who swore up and down that he had nothing to do with it, Brian Orr and Seth Hansen. Ugh. All my close friends. I should have known it wasn't random... too much work!

:)

Car Prank

My poor car... beautiful Ashton, my 2000 Honda Accord EX... woke up colder that usual yesterday morning here in Logan Utah. Never has he missed California so much. Poor baby.

I woke up to a picture text from my roommate of a car covered with snow. She simply said "Guess who's car?"... I thought it was hers. So when I woke up ready to go to the Radio Station... I had to postpone my trip because I couldn't find my car... Hum... Well, there is both my roommates cars... and there is a pile of snow... hummmm..... DANG IT!!! THAT IS MINE!!! ugh. I ended up being on time to the station, but my pants and

boots were wet, and I was sweating from digging... sweating in the snow is one of my least favorite things in the world, up there with people who smack their gum and Lucky Charms with an unbalanced amount of cereal and charms...

I haven't been able to figure out who did it, but there was a man that came over and was filming me and asking me questions when I was digging out my car... I thought he may be involved, why else would he videotape me right? But he was so convincing! He said he saw my car last night and hadn't seen anything like it and he was mad that he didn't have his camera then. THEN he saw me

today and had his camera... ha! A likely story. Then someone approached my friend Tim asking him if he knew me... turns out it was the same guy... whoever he is.

Hope to get a name soon. William Shakespeare once said "If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?"

Radio

Well, there are 97 days until I graduate from Utah State University... a thought that is still overwhelming to me... but not as much as it once was. I have found an internship up on campus working for UPR (Utah Public Radio) an affiliate of NPR (National Public Radio). I have been titled the "All Things Considered Producer" as well as "Sunday Announcer."

I am here now, Sunday morning January 31, 2010. I have really enjoyed working at the station! Coming in almost everyday either doing training to be an announcer, announcing, helping Tom Williams the All Things Considered Host, converting programs from Adobe Audition to DadPro32, getting new content to be read over the air, editing already prepared material, and my favorite... doing phone interviews. I've been patched through to a Senators cell phone, talked to the IRS Media Relations representative, the Sundance Director and more! So fun!

I love the feeling of being important, to have a job that needs to get done... knowing how to do it... and getting er done! It is a thrill.

The future seems brighter than it as before. I have found a passion. Radio. Not sure if I want to continue in Public Radio for the rest of my life... or maybe go into Commercial Radio... but I have found a couple stations in California that I would like to apply for. KPCC 89.3 Southern California Public Radio, and KQED 88.5 Northern California Public Radio.

Last year, before I discovered my love for radio, I had no idea where I was going to apply or what I was going to do with my life. Now I have a direction, not only a direction, but a PASSION! How exciting. The future seems less scary.

Now the tricky part... actually getting a job in the field I want. I'll keep you posted!

This is Jean West and thank you for listening to Utah Public Radio!