Happy Sunday, everyone!

Every Wednesday, blogging buddy Aaron over at The Confusing Middle posts a “Sunday Scribblings” prompt for other bloggers to ponder and respond to on the following Sunday. If you’re a blogger looking for more inspiration, I highly recommend jumping in and joining in on the fun!

This week’s prompt is: Radio!

On Tuesday of this week, I hopped in my car to go to work (at the only fancy marshmallow shop in the area), and flipped the station to SoJO 104.9. What I heard gave me pause. My ears were immediately assaulted with Christina Aguilera’s “Ain’t No Other Man But You.” My finger hovered over the button on my steering wheel that toggled the stations.

Damn, this song is so overplayed, I thought. Then I realized that technically, my immediate reaction was incorrect. In actuality, Damn, this song was overplayed. Many moons ago. Many, many moons ago.

I remembered hearing this song on the radio when I was in middle school. Wow, has it been 10 years already since that song came out? I was horrified to realize that it must’ve been closer to 15 years ago if I was in middle school at the time.

Apparently, every weekday from noon to 1pm, SoJO plays “throwback” songs. Is it just me, or has the line of “throwback” become increasingly muddled? With so many stations touting that they play the 80s, 90s, and now (I guess “now” has been happening for 22 years?!), who knows what’s going to play? In reality, most of those stations seem to play the most popular 80s hits, 90s hits, and anything popular that came out in the last 5 years. All of those songs from 2000-2017 are lost in radio limbo. RIP Ciara’s song Goodies.

At any rate, it was nice to hear a song from my childhood that I probably haven’t heard in over a decade, even if it was overplayed at the time.

Of course, if I’m being transported to middle school via radio, I can’t help but to think about the times that my random shenanigans (this post is in the works, I swear!) had my friends and I calling up radio stations after school. There were several days that I had us all on different telephones dialing in to Radio Disney to just try to get a few moments of airtime. We didn’t have anything fun or important to say, just thought being on the radio would be fun! Another time, my friend Tiffany and I tried to call in to win Bon Jovi tickets. We weren’t the biggest Bon Jovi fans or anything, I think it was mostly just for the thrill of it.

That wasn’t the last time I was calling into radio stations trying to win something, either. I just couldn’t live without that buzz!

One time, I called into the aforementioned SoJO 104.9 to be the 104th caller and win some Lady Gaga tickets (I don’t think it’s well-documented on my blog, but I do love me some Gaga). I joked the entire time that I would be caller 103…and GUESS WHAT HAPPENED?!

Instead of an automated machine robotically telling me that I was caller number whatever, I had a person actually get on the phone to say “You’re caller 103, so sorry.” Rude. Better luck next time, right?

Better luck next time, indeed! The next time that I called into a radio station to win something, they were offering to get on the list to see Karmin (if this one isn’t well-documented on the blog, it should be, I LOVED Karmin) at the Margaritaville restaurant in Atlantic City. I had actually missed Karmin the last time that they had toured since they were touring the US while I was studying abroad in France. Get this: they even added a second leg of the tour and it still ended before I got home. Sometimes, the universe likes to play sick, twisted jokes.

I waited all morning to call in to be added to the list, and finally, during my lunch break, it was time. I stepped out of the restaurant to call in. After the baited breath that only comes with listening to the line ring over and over when trying to call into a radio station, someone at the station finally picked up.

“Hello?”

“Hi! I’m calling for the contest?”

“Ummmm…what contest, I’m sorry?”

“….the…the Karmin contest?”

“The…oh! You want to be added to the list for the Karmin concert at Margaritaville. Yeah, I can just go ahead and add you. And how many will be in your party?”

As utterly bizarre as that conversation was, a few weeks later, my friend Becky and I were on our way to Atlantic City to have dinner and listen to (and SING A BIT WITH!!) Karmin. Part of me is grateful that I didn’t end up seeing Karmin in concert, because then I might not have tried to see them at this small private show where…again, I got to SING WITH Karmin. Magical.

Now that I primarily work from home (and have since the beginning of the pandemic), I don’t listen to the radio much anymore, instead listening primarily to the music I have on Apple Music. However, even if my frantically-calling-in-to-radio-stations days are over, I will remember the anticipation and excitement fondly.

Photo by Fringer Cat on Unsplash