Yay Me !

I don't write about work as it would soon take over this blog and that's not what this is about. But I do have to toot my own horn because...well...I just have to toot my own horn.

Much like TV ratings, here are radio ratings. And "The Book", as the ratings report is called, came out on Thursday. The station I am on has been a bit of a workhorse, regularly coming in 3rd or 4th. We have been slow and steady and maintain a spot that keeps the competition from snagging the top spots where our sister stations sit. (There is a strategy in ratings that resembles football games, with blocking and diversion a big part of it.) Individual day parts, morning, midday, afternoon drive, and evenings sometimes differ from the overall standing, but usually not by much.

Well, Kool FM is a solid third. Solid, meaning we are far enough ahead of fourth, there's little for us to worry about from a competing company at this point in time. The big surprise was the gains we made in different demos that has resulted in some day parts being Number 1 in some pretty important demos. Specifically my show! Yay me!

I was accepting congratulations from the sales department long before I'd seen the actual numbers with my own eyes, not really knowing what was going on. The sales department see the Book first as they are the ones out in the field selling the stations to advertisers. So when the sales team are shaking your hand, slapping you on the back, and literally doing cartwheels in the hallways, you know you "done good".

It was all very exciting - and a little overwhelming. It hadn't really sunk in until Friday afternoon when I was over at my friends' Kathy and Jane's. Kathy asked how work was going. I managed to do a little football touchdown victory dance to demonstrate.

The thing is, the great results our company achieved can't be broken down to one specific department. A radio station is comprised of programming (my boss is the programmer), creative (they write commercials and promotional bits), production (who produce everything that goes on air), news, the jocks(short for disc jockeys, though we are called on air personalities now), promotions (who work with the programmers to come up with fun stuff to do on the radio for contests and public service events), sales, and a myriad of other support departments, like the engineers who keep us on the air and fix the things I break.

The building I work in houses two different radio companies. Long story short, we had a limited management agreement, the first of its kind in Canada, that had to be OKed by the federal government before it went into play. It was an experiment of sorts that worked really well, but for a number of different reasons the government decided to put an end to it. So my company will be moving out in the next six months. Currently, there are around 100 people who work for the two companies, plus a number of part timers. There are bound to be personality conflicts. And there are, though for the most part, everyone gets along quite well. Our staff parties over the past 10 years have involved both companies and this year's Christmas party will be the last of its kind.

Previous to our combining forces 10 years ago, we were competitors. After we part ways, we will be competitors again, but not in the same sense. We are not competing for the same audience but for a share of the advertising dollars out there.

I have no formal training in radio or business (my degree is a BSc in psychology), so the past 25 years have been a real learning experience for me. The past 10 years has been a wonderful example of cooperation and camaraderie.

How does this all tie in with MS? You knew it would. Much like "it takes a village to raise a child" or "it takes a village to make a successful radio station", it takes a village to live well with MS. I have a wonderful programmer who easily says yes to ideas I might have and has given me freer reign with my presentation. I have a wonderful team of doctors who guide my care and listen to my ideas about treatment and answer my questions. I have a sales team who toot my horn to clients and parents who cheer me on and toot my horn, too. I have a creative team and production staff who know what I'm capable of and direct me in doing it, just as my friends (especially the Wookie) have faith in what I can do.

I also have faith in what I can do, despite the fact that I wonder sometimes if I'm good enough to do it. But when the boss and co-workers say "Good job" or my medical team say "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it - it's working" or my friends and family cheer me on, I know I'm doing something right and life is good. We need to depend on other people just as they need to depend on us. It's all about cooperation and camaraderie.