That's a wrap

Before last night, I had 24 live interviews go off without a hitch for my Independent Professional Project.

Then No. 25 didn't pick up his phone. So much for the final show going smoothly.

Back when I first started the Manitoba Sport Report in October, there would be little chance I could ad-lib through 20 minutes of live radio if I couldn't reach an interview over the phone.

But as this project grew in time, so did my radio skills and last night, with the help of my iPad, I found enough ground to cover during those 20 minutes.

This is a project I forced myself to pitch to my instructors back in last April. Some kids sing in the shower; I would pretend to talk calls for a fictional sports radio show on some hot topic I just seen on Sportscentre. I had a passion to do this and wanted to use the opportunity I had through the school to do a radio show.

At points, the days leading up to the show would be stressful. Guests would back out on me in the hours leading up to show, forcing me to scramble to find somebody else. Finding material could also sometimes be a challenge. But I always made it to air and by a few minutes to eight, be able to sign off for the night.

When I presented this project to a panel of instructors last week, I found myself being really excited to show off my work and what I had done. Although it was big item on the weekly to-do list, I created a product that I'm happy to show off, talk about and am really proud of.

There are a lot of people I need to thank for helping me out throughout the way. My classmate Meg Crane helped board-op my show for the first few handfuls of show and I'm grateful she volunteered her time to help me out. Riley Aisman, a first-year student, did the same for the last stretch. My advisor, Dan Vadeboncoeur, also helped me out with ideas and shaping my show. His advice was so valuable to me as I went through this project.

I got to say though, next Monday is going to be a lot more restful without having a show to do.

I'll miss it.