By Jay Coghlan
Co-hosts of the morning show, Chris Leslie and Eilish Sullivan arrive at 5:30 at Algonquin College’s dark and cold campus to begin prepping for the show on AM 1700, Algonquin Internet Radio. As the time gets closer to show time, they see the timer reach 30 seconds and they know it’s time to go on.
“Mics going hot,” says Leslie, as he turns on the microphones for himself and Sullivan. Leslie and Sullivan, both second year radio broadcasting students, are the hosts of the Mile High Morning show on AIR.
AIR’s morning show runs Monday to Friday, 6-9 a.m. and despite being an early morning show, the hosts were in high spirits on and off the air. Beyond putting on a radio voice and speaking with a bit more energy, the hosts had as much fun on the air as they did off.
“Music just gets you pumped,” Leslie said. Having to come into the studio each weekday at 5:30 in the morning can leave you a bit tired, but Leslie says the music really helps get him going every morning. While they were off the air Leslie would sing to almost every song that came on the station.
Their morning prep begins almost immediately, putting together stories they want to talk about during the broadcast. While Sullivan spent time writing out which stories she wanted to talk about during the news segment, Leslie spent time looking through the newspaper and surfing the internet to find anything that he thought would be interesting for the listeners. Leslie always consulted with Sullivan to make sure that the story would play well on air before talking about it.
The schedule for the broadcast is set up electronically, with a large monitor showing upcoming songs, ads and breaks for the hosts to talk in. The schedule can be manipulated easily enough by the host sitting at the computer, in case some parts don’t seem like they would flow naturally into each other.
“We’ve been doing this every day for weeks so we know the pattern,” said Sullivan.
By about 7:30 both Leslie and Sullivan are set for what they both want to talk about for the rest of their broadcast. Both keep an eye on the web just in case some breaking news does happen that they need to get out to their listeners.
Despite coming in every morning at 5:30 both Leslie and Sullivan are in high spirits on and off the air, cracking jokes and working out bits with each other and knowing it’s time to go on air with a simple “Mics going hot,” from Leslie.