French Radio: Ad Lib

In the summer of 2004, during a continent-wide Acadia gathering, I had volunteered to go back to radio. I would produce and present daily, live morning programs on a new local French station (which would eventually become a permanent project). Check out CKRH - Radio Halifax Métro .
As with most of the radio programs I had presented in my career, I would work alone. This time, however, I had to face a new challenge: I had never spun CDs before, my commercial radio experience having been ‘way back in the days of vinyl records! (Question from the younger generation: “Daddy, what’s 'vinyl'?”)
After basic instruction by Pierre, the chief technician, on cueing and playing CDs and on the sound mixer, I felt ready.
So, on July 30th, just before 10 a.m., there we were, ready to sign-on. The studio had been set up on the second floor of a converted home which now housed the offices of the Fédération Acadienne de la Nouvelle-Écosse, the local cultural umbrella organization.
Find out more about La FANE, in French, or go to Acadian Federation of Nova Scotia for the Welcome page in English.
Because the summer weather was hot and muggy, we had to keep the windows open.
Just as the hands of the clock reached one minute to 10, we heard a rather loud sound coming up the street. It kept getting louder; so what was I to do? I couldn’t ignore it.
The noise grew to a crescendo as I spied a yellow street sweeper coming up the street, soon to pass by in front of the open window.
At 10:00:00, I opened the mic and said, (en français, of course) trying not to betray my nervousness:
“Radio Halifax Métro would like to thank the Halifax Regional Municipality for cleaning the street in front of our studio on our opening day!”
I then gave the required opening ID information and introduced “O! Canada.”
I don’t know how many people were listening that first day, but the announcement seemed to get the station off to just the right start!
It was the beginning of an interesting 3-week-long broadcast experience.