Insight - Outside my media comfort zone - By Michelle Libby

Anyone who knows me knows I love to talk. Mostly about writing and my family, so why was I hesitant to go on the radio to talk to Shannon Moss on WLOB AM1310 last Friday? 
 

When I first went to college I was a television/radio major before realizing that I wanted to write. I would sit in the lab creating PSAs and pretending there were hundreds of listeners. 

On Friday, I knew there were at least five listeners, their one confirmed listener, Bob; my mom and dad, my brother-in-law who kept texting me through the interview and Shannon’s dad, who texted her during the show. 

The pressure was on.

I think through my fingers. Ask me a question and I can write a more coherent answer than I can spit out on the spot. So going in to the small station with the red light saying they were on the air was almost terrifying. 

I’m the interviewer. I ask the questions. Knowing that someone else was going to ask me questions and I would have to answer them on the spot…made me feel like the hundreds of people I have interviewed over the years. There was no seven second delay on this show. 

Shannon Moss is one of the nicest, most welcoming people I have ever met. Once she invites you into her space, you are automatically BFFs and the nerves begin to abate. 

First we spoke about The Windham Eagle and our mission – to cover positive news and people in the community and to provide a newspaper that anyone of any age can read. We are doing that and it is being well received. 

After a break or two, we spoke about my fiction writing and that’s when they had questions about cover models, steamy writing and pen names. We got so wrapped up in what we were saying that we even went over one of the break deadlines. 

At 10:30 when my interview was over, I was so comfortable that I didn’t want to stop talking. I was getting used to the minute long breaks and the easy banter. 

I was hooked. 

Wait, I don’t get to keep talking for another half-hour, you mean that that Olympian is more important than I am? Oh, okay. 

It was great fun to be on the radio and I hope Shannon invites me back again so we can chat more about writing and The Windham Eagle. 

To listen to the show, visit www.wlobradio.com/audio/ Then scroll down a while to find my name. Happy listening.