In my business, you have to make your money when you can...and you can't leave the scene for too long because once you are out...like my friend Annie always tells her boyfriend...you can be replaced.
Our morning show of Angie, Mark and Brian struggled along for the first 4 years we were together. A classic rock radio show doing mostly promotional liners with really no content...but that all changed in 2000 when we got a smokin' hot format change and a great consultant named Terry Patrick who gave us the right set of tools to finally be the number one morning team in our market with adults under 50. To us, that was a phenomemal feat. One we wanted to continue.
In the winter of 2001, I found out I was pregnant with my son Jesse. I firstly cursed myself for not having better timing, realizing that he would be born when fall ratings began. And I thought I would be damned before I would allow another dame to sit my chair, and garner all the accolades I had worked at for 8 years while I sat at home listening to MY show with somebody else on it. I was terrified I would end up coming back to a weekend swing shift handing out KOOL window stickers.
So, the team, convinced I was losing it, Mark Paine, Brian Bourke our programmer Pete Travers as well as our General Manager Paul Cugliari decided we could keep the team together through ratings by setting up a mini studio in my basement using my computer and a bell line.
We were set.
My water started to trickle at work on Friday Sept 6, we got to the hospital by 11am and Jesse was finally born by emergency C-section Sat Sept 7 at 9pm.
The whole time I was pregnant I thought this delivery process would be fine, over in a snap. With my Bruce County Breeders hips I figured I was a natural. Apparently not...it was long, and exhausting. I was in the hospital for 5 days and left knowing I had to get up to speed and ready to get back on the air. This made me anxious and upset, because I wanted to feel better...and it wasn't happening quickly enough for me.
However, after another week it was time to go back on the air. It felt good, the only thing I had left in my life that was "the same" everything else had changed. I was someone's mother now.
That someone was an awesome wee baby. He practically slept through the night from the start, he would wake and be fed at 5 am and go back to sleep and stay sleeping until right after 9 am. That is the exact time the show starts, 5:30am and ended at 9 am....perfect little timing. It all worked out. The show remains number one in our demographic adults under 50 and I have a beautiful little boy who shares a story with hundreds of my listeners.
As a matter of fact, there are several moms I talk to who were going through their experiences with me...and they always say the same thing...I don't know how you did it. I don't know either, and if i had the chance to do it over again I would have taken more time to heal me...because what I needed was time to stop, relax and get to know the new me. The old one died in Grand River Hospital!!!
What's done is done and is another chapter in my journey - and as a matter of fact, another morning show team in Saskatchewan used our idea too. I know for us it worked out well mostly because I had a great team around me...Mark, Brian, Jesse's father Willie and of course little Jesse himself.
However as much as I want to be known as Angie Hill radio goddess, I will always be the "one who did the show from home" or my personal favorite..."Jesse's mom!"
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