My World Record Attempt

It all started back in January, when I announced on the radio that I wanted to attempt to break a Guinness World record for the longest radio broadcast by a single host.

The record at the time was 182 hours.

Yesterday, someone posted on my Facebook page a story about a Belgian DJ who recently set the record at 184 hours! You can read the story here.

In the spirit of good sportsmanship and fun, I emailed that DJ congratulating him and informing him that I was going to make a run at that same record next month.

He emailed me back wishing me all the best, and he even offered to call in while I was making my run.

So far so good, right?

This morning I check my email, and received a letter that can only be described as bulletin board material: (This email is NOT from the Belgian DJ...just some random Belgian)

"Please don`t do the radio marathon. First of all you are american and you can`t handle the 187 hours. Don`t underestimate how strong us belgians are. I lived in Amerika for 14 years one thing i learned is they you are the laziest people in the world.
For once let a record stay in Belgium. You Amerikans always have to be number one in everything guess what the rest of the world thinks you are the biggest and laziest idiots in the world."

Talk about motivation!! All I have to say is: GAME ON!

Dark Shadows

 

 

So...The new Dark Shadows movie with Johnny Depp comes out in May. I'm very excited about it. I've been watching the show in re-runs and on DVD for a while now.

 

I thought I'd take a sec, and tell you how I got hooked in to DS.

I was born in 1963, so I didn't catch the show when it was first on. I first saw the show, when it was being re-run in the afternoons sometime in the mid-1970s, on a TV station in Indianapolis. It ran for a few months over the summer, and I remember watching on a Friday as the episode ended with Willie's discovery of the secret room, and Barnabas' hand reaching up!!!

I anxiously awaited for Monday to arrive, and to my horror, they replaced DS with something else!!!! I called the station, and the answer I got was that they didn't like the quality of the prints for the re-runs, so they just stopped showing it!

Unbelievable!

Fast forward to 1990, I was working in Minneapolis, Minnesota for Stuart Anderson's Cattle Company Restaurant, as a store entertainment coordinator for the bar! I worked at the stores in Roseville, Bloomington, Fridley, and Minnetonka. When I first arrived, not having made friends yet, I was looking for something to fill the time. Suncoast Motion Picture Studio, a video store, became my second home.

This was before DVD. Everything was VHS. So I'm perusing through the racks, and I see that "Dark Shadows" is out on VHS!! What a concept! I was thrilled. I started snapping up the tapes as quickly as they came out. How devious that one tape would end with a pretty big cliffhanger, forcing me to wait until the next release to find out what happened!! I figured it was my version of waiting from Friday until Monday, with the wait actually being a little longer. :-)

I still have those tapes, up to the first time travel story.

Yes I watched the 1991 NBC show as well. I recorded them on VHS, and kept them until the DVD's came out.

When I left Minneapolis to return to Indianapolis for another career opportunity, one of my going away gifts was a copy of "The Dark Shadows Companion:25th Anniversary Collection" that had autographs from Kathryn Leigh Scott and Lara Parker (2 of the actors from the show) inside!

So that's where we are now. I break out the DVDs and watch them from time to time, with certain DVDs marked with my favorite episodes.

I have not yet made it through the entire series...but I plan on it! I've stopped and started three times! Once on TV, once on VHS, and now on DVD. Third time's the charm, right?

 

Today I had the opportunity to interview Kathryn Leigh Scott. 

 

I did my best, to not go all 'fan boy'. I'm not sure I succeeded. Listen for yourself by clicking here.

The movie opens May 11th.