Holly Jolly Follies

With holiday events happening all over eastern Connecticut and Christmas music on the air, WBMW is once again "Holiday Central." That's not to say that everything is completely down to a science, even with all this holiday experience under our belts. Rebecca and I were reminded of that when we co-hosted the annual Norwich City Hall Lighting program. The music CD that accompanies one of the soloists performing Christmas carols seems to skip on an annual basis, and this year was no exception. This time Chris, the singer, politely walked off stage and to his car to fetch a less defective CD. That left Rebecca and me to "cover" until his return to finish. At the Christmas tree lighting before the Mystic Lighted Boat Parade, we counted down to the lighting only to have the top half of the tree go out. After the chorus of "aw," I asked the crowd in Mystic River Park if there was an electrician in the house. Then came time to describe the lighted boats. They had walkie-talkie communication with the boat launch site so we could announce who was what, but the walkie-talkie was on the wrong channel. It was time to wing it again. This past Thursday back at the studio, a storm wreaked havoc for about twenty minutes with the holiday hits that get played on our music computer while the emergency filler tape played non-Christmas songs. People were calling asking what happened to the holiday music. After a hit like that to our hard drive, we were lucky to be on! In all three cases, the disruptions in holiday festivities proved minor. It will take more than that to mess with our holidays!