Time for the NHAB Banquet

The NHAB—a touring ground of what New Hampshire has to offer in the Broadcasting world. Mainly, all that stroll in and attend are sales execs, program directors, production directors, and the head boss(es). When looking around, all you see are suits, suits, and more business attire…and then you see that one glimpse of shimmer and shine. As Jim pointed out to the co-host and I at our banquet table, “You can usually tell who the On-Air talent are. No offense to you guys, but usually they’re the ones who tend to stick out, and not really in the good way.” While saying this, one guy walked by us that looked like the lead singer of Def Leppard (after 20 minutes, we figured out the singer’s name is Joe Elliott), followed by a woman dressed in an edgy black dress and hard-rock hair cut. Now, don’t know if the woman was an on-air announcer, but we had a gut feeling the guy definitely was stuck in a studio many days and was still spinning 45’s of KISS and REO Speedwagon. Then, there was the man who looked as if his pants and button-down shirt were from the 70’s while he tried to hide his disheveled hair under an “elderly man” hat.

You could pick the radio DJ’s out easier then finding Waldo in one of his books, but not all looked like they dressed in the dark and hadn’t seen the sunlight for days. Mainly the woman DJ’s were the one’s who dressed snazzy and fun, including yours truely, compared to the pant suits that the woman sales execs were adorning. Thankfully, Jim said that both the co-host and I were one of the exemptions to the statement he had made, saying that we were dressed to impress the peeps---and that’s how we roll. What made me chuckle some was that when we arrived with our other DJ, J, all of our people said they didn’t recognize me from a distance (in a good way—they thought I knocked it out of the park on looks), and then proceeded to tease the co-host a little, saying that it was nice to finally see him dressed up (him proceeding with a “Bite Me.”).


Besides the people watching, schmoozing is a high priority of the NHAB conference/banquet. Seeing that NH is such a small state, you have the opportunity to chat with people high in the radio/broadcasting “food-chain,” including this year, being able to talk and meet with the head of the whole NAB*, David Rehr—nice guy, very well spoken, hard at fighting to keep radio and TV alive and booming through defenses of the media in The Capitol, yet seems to have his smile painted on constantly. It was nice to finally meet and talk with the guy who’s face has been plastered in the last 3 brochures at the NAB convention. I also had the chance to meet other morning-show DJ’s, most from different formats then ours (so the feel of competition really isn’t there).


And while I sat at our table, I looked around and realized that we (Mt. Washington Radio Group) were possibly having more fun with our conversations and time together then many of the others at the tables next to us. It was just nice (and a tad bit surprising) to see all of us chatting and laughing together at some of the craziest things, whether they be appropriate or not—as if we really are like a family.


Great food (Filet Minoan), great connections, fun times with co-workers, won a first place award for a spot for our station, and received a pretty sweet flannel blanket---All in All, a great evening I must say.



*NAB=National Assoiciation of Broadcating