Highlighted at Y105

Today Chris Farber at Y105 highlighted Erik and me on his daily blog!

Whenever we are home in Dubuque, we love to come by the station. I love working with Chris on the morning show as well as writing and recording commercials. Erik helps fix things and works with Andy, the station engineer. Erik and I have learned so much about radio from Chris, John, Jeff, Ken, and everyone else at the station. Thanks for teaching us and letting us continue to learn!

Read Chris' full post of Meet the Cast...Part 3!

Today's song is a highlight of one of Chris' favorite songs that Erik and I have released: "Battle Hymn of the Republic" from As American As Jazz.

60th Annual Dubuque County Fair: Daughtry

The t-shirt I'm wearing tonight!

This week is the 60th Annual Dubuque County Fair!

Y105, the station I intern at as a co-host on the weekday morning show with Chris Farber from 7:00-10:00 AM is sponsoring the Daughtry show tonight at the 60th Annual Dubuque County Fair!  So I will be on the stage throwing Y105 t-shirts to concert goers before the show starts!

Now you know of my love for Daughtry's song "Over You" from a previous post when Chris and I interviewed Chris Daughtry on the Y105 morning show.  I'm excited to hopefully hear it live tonight!

Another of my favorite Daughtry songs is "It's Not Over." So here it is!  I'll tell you all about the show tomorrow!

Halfway to Christmas Tomorrow!

Tomorrow on the Y105 morning show we are having a "Halfway to Christmas" show and are playing Christmas music!  To help celebrate, I made Chocolate Peppermint Cookies from Mel's Kitchen Cafe!

My sister and her friend first made these cookies last year right before Christmas and they were a hit!  They are now part of my yearly Christmas cookie list.

The only thing I do differently from the original recipe is I only coat the cookie part way.  I like to taste a balance between the peppermint flavored chocolate cookie and the white chocolate coating...plus it's easier to just partially dunk the cookies!  They set up faster and look quite artistic!

You really do have to follow all of the steps in the recipe including refrigerating/freezing the dough twice.  These cookies may take a little more TLC than the average cookie, but they are so delicious that the work fades in your memory as you savor them with each bite!

So from me to you preparing for tomorrow's "Halfway to Christmas" day, June 25, I share Louis Armstrong's "Cool Yule" with the applicable lyric: "You'll flip when old Saint Nick / Places a lick on the peppermint stick!"  Tune in to the morning show 7:00 to 10:00 AM CST!

Radio Goodbyes...

Chris Farber and me in the Y105 studio!

Erik and I just absolutely love to help out at Cumulus!

I love to be on-air with Chris Farber on Y105 and help out Johnny Jost with commercials (and filing), and pinch hit for Jeff Robb on remotes!

It's always bittersweet when we have to say our goodbyes.  We just love to learn!

Erik and me in the Y105 studio

Me, Chris Farber, and Erik

Jeff Robb, me, Erik, John Jost

And not to get sappy or anything because I would never do that...but here's my rendition of  "Always on My Mind."

Work and A Nice Clean Room...

You know that accomplished feeling that distills on you when your room is clean?  My, it's a mighty fine feeling!

Okay, I'll have to be honest...my room is only partly clean.  It will take another day to get everything in place, but it's much more organized!  And I finally got everything out from under my bed.

Now if only I had a dog's life!  But then again, I love to work!  Which reminds me, tune in to Y105music.com tomorrow and Monday 7:00-10:00 a.m. CST to hear me on-air during the Morning Wake-Up with Chris Farber!

So, in honor of work...well, actually I don't have a song that has to do with work.  Consequently, this song has nothing to do with work or anything else in this post, but it is a great tune.  Here's "Doubts."

Saying Goodbye...

So what does it mean when I wake up and wish my alarm were going off, telling me I had to get up at 5:50 AM to go to work? It means I miss my internship with Cumulus! (Check out more pictures on Facebook!)

Erik, my brother, and I absolutely LOVED interning at Cumulus! Last year we interned during the summer and returned again!

I thoroughly enjoyed being on-air daily with Chris Farber on Y105! I learned how to prep news for the Hollywood Scoop, Music Minute, and Weird News. Then Chris gave me my very own spot: Olympic Moments!

During the Olympics I scoured the news (and, of course, watched the Olympics) for not only results but also noteworthy human interest stories revolving around the Olympics. The first week had a lot of Michael Phelps...the second week a lot of Usain Bolt! But I learned to sift through the mounds of information I had collected and compile it into a 3-minute informative yet interesting daily piece.

After the Olympics ended, I thought my spot would end, too. But it continued as Back to School Tidbits. This spot was a real challenge for me! How many different items of Back to School news could there really be to talk about?

My first spot was easy: Back to School shopping. Then Back to School anxiety the next day. I wasn't sure where to go next.

Fortunately, the ideas started coming. I talked about Back to School for senior citizens, safety tips for college students, communication ideas for parents and new college students, communication ideas for parents and k-12 students, reducing Monday morning stress by having a homework plan for the weekend and packing backpacks Sunday night. I loved finding new and fun ways to talk about one subject: Back to School!

I learned a lot of other things from Chris, too! Will tell you about them tomorrow, as well as what I learned from everyone else at the station!

Birthday, Voice Tracking, Internship

Today is my brother, Erik's, birthday! He is 24. We celebrated by mixing I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm on our upcoming Christmas album Jazzy Christmas To You II! (Check out Jazzy Christmas To You! on iTunes.) We also voice tracked O Come, O Come Emmanuel and While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night yesterday!

Okay, so maybe that wasn't actually part of the festivities...but we did have a fun breakfast of German Pancakes (an oven soufflé dish, click here for a recipe that's similar to ours), presents (of course), Dairy Queen ice cream cake (a Chaston tradition), birthday signs all over the house recounting his accomplishments and activities during the previous year, game playing, and movie watching. All in all, a pretty sweet birthday!  (We had Happy Joe's Taco Pizza yesterday to kick off the day's celebration!)

A highlight birthday present for Erik was an orange label LP first edition release of Chicago's first album when they called themselves Chicago Transit Authority--a title that the CTA required them to discontinue using, hence the band name simply being Chicago!

I only have two days left of my internship at Y105. I am really going to miss being on-air with Chris Farber on the Y105 Wake-Up! I have absolutely loved interning with Cumulus again (I interned last summer, too)!

After doing the "Olympic Moment" during the Olympics on the morning show, I started doing a "Back-to-School Tidbit." I love researching for the spot! Tomorrow, I'm going to talk about safety tips for college students and their parents. Tune in at 9:50 a.m. CST on Y105.

More tomorrow!

Michael Phelps...How Can He Retire?

I just don't think I can think of the summer olympics without Michael Phelps. I can't remember much before the 2004 Athens Olympics. Okay, I do actually remember the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics and the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

But even then, Michael Phelps WAS actually in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Australian Ian Thorpe was the man of the hour then, but now it's all about Michael Phelps!

So after 18 Olympic gold medals where does he go from there? Does he become a sportscaster? Does he coach? Does he become a motivational speaker?

I guess no one, maybe not even Phelps himself, knows what is next.

But, face it. Amazing athlete. Amazing Olympics so far!

And "The Moment" played on Y105 this morning! Hooray!

Olympic Moments on Y105!

Until the end of the Olympics I will be doing an "Olympic Moments" segment on Y105 at 9:50 a.m. CST!

I'll cover highlights from the previous day and other Olympic oriented news!

I'm excited for tomorrow's edition...I don't want to give anything away since the NBC Olympic coverage still goes for another hour...

Enjoy and tune in for the whole morning show. I'm on with Chris Farber 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

"My World" is finally on iTunes AND the Next Single...

What a great surprise to hear my new single, "My World," playing again on Y105 in Iowa this morning! And the long version is finally up on iTunes...just took a bit longer than expected!

Between co-hosting the morning show on Y105, arranging for recording sessions in August, pitching to do a charity gig, operating the board for radio remotes, Erik and I mixed a new single today.  

Now this song has a story!  I don't want to give away too many details, but it is the first non-angry/hurt song I've ever written.  I co-wrote it with my new songwriting partner, Justin Jensen, who plays piano and sings on the recording (okay, so I CAN tell you it is a duet).  

More details tomorrow!