Making it to the Daybreak Kamloops studio, just in time

At 6:38 this morning, Josh Page, associate producer for the new Daybreak Kamloops show, sent a polite e-mail asking me if he’d need to reschedule the interview he’d scheduled between me and host Shelley Joyce.

At 6:39 a.m. I hustled in to the new CBC radio studio on Victoria Street, trying to look as though I always show up for interviews with 60 seconds to spare. Rob Polsen, who heads up the studio, took me directly into Shelley’s control booth and we were quickly on the air.

A few minutes before, I’d been rattling into town in the cornbinder thinking I was cutting it a little close and mentally calculating whether I’d be able to find a parking spot close enough to the studio to actually make it in time. Radio people must pull their hair some days, not knowing if their guests are going to show up.

All is well, however. And, to my surprise, about three dozen people were hanging around inside the studio and out on the sidewalk to welcome the city’s new CBC bureau and morning show. Not usually being awake that early, I hadn’t realized so many Kamloops residents are up and about before the sun even rises.

My on-air talk with Shelley was about a weekly commentary piece — radio people call them “columns” — I’ll be doing with Page about Kamloops issues. But rather than simply commenting on local issues, Page and I will go to various locales around town and have conversations about what’s in the news. The format is Josh’s idea, and I’m looking forward to it.

“Josh and the Armchair Mayor” will air Thursdays.