'Diary of a hustling OAP' - Spycy Star [Episode 2]

Anyways, I checked my time piece and it was about 7am and now, how about a quick flash through what is really happening here.

We are getting to the end of February in the year 2011 and I just relocated to Lagos, having resigned from my former place of work – Cool FM, Port Harcourt, where, until the 1st of February, 2011, I was an On-Air-Personality.

I had graduated from school and after looking for a job for a while, I landed my very first actual gig as a Radio Host with the radio station in 2009. It was a dream come true. I had world-class training in broadcasting at Cool FM.

Gosh! I was being paid while I was undergoing training. After a few months' training, I started filling in for other OAPs when they were not available, doing their shows and soon enough, I was given my own show.

I couldn't contain the feeling of 'wow!' I was loving the whole experience and already making a life-time decision to actually build a career in broadcasting.

However, I always knew I would have to move to Lagos at a point, simply because, I believed (and still do believe) that Lagos has a bigger market as regards this industry of ours. Besides that though, I have lived all my life in Port Harcourt and I intend to explore other parts of the world, so how about we start with Lagos, huh?

So, after a year-plus with the station, and seeing that it was becoming kinda difficult (almost impossible) to be transferred to the Lagos headquarters of the station, I knew it was time to move on on my own. Yea, I know some may call me 'crazy', but I just had to make this move and here I am, the morning right after I arrived Lagos. What can I say?

I said my prayers, got out of bed and started prepping up to go out. It’s a beautiful day to go be a tiger (or in this case, a tigress). I got out my cds (I had recordings of my live radio shows on cds), and put them in my bag.

I got copies of my CV and a list of addresses of some media houses. Ok, I know what you are thinking right now; technology time, phone calls and iiish. Anyways, I should let you know I practically know nobody in the industry practicing here in Lagos, so let’s face it – there’s not much phone calls to be made as regards getting myself a gig, hence, I had to go out there to the streets, to the media houses, to their offices, try and have one-on-one meetings with these people who could give me a job.

So, you wanna say it: (JJC…*covers face*) or can we just move on already? Thank you. For what it’s worth though, I guess this time, I wouldn’t be paying N3000 to a cab guy from the Airport to Ajao Estate*laughing really hard now*

All the same, fret not for me, love. From my experience, you could just walk into your life-changing-moment, just by having a 5-minute-meeting with someone who matters. So, I’m ditching the phone calls from home as I have no option but to go have those meetings.

I was out of the house after a shower and a quick breakfast. My first stop – Beat FM, so I was on my way to the Island – Ikoyi precisely.

You should know, though, before I resigned from Cool FM, I had sent a package containing a recording of my live show and a copy of my CV, to Beat. I got a call from them saying they had no openings for OAPs, but may have a space on their new sister-radio, Naija FM, if I was interested in doing a show in pidgin.

Well, I can’t do pidgin. This, I told them during the call. But heck, I am now in Lagos, for real and I wasn’t just gonna give up on Beat, so I had to re-visit that place. I heard one of their female OAPS had just left them. I believed if I could just have a talk with the guy in charge, I could still get that spot I wanted.

I believed (…still believe); I’m a highly favoured child of God and if I want something this badly, the fact that God is with me, I’m gonna get it. Gosh! You have no idea. Probably, I should share the story of how I got that Cool FM gig and you would understand, but hey, you gotta keep watching this page.

Remember it’s Diary of a Hustling OAP. Join me again next week.

Spycystar.