The other day I reminisced about my days at the radio station working the auto racing broadcasts. I also mentioned I'd saved most of my cue sheets from those days. Well, I went through one of the many boxes of accumulated junk I have (oh, boy, will my estate have a huge bonfire someday when I'm gone and all the stuff I've saved for no reason gets disposed). And I found one.
Here's the cue sheet for the 1992 Southern 500. It's a typical cue sheet for the day, with the basic broadcast information on the front (satellite information, cues, emergency instructions, etc.). On the back is an approximate rundown of the commercial breaks. Which, of course, you could never count on as anything other than an approximation. Almost never did the race go as scheduled (wrecks, delays, caution periods, etc.). Sometimes, but not often, the spots would be run a little out of sequence, too -- not by much, but just enough to throw you off. In this case, the 367 lap estimate didn't bear out because of weather. Instead I had to sit by the board for a long time while NA$CAR decided what to do. Sometimes, they'd fill if it looked like it was going to take a while, but other times they'd throw it back to the locals for a while and we'd go back at a given time for updates. On one hand, it meant overtime pay for me, but on the other hand...I just wanted to get it over with.
Extensive instructions on the front instructed us on what to do if the satellite feed went kaput, and gave a lot of phone numbers for support purposes. (I don't know if those numbers are still valid, but I've redacted them just to be safe.) I remember worrying about what to do if it did. Remember, I was the only one at the whole station when all this was going on. I especially wondered what I'd do if we had to fall back on the 900-number option. I had visions of that being the only option, and of the suits going into vapor-lock when the bill arrived.
On the back, you can see where I rather sloppily checked off each spot as it aired. You can also see an element of my "are we there yet?" mentality, with the notation "367 laps" at the top. Down at the bottom, you can see what was more on my mind: my pencil calculations of how much I would make for the day's work. My mind wasn't on car racing; my mind was on the video camera for which I was saving (because a friend and I was gonna make us some Important Movies).
I found several others while looking through; not all of them, but several. Among them, I found the cue sheet for that first race I did (the Watkins Glen race), the Pocono race where Davey Allison got hurt, and the following race at Talladega when Davey, still really beaten up, started the race. Man, do I remember the pre-race show on that one: local favorite, lucky to still be alive, grunts through and gets in the car to start the race.
I also found the cue sheet for the July 1992 Daytona race, which I remember for no other reason than that the station manager, who caught everything his kids got, was recovering from yet another illness that night but came in to work our broadcast of the Independence Day festivities at the local technical college. I remember him in the production room, next door, editing again and again the music part of the show: Neil Diamond's "Coming to America" over and over. (And over. And over.) And I worked the board that night as the show went on. (That's right, kids...I worked the board as our station broadcast a fireworks display. On radio.)
The '92 Southern 500, by the way, was one of three wins for Darrell Waltrip that year. It would also be his last win. See? History, and I didn't care back then. Grumble.
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