PRnormal Activity

Accepting the offer wasn’t scary because I didn’t want the job (I really wanted it), it was scary because I didn’t want to mess it up. Everyone at the office was scarily talented and the imposter syndrome kicked in.

Halloween came early during my first week at ON Broadcast with a poltergeist cutting the lights in the office. The poltergeist in question was summoned by some building works on the street below that caused a power surge blowing out all our tech.

After a quick Ouija board session, we soldiered on with laptops, phones and candles to get coverage for the two radio days we had that week and after making many deals with the devil (and insurance companies) we managed to secure more coverage than ever!

The protagonists (my new colleagues) showed courage in the face of such paranormal adversity that I knew I made the right decision to join the team. There was the added bonus that no one had to be exorcised…yet!

This did not, however, rid the office entirely of horror movie villains. Tarpon, the office dog, was the Kathy Bates to my James Caan. He was often found leaving tennis balls on my shoes, excreting curious odours and licking my arm while trying to write a radio blurb – not the ideal scenario.

Unlike in Misery, no typewriters had to be used as blunt instruments and I soon became his number one fan; despite my self-proclaimed cat-lady identity. We are now Instagram story buddies and my only misery comes from the results of when someone feeds him a lamb donner kebab (ahem, Wayne!).

On the other side of such hair-raising hardships I have built up a lot confidence in my own abilities as well as having built great relationships with colleagues – two and four legged.

After almost two months in the world of the PR, things are a lot less scary. I’ve managed to find the balance between really caring about the job while not sweating the small stuff. I still get the occasional spook when I think I’ve sent a mail merge to hybrid rather than news & prog (get me with the PR lingo).

Moving past Halloween, and onto Christmas; I still have a lot to learn and even more to look forward to. The names for the office Secret Santa have been drawn and the plans for “infamous” On-Broadcast-office-Christmas-party are well underway. Probably still under the weather from the latter I hope to be starting the new year a fully rounded PR maestro leaving all the scary stuff to the Freddy’s and Pinhead’s of Halloween.

Fraser McIntosh
@frazzledazzle55