“Oh, God,” she murmured, turning pale. Her grip on the pen and pad she’d brought along tightened until her knuckles turned white.
Travis regarded her with sympathy. “Maybe you shouldn’t think of it that way just yet. Concentrate on talking to one person. Everybody else, well, they’re just eavesdropping.”
A spark lit her eyes. “You certainly have the knack for that down, don’t you?”
“Hey,” Travis protested, pretending to be wounded. “Let’s not start picking on the boss on your first day on the job.”
“Sorry.” She sounded contrite, but the glint in her eyes suggested she was anything but sorry.
Bill stepped in. “How about we go in the studio so you can see how things work? Once you have a feel for all the monitors and controls, I think you’ll start to feel comfortable in there. I’m going to be around for a couple of weeks acting as your producer, so initially all you’ll really have to do is interview your guests, maybe chat a little between songs. Once you’re both settled in and comfortable on the air, you’ll be able to handle your shows on your own.”
Sarah’s eyes widened with alarm. “You didn’t say anything about me having to do the technical stuff,” she said accusingly to Travis. “Just go on the air and talk. That’s what you said.”
Travis put an arm around her shoulders as he urged her toward the studio. “And that’s all that matters. If ad sales keep going the way they have been for the first month, I’ll be able to hire a producer before too long. First, though, I have to get an afternoon deejay on board.”
“What about you?” she asked, looking vaguely disappointed. “Are you just the big-shot owner, who’s going to disappear once this place is up and running?”
“Come on now, sugar. Didn’t I tell you we were in this together?” he asked.
She gave him a wry look. “Men have lied to me before.”
There was an edge in her voice that told him she didn’t intend to put up with it again. “Those men, whoever they were, were idiots. You can trust me. I’m sticking around for the long haul.”
“We’ll see,” she said skeptically.
“Okay, then, here’s the plan,” Travis began as he settled her into the comfortable chair behind the microphone. “You’ll be on the air in the morning from six until noon. That’s a long shift, but we’re starting on a shoestring budget. I’ll reduce your hours later.” At her look of alarm, he added, “Your pay will stay the same.”
“What on earth am I going to do for six whole hours?”
“You’ll interview a couple of folks, play some music, chat about any subject that appeals to you, take a few calls. The new guy, whoever it turns out to be, will take over at noon and stay on the air until six. I’ll come on then and hang out till midnight.”
She stared at him incredulously. “You’re planning to run a radio station with three people? Not counting Bill, of course.”
“Pretty much,” he admitted. “And Bill’s our ace in the hole. He knows every aspect of running a station. Plus I’ve bought a syndicated music package that will last from midnight until you’re back here in the morning. I’ve picked up some other programming for the weekends. I know that’s a skeleton crew, and for now we’re all going to be working like crazy, but hopefully I’ll be able to get some other people in place in a month or so. I just need to get us up and running as quickly as possible. Then I can start focusing on expanding our staff.”
“You really are nuts,” she said with despair.
“Come on, where’s your spirit of adventure?” he asked.
“You sound like the kid in those old movies—Mickey Rooney, I think—who used to get some neighborhood kids together and suggest they stage a play,” she said.
“Hey, we’re not amateurs,” Travis protested. “I have a degree in broadcasting. And let’s not forget about Bill. He’s been in this business for thirty years or so. He knows what he’s doing.”
“And he’s going to abandon ship,” she said direly. “He just said so.”
“Not until things are running smoothly and you’re all comfortable,” Bill assured her. “And even after I’m officially gone, I’ll only be a half hour away. Travis can get me back over here on just about a moment’s notice, especially if the fish aren’t biting. Right now the idea of sitting out on the lake in a little motor boat with a fishing rod in hand holds a lot of allure, but my wife predicts I’ll be bored to death in a month. She’s probably right, in which case you’re likely to find me hanging around here begging for things to do.”
“And I will hire more people,” Travis promised. “I just want to get this station on the air and then I’ll fill whatever vacancies we have. By then I’ll have a better idea of whether we need more people on-air or selling advertising or what.”
“An afternoon deejay is a pretty big vacancy,” she said. “What if you don’t find someone in time?”
“I will,” Travis said confidently.
“Or I’ll fill in,” Bill said. “No need to panic.”
Sarah sighed. “One of us probably should. And since the two of you seem to be living in a dream world, I suppose it’s going to have to be me.”
Travis hid his desire to chuckle at her resigned expression. At least she hadn’t bolted for the door. He’d known that hiring her was going to be a smart decision and she was already proving it.
“Let’s talk about the scheduling again. That’s not really an eight-hour day,” Sarah said. “The salary you mentioned was for a full day’s work.”
“Because you’ll be using the extra time to book guests and maybe even pitch in to help me sell advertising.”
Her plucky attitude seemed to falter. In fact, she suddenly looked shell-shocked. “I don’t know anything about selling advertising.”
“You go, you schmooze, you sell,” Travis said. “We’re offering something brand new in this town. So far, people have been really receptive.” He thought of one or two very vocal doubters, but shrugged off the encounters. “For the most part, anyway.”
“It’s going to be fine,” Bill said, stepping in when it became obvious that nothing Travis had said had relieved her anxiety. “Right now it’s all unfamiliar, but I guarantee you’ll find your groove in a couple of weeks and it’ll feel like you’ve been doing this all your life. I’m a seasoned pro and you can count on me being here to pick up any slack until this place is running like a well-oiled machine. That’s a promise.”
Sarah turned to him as if he’d just thrown her a lifeline. “Don’t you dare leave me on my own, you hear me!”
Bill chuckled. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“What about me?” Travis said. “How come you’re not turning to me?”
“Because something tells me that despite that fancy college degree, you only know a smidgen more than I do, and you’re not even going to be around in the daytime.”
She sounded surprisingly disappointed by that. Travis tucked a finger under her chin. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll be here so much, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without me underfoot.”
His promise seemed to disconcert, rather than reassure her. He grinned. “I told you this was going to be fun, didn’t I?”
“We’ll just see about that,” she said, then turned back to Bill. “Start with the basics and talk real slow,” she told him. “I need to take notes and then I’m going to want about a hundred hours of rehearsal time before