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The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
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solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
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those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
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make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
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liability explicit or implied She'll be extended to W four
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c Y Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions
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or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank
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you for choosing W FOURCY Radio.
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Mary is got a really interesting career, which is why
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I invited her to the show. She has a long
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career with Johnson and Johnson and which we all know,
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the big pharmaceutical company, and she had a big job
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there driving corporate strategy. And after that she did some
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movie sets as well, and then she got deeply rooted
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into the community. One of the things that she did,
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which I always was sort of envious on, was she
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worked on a presidential campaign. We won't go into the
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details of that, but she worked on a presidential campaign,
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and then she was able to get her work that
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brought people together, raised money for great causes, and kept
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fun in the front and the center with live music
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and big community and energy and many of these events
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I participated in. And you know, when I got to
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know Mary better, I realized music and these kinds of
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things were always in her veins since college when she
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was actually a college DJ. And now Mary is very
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instrumental in working for Cape Fear Radio, which has become
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a huge powerhouse in this local Cape Fear community. And
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so throwing to have you Mary, how are you?
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Thank you?
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I'm great, good, good, Thank you so much for agreeing
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to doing this.
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Thank you for having me on.
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Yeah. Well, you know a couple of things that came
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to mind when I was I was thinking about you
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and thinking about guests. You know, you had this big
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corporate strategy job. I think you were in New Jersey, right,
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Jane Jays in jerseysy.
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Excuse me, based out of New Jersey, Yes.
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Based out it. But we went all over the world
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and did all sorts of stuff with medical equipment, and
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then things happened some out of your control and you retired.
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What was that like to retire from such a fast paced,
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intense I've been in those kinds of worlds. What was
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it like to retire from.
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That, so I bought all the books about retiring, and
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I never read them because I was so busy working.
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So I ended up in southeastern North Carolina at fifty
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seven with my husband and I have two adult children
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and they were not living here. So I got here
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and I just had no plan whatsoever. So I came
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into the community. I was used to working eighty hours
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a week, traveling all over and here I am in
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a quiet, sleepy, beautiful coastal town.
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And so I got dog.
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I've read many things, and then I went back to
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work because I really was bored. I had no plan,
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which was the problem for my next and so I
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went back to work for like two and a half
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years for a small Swedish medical company.
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Oh.
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I made sure when I agreed to do it that
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I picked cities that had live music, because music has
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always been a part of my life. So I covered Nashville, Memphis,
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Ashville and different select cities and then I would go
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work all day and then go listen to live music
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at night. And it was a great mix.
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I was just going to say, those cities, none of
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those cities are bad choices to be fun, right, did
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you meet any great people out there I did.
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I met a lot of great people through the company.
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It was a smaller company, so I had to adjust
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to not having all the structure of a Johnson and Johnson.
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But I learned a lot and it was great. And
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I could go out, like to the Rhymen and see
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Sheryl Crow because at night they might have, you know,
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single tickets out in all these different cities. I went
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to Graceland and of course that develops around music, so
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it was a fun time. Then I retired again and
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was looking for things to do.
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What made you retire from there? Sounded like it was
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a good gig.
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It was a good gig, but everybody else was retired
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and I wasn't. Yeah, and so I was on planes
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all the time out of a small coastal airport.
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You know, familiar with that airport. Yeah.
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I thought, well, it's time to retire again and find
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some things to do. But that time, this time, I
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was more prepared. I had looked around the community. I
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joined a couple of boards, and I've always been about
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giving back to the community and raising money, so I
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did a couple music events. We had a local band
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here who was brand new is a really great band.
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So we did a fundraiser and sold six hundred tickets
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for that. It was great fun. And then we brought
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in a group from Nashville for a fundraiser for two
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of our local nonprofits.
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And now how exciting was that. That was a lot
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of fun.
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It was great, and so then I started thinking more
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about music. And three of my friends had just started
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a radio station. They were in the preliminary stages, so
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they called me and I joined them. There were six
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of us to start. It's called Cape Fear Radio. It's
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a streaming station here in town. And we're hyper local,
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so we do sports, news, weather, all types of community events.
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And so I became very involved with it and learned
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a lot because I love to learn new things. So
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I've done all the social media. I ran a capital
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campaign and really got out in the community. And right
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now we've grown to over sixty volunteers. We're all volunteered,
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and we set ourselves up as a nonprofit and so
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we return money back to the community. And it's been
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a great learning experience and a ton of fun.
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Well, and you know, I have to say, Mary, I
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known you for quite a while, and yes, I knew
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when this started out and it was, like you said,
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three people, and now it's hard to go anywhere in
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this Cape Fear region, which by the way, for listeners
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is a relatively big region. And everybody knows about Cape
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Fear Radio. Everybody knows about it, and it's got such
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a diverse kind of canopy of things that it offers
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in terms of music and news and local sports and
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all that stuff. I think it's quite an accomplishment, quite
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an accomplishment. What did you learn from it? What do
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you love about it?
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Well, what I love is getting out in the community
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and reviewing people. So I've interviewed about forty five local
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community leaders and bands, and I love to go to
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live band events and you know, learn from the band
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as well as interview them and play their music. I
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also have two shows on the station. I have an independent, Alternative,
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Emerging and local music show on Thursday nights. We have
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specialty shows like jazz, you know, different types of things, Reggae,
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we have rhythm and blues. We have all types of things.
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But from seven to seven we have the Sound of
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the Station, which is music that the music team puts together.
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So I also have a morning show on Friday mornings,
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that I do, that's the sound of the station show.
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Well, and what is the sound of the station show?
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Say more about.
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Different music that's picked up by the music team. So
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when I do my own show, I can put whatever
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types of music I want into it. And when we
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have a sound of the station show, most of the
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music is picked by a large music team that we have.
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So it occurs to everybody.
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Oh cool, Hey do you have any k Do you
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have any K Pop on there?
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No? But the funniest thing is that, yeah, they're all
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different types of bands that are joining us. Music, yes, segments,
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but we also do news, weather, and sports, and it's
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all hyper local and we have great people doing that
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and that's a new addition to the station. So that
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is a lot of fun. And we've given money back
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to the community to different organizations. We're putting together a
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team to decide how that money is dispersed in which
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organizations we choose as a radio station. So I'm learning
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a lot there.
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I love that well, So I have to just tell
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this quick story. I knew Mary was doing some TV
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shots and you know, backups on movies, and I was like, oh,
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that's intriguing. I have to find out about that. But
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I went to a St. Patrick's Day party of in
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Wilmington and here is Mary with all her equipment interviewing
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people kind of I'm seeing the thing. I'm going, Wow,
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this is really cool. So how cool was that? You
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do that a lot? Now you let our parade for
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we have big parades in Southport, so.
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I love parades. I have to say, I love parades.
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And you looked great by the way, thank you.
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And so we've been for six years on this Wilmington
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Saint Patrick's Stay Parade Committee up in Wilmington and there's
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a small group of us that run that and it's
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one of the top parades in the country for small communities,
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and it has been quite the learning experience. It's a
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lot of fun. We have something called a Hooly which
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is typically halfway between Saint Patrick's Day and that's what
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you were at the whole.
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That's what I went. I loved it. I loved the
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holy I got right into it.
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We get about twelve to fifteen hundred people there and
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we bring in Irish bands and Irish music and it's fair.
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It's a great event as long as the weather's good.
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No it is.
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We've had good luck with the weather and we have
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food trucks and that raises money for the parade to
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pay for the parade. It's right around the corner.
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Yes, it is right around the corner. I have to
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make sure it's on my on my my calendar because
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I had such a good time. And I think Saint Patrick,
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who is related to you, I think there was a
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big tall Saint Patrick there.
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Well, Saint Patrick did get sick that day, so we
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had to get a sub and so my husband Tom
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was Saint Patrick.
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I was going to get you look like Tom Gallagan
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to me, not Saint Patrick. Was fun. So, Mary, what
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has been the biggest learning experience out of all of
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this for you?
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I think the biggest learning experience for me is the
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technology and how we do. We have two studios now.
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We just opened a second studio that we ran the
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Capitol campaign for and the thing I'm learning the most
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is live in the studio is a lot different than
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doing it in your home studio with the equipment that
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we have. So I've learned, yes, I've learned all the technology.
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And this is going to sound really funny, but when
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we started out and I did interviews, I was doing
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them off my iPhone with an MP three recorder, and
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now we have all types of equipment and we have
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two studios to do interviews in, so that's been super helpful.
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And the other big learning has been the social media.
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So I didn't know much about social media, but I've
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learned a lot. So I have tools like Canva. I
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do all the scheduling, I go to the live events,
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take a lot of the pictures, and post up about
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the interviews and different things happening around the station because
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we really want to get our exposure out there. And
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we have a great website as well. So learning the
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technology and learning the social media and the graphic design
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behind it has been a lot of fun as well.
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Wow, that's really terrific. I mean that's something that I
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could perhaps learn, but I worked for a technology company
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and they did all that stuff for me. So I'm
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a lot ie. I'm a lot iite. I just use it.
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I don't know how to do anything with it. So
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there we go. So if you were going to think
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about what made you a success in all of this,
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because I would say, by all accounts, you're well known
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in the area. You know, you're sought out the stuff
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that you're doing is such a value add What would
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you say contributed to your personal success.
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I would think finding your passion And I think it
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did take me a while. I tried the background movie thing.
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I tried a couple different charitable organizations, but nothing had music.
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And then when my friend started the radio station, it
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was such a perfect fit. So I think you need