A Taste of City Life

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I spent this past Fall break in New York with a media tour group. Two instructors and ten students including myself were in attendance. I had no idea what was in store when I signed up for this trip. I guess that was half the fun.



It was the night before the flight to New York. I had planned on getting some sleep soon but first had to check something out on our flight. I was soon confused. It said our flight was cancelled. But that doesn’t make sense. Dr. Nelson didn’t post anything about it on the group page. I had to check the page again. Hmm, still nothing. Refresh page. Nothing. Refresh page. Wait. What’s this? Dr. Nelson posted something. “All, the morning flight is canceled working with United as we speak.” Just perfect. I spent the next few hours checking the page to see what was going on with the flight. Well I fell asleep and woke up not a minute too soon to find out that MY scheduled flight was leaving in TWO hours. Just enough time to procure a taxi and get to the airport. I only slept 2 hours and now I have to fly to New York. I can’t sleep on planes. Our group was split into different flights. I was in a group with my instructor Mark Scott, Lauren, Keela, Brittany, and technically Patty. Sorry, Patty. They wouldn’t let us wait on you any longer. We flew to Detroit and waited for the next flight to take us to NY. Worst part… Crying babies. I was too tired for that. Finally we made it to JFK in New York where we met up with Malynda and Jennay. We grabbed our bags and caught our ride to the hotel, a “limo”. It had a strange resemblance to a big black van.





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After a few hours of sleep I woke up to start our official first day of the tour. Yippee! We had breakfast then headed towards the subway. We of course took the wrong one and ended up taking a good long walk to another subway before arriving at our destination, Clear Channel. That was a good tour. We seen all of the different radio station studios that they have. D.L. Hughley was casually doing an interview in one of the booths. Talking to the radio hosts was the best part. They had tons of insight into the industry and made the job seem like a lot of fun. We were on the radio screaming “OKLAHOMA” after the dj called us students from OHIO.

After leaving Clear Channel and getting a bite to eat, we headed to the Paley Media Center. About four of us made it there and the rest either got lost or went a different way. Inside we sat in a room and watched old political campaign ads. Some of them very very old. So interesting. They were a lot more interesting than any politics you see these days. President Eisenhower had an ad that didn’t really say anything about his campaign. It was just a cartoon with a song and he won.

The Paley Center was fun and I wish I had a chance to see all it had to offer but it was time to take my first trip to Chinatown. It’s a shady little area. Its full of peddlers trying to lure you into their alleyways where they can sell you their merchandise in private in hopes of not being caught and arrested. Yeah, its that kind of place. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy Chinatown. I was an experience for sure. We had dinner at Hard Rock. That was a fun dinner.



Friday we went had a seminar session with Joyce Tudryn. Joyce is the CEO of the International Radio and Television Society. She was a really interesting person. She got to know our group by asking our names and one thing weird about us. She talked about synchronicity a lot. She had some great stories over the subject. After the session was over we took pictures and stayed and talked for a while. After we left I started noticing the synchronicity in my own life. It was so weird. She really made me think about things in a different way.

After a long day out with Malynda, Patty, and Taylor we all went to a musical, Mary Poppins. It was not what I thought it would be. It was interesting to see. The special effects they used were amazing. What’s crazy is that they are doing it right in front of you and you aren’t quite sure how, with the exception of the flying. That one was a bit more obvious. We all had a good ending to Friday night. We owe that to Dr. Nelson for getting the tickets.



Saturday was our last day. I think we made it count. We visited CBS News to start off our morning. We were given a tour guided by Mike Sims, a UCO graduate who is now working there. We got to see a lot of the sets around the building and where they do the radio shows. We even got to sit in on a rehearsal of College Football tonight. That was pretty cool. Not everyone gets to do that.

After we left we had the rest of the day to explore and really enjoy the city. We were determined to get all that we could out if it. It was our last night after all. We all went out together around Chinatown and hung out. After we ate, the group split and a few of us continued on our journey throughout the city. We visited Wall Street and seen the occupiers. That was a crazy sight, but not just a sight. It smelled pretty bad. The park was full of people and full of tents. Those who were actually sleeping were sleeping all over the ground. Most everyone else was way more involved in protesting. I am so glad I was able to experience it. That is a once in a lifetime experience and we were there for it.
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We got up really early the next morning to catch our ride to the airport. That was a long morning. I was so tired and just ready to be in bed sleeping. I was actually able to sleep on the plane ride home. That never happens. We got onto the first plane and flew to Chicago and then onto the next plane to take us all home. We finally arrived at Will Rogers Airport. I was very sad to leave New York but very happy to back home. We grabbed our bags and said our goodbyes.

I am so happy that I went on this trip. It was a life changing experience. I learned a lot of things and made many new friends. I will never forget my experiences and I can’t wait to go back someday to have new experiences.

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