Animal House

A brief story of election night 1984

It all began innocently enough on a Tuesday, I was sitting at my desk reading my name on the glass of ... Oh wait, wrong franchise!

1984 Ronald Reagan was running for President of the United States. Election night, I was a student working for the Muncie Indiana Public Radio station, which at the time was WBST. I had recently started volunteering, wanting to learn about radio journalism. (Okay, not really, but it would look good on a resume down the road!)

To be charitable, radio newsies aren't necessarily the cleanliest of people. So the news room looked a bit like an animal shelter that the animals had all escaped and run amok while the workers hid elsewhere.

I had tried to get concert tickets for a band that was scheduled to appear that evening, but my editor talked me into coming in because it was HISTORY happening! Me? I would have had more fun sitting in the corner popping bubble wrap.