"You should be in radio"

About five years ago, at a party hosted by my buddy Kevin, a girl I'd never met informed me matter-of-factly that my voice had already determined my ideal career. "You should be in radio," she said, without having ever exchanged so much as a passing pleasantry with me.

Eventually, we got around to introducing ourselves and that girl turned out to be Alanna Julian, who many of you know and love, but the incident always stuck with me - in part because my parents had always complained that I was a chronic mumbler and no one could understand what I was saying, making radio a seemingly bizarre calling.

It wasn't the last time radio would be suggested to me, however, and when I became involved with Radio Laurier, co-hosting The Victory Lap with Mr. Joseph Turcotte, I not only learned that my chronic mumbling dissipated when a mic was thrown in front of me, but also that radio was a pretty special medium.

Fast-forward to last night. I head down to the Senegalese restaurant around the corner from my house around 11 p.m. to grab a late dinner, and ask the gorgeous waitress if they're still serving or about to close.

Her English is less than stellar and my Krio hasn't exactly developed much yet so the conversation takes a while, but she eventually informs me that they wouldn't likely close until at least 2 a.m. On a Wednesday night. Sweet. Yet another reason to love the restaurant that I've already eaten at about 10 times since arriving in the country.

Shortly after ordering, I take a phone call from Canada - from the folks - and they agree to call back in an hour, as this restaurant tends to blast West African music and it makes phone conversations a tad tricky, particularly those involving tenuous Skype connections. As I return to my seat, I hear someone call my name and look up, surprised.

"It is Mike, right?" asks a fairly young guy seated with a couple friends.

"Yeah," I respond, as he explains that he's seen me here a lot and thought he'd heard my friends calling me Mike. So we strike up a conversation; it turns out he's the owner and he insists I come back on Saturday for a free meal as appreciation for my support of his fledgling entrepreneurial venture (the place only opened about a month before I got here). And then his friend pipes in.

"Have you ever considered broadcasting ... like, radio?"

I smile. "That's actually pretty much why I'm here. I'm a journalist, doing some radio training."

As chance would have it, I'm talking to a DJ from Capital Radio, one of the country's more popular stations, which happens to be based about five minutes from my house and brings a lot of Western music to Sierra Leone. It was the station we listened to on the way to Makeni and back, and I recall hearing such diverse imports as Christina Aguilera, The Police, and Nelly, though hip hop and R&B were definitely the most prevalent genres.

True to my stereotypical vision of the disc jockey for a hit pop station, my new acquaintance quickly establishes himself as his own biggest fan, asserting with more than a hint of braggadocio that no one can spin records quite like he does. "I've never been bested - at anything," he boldly straight-faces.

But he's also coming on strong as one of my staunchest supporters, assuring me that my voice is absolutely perfect for radio, and that he told his friend as much the first time he heard me speak. "The women would go crazy for that voice," he adds.

I returned to my table and downed a delicious meal, but the wheels were already turning and they haven't stopped since. Capital Radio will not fit within my JHR mandate even a little bit, but I would definitely not be opposed to doing a guest spot as a DJ on a Western-style radio station.

With Kalleone, my focus is and shall remain that of a no-glory, capacity-building radio trainer whose voice will likely never hit the air. But that doesn't mean I can't have a little fun on the side, right?

Turns out I have my plans for Saturday. With a little luck and a little networking, I might find myself in a position to show Sierra Leoneans that the West is capable of producing good music too, without creepy stalkers as the subject matter (sorry Sting). What an interesting development that would be.