As an intern, respect – or even responsibility to an extent – is in short supply. On top of that is the fact that I’m not the only intern, but one of many interns. The only difference between me and them is they are all from the Boston region, where as I’m the only one from a different section of the country.

The station was relatively new, it hadn’t even been open two years yet, and it hadn’t even begun to make money.

I was part of an externship program that placed me at ESPN 890 in Boston over spring break. So while most of you were in Cabo, Panama or some other exotic location, I was getting snowed and sleeted on while walking to work. The externship certainly had its perks though, and I was welcomed into the station by everyone with open arms.

See, most interns there were part of this program from Northeastern University in Boston called the “co-op.” I have no idea what it stands for, but it’s awesome. It basically takes students out of school – yes, you heard me right – and places them in paid internships. And again yes, you heard me right.

It’s an unreal program, but more importantly for this week, it means that they will be working there for five months, whereas I’m only there for five days.

On Thursday, I was told to shadow Ross Carey, the producer of the Mike Felger show, which is the only show the station does in-house. Everything else is from the feed in Bristol. So, I’m sitting at the board, basically being told everything I’m not allowed to do, when Felger starts ranting – something he does a lot of – on this crazy Southern Baptist minister who thinks that being gay is more nature than nurture, and thinks there’s a way to not only find out if your child is gay in the womb, but then take the necessary steps to “de-gay” them (his words). Felger adamantly disagrees with this, and rightfully so. He thinks it’s a lifestyle choice that people make more than a hereditary gene.

Now Carey has a running dialogue with Felger the whole time, so he goes, “Oh OK, kind of like you choose to be a douche.” Hilarious. I start laughing out loud, because again, it’s really funny.

Carey then says, “It’s a shame they didn’t try to de-douche you.”

Again, I’m dying, but this time, the mic is still hot, so Felger hears me, which prompts him to say, “Who is that cackling back there?”

Carey replies, “Oh that? That was Matt the intern. He’s only here for the week, kind of like a radio boot camp. He’s a Saluki.”

“What the hell’s a Saluki?” Felger asks.

And that’s when Ross Carey passed the microphone over to me, I’m thinking because he didn’t know the answer himself. So I said, “It’s an Egyptian hunting dog.”

Felger then proceeds to make fun of my education and my college, but I don’t care, I’m smiling from ear to ear. And that’s how I became the first ever intern at ESPN radio to make it on the air live, not as part of a voiceover.

I ended up putting up the ugliest pictures of real salukis I could find all over the station, giving everyone a little reminder that I was there, representing SIU to the fullest. But even without the pictures, the imprint had already been made. You’ve got to crawl before you walk, right?