There’s always a first in your life no matter how old you are. First time buying a new car or a house, first time in an airplane, first time as a father or mother. Now in radio you do a number of things to help promote your radio station and Saturday Oct. 25th will go down as a first for me. I stepped inside the cage during an MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fight at Scheels arena. Now I obviously was not fighting but I was asked if I could do the ring announcements between the 6th and 7th bouts. I said sure why not, and got the information from a member of our Rock 102 station and waited for the sixth fight to end. The steps were small as I approached the door to the enclosed ring. The first thing that entered my mind was “there’s a 1,000 people here, so don’t trip you goofball.” I was introduced and handed the microphone and then jokingly challenged the ring announcer to a fight. That broke the ice and got a few laughs. While you’re standing there, two things hit you immediately. 1: The lights. You can maybe see the first two rows of people, but you know there are hundreds more behind them. 2: You’re in the round! You have to make sure you circle around and face everybody during your time up there. The biggest amount of applause was when I reminded everyone to listen to the podcast of my interview with Mariah Prussia, the extremely popular female fighter in Fargo. After I finished, I thanked everyone for coming and to get ready for more action. I walked to the door and there was a fight staff member there to grab my hand to help me down the tiny stairs.

Now I should mention that there were two television cameramen perched on opposite sides of the ring. All of the action that night was projected onto the big screens at Scheels arena. What I didn’t find out until the next day was that the whole match was broadcast on the worldwide web. I would have told my friend in The Netherlands to tune in for the action had I known.

Overall it was a fun night as I brought my nephew and he pretty much knew everything about this kind of fighting. But it was also a sad night because my (or maybe I should say our) friend Mariah Prussia lost her fight. I know Mariah through our radio interviews and have never chatted with anyone who has a more positive attitude on life. Her dedication to fitness and nutrition has been an inspiration to many and her motivational speaking has turned on many people including youngsters to physical fitness. One loss is all it was. The next bout in town is January 24th and we’ll see if she’s on the card and gets back in the win column. I’m betting she does.

The election for 2014 is close at hand and everywhere you turn the discussion of all 8 measures on the ballot in North Dakota is a hot topic. Now I’m not going to tell North Dakotans how to vote but hopefully you’ve read each one of these measures carefully and understand what they mean before you cast your vote. After every election the calls will come in to our talk shows, “I didn’t understand the question!” It would only be your own fault because they’ve been discussed so much that my ears a bleeding! That’s a joke.

Lastly, this week I’m going out on a limb. I’m predicting a very surprising result in the North Dakota Congressional race. I will tell you if I’m right later.