The Upcoming NPR Story

Since my last post I found 1 nickel and 2 pennies at Schnuck's. The nickel was about 3 feet from the check-out area. The pennies were under one of the self check-out machines. It seems like the last few times I have gone there, I have found change. They are turning into my change finding ATM!

Enough about change finds, I have some important news to pass along. Tomorrow there is going to be a story about The Change Race on NPR Marketplace PM. (For times/radio stations go to Marketplace.org)

Quick back story on how this came to pass. A few weeks ago, I got a comment from a reporter with NPR who was interested in doing a story on people who search for change. I am not 100% sure how she found the blog, but very happy that she did. One thing led to another, and two weeks ago, I found myself alone in the St. Louis NPR studio talking with Sally, the reporter. NPR would not accept phone interviews, so I had to go into a studio to conduct the interview. As always, I brought my camera with me.


In the first picture, you can see the studio that I was in. I brought my computer with me so I could have the change race excel sheet open during the interview.

You can also see in the second picture the head of the radio engineer in the other room. It was tough looking at her and her facial reactions while I was talking to someone else. It also didn't help that once she realized what I was talking about, she gave me some pretty funky looks. When I mentioned that I found change during my wedding, she looked up and shot me a look as if she just ate a spoiled turkey sandwich. I even stopped the interview for a moment to tell Sally, that the engineer was looking at me like I was crazy. This was after I mentioned that I found 1 dime and 2 pennies on the way over to the studio.

Sally also interviewed Chris, but tonight we learned that he did not make the cut. I don't know much about producing radio segments, but I would have thought that our story of The Change Race would have been an interesting story, and that if one of us made the story, we both would. I personally think that given some of the questions, it is going to be more of a personal finance/frugality story and less about change searching. But it is going to be interesting to hear how it turns out. I will post a reaction tomorrow night.

I end on this note, if we get any new readers who heard about this blog on NPR, I must say that it is impossible to understand this blog without also reading Chris's Blog - Race of the Century. I really feel bad that he did not make the NPR segment, as we came up with the idea of the Change Race and blogging about it together. And many times over the last couple of years, when my interest in The Change Race and the blog were waning, he talked me back in. Plus, he is the Change Race Champion, and no one can take that away. So if you just found this blog and you dig it, please go check out his site also.

Total since last post - $0.07
Total for the Race - $268.67