The Baby-Sitters Club #85: Claudia Kishi, Live from WSTO!

Claudia is sad because her life sucks. Despite being an amazing artist who can somehow create art out of absolutely anything, she suddenly thinks that she needs another hobby. She's also sad because she doesn't have a boyfriend and because she and Stacey are no longer friends. This leads to her making a list of hobbies that she wants to try, but she fails at each one.

Luckily though, the local radio station WSTO is hosting a contest for younger teens, and the winner gets their own radio show. She writes this long ass essay and submits it, but she learns that they will announce the winner live on the air. During a BSC meeting, she makes them listen to the radio, and she naturally gets chosen for the job.

Charlie drives her there the next day, and Kristy goes inside with her. Kristy naturally takes charge, which makes everyone think that she's the contest winner, but Claudia gets things straightened out. She learns that her "assistant" (which is actually the second place finisher) is Ashley Wyeth. Apparently, she decided that even devoted artists need to take time out of their schedules for some fun.

The two girls need to come up with a show title and format fast because their first episode is quickly approaching. Ashley keeps rolling her eyes and whining whenever Claudia makes a suggestion, or just sitting back and saying that she's the boss in a way that makes it clear if the show fails, it's all her fault. The station decides to host auditions, and the girls have to sit through a bunch of other kids playing instruments, singing, and doing other stuff to pick who lands on the show. They fight some more because they both like different people.

It doesn't help that Kristy naturally assumes she will land a spot on the show because of their friendship. She works out a play with the Barrett-DeWitt family first, but the audition is terrible and Claudia has to turn her down. She then "borrows" one of Mallory's stories and auditions with the Pike kids, but things go even worse. She finally comes up with a book trivia game with the Arnold twins that is a big hit.

During one show, a kid named George calls in and asks for advice because his parents are getting divorced. Claudia suggests that he call a therapist and gives him the number of Mary Anne's doctor. They also learn from an engineer that the station might shut down. It lost one of its biggest sponsors, and they used their show to fill in the slot of a show they can no longer afford.

Claudia suggests that they write some editorials and let people know about the situation, but the station manager asked his employees to keep everything a big secret. One of their shows runs short and she has to talk for a few minutes. She ends up mentioning Stacey in a roundabout way, which leads to Stacey extending an olive branch.

On their last show, they host another call-in and answer questions from other kids. An adult woman calls in and says that she's the mother of George and that she wants to thank them for helping. She plans to make a sizable donation that might save the day. After the show ends, they discover that she made a big enough donation that it will keep the station afloat for at least six months.

*One of her potential hobbies is cooking. She makes an omelet in the microwave, it takes gross, so she takes it off her list. Yes, because most chefs cook eggs in the microwave.

*She also wants to play the tuba until she thinks about lugging it home, and she adds tap dancing to her list. Jessi gives her a lesson and she completely sucks, but somehow Dawn and Shannon are great dancers.

*The essay thing really bothers me! They only have like four days to turn it in before the announcement comes. Does that mean the kids have to drop it off at the station or hope that the mail delivers it in time? If they drop it off, how does Claudia get it there? Charlie and her dad have to drive her there later because it's so far away.

*They meet with people for 90 minutes on day and over two hours another day to host auditions and every slot is filled. Would parents really get that excited over their kids maybe appearing on a local radio show for kids?

*Running a teen show would not save the station any money. They still need engineers and other workers to run the show, so they could just run music or a cheap talk show for the same price. Plus, if the sponsor was so big, why did they only have to cut a show that

only ran twice a week?

*Since famous people really have no lives, they manage to get a children's book author on the show. He reads from his newest book and answers some questions from fans. Oh, and Ashley only called him on Friday, and he responded the next day.

*Mallory is so upset at what Kristy does to her character that she literally has to leave the room. Nice way to be a friend there Kristy.

*Claudia wears a tuxedo that she found in a thrift store, and she took the shoulder pads out so it would look slouchy. I'm not really sure how that would work....She also pairs it with a red cummerbund, socks with silver sequins, and red tennis shoes. Ashley asks her if she's going to describe her outfit on the air, and I want to scream.

*Claudia mentions that when she worked on the personals column, she did a lot of writing. Is that really true? Sure she had to move things around, but it's not like she was actually writing all of the ads.

*Dawn has an annoying scene where she whines about Kristy eating meat and then launches into stories about the photos that she saw of meat processing plants. If it bothers you so much, walk away you dumb bitch! No one forced you to sit with meat eaters.

*At one point, Claudia wears overalls that she made from sewing together two different pairs. When Janine sees her, she says its Frankenstein's jumpsuit, but Claudia thinks it's just her deconstruction look. She does, however, change clothes before a sitting job.

*I really don't get the WTSO thing. It's clearly a station aimed at adults, given that whenever someone listens to it, they're playing Elvis, The Beatles, or some other oldies group (BTW, I am a huge Elvis fan). It doesn't really seem like the kind of station that kids would listen to, and even Charlie complains about the music.

*Claudia points out that Ashley dresses normal now but kept her six earrings because it's not like she could get rid of them. Um, yes she could. If you take them out, your holes will eventually grow close. Take it from someone with experience. I had two piercings in each ear for a few years, took my top ones out, and they grew closed until I had them done again.

*Since it's an advice show, someone naturally calls in with a question about baby sitting. She wants to know how to calm a fussy baby, and Claudia gives her like a dozen tips on air. Who cares?