This is Jason Block...and I am a little sad this week. Yes we all know that Bob’s last show will be broadcast this Friday–June 15 and that as of now there is STILL no replacement for Bob. But instead of feeling sad, I want to bring a little happy to the party this week.

You see, I think the game itself is one of the least important parts of the TPIR experience. We all want to win...A NEW CAR!!!!!! But, the most important part is the 18-24 hours before the show actually goes on the air.

I have been lucky enough to see Bob work his magic four times. Once, in 2001, my friend Joe Melillo got on after I taped my 5 days on Jeopardy. The other three times were with the Game Show Congress.

Waiting on line is really a cool experience. If you told people that 50 people would be camped out on Beverly and Wilshire in the middle of the night just for the chance to be one of 9 people on TV...most people would say you were nuts. But people did it every night. And people loved the chance to do it.

Doing it with the Game Show Congress crew was just fun. We would get there between 12-2...and we would rotate sleep shifts and discuss everything related to game shows. We would play games, buy food and drink and scratch off lottery tickets at the Exxon Station. We would discuss strategy, and bond with the people on line. We handed out cases of Izze soda to anyone who wanted it!

We would bond in freezing 50 degree nights, and hot humid ones too. Police had to be called one time as some idiot shot paintballs on the line at us. (Must have been a rabid Deal or No Deal fan or something). Tom Gauer, the father figure of the group helped out the police and the ladies who were hurt.

And after those 24 hours of the waiting, number grabbing, eating breakfast, losing adrenaline, gaining it back...you enter the studio. Most people never realize how small the studio actually is! But it is loud, damn is it loud!

Literally, when the first strains of music play as Rich Fields calls the first four down...They need cue cards to show the names because you can’t hear yourself! And when Bob strolls through those doors...I swear, for me...goose pimples run down your body, tears start to well up and the noise level is just so intense it is like a wave of sound! Unreal.

Will it be the same when the replacement host is named...probably not. But there is no experience like attending The Price is Right. Approximately 38,000 people have been in contestants Row. Most people never get picked. But after leaving the taping, people are happy. They were just glad to be there.

And I have to say, I was too. It’s amazing to believe in just a few days, a part of people’s lives will be over. But I can take the memories I had bonding with people, watching my friends get on stage and win prizes and file it away in my brain.

That is the biggest win of all.

You agree or disagree? Fire me off a letter at jb.regis@verizon.net.