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October 7, 2008 Sydney:
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IT HAPPENED ON AIR THIS WEEK...
From: Dick Shuey
"My First Real Radio Job..."Yes Sir...!!!"
I took a discharge from the U.S. Navy after serving 10 years on active
duty.
I had written to WMCS Radio in Machias, Maine prior to my discharge and
had a half promise of employment.
My family stayed there awhile I was at Sea the final two years in the
Navy.
That half promise was good enough for me...The 6 day war was over in the
middle east and the Vietnam war was in shambles.
Morale was low in the military services and I had had it up to my ears
saying "yes sir" and "no sir".
Little did I know that I was about to get hired by a station owner who was
a retired Marine Colonel.
I still say to this day that the only reason Dick Chapman hired me was
because I knew how to say "yes sir" and "no sir"....and I had that high n'
tight military haircut.
Being a Marine he didn't like "no sir"....all he wanted to hear was "yes
sir".{Smile}
I went to meet Dick Chapman and he hired me on the spot...I went to work
the very next day.
Rather I should say I started to the Dick Chapman School Of
Broadcasting.
I took Transmitter Meter readings on the half hour...typed Radio Program
logs...Screened Music for on the air...Ripped n' read AP News off the
teletype machine.
I was yelled at...screamed at...told what a idiot I was...that I'd never
make it in Radio...
But I guess Ole Dick luv'd me...at least he didn't fire me.
I had a Big Band Program everyday which I had to pull a stand up Mic up to
a RCA Victrola and play 78 RPM Records at 12:30 -1:00 P.M. every
day....and yes folks I had to hand crank that baby to keep it running.
It was one of the most popular programs I ever broadcast.
I played Rock n' Roll...I played Country...I played Jazz...and all for the
big weekly paycheck of $62.00 per week....and a million $$$ Radio
education...and being told what a no count I was...{Smile}
Great audience...3500 people in the County in Down East , Maine and that
encluded the Dogs...Cats...n' Chickens.
The Local economy was built on Clam Digging...Lobstering...and Pulp Wood
.
Back in those day's there were no tourist.
I worked for Dick for 9 months and quit when he short changed my weekly
paycheck for $2.00.
It was principle.
But in all fairness...Dick Chapman taught me the basics of Radio...what to
do and not to do and how to communicate.
Years later when I'd be traveling in the area with my Band I'd always stop
by and visit with Dick...we would really
have a great time laffin' 'bout old times and talking about Radio.
Dick Chapman taught me the right way.
Every Radio gal or guy should have a Dick Chapman in their life...."Yes
Sir".
In closing I was back to Machias, Maine in 1997 and went to drop by the
Radio Station...WMCS was no more.
Dick had sold the station and retired and the new owners went bankrupt.
I'll bet they didn't go to the Dick Chapman School Of Broadcasting.
They did have a little college station at the local Univ. Of Maine Campus
there...but that didn't interest me.
I still miss Dick busting through the Studio door yellin' n'
screamin'...at me...!!!
I've had nightmares ever since.
But hey...he was a Marine...one wouldn't expect anything less....{Smile}
I have to go...somebody is tryin' to bust through my Door...!!!
Cough..cough..cough...!!!
Next Stop...WEXT Radio in Hartford Ct.
Stay Tuned....
From: Hanspeter Schmid
This is a true story which happened to my brother last week:
In this city, Zurich, there are two radio stations, one is called
`Radio Z', the other is `Radio 24'. My brother and some of his friends
were invited to visit Radio Z. They were told all the interesting
things about modern radio stations, for example that they actually
produce their own CDs just for broadcasting, storing them in a room
where a robot can access them all, like a giant computer-controlled
juke-box.
The weather information service is not quite as advanced. This day,
the experienced presenter was just introducing a new one. Shortly
before going on air, he asked her:
`What's the temperature outside?'
She looked at the thermometer and answered:
`Twenty-four degrees.'
He glared at her and said:
`Decide for twenty-three or twenty-five. It's NEVER twenty-four
degrees around HERE.'.
From: Michael J Graven
The New York "Best Mix" radio station has a bunch of summertime
gimmicks that attempt to boost listenership. One of them is "Ticket
Tuesday," where listeners send in postcards with the tickets they
want, and "Mix 105 takes care of the rest."
The idea is that you select the concert or play or whatever you want
to see, rather than waiting for, say, Metropolitan Opera tickets to
be given away to the tenth caller. Hmmm, right.
Unfortunately for the radio station, one metro-area listener took the
instructions a bit too literally, and when her card was pulled, the
promo department was forced to "take care of" her seven Manhattan
parking tickets.
From: Jonathan R. Partington
Hello and welcome to Radio 3 FM, the BBC's first station
dedicated entirely to traffic reports. But first here's a note
for all you traditional Radio 3 listeners: BONG! That was the
209th note of Sibelius's 4th symphony, played by the BBC Traffic
Orchestra conducted by Simon Rattlesnake.
And now over to Lanark, where our reporter Charlie Cone is
waiting. Morning, Charlie!
Morning, Piers. Well the traffic situation here is pretty
exciting. The B8426 has been dug up outside Mrs McBoydie's sweet
shop, and there is a man directing traffic in operation. At
present he's letting through a bicycle and a pram going north,
and there's a queue of 2 vehicles waiting to head south. One is a
fish delivery van, and the other seems to be a private car,
containing a very buxom young lady. A really fine model with
lovely bumpers.
Thank you, Charlie. Well we'll be returning to Lanark the moment
we have any more news of the traffic flow there. We go now to
Wales, where our reporter Sue Contraflow is watching the
line-painters of Abernana. Sue.
Yes, Piers. The Abernana council is out in force today, painting
white lines on the road. Perhaps I could describe the technique
they're using in more detail. It seems to derive from many 20th
century influences. One might mention Klee, or indeed Magritte.
One wonders how they put the sign up saying 'No waiting' if they
weren't allowed to stop to do so -- clearly a challenge to the
viewer there.
O.K. That's enough art criticism, Sue. Any other comments?
Yes, one of the workmen is whistling a tune that sounds a bit
like that bit in the Bach B Minor Mass, you know, it goes tumty
tumty tum. I think he may be a sacked BBC presenter, possibly
Peter Barker-Redingit.
Thank you, Sue. Well our next programme is called Jam Today, in
which we broadcasts listeners' requests for highlights of their
favourite traffic jam...
From: Jeffrey Goldberg
These Radio Armenia jokes were told to me by a friend who says that
he heard them when he lived in Russia for a summer.
The call in question show on Radio Armenia often has to deal with
some tough questions.
Q: What is champagne?
A: Radio Armenia is pleased to inform you that champagne is a wonderfully delicious alcoholic beverage which is consumed by the working people through their elected representatives.
From: Penny Padgett
Heard this morning at 6:57 AM on radio station KKUP, Cupertino, CA:
Host: Well, do you have any concluding statements, Marshall?
Guest: No, I don't, Larry.
Host: Then could you say something to last about three minutes?
From: Pete Nayler
The following sexist joke won a competition here in Perth that happens
every week. Worst joke wednesday. There was even a female judge.
Q: Why have no women been to the moon yet?
A: It hasnt needed cleaning yet.
From: Ed Ahrenhoerster
Radio stations east of the Mississippi all start with the letter "W",
while west of the Mississippi they all start with "K", but what about
all the Des Moines stations in the Mississippi?
From: Phillip A. Remaker
Radio Slogans of the 80s...
You may want to compile a list of Radio "one-liners" like:
WKDU: More static, more of the time....
You're listening to WKDU. No one else is, but you are.
This is KFJC and you are listening to our hour-long music-free commercial sweep.
WQHS. 73 on your AM dial. Or, if you have an expensive radio, 730.
Are your friends laughing at you? Maybe it's because you are not listening
to WQHS, 730 on your AM dial, on the University of Pennsylvania campus. Or
maybe it's because you're ugly.
This has been xxx at KFJC reminding you that animals are your friends, but they
won't pick you up at the airport.
WKDU: Broadcasting with TEN MILLION microwatts of POWER!
Hi. This is Swamp Thing and we say that you should listen to WQHS because...
because... , well, do you REALLY have anything better to do?
(as you might have guessed, I have worked at all 3 of these stations)
From: Leonard D. Woren
On a CBS radio interview, a Florida official (I missed his name)
stated that due to the firestorms the Post Office had stopped delivering
mail in those areas, and that anyone who really needed to get their mail
could go to the local Post Office. He said that Post Office creed mentions
rain and hail, but it doesn't say anything about fire.
From: Patrick S. Malone
As I was driving to work with the radio on, I heard the DJ bragging
about the radio station's website and praising their Internet Service
Provider. The DJ made a particular point of the advantage of using a
local ISP:
"And they're right here in _____, so we have a relationship. We can
just call them up, and say, 'We're about to send you a fax with
something for the website.'"
So close . . .
From: Ack Thhpt!
This is compiled from a series of memos I found while clearing out
my HD yesterday. Some names have been changed to protect the guilty.
You have to give the guy some credit for his sense of humor about his
mistake.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wednesday, 11 October 1995 7:53am CT
To: Al ______
From: Ken ______
Subject: Lights
Al, just wanted to let you know that as I drove up to the building I noticed
the tower lights are out.
thanks
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Friday, 13 October 1995 3:02pm CT
To: Ken ______
From: Al ______
Subject: Lights
Thanks, I'll pass that along to Chris
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Friday, 13 October 1995 3:09pm CT
To: Chris ______
From: Al ______
CC: Ken ______
Subject: Lights
Check the lights at the __________ building.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Monday, 13 November 1995 6:44am CT
To: Al ______
From: Ken ______
Subject: Lights
Al, I see that the lights are still out.
thanks
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Monday 13 November 1995 8:42am CT
To: Chris ______
From: Al ______
CC: Ken ______
Subject: Lights
What was done with this?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Monday 13 November 1995 4:06pm CT
To: Al ______
From: Chris ______
CC: Ken ______
Subject: Lights
What "lights" are you referring to? We went out there and didn't see a problem.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tuesday 14 November 1995 7:42am CT
To: Chris ______
From: Al ______
CC: Ken ______
Subject: Lites
Ken is referring to the lights on the radio tower outside his building.
Please check on this
ASAP and get back to Ken. We need to have a better response time on these
kinds of problems.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tuesday 14 November 1995 8:07am CT
To: Ken ______
From: Chris ______
Subject: Lights
Ken, We never had lights on that tower. It's not tall enough to need them.
That would be the
reason for them not working.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tuesday 14 November 1995 1:47pm CT
To: Chris ______
From: Ken ______
Subject: Lights
Even though there are no lights on the tower I see no reason why they should
not work. During this critical period of the merger we need to make things
work even though they do not exist, since many of the things which DO exist
do not work.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tuesday 14 November 1995 2:38pm CT
To: Ken ______
From: Chris ______
Subject: Lights
OK, we'll get right on it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Heather
Heard this on the news report of a local radio station (KPAW):
Don't go to the Republic of Congo today. They're having a fight.
From: kaosfm@innocent.com
A children's radio show host, thinking that his microphone had been
turned off, wrapped up his broadcast one evening by inadvertently
blurting out over the air, "There, that oughta hold the little
bastards!"
From: Jason
A DJ at a midwestern US station handed off the broadcast to sports
announcers working an out-of-town game of a minor league baseball
team. All commercials, station IDs and live announcements originated
from the stadium's pressbox, which meant that the DJ at the studios
back home had nothing to do except "baby sit" the equipment, a term
broadcasters use for describing personnel who watched the equipment
and logged transmitter readings.
The DJ figured that the baseball game would be on the air for the
next couple of hours, so he locked up the studios and headed to a
beer hall. As he departed, he heard over the monitor something like,
"The 2 and 2 pitch. Outside for ball 3. Two man on, no outs... "
The fourth inning rolled in and so did a rain cloud. Subsequently,
the sports announcers handed it back to the studios during the
postponement. They paused, just to give the DJ enough time to switch
them off the air. They left the microphone hot so that the DJ could
monitor them on audition. Audition is a pre-listening channel to cue
records or hear cues for live broadcasts. When the sports announcers
were ready to resume broadcasting the game, they simply advise the
studio on audition.
Figuring that they were off the air, they talked ugly. They made
comments about the cheerleaders. All of it was heard back home; the
sports announcers were out-of-range to monitor the on-air signal.
Subsequently, they had no way to determine whether they were really
off-the-air!
About an hour later, the rain stopped and the stadium crew rolled up
the tarp from the playing field. The sports announcers advised over
the mike with the notion that they would be heard on the audition
monitor, "We'll take it in five minutes.." A few moments later, they
advised "Two minutes," then finally a count down. Listeners heard
all of this. They were "back on the air," resuming the broadcast of
a baseball game temporarily delayed by rain.
Not long afterward, the DJ returned to the studios. The studio
monitor sounded the same as he left it: "O and 1 pitch. Strike call!"
The stadium crowd cheered. The DJ sat down, not realizing what had
happened until he noted that the multi-button telephone was lit up.
The next morning, he was given two words by the station manager.
From: Jason
A radio station and a bank across the street subscribed to a time
service which provided accurate time on the studio clock and an
outdoor clock, respectively. As the economy spiralled downward during
the early 1980s, both entities had to find ways to cut cost. The
radio station's manager knew that the bank had linked their clock
to a time service and that the clock could be observed from the
studios. So to cut cost, the station dropped the time service and
relied on the bank's clock to give out the time to their listeners.
Meanwhile... the bank's management knew that the radio station
subscribed to a time service which presented a tone at the top of
the hour. Subsequently, the bank dropped their time service and
relied on the station giving out the accurate time.
Once a week, a bank employee would listen for the tone and calibrate
the bank's clock. Meanwhile, the station would observe the bank's
clock and calibrate the studio clocks. After awhile, it was not long
that the times provided by the bank's clock and the radio station
were about 30 seconds fast. The station announcers would discover
that the clock was not in sync with the networks.
Once it was determined that the clocks were not accurate, a station
employee contacted the bank as a courtesy to advise them that the
bank's clock is running fast. A bank official argued, "It can't be.
We set it to the time given by the radio station."
From: Jason
A south Arkansas radio station experienced a serious problem when it
tried to sign on one morning. The studios were linked by a class A
telephone line to the transmitter, which was located about five miles
outside of town. Just as soon as the DJ kicked on the transmitter,
some voices were heard over the air monitor. The conversation was not
"on-air" material!
After the morning DJ switched the transmitter off, he called the
telephone company. It was found that a telephone company employee
mistakenly crossed the broadcast link with a private residence. The
problem was fixed expediently.
From: Jason
An AM station could have faced some serious consequences with this
mishap. The station operated from 6 a.m. to 12 midnight each day.
The evening announcer was ready to call it a day when he noted that
he had to produce a commercial for a discount store chain. Producing
commercials was part of his duties.
In the production room, he inserted a cartridge into the recording
machine, pressed Rec and Start and announced, "Shop and shave at
... oh, s**t!" It was supposed to have been "shop and save," not
"shave." He was then interrupted by a phone call. After hanging up,
he pressed Rec and Start again and recorded the commercial properly
the second time. The only problem was that he forgot to remove the
cartridge tape and erase the first cut before recording the second
cut. As a result, the cartridge, which worked much like 8-track tape,
rotated back around to the first cut. Ouch!
By next morning, the announcer received a phone call from a station
employee and was told that the program director needed to see him at
the station right away. When the announcer arrived at the station,
he was directed immediately to the production room by the receptionist.
Inside the room stood the PD and the station manager.
"This is what was aired this morning," the PD said as he pressed the
Play button. "Shop and shave at ... oh s**t!" The announcer's face
turned red. His whole life flashed through his mind. As he sat down
in a wave of shock, the PD said to the manager, "I think that's all
we need to say." They turned around and walked out of the production
room. The announcer was not fired.
From: Jason
An east Texas AM station entertained its rather youthful audience one
evening with an unscheduled broadcast event. The DJ slapped on a tape
and turned off the monitor, then, he and his girl friend stripped and
began making love on the floor. A few moments later, the station's
chief engineer walked in and saw the action through the sound proofed
window. He sneaked in behind the broadcast board, turned on the
microphone, and turned down the music. Immediately, listeners heard
the commotion. The engineer sneaked out.
The next day, the DJ was called into the manager's office and was
told two famous words. When it was learned that the engineer was
partially responsible, he too got to hear those famous words.
From: Sean
A small-town, daytime-only AM radio station produced its live
broadcasts and commercials from one production room. Normally, a
radio station has a "control room" for producing the live broadcasts
and a separate room for producing commercials. But since this station
operated only during the daytime, the one-room facility would suffice
for broadcasting during the day and producing commercials at night.
This all worked fine until a set of problems set in. The station's
transmitter was located elsewhere and was controlled by a remote
control panel located at the studios. The remote control system was
broken. So, while the station was waiting for a new remote control
system to come in from the factory, the station's engineer had to
drive out to the transmitter site to manually turn on the transmitter
at sign on in the mornings and vice-versa for sign off.
One day during signoff, the engineer was running late. The DJ
completed his broadcast, played the national anthem, and waited a few
seconds for the engineer to turn off the transmitter. Assuming that
the transmitter was turned off, he begin producing commercials. As
anyone knows in the media business, producing commercials can be a
stressful situation. There are miscues, misfires, and bad takes. Some
announcers have a tendency to say a few bad words.
As the DJ cued up a record and begin his spiel, the engineer thought
that it would be best to step on the gas pedal just a bit further.
"The guy started his production." Just as soon as the DJ mispronounced
a word, he said, "S**t!" The gas pedal got pressed just a little bit
further. Then, the record was cued. Listeners who left the radio
turned on heard the "twarp, twarp" of a phonograph record back cued
on a turntable. Then the announcer started his spiel again. The
engineer hoped that he would get it right this time. A another
problem developed. The music was not in sync. More words. The
engineer floored it.
This went on until the engineer reached the transmitter to kick it
off. Unfortunately, the station's manager had two words for the DJ
and the engineer the next day. Go figure.
From: Jason
On the morning show at a radio station in AUCKLAND they play a game
for prizes usually vacations and such, called "Mate Match." The DJ's
ring someone at work and ask if they are married or in a serious
relationship.
If yes, then this person is asked 3 very personal questions that vary
from couple to couple and asked for their significant others name
and work phone number. If the significant other answers correctly
then they are winners. This particular day it got interesting:
DJ: HEY! This is Mike Haru on MaiFM, 88.6. Do you know "Mate Match"?
Contestant: (laughing) Yes I do.
DJ: What is your name? First only please.
Contestant: Brian
DJ: Are you married or what Brian?
Brian: Yes.
DJ:"Yes"? Does this mean your are married or what? Brian?
Brian: (laughing nervously) Yes I am married.
DJ: Thank you Brian. OK, now, what is your wife's name? First only
please Brian.
Brian: Sara.
DJ: Is Sara at work Brian?
Brian: She is gonna kill me.
DJ: Stay with me here Brian! Is she at work?
Brian: (laughing) Yes she is.
DJ: All right then, first question: When was the last time you had sex?
Brian: She is gonna kill me.
DJ: BRIAN! Stay with me here man.
Brian: About 8 o'clock this morning.
DJ: Atta boy.
Brian: (laughing sheepishly) Well.
DJ: Number 2: How long did it last?
Brian: About 10 minutes.
DJ: Wow! You really want that trip huh? No one would ever have said
that if there weren't a trip at stake.
Brian: Yeah, it would be really nice.
DJ: OK. Final question: Where was it that you had sex at 8 this
morning?
Brian: (laughing hard) I ummmmm...
DJ: This sounds good Brian where was it?
Brian: Not that it was all that great just that her mom is staying with
us for a couple of weeks and she was taking a shower at the time.
DJ: Ooooooh, sneaky boy!
Brian: On the kitchen table.
DJ: "Not that great"? That is more adventurous than the last hundred
times I have done it Anyway, (to audience) I will put Brian on hold
, get his wife's work number and call her up. You listen to this.
(Advertisements)
DJ: (to audience) Let's call Sara shall we? (touch tones *ringing*)
Clerk: Kinko's.
DJ: Hey, is Sara around there somewhere?
Clerk: This is she.
DJ: Sara, this is Mike Haru from MaiFM, 88.6. I have been speaking
with Brian for a couple of hours now.
Sara: (laughing) A couple of hours?
DJ: Well, a while anyway. He is also on the line with us. Brian knows
not to give away any answers or you lose. Soooooooo, do you know the
rules of "Mate Match"?
Sara: No.
DJ: Good.
Brian: (laughing)
Sara: (laughing) Brian, what the hell are you up to?
Brian: (laughing) Just answer his questions honestly OK?
Sara: Oh, Brian. DJ: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sara I will now ask you 3
questions and if you answer what Brian has said then the 2 of you
are off to Orlando Florida at our expense. This does include tickets
to Disney World, Sea World and tickets to see the Orlando Magic play.
Get it Sara? SARA! GET IT Orlando Magic, they are on strike Sara
"helloooooo" anyone home?!?!
Sara: (laughing hard) YES, yes.
Brian: (laughing)
DJ: All right, when did you have sex last Sara?
Sara: Oh God, Brian ...this morning before Brian went to work.
DJ: What time?
Sara: About 8 I think. (sound effect) DING DING DING
DJ: Very good. Next question: How long did it last?
Sara: 12, 15 minutes maybe.
DJ: hhmmmmm.
Background voice in studio: That's close enough. I am sure she is
trying not to harm his manhood.
DJ: Well, we will give you that one. Last question: Where did you do
it?
Sara: OH MY GOD, BRIAN! You did not tell them did you?!?!
Brian: Just tell him honey.
DJ: What is bothering you so much Sara?
Sara: Well, It's just that my mom is vacationing with us and...
DJ: SHE SAW?!?!
Sara: BRIAN?!?!
Brian: NO, no I didn't ...
DJ: Ease up there sister. Just messin' with your head. Your answer?
Sara: Dear Lord,..I cannot believe you told them this.
Brian: Come on honey it's for a trip to Florida.
DJ: Let's go Sara we ain't got all day. Where did you do it?
Sara: IN THE ASS
(long pause)
DJ: We will be right back.
(advertisements)
DJ: I am sorry for that ladies and gentlemen. This is live radio and
these things do happen. Anyway, Brian and Sara are off to lovely
Orlando, Florida.
From: Christopher Neufeld
Back in the days of the Mattel Cabbage Patch Kid craze it was usually
very hard to get one for the kiddies. A radio station (I don't know
where) announced that Mattel was going to get Cabbage Patch Kids out
to the people of this particular city. The plan was that they had to
go to the football field of the local university and wait. An
airplane would fly overhead and the dolls would be dropped onto the
field. People were supposed to hold their credit cards up so that a
photographer with a telephoto lens in the airplane could get the
credit card numbers and charge the price of the dolls to the
recipients' accounts. People actually showed up, waving American
Express cards in the breeze!
Another radio station prank took place on April Fool's Day. They
announced that the phone company would be cleaning the dirt out of
the phone lines that afternoon. They do this, it seems, by blowing
air into the wires in the switching station. The problem is that the
dirt comes out of the earpiece and mouthpiece of the telephone, and
could dirty the rugs or furniture in your house. Consequently, the
phone company asks that the good citizens please get plastic baggies
and put them over the handsets of the telephones to protect their
belongings. Stores reported a run on plastic bags, and the phone
company made the radio station retract the original claim!
From: Jason
The story is told, apocryphal no doubt, of the DJ working on a small
and remote radio station in Scotland midway through his programme
late at night on 1 October 1977. News came to the station that Bing
Crosby had died (the station producer happened to be on the phone to
the States and picked the word up almost as it occurred). The Dj
thought he could possibly be the first person in the UK to publicly
announce the death, so he put on a long track and rushed off to record
library to get an old recording to play. Upon returning, nervously
excited by now, he flung the first record onto the turntable without
looking at it and broke in the record then playing with a sombre
voice: 'I am deeply sorry to have to inform' you listeners that I
have just received news from America of a great tragedy. The
legendary Bing Crosby is dead. As a humble tribute, I would like
to play one of his songs,' and as he switched over to his Crosby
'selection', the melody was beamed out, 'Heaven . . . I'm in Heaven...'
From: Kit Beuret
Nagged management at KGU-Honolulu to change automated oldie evening format
to Jazz-Fusion in 1976. Within one year had a 17 share in the evening.
A few years later station switched to talk and fired all the jocks.
Clerk at unemployment office remarked, "I wondered when I'd get to meet you.
I think I've met all the other jocks in town at one time or another." That
was when I decided to quit radio and get an honest job.
From: Jason
Hi! I work in a college radio station. One morning, while monitering a show
that was going on in the next room, I could hear the DJ was talking, but it
was not going over the air as she intended. I went in and notified her that
her microphone wasn't hooked up, which in itself took a few minutes. To
prevent future Morons from making the same mistake, I stuck a note to the
mic saying it didn't work. When I turned my back, I heard the DJ exclaim,
"Oh, Adrienne, LOOK!! No wonder it wasn't working- someone left a note on
it!" I almost didn't have the heart to explain to her what happened."
From: Southern Ontario/WNY Radio Forum
I loved being on the air in small market radio (very small market), upstate
New York in the early 70's. The money, well, it sucked. Worse than sucked.
I lived in poverty. But the job was a job of true communication. People
listened to us because we were the only radio station in town and the one
major link to the outside. News, weather, lost pets, "swap-shop", local
(very local) talk - we were it. No specific music format - we played
whatever we liked at the moment, although we did have the occassional
country hour, classical hour, big band hour, show tune hour, etc. Every
once in a while one of the owners would give us a few bucks and we'd go
down to the local department store and buy a few new records. The other
owner would yell at him for doing so. In fact, the two elderly partners
were at each other's throats all day long - it was quite humorous.
Three full time jocks did absolutely everything around there. I remember
recording spots through channel B of the board while a record was playing
over the air through channel A, and doing Rip-&-Read AP wire service news
every hour. (You know, the boxes from the AP paper were the perfect size
for storing 45 rpm records). Everyone in town had their clock radios set
to us. There was no other station to set it to. If we signed on late,
everyone was late. We were on 1240 AM, making us a CONELRAD station. Yes,
we had radiation suits and a geiger counter in the control room (I always
wondered if I would really have the guts to stick around and stay on the
air if they actually dropped the big one). It was fun to be a local celebrity -
everyone knew me and was friendly. Every morning, the local diner would have
my breakfast ready and packed for me to pick up on my way in to do the
morning show. I'd get into the station, alone, turn on the lights,
prepare my material, power up the transmitter and go. We simulcast on an FM
frequency as well. The FM transmitter and tower were up in the woods somewhere.
We'd go off the air at least once a week - shot by hunters who's stray bullets
would always hit something or other in the transmitter shack. The chief
(and only) engineer, an old ham radio hobbiest who happened to have a
"first phone", used to curse his brains out, hop in his truck and make his
way up there for yet another repair. It was a great gig for a young lad
in his early 20's. I kind of miss it, although I do now enjoy living in a
house and being able to afford food, not to mention my boat.
From: Southern Ontario/WNY Radio Forum
I got hired at my first gig pretty much because I knew how to pronounce the
local town names in Sussex County, NJ, something my predicessor never quite
got the hang of. On my very first day, I am travelling up Rt. 206 towards
Newton to do the mid-day slot on Oldies 1360, WNNJ AM, a 2,000 watt daytimer.
Fortunately I'd left plenty early, as I was stuck in a line of traffic that
was crawling along behind a D.O.T. truck which was painting the center strip
in the road. There wasn't much to do but resign myself to looking at the scenery
go by at a walking pace for an hour. At one point I was leaning my head out the
window, resting on my elbow, when I saw that the crews had striped right over
a raccoon carcass in the roadway. (It stayed there, btw, for the better part
of 2 months before completely decaying, leaving a weird 'chalk outline' of
a raccoon in the road until it was striped again the next year).
When I finally got to the station, still early despite the delay, I was shown
into the studio. It was an "L" configuration; an old WWII surplus round-pot
board in front of you, with a couple of cart machines on top, and a shelf on
your right into which were sunk two turntables and a reel-to-reel. Over the
entire works was draped a clear plastic tarp. It was explained to me that
the roof had sprung a leak, and until they could find a roofer who would
agree to patch it on trade, the tarp stayed. So we had to crawl into this
humidity chamber every time we had to do a mc break or cue up vinyl. If it
was raining you could hear the drops hitting the tarp as you spoke, like a
crazy snare drum accompanyment. It was some weeks before we could find an
willing handyman, and I think we ran his spots for something like 2 years,
every stop set, from then on.
From: Southern Ontario/WNY Radio Forum
I worked at one place where the owner lived behind the transmitter, which was
in the room next to the air studio. No sheets on the bed, just a hotplate for
cooking. We used to broadcast the local Fourth of July parade from the roof of
the building. Not live; we'd tape it and play it back the next day.
When he wanted to watch a movie and no one else was around, he'd go off the
air for a couple of hours, head for the theater and fire up the xmtr when he got back.
From: Southern Ontario/WNY Radio Forum
I don't know, if I should admit this, but some time has passed and I think the guy that
once ran WBUX in Doylestown is dead. I hope so. Wait, that didn't come out right. Anyhow
...one night my drunk buddy and my equally drunk self finished covering the Bucks county
elections and return to the radio station after 1 in the morning to cut up the tape for
"morning drive." But, we decided to fire up the 5000 watt daytime only transmitter in the
middle of the night and do our own radio show featuring our own "custom jingles." At 1:42AM
in 1979, we signed on as WANG in Coldwater, Michigan...and so went the jingle...." Your
WANG'S in Coldwater," Followed by a legal (or illegal id) W.A.N.G, Coldwater, Michigan. We
has some other jingles too. "Hanging around with......WANG." As the minutes passed by, it
got even more crude. (I won't go into it) But, then the phones starting ringing and we got
scared, quickly turned off the transmitter which was a complicated series of red and black
buttons that when pushed made a loud clunking sound. We immediately fell asleep on the floor
and woke up when the the morning disc jockey arrived. That other person is now the executive
producer of one of the network's evening news shows. He will remain nameless.
From: Southern Ontario/WNY Radio Forum
One of my "fondest" memories of small market radio occurred during my stint as
Operations Director (later GM) of a small "daytimer". It seems that our most
lucrative client was about to gain notariety in our esteemed community by
donating his 5th gallon of blood (this is noble, what happened next, well,
it's just tacky). Since he spent many dollars with us, the then-GM decided
that we would do a sort of "play by play" of Mr. Client donating his final drops!
And of course, guess who got that priviledge! Well, we show up with the Marti,
the Red Cross isn't overly cooperative (understandable, since the donation center
was a mobile home) but eventually let us set up in the "donor room". Try, in your
imagination, to fill about the 20 minutes or so it takes to follow someone though
the registration process, the type and cross matching, the prep, donation (even
if you describe it drop by drop, this takes some creativity!), the removal of the
needle, and Mr. Client eating his PJB and OJ!! But he kept on buying ads!!! Ah!
Free, over the air, small market radio!
From: Southern Ontario/WNY Radio Forum
Back in the late 70s, while still in college, I was a news assistant at WHN. Part
of my Sunday morning duties were running the board for the public affairs programs.
All were on reel-to- reel tapes and it was pretty routine after doing this for a
number of weeks. I'd cue up each tape to the first sounds and then just hit "play"
when it was time to air. One Sunday though, one of the programs was rewound "tails out"
so when I hit "play" the program started running backwards! At this point I started to
panic as a 50,000 watt station in the #1 market is running "The Lutheran Hour" backwards.
I quickly grabbed a song from the cart rack behind me, stuck it in the deck and brought
up a Dolly Parton song, while trying to rewind the tape as fast as possible. I got the
tape reversed, faded down Dolly, and went back to the tape, but in my panic forgot the
show started with a countdown. Dolly comes back for a quick encore and finally "The
Lutheran Hour" made its delayed return to the air.
From: Southern Ontario/WNY Radio Forum
I don't know how true this story is, so I'll leave out names and call letters.
It was Christmas Eve at a NY station which was airing midnight mass from St.
Pat's. There really isn't much to do once you're set up and on the air, so
people brought in food and had a little party. All of the food was in the studio
of the control room that was "hot", including a crock pot of chili which began
to boil over. The board op, seeing this, wanted to alert someone in the studio.
But instead of hitting the "talkback" button, he hit "slate", which put him on
the air. So right in the middle of midnight mass you heard " Now, let us hear
the word of our Lord ...'Turn the crock pot off!'"
I understand that the board op never lived this down.
From: Southern Ontario/WNY Radio Forum
For some extra cash, I took the Sunday Morning Board Op shift at my place of
employment at the time - WLIR-AM 1300 in Rockland County. A Hatian group bought
time on Sunday mornings to do a live show...IN CREOLE!
While I appreciate the hard work these guys put into their show - getting local
interviews and news, etc for their community - it was soooo problem ridden it
used to drive me nuts. Only one or two of them could speak English - and neither
of them were the hosts of the show (Try taking cues in a language you don't know).
They would be telling their audience that they were going to break, and I'd play
a song because the guy handed me a CD 30 seconds earlier...it was a mess.
One day, they brought in a new news woman. When it was time for their "News in
Creole," they motioned to me to play their news sounder, which I did - noticing
that this anchorwoman was not in the studio. As I hit the news sounder, one of the
guys opened the studio door, and pointed his mic out the door. I could faintly
hear this woman reading the news from outside the studio.
I think she actually wanted to read the news "from the newsroom." I kept trying
to tell the program host that the mic doesnt pick up from 30 feet away, but he
didnt understand English. It was a seven-minute newscast.
From: Southern Ontario/WNY Radio Forum
Our studios were built into a rambling ranch house on the outskirts
of town and maintained by a part time Portuguese engineer named Orfeo Gabbino.
A good natured guy who had an off handed way of making do despite the chronic parts
shortages. Budget shortages and equipment that likely had been hand built by
Marconi himself!
My fondest memory was the day Orfeo quit his job. He had been called in because
the Sparta cart machine (God, forgive my memories when I think of it!)...the one
- count 'em - that recorded had stopped working. There were no extra parts since
that model had been discontinued in 1906 or thereabouts.Orfeo had always managed
to keep things going like the innovator he was, by remanufacturing and improvising
the unavailable parts. He had concocted mechanisms out of rubber bands, paper
clips, and bottle caps to keep the machinery going. But, this one day was the
final straw! He came into the studio and opened the cart deck then started
giggling. First a light chuckle...then a laugh...then more laughing...then
a whole hearted belly laugh! Chortling back tears as he looked inside the
machine. Then he packed up his toolbag grasping my hand and saying "Goodbye!"
as he continued laughing. Walking towards the door he said a fond "Goodbye!" to
the sales department staff, the Program Director, and finally the disbelieving
General Manager - who couldn't understand why he was leaving? I found out for
myself when I looked into the dead Sparta machine for myself and saw the source
of his amusement: One of his rubberband contraptions connected to a paperclip
and bottlecap gizmo had finally broken - again!
I never saw Orfeo again. But, the next day the brand new RCA cart deck arrived and
was quickly installed! The only "new" piece of equipment I ever saw at CFOM.
From: Swiss Daily
Two escaped convicts from a Swiss jail wanted to win a prize for
the best weekly news tip to a local radio station. They reported
their own escape, telling how they had put a sleep-inducing drug
into a guard's coffee before walking out of the prison. The radio
station thought it was a great story. So did the police. The men
were captured and returned to their prison cell.
From: Jason
One radio station prank took place on April Fool's Day. They
announced that the phone company would be cleaning the dirt out of
the phone lines that afternoon. They do this, it seems, by blowing
air into the wires in the switching station. The problem is that
the dirt comes out of the earpiece and mouthpiece of the telephone
and could dirty the rugs or furniture in your house. Consequently,
the phone company asks that the good citizens please get plastic
bags and put them over the handsets of the telephones to protect
their belongings. Stores reported a run on plastic bags, and the
phone company made the radio station retract the original claim.
From: Ian
The story is told, apocryphal no doubt, of the DJ working on a
small and remote radio station in Scotland midway through his
programme late at night on 1 October 1977. News came to the
station that Bing Crosby had died (the station producer happened
to be on the phone to the States and picked the word up almost as
it occurred). The Dj thought he could possibly be the first person
in the UK to publicly announce the death, so he put on a long
track and rushed off to record library to get an old recording
to play. Upon returning, nervously excited by now, he flung
the first record onto the turntable without looking at it and
broke in the record then playing with a sombre voice: 'I am
deeply sorry to have to inform' you listeners that I have just
received news from America of a great tragedy. The legendary
Bing Crosby is dead. As a humble tribute, I would like to play
one of his songs,' and as he switched over to his Crosby
'selection', the melody was beamed out, 'Heaven . . . I'm
in Heaven...'
From: East Anglian Daily Times
A man has been sacked live on air after taking part in a prank
on a local radio station where he had to phone in sick to his
boss. The man, identified only as Steve from Sudbury, took part at
the Vibe FM studio where he had to telephone his boss to say
he was ill and would not be coming in. But his stern-voiced
woman employer did not see the funny side because he had
already had four days off sick recently. She fired him on the spot.
Steve, said to be in his 20s, listened in horror as he was
told to go to her office and collect his P45.He tried to
explain he was only joking, but she hung up without realising
their conversation had been broadcast to thousands of listeners.
Attempts by worried station bosses in Bury St Edmunds,
Suffolk, to explain to her that it was a joke failed
to change her mind, reports the East Anglian Daily Times.
Vibe FM spokesman Jane Lambert said: "It turned out that
he had called in sick for four days previously in the
last few weeks and he was on a written warning at work.
He did not tell us the situation before he went on air.
If we had known we would have advised him not to do it.
"Everyone looked at each other and said, 'Oh my God'. It
seems that he was just keen to go on the radio and did
not think of the consequences. Our managing director heard
it happen on air as he was driving in. He called in to
say things had gone too far ."
From: Harry Scarborough
Harry Scarborough Meets Humble Harve
In 1969, while doing afternoon drive at KMEN in San
Bernardino, I was offered mornings at KYNO, the
Drake-Chenault farm club up in the San Joaquin
valley. Like all my friends at the time, I was
looking for the chance to play REAL Boss Radio.
Also, Fresno was where most of the first-rate
rock-jocks in California were vetted during the
KYNO/KMAK radio war of the early '60s. It was the
stuff of legends--the encounter between wildman
programming genius Ron Jacobs at Colgreene's KMAK
and straight-arrow formatic innovator Bill Drake
trying out his newly conceptualized "Boss Radio"
ideas at Gene Chenault's KYNO. Drake's victory
led ultimately to the resurrection of RKO's KHJ
as the Boss Radio flagship with, ironically, Ron
Jacobs as its program director. And redefined
pop music radio presentation. Needless to say,
I leapt at the invitation to drive up to Fresno
the next weekend to see their layout.
First, I was shown around "BAWSS RADIO!" It was an
AM in a roomy free-standing frame building in a
semi-residential neighborhood. Not only was it
impressively equipped for a market that size, but
I remember asking about the little white stickers
on everything. They were everywhere! I was told
they indicated "last date maintenanced," put there
by Dave Evans, the impeccable and wonderfully
eccentric chief engineer. Out back was a garage
in which were manufactured the newly-invented QRK
quick-start turn-tables. Already on their way to
becoming the top-40 standard (before CDs, kiddies),
they were invented and built by yet another KYNO engineer.
But...one of my favorite memories of radio happened
after we left the station.
The Drake-Chenault A.I.R. syndication facility had
just been completed by Dave Evans. He had figured
out how to automate rock'n'roll without the whirs,
buzzes, and weird tones punctuating long seconds
of momentum-killing dead-air between the hits.
This studio, called "Barton" by Boss folks, was
presented as the coup de grace of my recruitment
tour. It was on the top floor of the Security
Pacific Bank building in the center of the
down-town mall. (In the '60s, Urban Renewal
closed off the main street to cars and turned
the heart of Fresno into an open-air mall ...
and virtually every other medium-size town in
California.) Opening the front door, we noticed
some activity down the mall, but locked the door
and climbed into the elevator. Going up, I was
told I might get a peek at Humble Harve in the
booth, since it was his weekend to drive up from
LA (he wouldn't fly) to record the liners for
national syndication.
Arriving at Barton, we were greeted by an impressive
array of technical stuff with stuttering meters and
blinking lights and giant spinning reels ... but no
humans. Suddenly a young man popped in through a
window from the balcony. He was the engineer on
duty and he announced breathlessly, "There's a
fire down on the mall!"
"Where is it? Are we OK?," I asked selflessly.
"Oh yeah, we're fine," he replied, "It's across
the mall from us and you can see it out on the
balcony. Frederick's of Hollywood is burning!"
I scrambled out through the window, dashed to
the waist-high wall that bordered the balcony,
and looked down at the frenzy below. (Geez,
this was much more fulfilling to an aspiring
Boss Jock than all that technical stuff inside!)
There was a fellow already standing at the wall,
a chunky guy with a beard and shades and dressed
casually. ('Another engineer,' I thought.) We
were looking directly down and across the open-air
mall at firemen dragging hose through Frederick's
front door, past the ground-floor windows smoked-up
by smoldering and naughty negligee.
Without even looking at him, I asked the guy next
to me, "What's going on, man? Is it a bad one?"
"Naw, brother, it's just smoke. They're gittin' to
it in time," came the reply in that hey-babeh-its-
yo-brudduh-humble-harve voice I'd admired all those
nights listening to KHJ.
At that point, I made my first effort to see just
who was standing next to me. And, of course, it
was Humble Harvey Miller Himself, taking a break
from voice-overs. I don't remember my response,
but it seemed to launch him into the funniest, most
colorful narrative I've ever heard.
For at least ten minutes Harve did play-by-play
commentary on the action below: the firemen, the
spectators, and especially the damage done to
Frederick's specialized merchandise. After all
these years, I don't recall much of what he said.
I missed a lot of it because I was laughing so
hard and trying to keep from falling over the wall.
And, of course, there was the shock of having Humble
Harve all to myself -- one-on-one -- doing stand-up!
But he seemed to enjoy my appreciation of his
amazing improvisational gift, only hinted at in the
restrictions of format radio. What HAS stayed with
me all this time was his hilarious warmth to an
impressionable young jock that afternoon. Oh yeah....and
this one line:
"Awww, maaan, look at all that smoke! It's gotta be
a 48-D-Cup!"
From: Frank Kingston Smith
Bruce Bradley left WBZ [he was one the people who
inspired me to get into radio] to go to whatever
WNBC-FM was called back in the late 70's. When he
got there, all management raved about his on-air
style at WBZ; kinda free-wheeling and hilarious.
So guess what? The first thing they did at NBC was
to shut him up. Then, management commented that
he wasn't as funny as he had been. (?) Then they
tried to force-feed a format to him. Then he went
to St Louis. What a waste of outstanding talent.
When Fairbanks canned me at WVBF, they had already
hired Dale Dorman to do weekends. As an ex-morning
jock, the stuck him right into my hours with a
producer. The producer's job was to get Dale to
sound like me. "Do it like Frank did it...." Finally,
one morning, Dale went to the GM and asked: "If
you want me to do it like Frank, why did you fire
Frank?" Yeah....
From: Joe Benson
Symphony Sid (Torin) was a very well known WMCA
and, later, WABC "announcer" who had a penchant
for 1) drinking heavily and 2) smashing records
in a fit of rage if it was something he didn't
like. You can see a bit of what Symphony Sid was
like from days in New York in opening scenes of
the movie "Private Parts" starring Howard Stern.
Howard's father was Sid's engineer.
Milkman's matinee was a WNEW original that
became part of the Metromedia Radio group
through the years. Each of their stations
had a "Milkman's Matinee" all night. I
remember growing up in the Philadelphia area
and listening to Nat Wright "All Night with
the Milkman's Matinee" for many years in the
60s and 70s. KLAC in Los Angeles, WASH in
Washington, WCBM in Baltimre...they all had
them.
Dick Shepard was the host on 'NEW. Of course,
the "Original" Milkman's Matinee started on
10-10 WINS...
Here's a little something from "Symphony Sid"
...New York's best known jazz DJ...
Jumpin' With Symphony Sid
Jumpin' with my boss Sid in the city
Jumpin' with my boss Sid in the city
Mr. President of that DJ committee
We're gonna be up all night gettin' ready
We want you to spin the sounds from the city
Far down in the land that's real real pretty
Let everything go real crazy over jazz
Make everything go real crazy over jazz
Let everything cool for me and my baby
I don't wanna think we're listening too lazy
It's gotta be Pressburg cheering all the Basie
It's gotta get it all set right clear on the eighty
Let it roll
Let it roll
In the beginning, there was Symphony Sid...
Close enough, anyway. When Sidney Torin (1909-1984)
came to Boston from New York City in 1951, he
brought with him a taste for jazz and Latin music.
He engaged in those twin passions as a disk jockey
at WBMS radio, one of the area's jazz stations of
that era.
Symphony Sid was born Sidney Tarnopol on New York's
Lower East Side on Tuesday, December 14, 1909, and
he grew up in Brooklyn. An early job involved selling
classical records at the Symphony Shop. When he
started as a jazz disk jockey at WBNX in the Bronx,
he was given the moniker, Symphony Sid, and it stuck.
He worked at a variety of New York radio stations,
including the powerful WJZ; and he made quite a name
for himself with his broadcasts from the original
Birdland nightclub. He was the greatest jazz disk
jockey of his times.
During his Boston days, Symphony Sid broadcast often
from the city's jazz clubs, including the Hi-Hat and
the Southland. Evidently his taste was quite broad.
In addition to the jazz and Latin music that he
favored, his WBMS broadcasts included rhythm and blues
recordings -- introducing to many New Englanders
"rock before it was called rock," as Ed Duato Scheer
of the Love Dogs would say. Ken Malden of WBMS also
began broadcasting R&B records. Thus, rock radio
was born in Boston.
Symphony Sid hosted a gospel music show on WBMS. He
actually split his time between two of Boston's radio
stations. The other, WCOP, is generally remembered for
its country music programming, and especially for
the WCOP Hayloft Jamboree. None of the materials
which our research turned up gave any details or
included any reminiscences of Symphony Sid's work
at WCOP.
Symphony Sid returned to New York City in 1956. Late
in life, he lived in Florida where he enjoyed the
pursuit of fishing. Symphony Sid Torin died on Friday,
September 14, 1984.
The spread in New England of early rock or proto-rock
seems to be a bit of a mystery. There's good reason
to believe that New Haven, Connecticut, was an early
hotbed; and in Boston, of course, we know that
Symphony Sid and Ken Malden got things going. Actually,
I am reliably informed that a number of Boston disk
jockeys, apprarently including the great territory-band
leader Sabby Lewis, started working rhythm and blues
recordings into their broadcasts in the 1940s and
early 1950s.
Glossary entry for Symphony Sid:
"Symphony" Sid Torin was a famous disc jockey in New
York City during the forties, covering the jazz scene,
with a large and loyal following. The reference to
"close to eighty on the dot" (or "on the dial") in
the song "The New Symphony Sid" is a reference to
the position on the radio dial where Symphony Sid's
Friday night show could be found, on radio station WMCA.
Stan Shaw conducted "The Original Milkman's Matinee"
at night. Veteran NBC sports director Bill Stern
presented a breakfast-time talk show. Disc jockey
Alan Freed and his record collection came to WINS
on 8 September 1954. Often cited as the man who
coined the expression "rock'n' roll," Freed was
certainly a pioneer; he had already garnered an
audience in the New York area through his Cleveland
program syndicated through WNJR. He stayed with
WINS through 1958, at a time when the station had
one of the strongest program lineups in the city.
From: Terry Carr
During the remodeling of WVIC's studios (my
first station), they moved the jocks into the
AM (WVGO) studios temporarily. The old console
in that temporary studio had a problem with the
mic switch, and so the engineer had setup the
consold to use the AUDITION channel of the mic,
to go to air.
The jock following me was goofing around while
pulling his music, making some stupid jokes with
the word semen. He said "wouldn't it be funny
if I said SEMEN on the air?"
He then, in his showmanship way, leans over the
console and flips the mic to AUDITION and says "SEMEN",
not realizing that AUDITION was the LIVE channel. He's
laughing like crazy (simple entertainment).
He was totally unaware of his action, so I proceeded to
tell him that he just announced SEMEN over the air
during an Afternoon Drive slot of a 50k FM station. He
laughs and said, "NO I didn't"... I had the mic in
AUDITION!"
I reminded him of the defect and the change and he
pauses for about 5 seconds as 9 shades of red warm
over his face. And he says with that deep
hesitation in his voice, "uh... no I didn't".
So, now, I'M LAUGHING. I said, "Ok, my aircheck
is still in the machine, let's take a listen. And
I play the tape... what we heard was DAN HARTMAN-I
CAN DREAM ABOUT YOU... playing at the chorus and then
some bonehead yelling semen! "I CAN DREEEEEEAM ABOUT
... SEMEN!!"
Well, 'til this day, my stomache still hurts from
the laughing.
From: Jerry Carter
It was a sunday at WRVA the 50,000-watt voice of
Virginia and it was 3:55 p.m. The network news
was on and I was cleaning up my mess in the studio.
Chris Dennision was coming with a ton of carts
getting ready to kick off the 4 o'clock hour and
the beginning of his show. He dropped the carts on
the Pacific Recorder console ... this keyed the
mic and in anger he said, "God!!!!!!!!!!!Damn!!!!
!!!!it."
At the same time, the network news announcer said,
"This is NBC News, New York." The phones rang off
the hook. This one old lady said (as did all of
the callers), "That Guy in New York has a nasty
mouth." So, Chris got away with it and the blame
was put on the news announcer at the network.
This was in 1985. Good story, huh! Chris is still
in Richmond ... best damn traffic man and
friend that I've had working at WRVA.
From: Jim LaMarca
Commuting across the border into Mexico for 91X
and XTRA 690 is an experience like no other in
radio. It might take an hour or 5 hours to come
home. It was the perfect job for a 21 year old
kid (but a little tougher at 29).
I worked with some of the best jocks of the 80s:
Jeff Hunter, Jim Richards, Rusty Nailz, Steve
West, Michael Boss, Bob Montague, Sue Delaney,
and of course, Wolfman Jack. He did afternoon
drive for me, live from L.A. We set up a double
satellite link to get him on the air. Twice
a month he would come down to do the show live
and we usually went into Mexico in a limo. He
did a promotion for Super Bowl 1987 in San
Diego. It took two hours to go 5 miles into
downtown. Wolf kept jumping out of the car
and glad- handing, bear-hugging people - which
abolutely blew people away. It was like Mardi
Gras.
The day 91X (XERB-FM) went Rock of the 80s,
almost no one knew it was coming so there
was no speculation. An air staff meeting was
called for 3pm. These really straight liner-card
jocks were sitting around the conference room
when in walks wild Rick Carroll with a cardboard
box. He dumps it on the table and says, "I'm
Rick from Los Angeles and this is your new
format." The first song was played at 6pm by
Todd Tolkoff who was given the name Mad Max.
He said, "This is 91X Rock of the 80s and this
is Sex from Berlin. Everyone at the station
(remember he is now in Mexico 30 minutes away)
thought this song was too weird. It seemed
slow and goofy, but hey this was all new to us.
It also took forever. Well no wonder, he was
playing a long-play version so the LP should
have been playing at 45 rpm. Since we had never
heard the song no one knew. This happened a lot.
From: Dick Ellingson
While I was on the air at KMPS one Saturday
afternoon, the control room's suspended metal
grid ceiling collapsed all around me with a
deafening roar. For some reason the spot right
above my head held. So I opened the production
room pot, grabbed a couple handfuls of carts
and LPs and crawled out on my hands and knees.
The newsman on duty called the chief engineer
to clean up the mess while I continued my
show from the production room. The listeners
were never aware that it happened.
From: Joe Smith
I used to work at a narrowcast radio station in Newcastle called _FM. It very loosely had a dance format although this changed from week to week at the whims of the owner expanding inwards and outwards from country to rock to dance! At one stage the on-air studio was moved downstairs to the back of a shopfront and the sound insulation was nowhere near sufficient. As a result if someone raised their voice in the office area it could almost always be clearly heard over the air. On one occasion an announcer with what you might call a particularly effiminate voice finished back announcing a number of tracks and commented on how much he thanked everyone for tuning in to his program...well unfortunately this was right in the midst of a rather violent arguement in the front area and in right in between the announcer saying "your listening to _FM" and the next track starting, you could clearly hear shouted "..AND YOU CAN ALL GET FU..."..luckily the song started over the end syllables!..the timing was brilliant a true natural coincidence. As the owners also lived at the station they had a number of friendly pets which liked to come into the studio from time to time and say hello to the announcers..which was rather nice..but unfortunately they seemed to be cursed with the pets from hell as they regularly decided that the nice warm studio was just the place to go to the toilet on the floor..lovely when you were right in the middle of speaking on air...
From: Name not supplied
News caster:(talking in japannese) Just kidding yeah the lakers are doing really wel this season
From: Chris Keating
6:00 p.m, Saturday July 29 2006
At an anonymous Melbourne community radio station (88.6 Plenty Valley FM.. oops, bugger!) the feed is opened to take the piped news source, in this case Southern Cross Network News.
The newsreaders first item is on Australian Prime Minister John Howard copping a rowdy reception from protesters. However, he stumbles over his words, and ends up telling us how missiles were thrown at \"Prime Minster COWARD\'s car\".
Oooooops...
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here please use ambiguous language like "..once a station in
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