National DJ Day

Today is a day to celebrate the Disc Jockey. I was lucky enough to be both a radio DJ and a Mobile DJ. I have mobile DJ stories, but they aren’t as interesting as my radio DJ stories. This is an adaption of an earlier blog. If you are a newer follower, these will be new to you. If you’ve been around since the inception of this blog, enjoy these again.

In my over 30 year radio career, I have (like all of my radio friends) a gazillion stories. There are some that I just can’t share here. But, here are some that I’ll share off the top of my head. I am sure there are plenty more, but for now – enjoy these:

WKSG –

My career started here. I was a lowly intern ripping news and sorting it. I then started to intern with Paul Christy, the morning guy. He eventually was responsible for me doing overnights full time.

Keith Who?

I only used my real name once in my entire career – and almost didn’t. Every hour at the top of the hour we had to play our Legal ID. The FCC requires the station to identify itself and where the signal originates from. Our Legal ID had was what we called a “donut” in the middle of it. The voice guy gave the station slogan, followed by the Station ID. After that there was a 2-3 music bed where the DJ would say what time it was and their name. I’d heard it a hundred times. “It’s 10 O’clock and I’m Jim McKenzie”, “It’s 3 O’clock and I’m John Bailey”, “It’s 7 O’clock and I’m Johnny Molson” – every jock did it. My first night ever on the air, I hadn’t decided what name I was going to use yet. The ID played and I had no choice – “It’s midnight and I’m … (brain fart – and real name)”. I really had no intentions of using my real name, I just hadn’t decided on my on air name yet. A gal I went to high school with was listening that night. I remember her calling and asking if I was Keith (real name). It freaked me out. She told me that she heard my that first night and thought that I had said my real name. I used Keith Allen every day after that and have never been anyone else.

Thinking Inside the Box

Speaking of those live ID’s, Johnny Molson was on before me each night. It seemed that he and his crew always were trying to mess with me when the ID played. They would make weird noises, bang on cart racks, or knock over my music stack. They would do all kinds of things to try to get me to mess up when I turned on the microphone. . Sometimes they’d get me to crack up and sometimes I was able to keep it together.

One night, the time was ticking away to the ID and they were all out of the studio. The ID started and I heard the studio door behind me open fast. They had found a huge box and as I started to talk, they threw it over my head. My hands, thankfully, were still by the mixer board so I could see what button I had to push next. I didn’t know what to do, so I just continued to talk with the box was over my head. Listeners heard nothing but a muffled voice and the music bed. Johnny was cracking up the whole time. He told me, “I can’t believe you just kept going”!

Saturday Snooze

At one point during my time at Kiss-FM, I was doing Friday night and Saturday mornings. This consisted of me being on air from 12a-6a doing my own show. Then running Paul Christy’s show on tape from 6a-10a.

I don’t recall why I hadn’t slept much the day prior, but I was tired. I finished my show at 6. I got about an hour into Paul’s show, and I was feeling exhausted. I had started a song, put my elbows up on the board, my fists to my cheeks, and nodded off. About 20-25 minutes later, my head fell from my hands and I was startled awake. I had no idea where I was. The phones were all lit up, and nothing was on the air!

In a panic, I grabbed the first song on the music stack and jammed it into the machine. Fittingly, the song was “You’ve Got Your Troubles” by the Fortunes. Once the music started, the phones stopped ringing. I, however, knew that Paul was always listening! I dreaded the call that I knew was coming. I was sure to get fired for messing up his show! 10 minutes later the “PC hotline rang”.

I answered it and as usual, Paul was chomping on something (he was always eating when he called). “How’s it going?”, he asked. There was no way he didn’t hear the silence! He had to have heard it, I knew he did. Why wasn’t he saying anything? I finally blurted out that I had fallen asleep for a couple minutes and awaited the verbal beating. Nope. Not Paul. He laughed and said, “You Asshole! I remember this one time I fell asleep while I was at Super CFL in Chicago….” and told me his sleepy story. That was the kind of guy Paul was … a damn cool dude!

Hot Java

One more Paul story for you. He drank coffee all throughout his shift. He liked it black and hot! One time he had Vince, a morning show member, get him some coffee. It sat next to him for awhile while he was doing other things. He finally grabbed it and took a sip. He was disgusted.

He yelled, “What the hell is the matter with you guys?! You call this hot coffee?! I could piss warmer than this!! Get me some fresh stuff and make sure it is hot!” So Vince went to the coffee pot, filled the cup and then put it in the microwave for about 2 …or 10 minutes. I don’t remember, but it was in there for a good while. He took the steaming cup to Paul. Well, rather than setting it down as he normally did, put it to his lips and took a sip. Needless to say, it burned the hell out of his tongue and lips! Paul yelped, “Jesus! What is wrong with you?!” Holding his tongue in pain, he continued, “I use this thing for a living!!” I think every one of us broke a rib laughing so hard. I can still see him holding his tongue with one hand and fanning it with the other!

WMXD

I followed Paul here to do some part time work after being let go from Kiss-FM. The format started as a mix of Urban/R&B music and Pop. Eventually it went all R&B and Urban. It was here that I met The Electrifying Mojo.

Keef

I had known of Mojo for years. He was a Detroit legend. He had this mysterious persona on t he air. I don’t know that there were any photos of him anywhere. So when I saw him for the first time, I was taken aback. He was much shorter than I had imagined.

I have to say, Mojo was one cool dude. He played most of his stuff off vinyl records. The thing I remember most about Mojo was that the studio was always like a sauna! It was always SO hot when I came in. I don’t know how he was able to work with it that hot.

The studio was always a mess, too! Not garbage messy, but music messy. There were always vinyl records all over the studio. He’d have them stacked on the reel to reel tape machine or on the counter tops. Sometimes, there were stacks of them on the floor of the studio. With the records everywhere, it was hard for me to get in and gather the first hour of music for my show. You could barely move in the studio.

He always called me “Keef” or “Baby Keef” when he got ready to wrap up his show. He had a signature line that he always said at the end of his show:

“Hold on tight. Don’t let go. Whenever you feel like you are reaching the end of your rope – tie a knot. Don’t slide off. Keep hanging. Keep remembering that there ain’t nobody bad like you.”

I had heard him say this on the radio many times, but to watch him say it live in the studio … I was in awe.

WHND

Honey Radio! I grew up listening to this station and I was honored to have the chance to work with radio legends! Richard D, Jon Ray, Boogie Brian, Ron Tavernit, Bill Stewart, Greg Russell, and so many others were such an influence. Honey was the first oldies station in the country – and I got to be there as they turned out the light…..

Worst Five Minutes of Detroit Radio – EVER

You can read all about my buddy Rob in a previous blog. I am not sure if I tell this story in that blog or not, so I apologize if I did. It was the last week Honey was on the air – the week of Thanksgiving 1994. Our listeners knew that this was Honey’s last week and we had been given free reign to have fun.

We had a listener who used to call up and his name was Mitchell. I had gotten to the point where I could do his voice pretty well. I had been doing a character based on the real listener and I called him “Mitch”. True story – Mitch would call and talk to us and really never have anything to say. He’s jump from topic to topic. If you let him, he’d never stop talking. So I decided to prerecord some calls as Mitch where I just rambled about nothing and then hung up. Afterward, we’d say something like “He’s a nice guy, but ….” kind of a thing. It was ridiculous.

So now it’s the last week we are on the air. It had become clear that some people were upset the station was going off the air. They were calling us in the studio and calling the managers to voice their anger. I said to Rob, “I bet Mitchell is really angry about the station.” He said, “They better lock the doors, man. That guy is likely to come in here with a gun or something. That was the idea. So we planned a bit.

I was going to do the character live on the air. I was going to come in and say how upset I was the station was going off the air. I would yell and scream and (using the theater of the mind) pull out a gun and start shooting it (keep in mind this was 1994 and public shootings were not as prominent). At this point in the bit, our bouncer character (loosely based on Charles Bronson) was going to come in and grab the gun. He would then beat up “Mitch” and throw him out the studio window. To accomplish the bit we needed sound effects (to make it sound real on the air).

To help you understand what happens next, here is a picture of a studio. It is not the WHND studio, but the Cart machines in the picture are like the ones there.

If you look at the left side of the picture, you will see the machines above the headphones. There are three machines on the left, a stack of carts in the middle and three machines on the right. At Honey, the machines went like this:

1 4

2 5

3 6

Ok, now to the mess.

We had these 6 cart machines and every song, commercial, or sound effect was on its own cart. So in cart player #1 was the song we just played. Cart #2 had the door closing sound effect for when Mitch comes in. Cart #3 holds the gunshot sound. Cart #4 is the “fight scene” – the sound of two guys beating each other up. Cart #5 is where the sound of glass breaking (the studio window) for when Mitch gets tossed out . Finally, Cart #6 had our first commercial.

The plan was that after Mitch was thrown out the window, we would go to a commercial break. I would have already put the commercial we were going to play first in Cart player 1. Once the glass breaks and we wrap up the bit, go to commercial and proceeded with the show. That however, is NOT how it happened on the air.

As soon as I began to do the character live on the air, I saw Rob crack a smile. That is all it took. Seeing him smile made me start to laugh hard. As his Elvis character, Rob tries to save the bit. So I once again try to do the “Mitch” character – which only made me laugh harder. By this point we are both laughing so hard that we have tears in our eyes. Rob, as Elvis, says “That takes care of that bit, man!”

Because we are totally losing it on the air, my first thought is PLAY THE COMMERCIAL! I go to start the commercial, but the commercial never made it to the machine! So the button I pushed was the gunshot sound effect, which only made us laugh harder….you hear us dropping carts and shoving the commercial in the machine and finally we went to commercials. I have often called this the worst 5 minutes of Detroit radio. To me it is also the funniest 5 minutes of our show.

Update: I found the Audio and made a YouTube Video:

My apologies ahead of time …

Becoming The President

The late Richard D was one of the funniest men I ever worked with. He gave me lots of direction and I have talked about him in previous blogs, as well. I was producing his show the Top 12 at 12. This was an hour of his show which featured the Top 12 songs in Detroit on that day. They found those 12 songs from local charts from radio stations and newspapers. Each day featured a different year.

It was a fun show to produce. It included new stories, TV and movie clips, old commercials, info about how much things were from that year, etc… Richard had to play that day’s 12 songs from the chart. Every now and then there was extra time because of short songs. We would then give him songs that were on the charts from that week to play as “extras.” Usually it was a song that was just being released or had been a hit earlier in that year.

On one show, the countdown was from 1966. I had put a Dean Martin song in there as an extra and he played it. After the song, he made some comment about it not being the greatest song or something and moved on. So I went into the studio, as I often did, to give him crap. I said something along the lines of “Why are you messing with Italians! Dean was Italian and so I am I! Look here you “old bastid (a term of endearment), If I were you, I’d watch what you say about Dean Martin … and Frank Sinatra for that matter!” The whole time he laughed. I left the room as he continued to laugh hysterically.

I thought that would be the end of it, but Richard loved an opportunity to make me the butt of a joke. After the next song he said on the air, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I must offer an apology. A little while ago I played (whatever the song was) by Dean Martin and made some negative remarks about it. Immediately after that, Keith Allen came in here with about 12 goons who roughed me up a bit and told me that my comments were distasteful. So I must now publicly apologize. I really had no idea that Keith Allen was the President of the Dean Martin Fan Club!”

From that day on, I always tried to find a way to sneak a Dean Martin song into my show. After each of those songs I would say I was President of the Dean Martin Fan Club.

Related side story

When Honey went off the air, I received a package from a listener named Sandy. She and I remain friends with to this day. The package was a complete surprise and it was awesome. Sandy had sent me a membership to the REAL Dean Martin Fan Club! To make things even better, there was a note in the package. It read: “I thought you might actually want to be a member of the Fan Club you claim to be President of….”

The Sign Off

For years I listened to Boogie Brian rhyme as he talked up song intros until he nailed the post (where the vocalist starts to sing). He would do this with no effort at all. His energy was constant and the smile in his voice was ever present – until November 25, 1994. That was the day Honey stopped broadcasting locally before eventually signing off. My partner Rob and I were listening to his sign off from the other room. The day had already been full of listeners wishing us well and many tears were shed. The biggest tears came as Boogie signed off that day. A powerful memory that I will never forget.

WWWW

My Worst Prediction

In 1994, I had just come back from working on the west side of the state. It was there that I did country radio for the first time. After I was hired at W4 Country, there was a change in management. The new PD, Tim Roberts, would take the chair and offer some advice that I still use today. Every year, Tim was responsible for booking acts to the Downtown Hoedown. It was a huge three day festival with many stages and many acts. At the time took place in Hart Plaza in Detroit.

We worked at the Hoedown in shifts as I recall and mine was over. I was waiting in the blue W4 Country Suburban to go back to the station with Tim Timmerman. The Dixie Chicks were an up and coming act who had a very traditional sound. Their music was really not like anything on the radio at the time. While I loved it, I didn’t think it would do as well as it did. Tim looked out the window of the Suburban and said “Dude, it’s the Dixie Chicks! We should go get a picture!” I was exhausted and I told him that he could go if he wanted to. I then said something about them being way too traditional and that “they probably won’t go anywhere”. Boy, was I wrong! There’s an opportunity I missed and regret to this day!

Thanks for reading, it’s always fun to share radio stories. There are plenty of my DJ Heroes mentioned above, too. That’s fitting for National DJ Day!

The Music of My Life – 2005

Welcome back to The Music of My Life, where I feature ten songs from each year of my life. In most cases, the ten songs I choose will be ones I like personally (unless I explain otherwise). The songs will be selected from Billboard’s Year-end Hot 100 Chart, Acclaimed Music, and will all be released in the featured year.

I turned 35 in 2005. There was plenty going on in my personal life at this time. We were doing various therapies for my son, who had been diagnosed as being on the Autism spectrum. I had settled into my position at 94-5 The Moose in Saginaw as their afternoon guy and music director. I was certainly loving that. And at some point during the year, my mother’s cancer returned.

At the time, My Space was pretty popular. I was blogging a lot on there. Somewhere, I have a Word document with every one of those blogs. I had to contact them to get them. I had stopped posting there after joining Facebook, and at some point they moved content. I was thankful to get those blogs as they covered the time leading up to my wedding, the birth of my sons and the death of my mom.

I posted a lot about new songs we were playing on the radio, too. A few of them make this list. Let’s head into 2005:

The legendary Ray Charles passed away in 2004, but before he did, he recorded an amazing duets album. Genius Loves Company was the best selling recording of Charles’ more than 50-year career. It was a collection of duets with Norah Jones, Natalie Cole, Elton John, B.B. King, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall, Michael McDonald, Johnny Mathis, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor.

The album entered the Top 10 on the US album chart more than 40 years after Charles’ previous appearance on that same chart. This broke the record held by another act who also made his comeback with a duets album. In 1993 Frank Sinatra’s Duets reached the Top Ten 25 years after his previous Top 10 album.

Here We Go Again was a song that Ray had recorded in 1967. Then in 2004 he re-recorded this as a duet with Norah Jones for Genius Loves Company. She recalled collaborating with Charles on this song in a 2010 interview with Billboard magazine:

“I got a call from Ray asking if I’d be interested in singing on this duets record. I got on the next plane and I brought my mom. We went to his studio and did it live with the band. I sang it right next to Ray, watching his mouth for the phrasing. He was very sweet and put me at ease, which was great because I was petrified walking in there.”

This song won Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration in 2005 eight months after Charles passed away. In addition Genius Loves Company was awarded Album of the Year among six other awards, as the American music industry paid lavish tribute to him.

Unlike Frank Sinatra and Willie Nelson, Ray Charles’ voice is as strong as ever on this recording. I felt Sinatra’s voice was weak on his duets albums. Willie is still putting out albums and at times he sounds like he’s just speaking the lyrics. Ray, however, sounds fantastic. I love the blending of these two voices.

Here We Go Again

The next song is an example of a song that I first heard in a polka. You read that right – a polka. Weird Al Yankovic has done quite a few polka medleys on his albums. The medley usually contains a verse or chorus from a pop song done as a polka. When I first heard Beverly Hills by Weezer on the radio, I found I liked it.

Weezer lead singer (Rivers Cuomo) explained in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine that this song is about how he could live in Beverly Hills, but he wouldn’t fit in. “I could live in Beverly Hills, sure,” he says, meaning he could afford it easily. “But I couldn’t belong there.'”

Songfacts explains:

The song comes off as satire, but that wasn’t what Rivers Cuomo had in mind when he wrote it. “I was at the opening of the new Hollywood Bowl and I flipped through the program and I saw a picture of Wilson Phillips,” he said. “And for some reason I just thought how nice it would be to marry, like, an ‘established’ celebrity and live in Beverly Hills and be part of that world. And it was a totally sincere desire. And then I wrote that song, ‘Beverly Hills.’ For some reason, by the time it came out and the video came out, it got twisted around into something that seemed sarcastic. But originally it wasn’t meant to be sarcastic at all.”

The music video was shot at the Playboy mansion. It included appearances by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and some of the Playboy bunnies. Two of those bunnies were Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt.

Beverly Hills

When I was music director at the Moose, I spoke with a lot of record people. One of the industry folks knew I loved music from the Rat Pack. She asked me if I had heard of Michael Buble’. I hadn’t. She sent me some MP3’s of his music and I was hooked.

The song could have been sung by just about any artist who tours. The lyrics sound as if they could be autobiographical. It is sung by someone who spends a lot of time on the road with great success. With that success, there is sacrifice. He is missing his home, particularly the woman he loves.

Despite the fact that Home only reached #72 on the Hot 100 chart, it was a breakthrough song for him. The song hit #1 on the Adult Contemporary survey in July 2005. Three years later Blake Shelton reached #1 on the Country chart with his cover of Bublé’s hit.

Bublé and Blake Shelton teamed up in 2012 to record a holiday version of this song for Shelton’s, Cheers, It’s Christmas album. The collaboration happened after Shelton sent Bublé an email saying he hoped to record a yuletide-themed rendering of the tune. “I had the idea of doing a Christmas version of ‘Home,'” he said.

This was the song that proved to folks that Michael was more than a cover artist. His original songs are just as good as the standards he records. He is also more than just a Christmas artist. It bugs me that people pigeon hole him and label him like that. He’s one of my favorites.

Home

My on air name was “Keith Allen.” As a music director, I got to hear all the new music before it went on the air. I popped Play Something Country by Brooks and Dunn in the CD player and loved it. On my first listen, I thought they said my name – Keith Allen. I suppose, in a way, they did. But the lyrics refer to Toby Keith and Alan Jackson:

Said, I’m a whiskey drinking, cowboy chasing, hell of a time
I like Kenny, Keith, Alan and Patsy Cline.

I have to tell you my favorite story about this song. When my program director and I first heard this, we said, “That’s a number one song!” We told our consultant that we wanted to add it. He said he didn’t feel like it was a hit. We were both shocked. We both told him that we felt it would be number one. He fought us.

He fought us for a few weeks on this one. He finally said that if we really felt it was a hit, we should add it. We wound up making a wager. I told him that if it didn’t go to number one, we’d buy him dinner. He said if it did hit number one, he would buy US dinner. The week it hit number one, he called us for our weekly music call. When we answered we started giving him restaurants we could go to!

His issue with the song? The “wolf-like” howl of the chorus.

Play Something Country

The next song is one that everyone jokes about on October 1st every year. “Someone needs to go wake up the guy from Green Day!”

This song reminds me of Fastball’s The Way. I say that because it starts with a simple acoustic guitar behind lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong. Then the song kicks in with drums and the rest of the instrumentation. I love the sound of that.

Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong wrote this song about his father, who died of cancer on September 1, 1982. At his father’s funeral, Billie cried, ran home and locked himself in his room. When his mother got home she knocked on the door to Billie’s room. Billie simply said, “Wake me up when September ends,” hence the title.

“My father died in September of ’82, and I purposely, up until that point, never went there,” Armstrong said in an interview. “I think really what I was doing was processing that loss that I had with this person that I never really knew. So I wrote that song for my father and about that loss and how 20 years had passed. I remember right after I wrote it, I felt this huge weight off my shoulders.”

Wake Me Up When September Ends

Another country newcomer makes my list this week. I have actually written about him, and the song. Here is that blog:

Tune Tuesday – Must Be Doin’ Something Right

Must Be Doing Something Right

The next song is one of the slowest chart climbers in history. It was on the American Hot 100 chart for 23 weeks before it entered the Top 40. KT Tunstall’s “Suddenly I See” was inspired by another artist, Patti Smith. Tunstall said, “The inspiration for the song was Robert Mapplethorpe’s photograph of Patti Smith on the cover of her album Horses. I was staring at it one day thinking it was incredible. It’s everything I love about music – mysterious, inviting, frightening.”

Suddenly I see
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see
Why the hell it means so much to me

“The chorus was me thinking, ‘that’s what I want to be,'” Tunstall told The Guardian. “Not a famous pop star with lots of money, but like this woman who’s living her life as an artist. I’d been trying for more than 10 years to be a professional musician. I was just exhausted from trying to persuade other people I was good enough.”

I remember hearing this song shortly after realizing that my first marriage was over. After all I learned and discovered through therapy, the title spoke to me. Suddenly, I saw just what was going on and I realized that I couldn’t do it anymore.

Suddenly I See

There were some really good country songs around this time. There were many new artists and some really distinct sounds that were on the radio. I was impressed with Josh Turner from the first time I heard him. I couldn’t believe the tone of his low voice.

Your Man is a song that I wish I could have written. Here is a guy who has been thinking about his woman all day long. He tells her to lock the door, turn the lights down low, and play some music.

I’ve been thinking about this all day long
Never felt a feeling quite this strong
I can’t believe how much it turns me on
Just to be your man

That’s LOVE right there!!

I love the entire feel of this song. It’s the perfect song to “sway” to.

Your Man

As the “Nostalgic Italian,” I think it is safe to say that I believe in the power of a photograph. The memories that can come from looking at an old picture just amazes me. My Friday Photo Flashback is always fun to do. I think that is because of the stuff that comes to mind with those old pictures.

I know there are plenty of people who hate Nickelback. However, Photograph is a song that I can relate to in so many ways. (From songfacts): This song is about reviewing the memories (missed and forgotten) from the band’s childhood in Hanna, Alberta. The lyrics are a chronicle of real events and personal landmarks lead singer Chad Kroeger recalled as he wrote it.

“It’s just nostalgia, growing up in a small town, and you can’t go back to your childhood. Saying goodbye to friends that you’ve drifted away from, where you grew up, where you went to school, who you hung out with and the dumb stuff you used to do as a kid, the first love – all of those things. Everyone has one or two of those memories that they are fond of, so this song is really just the bridge for all that.”

Someone once said, “If you don’t think photos are important, wait until they are all you have left.” I couldn’t agree more.

The photograph Kroeger is holding in the video is the one that inspired the song: It’s a shot of him and their producer, Joey Moi, at a New Year’s Eve party.

Photograph

We wrap up 2005 with a One Hit Wonder. Defining a “one hit wonder” isn’t really easy. Most feel it is when the artist fails to have their follow up released crack the Top 25. There are certainly many songs that fit into that category.

Daniel Powter’s album was released in America in 2006. Bad Day was released in the UK in 2005. In the fifth season of Americal Idol, the song was played over a video montage of the contestant that was being sent home that week. This helped the song gain popularity.

Powter is from British Columbia who later moved to Los Angeles. “Bad Day” was his first single released on a major label (Warner Bros.), and his only hit. He later described it as “a blessing and a curse.” Powter said:

“I was touring the world and performing for thousands of people, but I felt like the song was starting to define me. I actually found myself getting almost angry about it.”

This was the top-selling digital download of 2006. This was the star of people prefer downloading songs to buying CDs. It was part of a shift toward digital distribution of individual songs. In America, the album sold 500,000, but the single was digitally downloaded over 3 million times!

My mom was doing chemotherapy and radiation for her breast cancer at this time. She found the song to be inspiring. It basically says that even if you have a bad day once in a while, things will get better. My mom always tried to have a positive outlook. She battled cancer for 10 years and by this point she was tired.

My mom had the gift of gab. She was always on the phone. She assigned Bad Day to be the ringtone for her cell phone. I believe it was on there until she passed away. When I hear this song, I am taken back to those final weeks of her life.

Bad Day

What song from 2005 did I miss that was your favorite? Drop it in the comments.

Next week, we’ll focus on 2006. On my list is a song about a steeplechase runner, a song that became a hit because of Grey’s Anatomy, and a song that was a hit on the Adult Contemporary Chart and the Country charts. It also has a great Drifter’s cover song, one that took on a whole new meaning for me when my daughter was born, and a creative way to insinuate profanity without actually using it.

Thanks for reading and for listening! See you next week.

A Voice Silenced. A Friend Lost. A Legend Remembered.

In my radio career, I have been lucky enough to work with some fantastic people. Pictured with me above are two of them. Sadly, I received word just after Christmas that the silly guy holding the coffee pot, passed away. Richard D. Haase was one of a kind.

Readers of this blog may remember that I have blogged about him in the past. Last year, I posted the following:

Words of Praise From Tricky Dickie

Richard was a fantastic mentor to me. His guidance, advice, and coaching made me a better on air personality. His love of humor, bad puns, old jokes, and silliness helped us to become instant friends. I used to love sitting in the Honey Radio office listening to him on the air. I would anxiously await the “Keith Allen” joke of the day. Sometimes there were more than one. “My part time secretary and full time airhead, Lulu, said the last time Keith was on the air he sounded funny. She thought he had a worm in his Adam’s apple!”

Later in the same show he quipped – “I’m pretty sure the year that song came out was the same year that Jon Ray (pictured to my left in the first picture) got kicked out of grade school. He was caught drawing naked pictures of Wilma Flintstone on his Etch-A-Sketch”

In past blogs I have written about Richard:

From the blog “World Radio Day Thank You” written 2-14-2018:

WHND – Honey Radio

Before I say any more, let me say that working at WHND was not work at all. It was like play. We had so much fun. Anyone who tuned in and listened to this station could tell that the DJ’s were having as much fun as the listeners. Honey was the first “Oldies” station in America. I was honored to work here and honored to work with everyone here.

Richard D. Haase: Richard D. remains to this day one of the guys who offered me some of the most amazing advice. I was probably a big pain in his ass. I was always asking him something. I had this want and need to be better. I wanted to be the best. I was forever asking him to listen to my show tapes and offer criticism and advice, which he did always.

One of the things I learned from him, was the importance of talking to one person. To create the illusion that it is just me and you listening to our favorite songs and hanging out together. I understood what he meant, and began to drop phrases like “everyone”, “all of you”, and “out there”. He also connected me with a mentor who would take that premise and continue to grow into a better personality, the late Jay Trachman.

Richard’s show was full of “benchmarks”. Poor Richard D’s Almanac (This Day In History), The Off The Wall Record (a rare song that he played each day), and “The Top 12 at 12” (His countdown of the top 12 local songs from a specific year). He also featured many characters on the show that were sometimes referred to and never heard (another gimmick of old time radio).

His show was also filled with insanely bad jokes. I often kidded him that even Milton Berle (who was known for stealing others jokes) wouldn’t touch his stuff. He often poked fun of the other DJ’s on the station, which I found to be a unique way of cross promotion.

There were many days that we’d sit in his office and talk about radio, computers, and life in general and we’d laugh until tears rolled down our faces and our sides hurt. Richard was a legend who had been on the air for many years, a far cry from being young! Yet, when we worked together, we were like a bunch of elementary kids laughing and hooping it up.

From the blog “Some Old Radio Stories – Part 1” written 8-21-2018:

Richard D was one of the funniest men I ever worked with. He gave me lots of direction and I have talked about him in previous blogs, as well. I was producing his show the Top 12 at 12, which was an hour of his show which featured the Top 12 songs in Detroit from local charts from different years. It was a fun show to produce. It included new stories, TV and movie clips, old commercials, info about how much things were from that year, etc…

Richard had to play the 12 songs and sometimes there was extra time and we’d give him songs that were on the charts from that week to play as “extras” if he needed them. He was doing a countdown from 1966 and I had put a Dean Martin song in there as an extra and he played it. He made some comment about it not being the greatest song or something and moved on. I went into the studio, as I often did, to give him crap.

I said something along the lines of “Why are you messing with Italians! Dean was Italian and so I am I! Look here you Old Bastid (a term of endearment), If I were you, I’d watch what you say about Dean Martin … and Frank Sinatra for that matter!” and left the room as he laughed hysterically. After the next song he said on the air, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I must offer an apology. A little while ago I played (whatever the song was) by Dean Martin and made some negative remarks about it. Well immediately after that, Keith Allen came in here with about 12 goons who roughed me up a bit and told me that my comments were distasteful. So I must now publicly apologize. I really had no idea that Keith Allen was the President of the Dean Martin Fan Club!”

From that day on, I always tried to find a way to sneak a Dean Martin song into my show, so I could say I was President of the Dean Martin Fan Club. When Honey went off the air, I received a package from a listener named Sandy (who I remain friends with to this day), who sent me a membership to the REAL Dean Martin Fan Club with a note that read: “I thought you might actually want to be a member of the Fan Club you claim to be President of….”

From the blog “More Musical Memories” written 3-2-2018:

WHND

Richard D. used to have a feature called The Off-the-Wall Record. He’d say, “To my right is a wall. On the wall is a peg. On the peg – records. When I take one of the records of the peg on the wall and play it on the air, it becomes a Tricky Dickie Off-The Wall Record”. When he did this feature it usually consisted of rare or obscure tunes. One day I gave him Stormy Weather by the Spaniels to play. He LOVED it. He told me that was one of his favorites.

He often spoke of the group the Hi-Los and told me about the “tight” harmonies that they had. He was right. Good stuff! As a fan of the big bands, I let him listen to The Spitfire Band’s version of Cherokee, which featured an AMAZING trombone part. Again, he loved it and I think of him when it plays on the iPod.

Tying in with the Dean Martin story above:

After his last show on Honey Radio, a listener suggested I play a Dean Song in Richard’s honor….I chose “I Will”. The first line of the song is “I don’t wanna be the one to say I’m gonna miss you, but I will…” it fit the somber occasion.

I found this article was posted on the Motor City Radio Flashbacks page and is from the Detroit Free Press. It is from March of 1981, one year after he took the reigns of WHND.

There were things in that article that I didn’t even know. He mentioned his accident briefly in a conversation once, but he didn’t want to dwell on it. He spoke a lot of his days at CHUM and WXYZ. I loved listening to those stories! I remember the young Keith sitting there in awe of the legend. He spoke of long lines for autographs at remote appearances, hanging with celebrities, and performing magic with vinyl records and reel to reel tape machines. I hung on his every word!

Every day, listeners tuned in to “The Richard D Wireless Act” to hear The Top 12 at 12, Tricky Dickey Off the Wall Record, Tricky Dickey Trivia, facts from the Poor Richard D’s Almanac, and hoped to be Richard D-clared a winner. Watching him work in the studio was like watching a kid in a candy store. He was constantly moving, constantly writing, constantly thinking. He often laughed to himself just before cracking the microphone because of whatever line popped into his head. He was a master.

I’ve said before that the man you heard on the air was also the man that he was off the air. His quick wit and ad-libs were brilliant. I marveled at how his mind was able to come up with those things. In later years, I found myself mimicking his on air delivery because it was just so “personal.” He understood talking to one person and connecting with his listener. I took away a lot from his coaching and from listening to him.

Honey Radio went off the air in 1994. I was lucky enough to keep in contact with Richard through Facebook. As the years went on, life offered many changes for both of us. For me – a divorce, second marriage and new life. For him – the sad loss of his wife Pam. He spoke of her often on the show (calling her “Oldielocks”) and off air, too. In our last phone conversation, it was obvious that he missed her very much.

My heart breaks for his children and grandchildren. As a fellow Honey co-worker stated when I shared the news of his passing, “He is now reunited with the love of his life in heaven.” There is comfort in knowing this.

I hope that his family and friends will always remember the fun he had. I hope that they recall the happiness that filled a room when he was there. I hope that they remember the love that he had for each of them.

Thankfully, there are many recordings of his show available online. His voice will live on. His memory will live on. His jokes will live on (this could be a good thing or a bad thing!). You can enjoy some of them here:

https://mcrfb.com/?cat=736

What a blessing it was to have shared the same studio with Richard. I am thankful for the many laughs we shared over the years. I am forever grateful for his guidance and support. I only hope that he knew just how much he meant to me.

I’d like to think that there was an opening at God’s radio station and he needed Richard’s talent for the heavenly airwaves. I am going to miss my friend very much, but I will look back on our friendship fondly.

Rest easy, Richard.

Voices of the Past

This weekend, I DJ’d homecoming dance. For high schools, all my new music is on a hard drive and I play it from the computer. When I do weddings or parties, I still bring some CDs. Recently, I have been going through boxes of CDs in hopes of putting what I don’t have on my hard drive, on the drive.

While most of my CDs are professional ones containing albums and music, I have some homemade CDs of things that I have burned to CD from various places I have worked. I found 2 CDs marked “B95 Stuff” and “More B95 Stuff” in a box and took them with me to listen to in the car. I was unsure if these CDs were data or audio CDs. When I popped them in the CD player, I was happy to find they contained audio clips.

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Most of the audio was phone calls from listeners. I used to do an “impossible question” every day for prizes and there were many phoners of listeners guessing the answer. One of my favorite calls was on the first disc. A woman caller simply asked, “Yes, is the answer poop? Going poop!?” Like the word poop wasn’t enough … she had to explain “going poop”! There were also many requests, as I did a request lunch show.

I also found some interviews with Mary Chapin Carpenter, Tim Rushlow from Little Texas, and Terri Clark. Some of the phoners were just silly things, I used to have listeners say things like “Keith Allen? They let him out on parole?” or “I love every thing about this station, but Keith Allen!” or “Keith Allen? Turn that radio off!” There were a couple calls that took me by surprise.

Call #1

The first one was hearing a call with my friend, Marie. If you read my previous blog, Marie was my friend who just passed away last week.

That blog is here: https://nostalgicitalian.com/2019/09/21/time-life-death-ripples/

There were actually 2 calls from her on that disc. One of them she wins a contest I was doing, and another she called to talk about watching Trace Adkins rear end when he was in concert. (There were other females who called to talk about his butt, as well.)

She was one of those friends who would do anything for you. When my oldest son was born, she had this beautiful blanket made with his name on it and also had a small photo album made with an engraved nameplate. When my youngest was born, she bought him one of my favorite outfits. I spoke with her just a few days before she passed and she was asking what we needed for the baby. She was always doing things for her friends. While it was nice to hear us joking around about Trace’s butt on the CD, it was sad to remember that she has just passed away. Her funeral is Wednesday.

Call #2

The second call was one from my friend Pat. I always called her Pat, but I think most people called her Trish. I also met Pat while at B95. She was forever trying to win prizes. She always came up to our remote broadcasts and talked with us. She was a HUGE fan of the band Alabama. She used to call up and say that she was lead singer, Randy Owen’s wife. I used to kid her and ask is his wife knew about that! She and I had a lot in common, and became good friends. She was a huge Elvis fan and we often talked about him and his music. I remember how excited she was when she told me she was going to Graceland. I had been there while in Memphis for a St. Jude visit, and I told her how much she was going to love it.

The first time Pat won a prize from me she was SO excited. “I won?! OH MY GOD!! WE DID IT! WE WON!!! THIS IS AMAZING!!! (Laughter) I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!!” It was such a great response that I used to use that call as my “stunt winner”. If we ever had someone win a prize who was not excited about it, I’d say “Bring in the stunt winner” and play Pat’s call! The call on the CD was when she won some hockey tickets and she kept saying how much her boys were going to love it. She passed away suddenly in 2014, leaving behind her four boys and a granddaughter who she spoke of so often. She was such a wonderful person and we shared many laughs together.

Call #3

The third call that got me was a call I made to my grandma. Phone calls from my grandma were a staple on the show. I used to call her every Christmas Eve (if I worked on the holiday) or the day before. Christmas Eve was ALWAYS at her house – I wrote a blog about it here:

https://nostalgicitalian.com/2018/12/24/the-ghost-of-christmas-eve-past-and-yet-to-come/

The phone call would consist of me asking grandma what was for dinner. She would go on to talk about homemade ravioli, breaded steak and ammoglio (pronounced moy-gyoo) sauce, the many varieties of cookies, cakes, and cannoli, and the other items featured in the Christmas Eve Feast. This call, however, was NOT about Christmas Eve, which is what made it even more special.

This call actually helps me date the CDs. This call was made July 24, 2001. How do I know this? I was calling grandma to wish her Happy Birthday. During the call she offers up without hesitation that she is 77. She goes on to talk about how my dad was razzing her about something and then asks when I am coming over. She then went on to tell me how I needed to come see her “while my eyes are still open” because “I’m not going to be around much longer” as she often said.

It was emotional to hear her voice. She was sharp as a tack for so long. She was your stereotypical strong willed Italian woman. Knowing that shortly after that call, she would develop dementia was sad. She passed away in 2007, at age 83. Hearing her say “I love you” one more time on the phone – was priceless.

A Recovered Memory

I must have been doing a phone topic about teddy bears. There was probably a story about people sleeping with Teddy Bears or something, which led me to ask “Who still sleeps with a Teddy Bear?” or “Who still has their Teddy Bear from their childhood?”. The calls were about bears and toys that they had growing up. I don’t remember what the caller is talking about, but I respond about something I had growing up that I had totally forgotten about. This has a tie-in to my grandma, who I just mentioned.

It is funny how you can forget about things. I will forever remember a Teddy Bear that I had when I was little. I had it with me in the hospital when I had my tonsils out at 3 years old. The thing I had forgotten about is something I probably had around 5-7 years old. It was a hand puppet of Ernie from Sesame Street. Today, PBS has tons of kid shows. As I remember, Sesame Street, The Electric Company and Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood were pretty much it on PBS. On CBC there was Mr. Dress-up and The Friendly Giant, but that was it. Sesame Street was my “go to” show. I think somewhere there is a picture of me with Ernie and Bert slippers!

What do I remember most about this Ernie puppet? First, the head was not felt like the real Muppet. It was a hard rubber/plastic. This helped when you went to make him talk. I guess I took him everywhere. I remember I’d bring him over to my grandma’s house and she would tease me. She’d put a lit cigarette in Ernie’s mouth and make him smoke. I hated that! “Ernie doesn’t smoke, grandma! That’s bad for you!” Grandma never said his name right. She always called him “Arnie”. I remember her telling me when I was older that when my brother and I stayed overnight there I used to make her kiss Ernie goodnight! “I had to kiss that dirty old Arnie!” I literally just chuckled out loud as I wrote that because I can hear her saying it!

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In Conclusion

I have CDs of my Honey Radio shows with my partner, Rob (https://nostalgicitalian.com/2018/04/26/get-a-load-of-this-guy/), which I listen to often. I still laugh along with them. He always made me laugh. While I am sad that he has passed away, I think he’d be happy to know that I still listen to those shows and they are still funny 25 years later!

I’m glad that I decided to pop those CDs in and give them a listen. Much like the CDs of Rob and me, these also made me chuckle, but also made me sad. At the same time, they are a reminder of good friends and family, who continue to make ripples (see previous blog) long after they have gone.