Today, I’d like to introduce you to another blogger friend of mine, Dana. At her blog, Regular Girl Devos, she shares stories of praise, stories of faith, meaningful quotes, and personal stories. I had reached out to her about my next Share Your Nostalgia feature (more on that soon) and she sent me this knowing I worked in radio. I loved it so much, I asked her if I could publish it here.
Here piece is one that I think a lot of my music blogger friends can relate to. Read on as Dana takes us back to 1970 ….
How Radio Changed My Life
In the summer of 1970, I was struggling with the dynamics of my home life. Holed up in my bedroom, the music from my radio was my escape, my safe place.
One Saturday morning, a friendly, cheerful voice announced the countdown of the American Top 40. Based on the Billboard Hot 100 weekly chart, he promised to play “the best-selling and most-played songs from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Canada to Mexico.”
In an instant, Casey Kasem changed my life. Now I had something to look forward to, something to be excited about! Every Saturday, I had a date with Casey. He would play my favorite songs mixed with flashbacks and fun facts about the artists. Notebook in hand, I wondered if my favorite tunes would make it to number one, or slide back in the countdown. Not only that, but the “Long-Distance Dedication” letters he read gave me hope that someday someone would love me enough to dedicate a song to me.
Casey was a friend. He would describe his smooth baritone voice as “more like the voice of the guy next door.” Casey was an encourager. His signature sign-off was “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.”
But Casey wasn’t my only radio friend. Back then, DJs in my area would answer the request line themselves.
Many an evening, I would make my escape from the raised voices in the living room and sneak the princess telephone from my mom’s room to mine. I would call my local radio station to request songs.
The evening DJ had a warm, smooth voice, like melted butter. Remembering me when I called, he asks if I was okay. Looking back, I wonder if he could hear what was happening outside my bedroom door. He would tell me, “Remember, as long as you have your radio, you are never alone.”
He was right. But later in life, I began tuning into another voice. Zephaniah 3:17 tells us, “The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” The music of God’s unfailing love and peace is more beautiful than I could ever imagine.
With a nod to Casey, let me encourage you today: Keep your heart with God and keep reaching for His peace!
__________
Thank you, Dana, for sharing such a great piece!It hit home on many levels.
Casey was a big part of my life, too! He used to air on Saturday afternoons in Detroit. My dad would often be outside washing the car or mowing the lawn and American Top 40 would be playing. I had a notebook, too! I would write down the Top 10 every week.
Casey’s show would be recorded in Hollywood right after the charts were released. He would go into a studio with that week’s script and lay down all of the vocal tracks. A producer would add the tunes later. They would be shipped to radio stations on vinyl records. The entire show would be on 4 records.
I was lucky enough to nab a few old shows back in the day.Almost all syndicated shows came that way. Eventually, they came on CD before coming digitally.
The reason Casey was a hit was because of what you said, “he was a friend.” A good on air personality knows that you talk to just one person. That one on one connection is where the “friendship” starts. He was so good at making it all seem effortless.
When I think back on my years in radio, one of the things I am most grateful for are the listeners who became friends. I have so many wonderful friends who I met by talking to them on the request line. I still talk with friends I made in 1988 at my first radio job.
I am sure that the DJ you spoke with had a gut feeling about whatever was going on. You’d be surprised at how much we can tell by just listening to a voice on the other end of the phone. Kudos to that guy!
Now the other Voice that you listen to, well, He will never steer you wrong! I am well aware of that Voice and without Him, I’d be very very lost. How awesome is it that He wrote a book for us to hear that Voice whenever we read it?
Thank you again for sharing such a great story, Dana. I can only hope that I touched the lives of my listeners like Casey and the other DJ did for you!
I am looking forward to reading your next piece in the next installment of Share Your Nostalgia.
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.
1991 saw big changes for me. In April, a former coworker called to ask if I wanted a full time radio job at his station. It was a small market on the west side of the state (In Ludington). My girlfriend at the time and I had just had a big argument and I figured “Why not?!”
I was all by myself, in a place where I really only knew one person, at a job that decided to pay less than what I was told when I moved. It was lonely and I struggled a lot. The day I turned 21, I went to the store to buy beer and they never even carded me!
That summer would be one of my favorite summers. Michigan’s West side is just beautiful. I had never seen sunsets like those before! They were breathtaking.
Musically, there were some powerful tunes released in 1991. Some of them wouldn’t play into the events of my life for a few years, but when they did …
The first pick from ’91 is a song that I have found people either love or hate. I’m not sure why. Personally, I love the guitar sound and the harmonies in it, and I love the lyrics.
More Than Words is a song that was written by Gary Cherone and Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme. Nuno says, “The word ‘love’ itself gets really diluted, so we just wanted to say, ‘It’s not really about saying it,’ because everybody gets really worked up when somebody says that to each other. They say, ‘I love you,’ and everybody goes, ‘Oh my God! It must be serious. It must be heavy.’ It’s like, ‘Eh… it’s easy to say that.’ It’s really about showing it constantly and continuously in a relationship. We knew that was the message.”
The song was a huge hit for them. People who rushed out to buy their albums were quite surprised when they heard that the band primarily played Rock music. The band has called the song “both a blessing and a curse.”
More Than Words
R.E.M. had released the very thought provoking Losing My Religion from their Out of Time album as their first single. Their follow up was a song that could not be more different! That song was Shiny Happy People.
Michael Stipe calls this “A really fruity, kind of bubblegum song.” In an interview with The Quietus, he said that he was a bit embarrassed when it became a big hit, but it’s an important song because it shows a different side of him. Said Stipe:
“Many people’s idea of R.E.M, and me in particular, is very serious, with me being a very serious kind of poet. But I’m also actually quite funny – hey, my bandmates think so, my family thinks so, my boyfriend thinks so, so I must be – but that doesn’t always come through in the music! People have this idea of who I am probably because when I talk on camera, I’m working so hard to articulate my thoughts that I come across as very intense.”
Kate Pierson from the B-52s sang backup. She was in demand for her distinctive vocals after the B-52s achieved mainstream success with Love Shack.
In 1999, R.E.M. performed this on Sesame Street as “Furry Happy Monsters.” Kate Pierson’s part was performed by a Muppet that looked like her, voiced by Stephanie D’Abruzzo, a Muppeteer who was also a huge fan of the band.
Guitarist Peter Buck has two daughters who were big fans of the show. “You just looked around,” he recalled to Mojo in 2016, “going, Man this is a weird way to make a living.”
I had heard the song on the radio but it wasn’t until I was sitting at home watching Sesame Street with my oldest that I gained an appreciation for it.
Shiny Happy People
My next one had been on my iPod for years before the lyrics really hit me. My ex and I were at a point where all we did was argue. It was a very unhappy situation.
It was after an argument that I was in the car and heard Mariah Carey’s “I Don’t Wanna Cry.” Those lyrics were something I could have wrote;
Once again we sit in silence After all is said and done Only emptiness inside us Baby look what we’ve become We can make a million promises But we still won’t change It isn’t right to stay together When we only bring each other pain
It stung, but it was true. The end was upon us.
This was Mariah’s fourth consecutive #1 hit on the Hot 100, making her the first solo artist and female artist in Billboard history to have their first four singles top the chart.
I love her vocal and the guitar work in this one
I Don’t Want to Cry
Long before I stood next to a very drunk Hank Williams Jr at a urinal in Nashville, he had put out an album in ’91 entitled Pure Hank.
One of the singles that was released was If It Will It Will. It’s very easy for us to get caught up in worry, but worry isn’t good for us. Hank’s simple advice is something we should all remember,
“If it will, it will. If it won’t, it won’t.”
The weirdest thing about this song is the video. Right at the beginning, Little Richard shows up. To me, he’s out of place and isn’t utilized very well. Even when he does sing along, you can barely hear him. The song, however, is a favorite. It starts off with a bluesy vocal/introduction and then kicks.
If It Will, It Will
As I compile these lists for each year, I always seem to stumble on one that could be used for another feature. The next song would certainly work for my Movie Music Monday feature. It was a big hit from the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves soundtrack.
(Everything I Do) I Do It For You was written to order for the movie. It was initially written by American film composer Michael Kamen. The middle eight, break, outro and arrangement added by Bryan Adams and producer Mutt Lange. Adams used a line in the movie, “I do it for you…” as the basis for the song, and they had it written in about an hour.
The song didn’t meet with Hollywood approval. The film company wanted the song to have an instrumentation that was in line with the film’s era. Can you imagine the song featuring lutes, mandolins, and the like? The film company eventually relented, but still buried the song midway through the credits. They were obviously unaware of the huge hit they had on their hands.
The reason it made my list is because of an ex-girlfriend. It is not because it was “our song” or anything like that. She asked me if I knew the song. Naturally, I did. It was a big bridal dance song. She told me to listen to it again, but to listen to it as if God was speaking the words (making changes to tense and such).
You can’t tell me it’s (your) not worth dying for You know it’s true Everything I do (did) I do (did) it for you
I had never thought of it that way before. I always remember that conversation when I hear the song.
(Everything I Do) I Do It For You
I love Bonnie Raitt. I love listening to her sing and watching her play. She is blues. She is country. She is pop. She is folk. She is something!
She was no stranger to the music scene. Her first album came out in 1971! She also did some session work. She’s collaborated with artists like John Prine, Jackson Brown, The Pointer Sisters, Warren Zevon and Leon Russell. She finally had some success in 1989 with her award winning album Nick of Time.
The first time I heard Something To Talk About on the radio, it stuck out to me. It was so different. As a blues fan, I could hear that blues influence and I feel in love with the song. The song would go on to be her biggest chart hit in the United States, rising to #5.
She was never a singles act, but after her four Grammy wins for the album Nick Of Time, her songs started getting radio play. With radio play, they began showing up on the chart. “Something to Talk About” was the lead single to her next album, Luck of the Draw. Because of her prior success, the song was highly anticipated and radio jumped on it. The song won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Bonnie beat out Oleta Adams, Mariah Carey, Amy Grant and Whitney Houston.
Sadly, it is also a karaoke favorite that is destroyed by many a “wanna be” singer in pubs everywhere! I’ll take the original, thank you.
Something To Talk About
The next song is on the list not because of the content, but the title. “Things That Make You Go Hmmm” became a sort of catch phrase. Arsenio Hall used it on his show all the time. I still hear people using it today!
C+C Music Factory was a dance floor staple when I was DJing. “Gonna Make You Sweat” is still one that I hear when I go to weddings. “Things That Make You Go Hmmm” was a huge dance song when it came out. It had a cool dance beat and some catchy lyrics.
Songfacts says this:
In the early ’90s, before gangsta rap took hold, rap songs were often lighthearted and clever, telling self-deprecating stories over dance grooves. Examples of this would be “Bust a Move” and “Funky Cold Medina.”
I think that is why that early 90s rap is still popular today. They really were very clever. They were also light on profanity. It isn’t odd to see “MF” and other profane words right in the titles as time goes on. That always made me laugh because how can anyone like a song where 75% of the lyrics are bleeped out? I guess that’s one of those … Things That Make You Go Hmmm….
Things That Make You Go Hmmm
The next song was one that was never released as a single. I became familiar with it after my grandfather passed away in 1994. I was extremely close to my grandpa and was heart broken when he passed. I received Reba McEntire’s For My Broken Heart album from my dear friend Allyson.
We both have birthdays in May and when life wasn’t so complicated, we’d meet for coffee or lunch to celebrate. She gave me this CD as a gift. She mentioned that she knew I was still grieving the death of my grandpa. She told me she thought of me when she heard the song, If I Had Only Known.
Quick background on the album. Reba recorded this album after losing many members of her touring band in an airplane crash. In her liner notes she says the album is “a form of healing for all our broken hearts.”
When I listened to this song for the first time, I thought about my grandpa (as Allyson had suggested). It moved me to tears. A decade later, I would hear it and think of my mom, too.
The lesson of the song? If we were aware that we were experiencing the “last” of something, we’d live life a bit differently.
If I Had Only Known
I always love to hear stories about how a song almost didn’t happen. That was the case for I Can’t Dance by Genesis. It came from a mix of a Jam session and writing session.
The lyrics are made up of bits that Phil Collins improvised in the studio. When they started working on it, they decided to just write spontaneously to keep from over-thinking it. Mike Rutherford first created the main riff of the song he called “Heavy A Flat.” Which led Phil to suddenly improvise the basic concept for “I Can’t Dance”. The riff was actually inspired by a Levi Strauss & Co. television commercial.
Originally, the band did not think of it as anything more than a joke recording that would be discarded quickly. They felt this way because the song was too simple, too bluesy, and unlike Genesis’ style. Tony Banks said, “It was one of those bits you thought was going to go nowhere. It sounded fun but wasn’t really special.”
When Banks decided to add keyboard sound effects to complement Rutherford’s playing, “I Can’t Dance” took on an entirely different feeling. The band came to appreciate the sly humor inherent in the song and chose to not only record it properly, but to put it on the album as a single.
The video created a lasting image thanks to the “silly walk” the three band members did. This walk was something Phil Collins did from time to time. He got the idea for it when he attended drama school and noticed that the worst dancers would always lead with the hand and foot on the same side. The dance has become sort of iconic.
I think that I relate to this song in that I can’t really dance. I sway when slow dancing. Fast dancing? HA! Forget it. I can’t. When I try, I look like Elaine from Seinfeld.
I Can’t Dance
When I was DJing at the local VFW, line dancing was a pretty big thing. There were all kinds of country line dances. At one point I had to make a list so I knew what dances people were doing to certain songs.
“Can you play Moo Moo Land?”
That was what someone came up and asked me one day. Moo Moo Land? What in the world was that!? Naturally, my dad knew it because there was a dance they did to it. It was called “Justified and Ancient” by the KLF and featured Tammy Wynette! What a weird pairing!
But it gets weirder! According to Songfacts:
The title “Justified & Ancient” refers to the KLF’s pseudonym and earlier incarnation, “The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu” (The JAMs). The JAMs took their name from Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson’s sci-fi tinged, conspiracy theory-laden Illuminatus! Book series in which The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu are a fictional subversive cult who have been around since pre-history. The song lyrics describe the Justified Ancients making their way to Mu Mu Land in an ice cream van.
Huh?!
Even Tammy was unsure about it. She originally thought the song was called “Justified and ANXIOUS.” She said, “As it was, I didn’t understand what some of the words meant. I know about ice cream vans, but I’d never heard of a 99 before,” she added. “Bill explained it to me and now it makes perfectly good sense. I’m still not sure about Justified and Ancient though.” (A 99 is an ice cream with a flake in it).
Really, it is a great dance record. It’s neat to hear Tammy Wynette on it and it really revitalized her career.
Justified and Ancient
Last week I threw in that crazy Bingo Boys song at the end of my list. This week, I have to throw in another totally ridiculous song at you. Again, it is one that my best friend Jeff and I laughed about – a lot.
The group 2nu (pronounced “two – new”) was a pop group out of Seattle, Washington. When they first hit the scene, they has yet to come up with a name. A radio DJ said that the band was still too new to have a name, and they decided that worked. They have only released three albums, the first in 1991. What makes them unique (if that is the right word) is that their songs consist of sound effects, rhythmic beats, and a spoken word lyric. Their first single was “This is Ponderous.”
The song is more bizarre than ponderous. My buddy and I used to laugh at the “language the narrator doesn’t understand.”
Feel free to file this in the “What the heck was that?” folder…
This Is Ponderous
And with that silliness, we wrap up 1991. I mentioned that I can’t dance this week. Next week, as we dive into 1992, it contains the only fast song that I will dance to. It is an interesting list. It includes three cover songs, one parody song, three movie songs, a song about a royal feud, a song for the hard workers, and a song for the poor. I think you’ll enjoy it.
Did I forget one one your favorites from 1991? Drop it in the comments. I’d love to see if it was one that was on my radar.
I truly hope you are enjoying this series. Thanks for reading!
I have a few bloggers that I follow who always answer the daily writing prompt offered up by WordPress. With the features I am currently running, I don’t have much need for a prompt every day, but do jot down ones that I would like to come back to. This week one of the prompts was: List three jobs you’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter.
I had to struggle to come up with three, but one of those would definitely be to get back in radio. A joke told by radio people everywhere is that you don’t work in radio for the money. Sadly, this isn’t a joke! The pay for on air personalities is not very substantial. Another joke, that is not a joke, is that a person who works in radio’s wardrobe consists of a pair of jeans and T-shirts from all the radio stations that they have worked at.
There was no money in that job, but I loved doing it. I found a photo that must have been taken by an intern, a visitor to the station, or my now ex-wife. This photo had to be taken right about the year 2000. I am wearing a full beard, so it must have been taken in the fall. I am still wearing glasses, so I hadn’t had my Lasik surgery yet.
I was probably doing the Mid-day shift at the time. The clock on the wall is at 10:30 in the uncropped picture read 10:30 (most likely AM). I have me feet propped up on the counter, so I am probably playing a nice 4-5 minute set of commercials.
I loved this studio. There was one thing that I hated, and they eventually fixed. Under the microphone you see a cabinet with some knobs on the right. You can’t see it, but inside there was our main computer that ran all the music. It was a touch screen. On that screen, you would see the songs coming up, commercials and a set of “hot keys” on the right for things you use on a regular basis. It sort of looked like:
The problem was that the screen sat inside that cabinet on an angel. With the microphone right above it, all it took was a small bit of spittle from your mouth to land somewhere on that screen and it would (1) start playing something that shouldn’t be playing, (2) fire song after song after song after song in rapid succession, (3) turn your microphone on (when it was supposed to be off), or (4) stop something that is playing on the air. It was an awful set up. One sneeze and you could burn through three hours of music in 25 seconds.
Eventually, they brought the screen up and put in a mixer board, which worked much better. It looked like this:
Back to my picture. Directly above that cabinet was a shelf where the liner book sat. It was full of the station information that we read throughout the show. If we were going to be out doing an appearance, the info for it was in there. Various scripts for weather forecasts, artist and concert information, and sponsorship information was all found in that book.
I won’t lie, I laughed out loud when I saw that big honking computer monitor that is behind me. That was the computer that we used to record phone calls. There was a digital editor on it so we could cut out stuff that we didn’t want in a hurry. Digital editing was so much faster than when we had to edit on reel to reel tape.
On the left side of the picture and behind me (to my right) you can sort of see a few CDs in a rack. Those were there in case something ever happened to the automation system. If it had to be rebooted, we’d have a few songs that we could play from CD. In some cases, we had burned CDs with an hour of music on it in case the computer needed to be down longer. Worse case scenario, we could go next door to the news room and do a very limited version of the show from in there, but that took some shuffling around.
In the bottom right corner of my photo, you can see the phone bank next to the cabinet. We had three lines that were request lines. We also could answer the business phone after hours and there was a hotline that the boss could call us on during the show. Prior to contests, we could “block” the lines so people couldn’t start calling in before we asked them too. (And yes, if we asked for caller number 95, we actually answered and counted. “B-95, You’re caller 1, B-95. You’re caller 2 ….”)
The final thing that sticks out to me in this photo is in front of the phone bank. My Sony headphones. I loved those headphones. I had quite a few pairs of “cans” throughout my career, but those Sony’s were my favorite. I beat the snot out of those things and they always worked. I can’t tell you how many times I dropped those thing, but they always kept working. If I remember correctly, I ran over the cord with the chair wheel and it sliced the cord. I wound up buying another (cheaper) pair, which sounded good, but it had a thinner cord and it shorted out after a few months.
Eventually, I bit the bullet and bought another pair of them. They now sit in a box with my DJ equipment gathering dust.
On the first Sunday in August, we celebrate National Friendship Day to encourage people across the world to connect with friends. It is a day to expand your view of the world by making a new friend or reconnecting with an old friend on National Friendship Day.
I have over 1400 friends on Facebook. I’m not bragging about this. I have met a lot of people as I have traveled through life and many of them, I chose to stay connected to.
On Friday’s post, part of my core group of friends was mentioned. The guys who stood up in my first wedding. Lifelong friends – Jeff, Joe, Steve, and Steve. I would put Margaret, Chris, Stacey, Stephanie, Allyson, and Warren in that group, too. Almost everyone of them will fit into another category – school friends.
My school friends consist of classmates from elementary school, junior high and high school. There are just too many of them to list here. This category of friends can be expanded, though. I have many friends from school who were teachers, bus drivers, cooks, custodians, and staff members. All great people.
My sleep friends are also plenty. The classmates I had in college, coworkers and those who hold the same RPSGT credential are all connected to me. There are plenty of college friends who were made that had other majors, but we shared prerequisite classes together.
During my radio career, I accumulated many additions to my friend list. First, there are former coworkers that go all the way back to 1988 and my first radio job. Then, there are the many listeners who became life long friends.
Also from my radio career, I met many wonderful people from the community. I met business owners, politicians, members of law enforcement, local TV personalities, and celebrities. I can’t mention radio friends without mentioning the record label friends. There are plenty of them, too.
Celebrity friends like singers (James Otto, Craig Morgan, Emily West), other DJs (Dr. Dementia, Joe Piscopo), comedians (Don Reese, Dobie Maxwell), famous relatives (Dean Martin’s daughter Deana, Curly Howard’s grandson Bradley, Lou Costello’s daughter Chirs), actors (Eddie Deezen, Clint Howard), cartoonists (Kevin Fagan, Drew Friedman), and authors (Brad Meltzer, Geoff Dale, Bill Cassara, Burt Kearns) are all folks I am glad to have interacted with. Some of them I know better than others, and I have regular interactions with them.
Along those lines are the friends I have through shared interests. My Dean Martin friends and Three Stooges knuckleheads are plenty. Not to mention those friends I made through bowling and golf.
I also am blessed to have many neighbor friends. They come from the various neighborhoods I have lived in throughout my life. Many go all the way back to 1977!
Friends who are true blessings are my church/faith friends. Pastors and teachers from across the country are so helpful when I run across something I don’t grasp. The brothers and sisters from my local church assembly are truly loved. Of course, there are those friends that I have made at Bible conferences, and as students of Grace School of the Bible.
Last, but certainly not least, there is you. My blogger friend. Maybe we share a love of music, books, writing, poetry, movies or nostalgia. This WordPress community has been just wonderful. I have met some amazing friends here.
Today, I thank you for your friendship. Make sure to reach out to a friend today!
I’m not sure why I stopped doing this feature, but it is time for it to make a return. I was sent a photo from a friend that I had forgotten about. When I opened up the email, I remembered this feature. It is probably something I posted on my Facebook or now defunct MySpace, but I don’t think I have ever posted it on here.
This photo will take us back to 2004 or 2005.
This photo was taken as part of a photo project that a friend was doing for college. The idea was to take 100 photos and then tell a story with only 12 of them. She came to the station during a show and shot some pictures of me on the air, it just so happened that my oldest boy was with me that day. He was probably around 2 years old here.
This was not taken in the main studio. This was taken in one of the production studios where I was probably cutting a commercial or working on sweepers. Dante’ loved to talk into the microphone and I always had him say things for my show. Just like they had to do with the kids who voiced those Charlie Brown specials. I would feed him a line in pieces and then edit them all together.
I had him say things like:
“Not funny, Daddy!”
“Is it time to go home yet?”
“I’m Dante’ and you’re listening to my daddy, Keith Allen, on 94-5 The Moose!”
“Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha! Wait, what?” (For play after a bad joke)
I don’t think this was a pose, I truly believe that was meant to be a candid, but I just happened to be looking at the camera.
As I look at behind me in the photo, in the cabinet I can see one of the equalizers. I always wanted to get one for a hone studio (which I never ended up doing). Underneath that is a Mini-Disc player. I loved having one of those. I used it when I DJ’d a lot. It was digital, so you could edit and even loop things on it.
For the older readers, directly below that is a cassette player. When I was on the west side of the state, we would actually get commercials on them for on air play. Needless to say, the quality was NEVER that good. We primarily used it to record commercials to take to the clients so they could see if they liked the way their commercial sounded.
It is not in view, but under that was a CD player. We would dub songs into the automation system that way or rip them in on the computer. Most of our production music was on CD (and you can see some of those sitting directly above the mixer board.
By this time, most of the production was done on the computer (directly in front of my son) or the one to the left of that one. However, one of the coolest things in this picture is the ancient reel to reel machine behind my left shoulder. I believe that is an old Tascam unit. We used to use those to record phone calls at my first couple jobs. If something needed to be edited, you had to mark the tape with a china marker, cut the tape with a razor blade and splice it back together with tape. It was a process, but I remember watching some guys who were masters at editing things in less than a minute to be ready for air.
That microphone was one of my favorites to use. It was an Electro Voice RE20. I was gifted one of them and it remains one of my treasured pieces of radio memorabilia. Perhaps one day, I will venture into podcasting and find a way to use it again.
It is amazing to think that this picture was taken was about 20 years ago. I am glad that I still have some audio clips of my son from this age. Today, he could sing bass in a choir his voice is so low. He just turned 22!! Time truly flies….
I was having a discussion with some radio buds from the past on Facebook over the last couple days. It reminded me of the Andy Bernard quote from The Office finale:
“I wish there was a way to know you’re in ‘the good old days’, before you’ve actually left them.”
That got me thinking more and I remembered a fantastic quote from the great Sid Caesar that I wanted to share:
“There’s a now, a was, and a gonna be. Now is now, and after now is a was. And what comes after the was is a gonna be. It hasn’t happened yet. It’s gonna happen as soon as the now is over. But if you have a good now, you’re bound to have a good was and a good gonna be. But after the bad now comes a bad was. But if you have a bad now and dwell on it, you’re going to have a bad gonna be and you’re going to have a bad cycle.
If you learn from the bad was, you can turn the bad gonna be into a good gonna be. The only way you can change the cycle is after the was. If you carry the bad wases around with you, they get heavy and become should’a could’as – I should’a done this, I could’a done that.
If you learn from the was, you’ll have a great now; you won’t repeat the same mistakes. It will bring you to a good now, which changes the cycle to a good was, and a good gonna be. You need to learn from the wases. It’s all about changing your attitude.” – Sid Caesar
I have two memories tied to National Ice Cream Day and both involve my radio days. Both were when I worked at B95 in Flint.
The first was when I was working mid-days. I wanted to do a live broadcast from a local ice cream place. I put the bug in the sales team’s ear and they were able to find a little place called Ron’s Pizza and Ice Cream. It was a place I was unfamiliar with, which is sad because I was so close to where I was living.
We did the entire shift from Ron’s. They had pizza specials and a free cone for the first 100 people who came out. They had picnic tables where folks could sit and there was a steady flow of listeners who stopped by throughout the five hours we were there.
Their pizza was delicious and the ice cream scoops were huge. I took the family there often when we lived in the neighborhood. Sadly, they closed some time ago, but that broadcast remains one of my favorites.
The second memory was from when I was doing mornings with Steph. We hooked up with the Frosty Boy in Ortonville. If memory serves me right, we did a two hour broadcast from there after our morning show.
The Frosty Boy was known for their ice cream and their amazing broasted chicken! I remember we had this huge box truck that we took to the remote broadcast.
They had their mascot (a chicken) out waving people in at the curb. I remember Steph and I got a picture with that chicken! She probably has it somewhere.
We had such fun talking to listeners that day. I remember they gave us Frosty Boy T-shirts, which I seemed to wear a lot, as it is in a lot of old pictures.
I think they have new owners now. They building is the same, but they painted it and changed the name to Frothy Girl. I’m not sure if they still have broasted chicken.
I hope to take the kids out for ice cream later to celebrate.
Time for another Friday Photo Flashback. This time around I’m taking you to my room….circa 1990.
The shelf you are looking at sat above my bed (a waterbed…lol). Above it was another shelf with the globe my grandmother had got me for Christmas, some ceramic pieces my mom made me and a few other things.
Just by looking at this picture, I can recall where everything else was in the room. To the right of this picture is the window that looks out to the front yard. On the wall opposite this one, my dresser sat in the corner. Directly next to it was a shelf that my cheap stereo system sat on.
(The stereo had a double cassette deck, turntable, radio tuner, and a place for a microphone. Long before I worked in radio, I made tapes for people with songs I recorded off the radio with me acting as DJ. I know I’d be embarrassed to hear those now!)
The closet was to the left of this picture. All along the walls were photos, posters, and your typical teen wall decor. The shelf pictured here was the focal point of the room.In a way, this shelf encompasses “me.”
Centered on it are the (now long gone) Three Stooges figurines. I really wish I still had them. I marvelled at the detail of the faces when I first saw them. They were fairly expensive when they came out. They represent “humor,” which has always been important in my life. To laugh and make people laugh … It’s a very big part of who I was/am.
Above the Stooges, a treble clef and music notes hang. Both were gifts from my mom. I’m sure the clef hung elsewhere in the house before she gave it to me. Music has always been important to me and continues to be.
To the left of Larry is an award I got in my senior year. I think it was for “Best Dancer” which is ridiculous. I probably only got the award because I did the Curly Shuffle once at a band party. I’ve never claimed to be a dancer. Perhaps when I hit my goal weight, I will think about a dance class with Sam.
To the right of Moe is my high school diploma. I always joke that I was in the half of the class that made the top half possible. I think if it wasn’t for band class, I probably would have done even worse. I was not the ideal student. That experience only helped me when we I finally went to college – I knew what NOT to do!
The two flags were something I got at Epcot one year. They represent my Italian and American heritage. There is more in my background on my mom’s side (English, Scottish, and German), but I tend to embrace the Italian more
The screwdriver on the shelf? I have no explanation for. I’m screwy, maybe? Yeah. That’s true in a lot of ways.
Today is an important day in comedy, as three legends celebrate birthdays.
Groucho Marx was born today in 1890. He had great success, of course with this brothers in the many Marx Brothers movies. He also found success on radio and television as the host of You Bet Your Life.
Bud Abbott was born today in 1897. Along with Lou Costello he starred in many films, as well as radio and television. The team will be forever remembered for their Who’s on First routine.
George “Spanky” McFarland was born today in 1928. He is best known for appearing in many of the Our Gang/Little Rascals films.
The amount of laughter that these three were responsible for is unmeasurable. Groucho’s ad-libs, Abbott’s wonderful setups for Costello, and the fantastic facial expressions of Spanky brought (and still bring) joy and happiness to many generations.
The following is a sort of transcript from an informative speech I did in college on how songs make it on the radio. Some radio friends may find that not all the info is here, but it was enough for my listeners in speech class.
How many of you have ever called a radio station to request a song … only to never hear it?
How many of you think that radio DJ’s get to play whatever they want?
How many of you ever wished that radio stations would play other songs from your favorite CD?
How many of you think radio stations play the same songs over and over and over….every hour, every day!
Prior to college, I worked as a radio personality and programmer for over 20 years. The questions I pose to you, are similar to those asked of me by people who learn of my background. For my informative speech, I will answer those questions by explaining what a song must go through to get on the radio, and what happens to it when it gets on the air.
First things first – this speech wouldn’t be anything if the artist didn’t record a song!
Once a song is recorded by your favorite artist, and the album is complete, record executives decide which songs on the CD are “radio friendly.” In other words, these are the people who decide what songs will be released to be played on the radio. Some of your favorite album cuts, won’t ever make it to the radio.
The first song released from an artist’s new CD is always the one that record companies hope will make music lovers like you and me, run to the store, or surf to iTunes. The hope is that based on that one song – you’ll pick up the whole CD. Hit records mean record sales and money for the record company … and the artist.
But as you will see, it is extremely difficult for a song to get played on the radio.
On average, a radio station will receive 10-20 songs looking for play on the radio. At the same time, a radio station only has room to add 1 or 2 songs to their playlist each week.
You do the math! The song had better be very good to make it to the playlist!
Two people are essentially responsible for deciding which songs are added to the station play list:
The Program Director and the Music Director
The PD
* The program director is the leader of the station.
*They put together the talent and program schedules.
*The program director oversees music, promotions, and any production that goes on-air.
The MD
*The music director interacts with record company reps.
*They listen to new music.
* They work closely with the program director to decide which songs get airplay.
Once a song is chosen as one that should be on the playlist, there is a series of steps that it will go through which I’d like to call, the song’s “radio life”.
In order to understand the playlist, we first must understand what it is.
The playlist consists of every song, to be played on a certain day at a certain time.
Music is scheduled ahead of time
Each song is assigned a certain category, which in turn determines how often it is played.
This is an actual hour’s worth of music from a local station. It shows you the songs that played in the 5pm hour this past Tuesday (in 2010).
Notice that each song has a category.
A’s are current songs in Heavy Rotation
B’s are current songs in Medium Rotation
D’s and E’s are former current hits, that are now referred to as reccurents.
G’s, H’s and I’s are oldies, which are called “gold” songs.
L’s are Lunars, which I will explain in a minute.
Notice that Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” is in a “Heavy Rotation”. It didn’t start there. There were a series of steps that it went through to get there.
It first enters a Current “Light” Rotation:
• This is the song’s first spot on the play list
• It usually only plays after 7pm and overnight
• It usually plays one time approx. every 12 hours
• Programmers wait for listener feedback
•Positive feedback moves the song up in rotation
Current “Medium” Rotation
• This is a song that is getting good feedback from listeners, is researching well, and is climbing the charts
• This song plays once approximately every 6 hours
Current “Heavy” Rotation
• If a song makes it to Heavy rotation, it’s usually considered a “HIT”
• This song will play approximately every 2 ½ to 4 hours, depending on the format of the station.
Prespective
With that in mind – let me put something in perspective for you….
Here is another playlist from another station, this time a country station:
Notice the two songs highlighted in purple. Kenny Chesney and Taylor Swift. Both of these are in a “Heavy rotation” and rotate every 3 to 4 hours.
Here’s what I want you to think about. Let’s say Megan loves Kenny Chesney, but hates Taylor Swift.
She can’t get enough of Kenny – as a matter of fact, they are not playing it enough! Taylor Swift, however, is played just way too much for her.
The truth of the matter is that they both play at the same rotation – but Megan’s perspective , and personal taste influence how she thinks about the songs….
Does that make sense?
What Next?
So after a song becomes a hit and is played to death in the “Heavy” category, what happens to it?
Many radio stations have what is called a “Recurrent” category, which may or may not be divided up into sub categories (Power Recurrent, Medium Recurrent, etc…). Now that the song is a hit and familiar to the audience, it moves into this category. People are still requesting it and it is familiar to the audience.
A song can stay in that recurrent category for some time before it eventually moves into one of three places….
The Gold Category
The “Oldie” or “Gold” category. This insures that it will play at least once a day. This category also has divisions to it. A Power Gold will play more than a Secondary Gold. (See above – G’s play more than H’s, and H’s play more than I’s)
If it doesn’t go there, it may end up in a Lunar Category.
Yes, technically the song was a hit, but maybe it has a novelty feel to it, so stations may not want to play it too often. I asked a PD why they called it a Lunar, and he said, “It plays once in a blue moon.”
So, if it doesn’t go to either one of those categories…..sadly, the song goes away …….
Conclusion
So, now you know…
• The reason why your request doesn’t get played – because all music is scheduled.
•Because the music is scheduled – DJ’s are never playing whatever they want to
• The reason some songs on your favorite CD will never get played on the radio – radio stations are told what songs to play by record labels
• When you think you are hearing a song over and over again – it is merely based on your perception
I hope this answers your questions …. got any more? Ask away….
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 