I Used to Be A Radio DJ

On WKRP there was Jennifer and there was Bailey

Much like on Gilligans Island with "are you Ginger or Mary Ann," on WKRP it was Jennifer or Bailey.

A DJ is supposed to be able to project his or her smile with their voice

When the program director talks to the DJ about how to better his or her performance, inevitably, the instruction to smile more so the listener can feel your smile will be understood. Right ?

Radio DJ Sound Effects - Carhorn

Yes...I remember this actually happening ...the ad was recut by noon.

Christmas on the Air

Santa comes down the chimney at midnight on Christmas Eve. Christmas songs ...like, are their 15 total that get rotated over and over ...just by different artists. Most stations used to start Christmas music in soft rotation at around the day after Thanksgiving. By Christmas Eve you are cuing up album cuts and 45's for pretty much only songs from the season. I remember on Christmas Eve in one of my first years of radio, the PD (Program Director) explained that we should play other songs in the format (Country) but "no cheating, stealing, drinking songs."

I was on the air til midnight that night and at the time Squeeky Fromme, who was in prison for shooting at President Gerald Ford, had escaped from a prison nearby. At midnight, backtiming into NBC news at exactly 12 midnight, I played a song and came out of it saying " it's 12 midnight ..you might hear the pitter patter of something on your roof right now...might be reindeer ..might be Squeaky Fromme....Merry Christmas everyone."

I am probably lucky I got to keep my job :)

"Clearing the AP Wire'

Before computers were on every desktop, the news came in on the teletype. If your station paid enough, you got AP ...cheaper stations paid for UPI. You would gather the news for the news department if they were out of the building (overnight or night shift), and were aware that if the machine started dinging like crazy, there was a bulletin. You could gather stories together for a newscast, or do what most DJ's who are asked to do the news headlines did, "rip and read," which was basically taking the copy from the teletype and reading it on the air without previewing it first. Funny times !

A good memory of clearing the wire and
"ripping and reading" for me was finding out my childhood substitute father had won a statewide honor, as I read it live on the air. My mom happened to be listening to the 430 am newscast. The low point was finding out a friend of mind had been killed in an auto accident. I was saddened but also,the thought crossed my mind that she had been a terrible driver. No ..I didn't say it on the air.

Cause Of Death ? Disco

Cause Of Death- Too Much Funky Music White Boy

I used to be a DJ ...does music today suck ?

I used to be a radio DJ ...back when music was gooder

A Radio DJ always knows how to hit the post ...which is where the intro stops and the lyrics stop.

Adobe Audition ...I used to be a Radio DJ

When a Radio DJ sits down in the production studio to record a commercial, he knows it has to be exactly 30 seconds or exactly 60 seconds and there are no exceptions to this rule. So when it goes :34 in the read, or worse yet, :42, then you start cutting every teeny tiny breath sound or infinitesimal nano second of "non voice" to create a masterpiece that often sounds like the end of those car commercials where you can't understand what the announcer is saying..and you aren't supposed to.