Boondocker
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![[*]](./images/iconic/default_icon.gif) posted on 7-30-2010 at 10:04 AM |
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Your radio experiences
| Quote: | Originally posted by Adroit in another thread:
Just curious...
1. Have you ever had an unforgetable experience while on the air?
2. Have you ever been involved in a studio calamity?
3. Are you a regular caller to talk shows?
4. For me, as a listener, I will never forget the night that Rick Barber announced on KOA the murder of Alan Berg. |
1. Working as a producer the night Nixon resigned.
2. Thunderstorm while doing an afternoon music show in the summer of 1970 on KCLC-FM at what is now Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo. The
studio was at "garden level" and lightning hit just outside the window that was just above the control board. I was playing "Oh Happy Day" by the
Edwin Hawkins Singers, and the needle physically jumped off the record.
3. Only occasionally. I usually subscribe to Mark Twain's sound advice about calling talk shows (even though he died in 1910, long before talk radio):
"Never wrestle with a pig. You get yourself all messy and, besides, the pig likes it."
4. I think I heard it first the next morning. But what I rermember is THAT night, listening to Ken Hamblin on KOA as he deftly and sensitively handled
his own and his listeners' catharsis.
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strapshoechris
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| posted on 7-30-2010 at 11:29 AM |
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1. Yes, several, including a late-nite blackout, a nearby explosion, and a few weather issues. (Fortunatly not all a the same time).
2. Yes, including one that got a co-worker terminated.
3. Absolutely not. I, too agree with Twain.
4. I was living in CA in 1984 and our local NBC, KCRA cut in with gruesome raw video of Berg bleeding down the driveway they were taking from KCNC by
the relatively new C-band satellite newsgathering technology (or was it K-U?) I was still doing some summer semester college and the murder was a hot
topic in my media class discussions for a good week or so.
"Peace by 2020, with or without people".
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suburban_militia
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| posted on 7-30-2010 at 12:11 PM |
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Quote: "But what I rermember is THAT night, listening to Ken Hamblin on KOA as he deftly and sensitively handled his own and his listeners'
catharsis."
I was also listening on that night and it was Ken Hamblin.
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LARadio
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| posted on 7-30-2010 at 01:01 PM |
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1) Space shuttle Challenger blew up when I was anchoring. Gulf War I officially started when I was anchoring.
2) Tower guy wire got severed by a backhoe. 365-foot tower came crashing down -- away from the building, fortunately.
3). No. Way. In. Hades.
4) Too young to remember it, really -- my radio career started just after it happened, as I recall. He was killed in 1984 -- I started in 1986.
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Joshua
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| posted on 7-30-2010 at 02:41 PM |
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1. The Columbine shooting, I was on the air in the midwest filling in for the mid day guy when it came across the wire, I met the morning show host
for a sister station in the hall as I was walking back into the air studio when she asked what I was reading and what everyone was talking about when
I told her face went blank, as she is from Littleton and most of her family still lived in Littleton and her nieces and nephews were in the building
and come to find out later her nephew was in the library when the shootings took place. Other events I was on the air for was the plane crash of golf
star Payne Stewart.
2. Lightning strike to one of the STL's which f*@Ked up everything in the building for months from mission critical equipment to light dimmers,
several power outages where the generator didn't start, and sometimes the transmitters for various stations in the cluster would shut down and we'd be
"OFF THE AIR".
3. No
4. In 1984 when Alan Berg was murdered I had yet to start Kindergarden, I couldn't have found Denver on a map if I had to.
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Chriskmusic
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| posted on 7-30-2010 at 02:54 PM |
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1. Have you ever had an unforgetable experience while on the air? -- yes, but I'll have to plead "Clinton"
2. Have you ever been involved in a studio calamity? -- No
3. Are you a regular caller to talk shows? - Irregular
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Joshua
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| posted on 7-30-2010 at 03:14 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Chriskmusic
1. Have you ever had an unforgetable experience while on the air? -- yes, but I'll have to plead "Clinton"
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You must have had listeners come to the studio and earn concert tickets too..
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Chriskmusic
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| posted on 7-30-2010 at 04:12 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Joshua
| Quote: | Originally posted by Chriskmusic
1. Have you ever had an unforgetable experience while on the air? -- yes, but I'll have to plead "Clinton"
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You must have had listeners come to the studio and earn concert tickets too.. |
wellll... yeah ... hello! LOL
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BR 1994NYR
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| posted on 7-30-2010 at 05:18 PM |
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1) One of my weirdest moments in broadcasting came for me in January of 1991.
I was broadcasting an Army-Lafayette basketball game in Easton, PA. That night, right before tip-off the Gulf War broke out.
Instead of sending it to commercial breaks I would say, "Time out on the floor...with 11:43 to go in the first half it's Army 17 Lafayette 15...we'll
be back after this Gulf War update on the Army basketall radio network".
Some network guy would then give a war update and then it was back to me for more exciting Patriot League basketball.
The funny thing was, Army had a really bad team and usually did poorly on the road. This night they played a great game and beat Lafayette. I found
out later that they Army kids didn't know about the war breaking out until after the game. The Lafayette kids were apparently told of the war outbreak
because there was some brief talk of postponing the game. They played a very uninspired game because of it.
It was an odd night.
2) When I first got out of college and had my first sports talk show, it was on a now-defunct station called WGRC in Rockland County, New York. I was
on Saturday mornings from 10 a.m. to noon. Before me was a real estate show hosted by some big fat guy.
This particular day, when he signed off, I went into the studio to get ready to go on the air at 10:03, after the canned news.
I started to do the show and smelled a horrifying odor in the studio. Awful. I could barely breathe. At the first break, about 15-minutes in, I walked
across the studio to the waste paper basket, where the smell was coming from. I looked in and there was a crapped-filled pair of underwear. The real
estate guy apparently had an accident and put his crappy drawers in the garbage can.
The next week, I casually said to him, "Hey, last week, did you have the splats?" He said, "Uh, no." He wasn't very convincing.
3) I don't call talk shows.
Well, that's all for now. Nice to visit for my 6-month denverradio.net check up. See you in 6-months. Later.
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JJMCKAY
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| posted on 7-30-2010 at 05:58 PM |
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this is why i can't get a job
The day Lenny Bias died, I was on the air in Charlotte and stopped the music and did a talk show about the Terp star. It was crazy, cuz I interviewed
him 2 weeks earlier
The day Lennon was killed. I met the former manager of the cavern that day, who owned an english pub in richmond, va. He told us stories about the fab
4, including how they would go to his parties and hav no beer, lol. When cosell made announcment, I called him and we did 10 hours of talk and beatles
music that the networks picked up
more to come
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radioPete
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| posted on 7-30-2010 at 07:26 PM |
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On the air - reporting on deadline/ live - with plenty of compelling sound - an unbelievable spectacle from a Philadelphia City Council meeting in
1980, on the heels of the indictment of 3 City Council members (including the Council President) in the Abscam sting/ probe. 2 of the 3 indicted were
what many called "Rizzo Democrats". The Progressive Dems on council had a field day. They included Councilman John Street (who 20 years later would
become Mayor). After Progressive Councilman David Cohen was roughed up a bit by a Rizzo Dem, John Street took to the floor and held a one man
filibuster, demanding that the Council President resign. The noisy onlookers in the balcony, including John Street's brother Milton Street, were
removed from chambers; the only people left aside from Council members were those of us in the press section and police officers. After 45 minutes
of Street's filibuster, the angry mob outside council chambers broke the lock on the door to chambers and barged back in. Several of us in the press
section darted to the other side of chambers in time to catch fisticuffs and other sensational sounds. WHYY won an Armstrong Award for spot news
coverage for my report, and a two-way with our political reporter, Tia O'Brien, who provided top notch analysis of what this would mean for the city's
politics. >>>Later that year, Rizzo Democrats still pissed at Jimmy Carter's Justice Department, voted in droves for Ronald Reagan.
On the air - at WSEA. Georgetown, DE - then an album rock station - in August 1977, when news came across that Elvis had died. Being a "hip"
station and all, the station had NO ELVIS in the stacks. I wound up playing the only Elvis song I could find -- the version of "All Shook Up" by The
Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart (I love Jeff, but that was really lame).
As a listener: tuned-in to Philly's all news KYW in 1979 when Mary Jo Malone's report came in from Three Mile Island; (with the beep, beep, beep
sounder, identifying breaking news) 120 miles away.... The most riveting minute in all my years of listening to the radio.
As a listener: June 1984 - hearing Rick Barber and Ken Hamblin in the aftermath of Alan Berg's shooting. I had met Alan a little more than a year
before that night at the old KOA studio (with Channel 4) --- and all I could think of was his off-mic gentleness, wisdom, and humor...and how much the
world had lost.
As a listener: 1968 - hearing a new type of radio format for the first time over WMMR, Philly, when Dave Herman began his nightly "Marconi
Experiment" (google that). Herman later to become the morning man on WNEW-FM, NYC, was brilliant -- unique album rock tracks with poetry, and
subtle-but-powerful commentary on news and events of the day (as Vietnam unfolded, while at home Frank Rizzo's Police Department "kept order" on city
streets).
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Boondocker
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| posted on 7-30-2010 at 07:43 PM |
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Pete, were you also in Philadelphia for the M.O.V.E. fire in 1985? A high school classmate who remains a good friend remembers watching the blaze from
her rooftop in Upper Darby.
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radioPete
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| posted on 7-30-2010 at 07:59 PM |
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I was in Colorado then, but in '79 - '81 I saw MOVE activists every time I went to City Hall. To encounter them with their radical back-to-nature
philosophy, mixed with Pan-African nationalism beliefs, could make your head spin (especially for those of us who had been to Africa, like myself,
during time spent in the Navy).
When news of the row house fire broke, it did not surprise me at all because of the group's idealism and tenacity. Last I heard, Ramona Africa was
still around and as adamant as ever.
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Bruce the Fierce
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| posted on 7-31-2010 at 01:51 PM |
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1. Having to come running out of a production studio to give a DJ CPR.
2. See 1. I had to do the rest of the show, cold.
3. Lord, no.
4. Ken Hamblin's show the night after the killing was one of the best couple hours of radio I've ever heard.
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1Kahuna
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| posted on 7-31-2010 at 04:31 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Boondocker
| Quote: | Originally posted by Adroit in another thread:
Just curious...
1. Have you ever had an unforgetable experience while on the air?
2. Have you ever been involved in a studio calamity?
3. Are you a regular caller to talk shows?
4. For me, as a listener, I will never forget the night that Rick Barber announced on KOA the murder of Alan Berg. |
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1. Yes. Our engineer was underneath the board soldering a couple of wires together. Just as I turned the mic on he dropped a blob of melted solder on
the top of my foot, I was wearing sandals. Fortunately, the song was still finishing and playing loud so the audience never heard my involuntary
expletive. Or maybe they did, but no one called to complain.
2. Or..Remember the old AP and UPI teletype machines? Jocks used to rip the paper off the printer, edit and read the news and weather. While a
co-worker was holding the script and reading the page, a station jokester reached around and set the paper on fire with a lighter.
3. Then there was the concert ticket giveaway. A good looking redhead walked into the office, lifted her sweater and pressed her bosoms against the
glass window of the air studio to our delight. No, she didn't get the tickets.
4. Whatever happened to microphones with the foam cover scorched from repeated cigarette burns?
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strapshoechris
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| posted on 7-31-2010 at 09:21 PM |
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Oddly enough Kahuna, smoking behind the console was already a "no-no" by the time I first hit the air in '83 in CA. Maybe it was insurance regs that
did it?
"Peace by 2020, with or without people".
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Joshua
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| posted on 7-31-2010 at 10:30 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally posted by strapshoechris
Oddly enough Kahuna, smoking behind the console was already a "no-no" by the time I first hit the air in '83 in CA. Maybe it was insurance regs that
did it? |
in 83 smoking was already a "no no" seriously? When I started in the late 90's there were still some popular talkers in our market that smoked in the
air studio. Shoot 4 or 5 years ago I heard about a fella at CC cluster in Ohio that was fired or almost fired because he not only was smoking in
their BRAND new studios but one guy brought in a portable gas / propane grill and they grilled out in the building, unconfirmed word was not before
they tampered with or disabled the fire alarm smoke detectors, which of course sent a "trouble" signal to the alarm company and when building
engineers who went to investigate found a cookout taking place within the building. It must have hit the fan. I kind of wish I would have been there
or been a fly on the wall when the top brass found out.
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strapshoechris
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Location: Up and down the 85 corridor.
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Mood: SuperDoug looks Super Retarded.
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| posted on 7-31-2010 at 11:30 PM |
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We weren't a talk station, Joshua, plus this was California. In addition our PD (related to the station owner at the time) was a non-smoker, probally
a contributing factor. There was a "brakeroom" at the station which was the only place anyone could light up indoors. I diden't smoke either, so it
never bothered me. Knowing the operations there, it was all probally for some type of insurance discount. Another rock station I worked at in the
Sacramento market still allowed on-airs to smoke at the mic as late as 1988. I can still remember chucking foil ashtrays from my preceding show.
"Peace by 2020, with or without people".
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Joshua
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| posted on 8-1-2010 at 09:48 AM |
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| Quote: | Originally posted by strapshoechris
We weren't a talk station, Joshua, plus this was California. In addition our PD (related to the station owner at the time) was a non-smoker, probally
a contributing factor. There was a "brakeroom" at the station which was the only place anyone could light up indoors. I diden't smoke either, so it
never bothered me. Knowing the operations there, it was all probally for some type of insurance discount. Another rock station I worked at in the
Sacramento market still allowed on-airs to smoke at the mic as late as 1988. I can still remember chucking foil ashtrays from my preceding show.
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Yeah I figured you were not a talker station, what I am saying is where I worked only the ratings leading conservative talker guys (think guys like
Mike Rosen and Peter Boyles) got away with smoking at the mic in the late 90's, once in awhile a do gooder from a sister station would send a office
wide e-mail around complaining, but the talkers knowing their jobs were secure would reply with "f you" and that was that.
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jtr115
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Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Mood: What the cow did.
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| posted on 8-1-2010 at 11:07 AM |
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| Quote: | Just
curious...
1. Have you ever had an unforgetable experience while on the air?
2. Have you ever been involved in a studio calamity?
3. Are you a regular caller to talk shows?
4. For me, as a listener, I will never forget the night that Rick Barber announced on KOA the murder of Alan Berg. |
1. Someone had called the KRCC studio while I was running the board on Election Night 2008. I had turned down the studio monitor during the call, so I
thought NPR was taking its scheduled break at :19 after the hour. I didn't know John McCain was giving his concession speech, and I wound up playing
the underwriter announcements over the speech. The phone lines lit up and stayed lit for nearly 30 minutes!
2. Just a couple of long-lasting power/phone outages, one caused by someone turning off the circuit breakers (the breaker box is on the outside of the
building; it's now padlocked) and another caused by a construction crew accident.
3. I've never called a radio show. I have participated in a few TV/Internet talk shows' online chat rooms, including the now-cancelled "Spin Room" on
CNN and the current "Kevin Pollak's Chat Show" online.
4. I was only 13 when Berg was killed. I didn't listen to talk radio back then, so I didn't know who he was.
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Boondocker
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| posted on 8-1-2010 at 11:08 AM |
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The first time I ever read a newscast on KCLC, the station manager, Gene Hirsch, snuck in and put one of those old disposable tin ashtrays down next
to me -- and it was full of incense cones that he had just lit. The smoke and strong fragrance were curling up into my eyes and nose, and Hirsch was
seeing whether I could keep reading normally through watering eyes and a strong urge to sneeze. I made it, somehow.
BTW: Thanks to Adroit. This has turned out to be a great and fun thread!
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Chase
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| posted on 8-1-2010 at 08:36 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Boondocker
BTW: Thanks to Adroit. This has turned out to be a great and fun thread! |
I agree! While I don't have any experiences in radio I must say I've really been enjoying reading the posts.
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