When I worked at WHVR my show was determined by how long the song was. That was the day of vinyl and was really not that long ago. I can't imagine having to cue up vinyl now, or having to find spots or even segue a song. I remember lady in red being a long one that would give me a few minutes. I wish I could ask about relevant current issues, but the only response on this board is golden olden memories.
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Best song to take a bathroom break or "smoke break"
- Thread starter DJDaryl
- Start date
Back in the day, say 15-20 years minimum, you didn't have to leave the studio to smoke. I have Pavlovian memories of lighting up when a great jingle sweep or fun talk-up intro was coming up. I quit smoking long ago, but my sympathies tho those who were on-air during the "dark days". That was the era after smoking was banned in the studio and before automation offered you the flexibility to take 10-15 minutes when you needed to smoke.
El Paso by Marty Robbins may have been the first bathroom/smoke break song, but it's short compared to songs that came later. In the late 60's, it was Iron Butterfly's "In A Gadda Da Vida", unless you worked for a station that played the single version. The Doors "Light My Fire" was another.....but again...the single version gave you only enough time for...shall we say "number 1". My all time favorite bathroom/smoke break song...."Do You Feel Like We Do" from Peter Frampton, although many times I just wanted to listen to it and crank up the studio monitors.
Harry Chapin's "Taxi", "American Pie" along with the long version of "Light My Fire" and a few others were songs of choice in my early days at WMPT in South Williamsport. In later years, we had two three deck cart machines rigged with remote starts from the bathroom, so you could really "load' (sorry) a long set with a jingle. The inital set up did not have a disable switch, UNTIL some visitor or other DJ (not sure which) was in the bathroom and fired all the carts at the same time. (yes the records did stick once in a while, usually after you fixed it you got a call from someone laughing as they knew where you were!
When I first started in radio at WLYC in Williamsport, we had a lot of 1/2 hour taped programs, no problem UNLESS the tape broke, which it did when you were WAY down the hall of the Williamsport National Bank Building with your portable radio.
My worst offense, I was working at WMPT one Sunday evening and was late so I didn't have time to grab supper. I got to the station and had and inspiration. I called the ocal dairy store, (about a mile away) for a take out. I got into my next 1/2 hour taped show and went to the store for my pick up, putting the phones on hold and locking the door. Everythign was fine UNTIL I came back to the station and the owners car was in the parking lot. BUSTED! I went in and there he sat in the control room.
When I first started in radio at WLYC in Williamsport, we had a lot of 1/2 hour taped programs, no problem UNLESS the tape broke, which it did when you were WAY down the hall of the Williamsport National Bank Building with your portable radio.
My worst offense, I was working at WMPT one Sunday evening and was late so I didn't have time to grab supper. I got to the station and had and inspiration. I called the ocal dairy store, (about a mile away) for a take out. I got into my next 1/2 hour taped show and went to the store for my pick up, putting the phones on hold and locking the door. Everythign was fine UNTIL I came back to the station and the owners car was in the parking lot. BUSTED! I went in and there he sat in the control room.
About 1970, I was working the night shift at a directional station (yes, I had the first phone ticket) and we were REQUIRED to take the base current readings in 4 towers within 2 hours of going to the night pattern. So at some point, the LP version of Rare Earth would show up and we had to literally run between the towers to get it done. Best time I could do was 7 minutes.
Then there was the time I had put Hey Jude on (on a Sunday morning shift) to visit the 'necessarium" down the hallway and after a few minutes, on the return trip, noticed that the record got stuck (I figured 'nah-nah-nah-da-nah-da" went on for about 3 minutes!). The phone didn't ring on that one either!
We all look back on it vs. what it is now and just laugh. Those were the fun days in radio.
Then there was the time I had put Hey Jude on (on a Sunday morning shift) to visit the 'necessarium" down the hallway and after a few minutes, on the return trip, noticed that the record got stuck (I figured 'nah-nah-nah-da-nah-da" went on for about 3 minutes!). The phone didn't ring on that one either!
We all look back on it vs. what it is now and just laugh. Those were the fun days in radio.
"Stairway to Heaven" is the all-time favorite...A few others..."Alice's Restaurant"..."MacArthur Park"...the "Hot Stuff/Bad Girls" medley by Donna Summer, "American City Suite" by Cashman & West (my favorite, a minor 70s hit)...for Country jocks, "You Never Called Me By My Name" by David Allan Coe.
Once while running a 7-11 PM Music show, I had to run CBS News at 9, followed by a sponsored, 5 minute live read of local and AP news. I went to the 'necessary" during the CBS news, and things took a little longer than anticipated. Hearing the "beep" which sounded before the last minute of the network news, I ran down the long hallway to the studio, leaving behind the stack of news which I had taken with me to pre-read, as I had just torn the wire stories I was going to use.
I got settled into the chair just in time to hit the intro cart when I realized I had nothing to read.
Desperately trying to remember the news items, I began ad-libbing. Counting the :30 spot break, I actually managed to fill 3:30 with a reasonable semblance of the day's events. Don't think my memory would work that well today.
I got settled into the chair just in time to hit the intro cart when I realized I had nothing to read.
Desperately trying to remember the news items, I began ad-libbing. Counting the :30 spot break, I actually managed to fill 3:30 with a reasonable semblance of the day's events. Don't think my memory would work that well today.
There was a guy who worked at WLAN 1390 in Lancaster in the late 60's....there actually may have been two of them....who worked afternoon drive, who didn't want to stay after his shift to do production. Many times during the last half hour of PM drive(6:30-7pm)....you would hear Iron Butterfly's "In A Gadda Da Vida" or Chicago's "Ballet For A Girl in Buchanan", which is actually the long version of "Make Me Smile'. One day I actually heard BOTH of these songs during that half hour. One afternoon around '71...in the middle of PM drive...they played "D.O.A." by Bloodrock, which sounded very strange at that time of day....especially in Lancaster.
I once knew of a guy who played the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again," and drove to a convenience store that had to have been at least three miles from the station! I remembered hearing him play that one, but I heard later from a mutual acquaintance that he had seen this guy at that store while that song was playing! 
Back in the day, a station I had worked at had a pair of ITC triple-stacker cart machines. The engineer had hooked up a "min-mation" cart sequencer to the decks, mainly for the ease of running stopsets hands-free. All the spots and jingles had the necessary tones to be sequenced. The music was on cart and most songs did not have the sequencing tones, because it was expected the jock would know best when to start the next song/jingle. However, there were a few long versions of songs such as "Still" from the Commodores and "Green Eyed lady" from Sugarloaf that had the tones on them This would allow an auto-segue in case of a bathroom emergency that necessitated more than one song. Occasionally, you would be playing one of these songs right before a stopset and you would forget to disable the mini-mation on that machine (normally wouldn't need to worry about that with a song) and the song would segue cold into the spots!!
The live version of "Tennessee River" is also quite lengthy, if memory serves.clangham said:
If you can poop during a two-minute Beatles song, you probably have a bucket in the studio with you!stoshman said:
Having a really really bad day? You should probably call in sick! :-XTom Wells said:
I'm kinda surprised that no one mentioned the medleys on side 2 of Abbey Road. Since those are several short songs strung together, it really doesn't seem (to the listener) like it's a "long" song, except for maybe someone who doesn't like the Beatles.
For the gospel format, here are a couple of long ones that I remember:
"Tell It to Jesus" and "I Bowed on My Knees and Cried Holy." One of these was on a 7-inch record that played on 33 (thus I can't call it a "45") and the other was a 12-inch single. The 7-incher had a playing time of 7 minutes (although with a shorter version of the same song on the other side), and the 12-incher, 10 minutes. I don't remember which song was on which record, but I am thinking that "Tell It to Jesus" was on the 7-inch record, and "I Bowed..." was on the 12-inch. Of course, with a gospel format, you could often track a side of a live album, giving yourself upwards of 15-20 minutes to work with.
"Tell It to Jesus" and "I Bowed on My Knees and Cried Holy." One of these was on a 7-inch record that played on 33 (thus I can't call it a "45") and the other was a 12-inch single. The 7-incher had a playing time of 7 minutes (although with a shorter version of the same song on the other side), and the 12-incher, 10 minutes. I don't remember which song was on which record, but I am thinking that "Tell It to Jesus" was on the 7-inch record, and "I Bowed..." was on the 12-inch. Of course, with a gospel format, you could often track a side of a live album, giving yourself upwards of 15-20 minutes to work with.
firepoint525 said:
We ALWAYS played the ALBUM version of "MHIA" which was timed at 6:27!
The single version was about 4:01, almost the same as "TR".
There was another song all of us use to play up there, total time of 8:30, but I can't remember the name or artist!
It's been over 20+ years. LOL
Ahhhhh.....one of my favorite radio topics...When I was the ovnight jok at Rock 107 WEZX I found Kashmir from Zep to be just the right length...for bathroom or other....then one fateful night in 1982 I discovered the true meaning of "SOMETIMES SKIPS IN MIDDLE" written on the LP jacket (hard to read with all the pics on the jacket). I had a portable radio that I would carry down to the print shop break room on the 2nd floor of the Scranton Times Bldg....grab a coffee and a cupcake and take the elevator back upstairs to the 5th floor. Then right in the middle of the song.....da da da.....da da da......da da da.....da da da....skipping in an endless loop....ahhhhhhh!!!!! Ran to the elevator...oh oh...3 AM night rounds in the basement for the elevator operator. Have to run up the steps....steep....very tall steps. Ran down the hall...jumped over the 5 steps in the middle of the hall...into the old studio (now the jok lounge)...around the console...then the biggest mistake of all. To fix a skipping vinyl disk the correct procedure was to gently blow on the tonearm (no comments from the pervs here please) moving it over by one groove fixing the skip. Well...I had run up the stairs huffing and puffing and blew that sucker right across the record ....zzzzzzzzz...ouch! Ah my second favorite bathroom/breakroom radio messup story! By the way...this is what one does with too much time after too many cold ones at the NAB....hope you enjoyed the story Cent PA.
KF
KF
Any Yes song will do for a bathroom break--"Roundabout", "Yours is No Disgrace", "Close to the Edge"...you name it...
I kinda have an affinity for Led Zep's "Achilles Last Stand". Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin" is a good time filler as well. Failing that, if you were a freeform format station, just find your nearest symphonic work by Beethoven or Mozart and put that on...
I kinda have an affinity for Led Zep's "Achilles Last Stand". Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin" is a good time filler as well. Failing that, if you were a freeform format station, just find your nearest symphonic work by Beethoven or Mozart and put that on...
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