Career Memories and Crazy Stories

[Glenn With 2 Ns]

This could be fun for those of us who are or have been "in the business"...

I was having flashbacks last night that promted me to throw this out there. We all have our stories about stepping out on a concert stage in front of 20,000 people to introduce a band or that time we interviewed that big rock star. Those are easy stories to tell. That is not what this is about. This about those OTHER incidents that you may NOT be so proud of, but can certainly reflect back on and laugh about now. I'll start off with a one of my favorites from back in the day.

I was pulling a Fri night in to Sat morning overnight shift. At about 2:15 a.m. (yes, right after the bars close) I answer the listener line to hear a drunk guy demanding that I play Sprinsteen next. Not when you can...NEXT. Not the best angle to get the song played. He calls back 5 minutes later and asks me what the "F" am I doing and where is the song? As soon as the next song started, he was back again. This time telling me to "watch my back" and he spewed a few choice obscenities at me and hung up. No big deal...just a drunk guy, right? The PLR studios had a window overlooking a 4 way intersection in Hamden. It was that window that he tried to shoot me through! I hit the floor and called 911. The police showed up and he was gone. It turns out that it was only a bb gun, but still. It scared the crap out of me. I called my PD (yes...3:30 a.m. call) and told him what was going on. His response was legendary and I will never forget it...."Kid, just play the f-ing song...good night" and hung up. CLASSIC!

 

[bub]

Great thing about these stories is we can write a book about our escapades in this racket and yet...no one would believe it. ;D

I'll check back here from time to time. I'm sure I can come up with a few. ;D

 

[kershner]

I had just taken a gig in Vermont. The PD would always brag about how hot the girls were and how much they worshiped the Jocks at the station..."Oh the groupies" he would go on and on...
My first shift on air I look out the studio window and see this tall SEXY blonde looking in tapping the glass and pointing to the front door....
HOLY S#!T! the groupie thing is true...she's hot and I am gonna get my FIRST radio groupie!!!
I run (not walk) to the front door to let this hot piece of lovin in... look her up and down and say some cheesy line to her only to have her look at me like I am a total loser and inform me that she was the MORNING SHOW HOST's WIFE!
Never did like that guy...lol
and the "groupie scene" well...I didn't stay in VT too long...;-)

 

[Bill Williams]

Here's one...I woke up late one day. I was due in at Midnight and got on the road at 11:45 or so. I lived 20 minutes away from the studio. You do the math. Luckily, the hairy beast of a jock across the hall knew how to flip the switch so the syndicated program would start. But I digress. Because I was late I hopped into the closest pair of pants I could find and those happened to be some comfy, comfy, sweatpants. I bought said sweatpants at Walmart for 8.88, because who has $20 to spend on the sweatpants with pockets? Especially when working in radio. In my mad dash to the station I neglected to grab my wallet.

Now, the door to the station I worked at had a "key-card" system. It was like a credit card, but a key. Blows my mind, too. There are things that you bring with you everywhere, right? For me, it's keys, wallet, and really big swiss army knife. For others it's STD's. You can't leave home without them!

So I didn't have my wallet and I decided to go outside to smoke. Try getting into one of these corporate facility type buildings without the necessary credentials. Not happening. I've always seemed to get by on my good looks and sweet hair. Good looks and sweet hair don't open doors that require a key card.

I mulled around outside until the Morning Crew shuffled in. I thought we had been off the air for hours. Luckily, the crack engineering team had planned for this exact scenario. They made sure that the same songs played over and over. I got into the studio just in time to give the weather and time before the morning team went on. I like to think my listeners understood.

This is a great idea! I want to hear stories. I have a few more to tell from my short time in "the business". I want to hear from some salty dogs, from people that were doing this back when it was cool. You mention PLR Glenn, those people read this thing right? Let's hear it, use a pseudonym, folks.

 

[SallysPizza]

I don't know if I'm a "salty dog" or not. I started in 1977 at an AM daytimer in central CT. I would do whatever I could, news, spots, picking up contest entries at local businesses and pulled weekend shifts. After one weekend I received a scathing note from the PD about how terrible I was and I wasn't following formatics, I was injecting too much personality into what was supposed to be an AC station and so on. While he was correct, the tone and invective he used in the note was not. At the end of which he stated, "perhaps it would be better if you went into dry cleaning."

I've been in top 10 markets since 1990, I think my former PD is selling shoes.


There was also the time I was pulling overnights at a different station when the transmitter went down. The transmitter was offsite so I called the engineer and waited. The PD/Morning man called me obviously drunk and asked why we were off- I told him I didn;t know why but I had called the engineer. He started berating me over the phone telling me to get us back on the air to which I replied "How?" he just hung up on me. About 15 minutes later he walked in and fired me for insubordination. I tried to appeal to the GM the next day but to no avail. He's among the few a-holes for whom I've worked.

I won't even get into the encounters with listeners and groupies.... too weird.

 

[bub]

I don't know if I'm a "salty dog" or not. I started in 1977 at an AM daytimer in central CT. I would do whatever I could, news, spots, picking up contest entries at local businesses and pulled weekend shifts. After one weekend I received a scathing note from the PD about how terrible I was and I wasn't following formatics, I was injecting too much personality into what was supposed to be an AC station and so on. While he was correct, the tone and invective he used in the note was not. At the end of which he stated, "perhaps it would be better if you went into dry cleaning."

I've been in top 10 markets since 1990, I think my former PD is selling shoes.

I was a weekend jock at a station 10 years ago. We went through a changeover in PD's. What worked under the old PD all of a sudden didn't work in the eyes and ears of the new PD. As such, I became the recipient of the nasty memo of the week award for weeks on end. He took over as PD in January. By Good Friday, he was blown out and I was still there. Several months later, the station hit the Arbitrons for the first time in station history...and guess who got the highest rated airshift? ;D Now who's wrong?

No, I haven't worked in Top-10 markets and I don't know if the old PD is selling shoes or not. But reading the above-quoted post brought back memories.

Keep these stories coming. Good stuff.

 

[bub]

O.K., here's another one.

I'm on the beach for the 2nd time and was working in retail looking for another radio job. I spent the Spring and Summer of that year sending out numerous t&r's to stations with no reply or a rejection letter for my troubles. In October of that year, a colleague from the very first station I worked at had passed away. Tried to get hold of a friend who also worked with the colleague. At the time, so I thought, he was pulling weekends at another station. Left a message. Later that evening, my call gets returned. Spent time waxing nostalgic about said colleague. Some point in the conversation, learned he wasn't pulling weekends at the station. Told me the story and where he turned up... he's Ops Manager and Morning Man at another station. Told him in passing that if he needs a parttimer or fill-in, I'm interested. He asked me when I can come up? Came up on day we scheduled and was hired on the spot and started that Saturday.

Why am I telling this tale (which was true)? Remember earlier in the post when I mentioned sending out t&r's and striking out each time? The one station I never sent a t&r was where I got the job.

 

[KML0224]

Bub, sorry I'm not in radio, but what is "T & R"?

 

[bub]

Bub, sorry I'm not in radio, but what is "T & R"?

Tape and Resume

 

[ken gilbert]

Hi Ya'll

I could write a book. Still on the air for 36 years and going strong. Any writers out there. I'll post a good one over the weekend.

Ken Gilbert

 

[bub]

Hi Ya'll
I could write a book. Still on the air for 36 years and going strong. Any writers out there. I'll post a good one over the weekend.
Ken Gilbert

Meanwhile, we'll be guessing whether its from your Squirt Baby Shoot days, the days when you resided in that Hoser Village, or now as The Skillet Licker. Or, maybe none of the above. ;D

 

[SallysPizza]

Bub, sorry I'm not in radio, but what is "T & R"?

Tape and Resume

WOW! Tape & Resume! There's something you don't hear much anymore! I think the last tape I sent out was 1997.

I worked at WTIC AM for about 6 years and board op'd many Whaler games. At that time all I had to do was run a top of the hour ID; everything else, spots, bumpers, everything was run at the Civic Center. I found out that the Whalers would also run the TIC top of the hour ID until a board op a couple of years earlier would get the game on the air and saunter on over to the Civic Center and watch the game (when TIC was on the 19th Floor of the Gold Building). At the end of the game, he'd stroll on back with plenty of time to spare what with all the post game programming. He finally was caught and they made the change to the ID to make sure whoever the board op was stayed put.

 

[bub]

Bub, sorry I'm not in radio, but what is "T & R"?

Tape and Resume

WOW! Tape & Resume! There's something you don't hear much anymore!

Tape and Resume: Back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth. ;D I don't think anybody uses CD's anymore, either.

 

[bub]

There was also the time I was pulling overnights at a different station when the transmitter went down.

One station I worked at, in the wintertime when we were at night power, the board op who came in to relieve me would do 2 things upon arrival after I left:

1. Turn the transmitter back up to full power at night in violation of the station's license.
2. TURN THE TRANSMITTER LIGHTS OFF in violation of FAA regulations! This in the dead of night!

Why? I have no idea! :

 

[ChrisCody]

So I'm running the board for the Bob & Tom show at HCN...Like all syndicated shows, they take their breaks at the same time every hour...give or take a minute or two....Then the affiliates have 6 minutes to run their local spots, weather, news & traffic etc, etc...........One particular morning, a little too much coffee, one too many bran muffins & there was a whole bunch of traffic brewing on ole Chris' personal highway,and all that traffic was heading for the border, if you know what I mean....So it comes to the point, where it's "GO TIME"..I check the clock, perfect!! I've got at least 7 minutes before their next break & 7 minutes in radio is an eternity....So, I'm off. Down the hall to the lovely HCN bathroom to relieve the gridlock building on I-95 ( In this case the "I" stands for "intestines" )..So I'm in full "spackle the bowl" mode, making noises that can only be duplicated by the Lock Ness Monster, when I hear "Ok, we've got special in studio guest standing by,(insert name here) let's break now and come back with our guest"

WHAT?!!!!! BREAK? NOW? NO, YOU'RE TOO EARLY..So now I have choices that have to be made..1)Finish the business at hand, get a satisfactory wipe in and then quickly get back to the studio,knowing full well that the Bob & Tom Indianapolis commercials are going to air in Hartford....Or 2) Do not complete the task at hand, run down in my current "pants at ankles" condition, but I make sure their commercials don't make it on air & get all the local stuff taken care of....Hmmmmmmmmm
Well, I made one more big push ( you would have thought I was giving birth), grabbed something ( might have been a toothbrush or a brillo pad for all I remember) made a half assed attempt at a wipe and down the hall I ran...Got the superman underoos pulled all the way up, but the sweats only got as high as my knees..It was like being in a potato sack race..
A very long story short, I couldn't get back in time..:30 seconds of one of their spots got out on the HCN airwaves....As it turns out, it really wasn't that big a deal..Could have been worse..
I learned a valuable lesson that day...Never, and I mean NEVER will I , or have I eaten bran, mexican food or do I drink coffe before or during a shift ...Never gonna take a chance like that again..Granted these days I have a lot more time between breaks to take care of business but why risk it.

 

[amfmradio1]

Hey Chris,

No wonder you have more time between breaks.

On 'PLR, CTs' so-called "Number One Rock Station", you're still playing seven-minute long "Layla".

 

[bub]

Hey Chris,

No wonder you have more time between breaks.

On 'PLR, CTs' so-called "Number One Rock Station", you're still playing seven-minute long "Layla".

One station I worked at, the closest thing we had to bathroom music was Brenda Russell's "Piano in the Dark." That meant I had 5:24 to take care of business. :

 

[radio monkey]

amfmradio1/Jack Allen:

atta boy...never miss that chance to take a shot at PLR...how about you lose that chip on your shoulder? You'll likely sleep better at night. Too bad for you PLR continues to be #1 ...

 

[fatman]

Hey guys! I'm a visitor from the Louisiana & MIssissippi boards. Great stories! Here are a couple...

Back in 1979 my first station, a 1kW 6a-12m AM in Oklahoma, was out in the country. There are lots of Native Americans in Oklahoma and a nice group of them would buy a ton of beer and gather in the parking lot and consume mass quantities just bout every weekend. They would get unruly and have to be ran off. My best friend since first grade worked there with me (he's STILL there, now the GM) and we carried guns just for this reason. Mike and I were standing in the traffic ladies office looking at the mob through her window as one of the revelers began to throw a bottle at us through the window. We did our best Starsky & Hutch imitation as Mike drew his .44 and I drew my .38 Special from behind our backs. That changed things considerably and the group rapidly fled.

Years later I'm doing overnights in New Orleans at a country FM in a hundred-year old building in the French Quarter. I was riding a Honda GoldWing motorcycle to work and about 3am or so I ran out of smokes. I have the habit of emptying my pockets of keys, change, wallet, everything. I go downstairs and unlock the front door to grab a pack out of the fairing pocket on the bike. Unknown to me was the fact that the 7-mid guy had walked to the bar down the street and had left the door unlocked. My "unlocking" actually locked the door. There I sat locked out with no keys, no cellphone, no wallet and worse, no lighter. I knew I would still be there when the news director arrived at 4:30 so I just sat there on the steps pondering the end of my employment there. About 3:30 here comes the 7-mid guy staggering back from the bar. The door was unlocked by a button in the studio so neither of us had keys to the building. Somehow my begging and his alcohol comsumption conspired to convince him that he should climb the pile of loose bricks and shinny up the very weak tin waterspout to the windowbox planter hanging just outside the control room window. How he made it I have no idea but he did. Nice guy that he was he started a song for me and buzzed me in. Nothing ever was said so I don't think anyone important heard the half hour or so of silence. I doubt if the 7-mid jock remembers putting his life in peril for me either.

What a weird way to make a living!

Don Banks

 

[bub]

Hey guys! I'm a visitor from the Louisiana & MIssissippi boards. Great stories!
Don Banks

Drop by the Connecticut boards anytime. Good stuff. I, myself, post all over the board so out-of-staters are more than welcome. Got a story or 2? Post them.