Career Memories and Crazy Stories

[bub]

We had Prophet installed and running for about a month at WELI when we started running into major crash issues when playing back DRRed shows in automation. Back then, most of us didn't know anything about the emergency control room, the cart deck or the edit page functions. Instead we played everything from the button bar, including the DRR show.

I actually heard WELI on Labor Day 4 years ago when everything aired that day was an encore presentation of all their talk shows loaded into Prophet and not off the bird. After the 10AM news, they went to an encore of Glenn Beck but from the beginning, the audio sounded like a 45 rpm record being played at 16 rpm. Stayed that way for about 15-20 minutes until someone finally got to the studio to "correct" the problem. Either that or Glenn Beck forgot to eat his bran cereal that morning. ;D

Then there was the time back in 1989 when there was so much rainfall in May of that year that after one torrential storm, one commercial station's towers and doghouses got flooded out, totalling the towers. Several weeks after the new towers were installed and back on the air, the station aired a "radiothon" type of broadcast. Turns out the towers were not insured against floods and the radiothon was used to solicit donations from listeners and businesses to pay for the new towers, for which they had to get FCC approval to do so.

Then there was the time around 12 years ago when a new supermarket was holding a Grand Opening weekend. The nearby station decided to do a live remote from the supermarket parking lot from a motor home that was being used as the station's promotion mobile. When they got there, turns out the supermarket's parking lot was not completed and what was completed, all the spaces were used up. So they brought the promotion mobile to the dirt part of the parking lot. Problem was, there was a huge rainstorm during the overnight and into the morning of the remote, so what was dirt the night before became mud. As you can imagine, the moment the motor home's wheels touched the mud, all the wheels sank in the mud within seconds. After the remote ended, it took 3 tow trucks just to get the motor home out of the mud.

 

[bub]

In an earlier post, I mentioned how I ended up at a station with no t&r after spending the Spring and Summer casting a line to other stations with no bites. The station where I ended up getting the gig as a Board Operator was music-intensive, airing CHR Top-40 music off the bird...and this was an AM station. Anyone in his/her right mind would know CHR never belonged on an AM station in that part of the country. Several months into the job, my friend, who was the OM, tried to campaign to the powers that be about either dumping the CHR for a Standards-type of format, or, at the very least, softening up the music a bit. So he approached the station's Vice President (wife of the station owner) to make his pitch.

This was the response he got ..."Oh no. We can't do that. We can't afford to alienate our large teenage listening audience."

Now this was about 13 years ago at an AM station.

Later that week, he tells me what happened. My jaw dropped to the floor so hard it scored a 2 on the Richter scale. If you were in the area at that time, you may have felt the aftershocks.

Fast forward a couple of years. By then, my friend was long gone from there and I was downsized out. After the station was put in danger of going dark with this same format, a consultant finally convinced the owner to make a change. The owner insisted on a music format. Fine. The format flipped to a more Softer AC with LIVE JOCKS (did I mention this was an AM?). The official name of the format from the provider was AC 45+ (very good format). After I finally completed college (cramming 4 years of college into 12 - LOL!) and treating myself to a Memorial Day Weekend to Maine as a "graduation present", I got an invitation to come back to the station...this time as a jock. So I became a part of the relaunch. A year later, for the first time in the history of the station, we made the Arbitrons. What was our Spring Book Promotion? What Spring Book Promotion? The amazing thing was all this was accomplished with no promotions whatsoever...no billboards, buscards, newspaper ads, nothing. It was all word of mouth. Whatever the average FM's promotion budget was...that was our operating budget. The only way we could have had any outside promotion whatsoever was to have all the FM's in the market hold a fundraiser for us. ;D

To this day, I still find it hard to believe my first experience as a rated jock was with that station...of all stations. It was, indeed, the best of times. And, the worst of times.

 

[bub]

I was filling in at a station that was the only statewide affiliate for the Howie Carr show out of Boston. This show aired on this station at the orders of the station owner. If you're familiar with the show, the content can get a bit dicey at times. HC aired from 3-6 P. We aired it from 4-6 P. The way we did it, however, was we would record the 3-4 P hour of the show on a backfeed deadroll for playback between 5-6. Because it was a backfeed deadroll, we couldn't monitor it. The reasoning behind it was the somewhat "controversial" nature of the show and the syndicator assuring that the first hour was considered the "safe" hour. Yeah, and there's the one about Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. Turns out this was the day after JFK Jr.'s plane was recovered with no survivors after being reported missing over the weekend. So what was the content on the first hour of Howie Carr that we were playing back? An entire hour of "dead Kennedy" jokes between Howie and the callers. Soon the phone lines in the studios were lighting up like a tree at Christmas with very irate people calling in asking, in so many words, what is the meaning of all this. Soon after, the PD called asking to "get rid of this piece of (fill in the blank) and go back to MOYL." Turns out several clients were calling him at his house threatening to pull their advertising off the station if something wasn't done. Upon return from our local commercial break, I potted up the Howie Carr pot instead. Turns out that hour was tame by comparison. So we resumed with that. We took the tape of that hour's show and left it for the PD for him to play for the station's owner. After reviewing the tape, the owner decided to drop the show. It was replaced by MOYL off the bird, and with that, marked the end of a 9-year run airing PM Drive Syndicated Talk on that station.

 

[MarcB]

Was that WATR in Waterbury, CT? I remember for a while they carried a local morning show, a local talk show, Howie Carr in the afternoon, and MYOL most of the rest of the day.

 

[KerryCollins]

I was filling in at a station that was the only statewide affiliate for the Howie Carr show out of Boston. This show aired on this station at the orders of the station owner. If you're familiar with the show, the content can get a bit dicey at times. HC aired from 3-6 P. We aired it from 4-6 P. The way we did it, however, was we would record the 3-4 P hour of the show on a backfeed deadroll for playback between 5-6. Because it was a backfeed deadroll, we couldn't monitor it. The reasoning behind it was the somewhat "controversial" nature of the show and the syndicator assuring that the first hour was considered the "safe" hour. Yeah, and there's the one about Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. Turns out this was the day after JFK Jr.'s plane was recovered with no survivors after being reported missing over the weekend. So what was the content on the first hour of Howie Carr that we were playing back? An entire hour of "dead Kennedy" jokes between Howie and the callers. Soon the phone lines in the studios were lighting up like a tree at Christmas with very irate people calling in asking, in so many words, what is the meaning of all this. Soon after, the PD called asking to "get rid of this piece of (fill in the blank) and go back to MOYL." Turns out several clients were calling him at his house threatening to pull their advertising off the station if something wasn't done. Upon return from our local commercial break, I potted up the Howie Carr pot instead. Turns out that hour was tame by comparison. So we resumed with that. We took the tape of that hour's show and left it for the PD for him to play for the station's owner. After reviewing the tape, the owner decided to drop the show. It was replaced by MOYL off the bird, and with that, marked the end of a 9-year run airing PM Drive Syndicated Talk on that station.

I remember that weekend JFK jr. died. It was the SAME WEEKEND I got tickets on Saturday to Sunday's Yankee/Expos game. I had to get a part-timer to fill in for my Sunday shift and the only one available last minute, was a fellow Yankee fan. WELL, that Sunday game was YOGI BERRA DAY AND DAVID CONE PITCHED A PERFECT GAME!!!! I called the part-timer immediatly after the game and he was pissed at me!

 

[Info-warrior]

We had Prophet installed and running for about a month at WELI when we started running into major crash issues when playing back DRRed shows in automation. Back then, most of us didn't know anything about the emergency control room, the cart deck or the edit page functions. Instead we played everything from the button bar, including the DRR show.

I actually heard WELI on Labor Day 4 years ago when everything aired that day was an encore presentation of all their talk shows loaded into Prophet and not off the bird. After the 10AM news, they went to an encore of Glenn Beck but from the beginning, the audio sounded like a 45 rpm record being played at 16 rpm. Stayed that way for about 15-20 minutes until someone finally got to the studio to "correct" the problem. Either that or Glenn Beck forgot to eat his bran cereal that morning. ;D

I remember that day As I came in around noon, so I can fill in some of the blanks. The show was not in Prophet, at least not on our end, but came in that way off the satelite. If I remember correctly, who ever at master control at Premiere couldn't really correct it, but rather restarted the first half hour, so it got cut off abrubtly at the bottom of the hour news break. We were recording that show on minidisc to play back later in the day since Paul Pacelli was off. We did air the show except that hour. We ran hour 2, 3, then 2 again.

 

[bub]

If I remember correctly, who ever at master control at Premiere couldn't really correct it, but rather restarted the first half hour, so it got cut off abrubtly at the bottom of the hour news break. We were recording that show on minidisc to play back later in the day since Paul Pacelli was off. We did air the show except that hour. We ran hour 2, 3, then 2 again.

Were you still using the patch bay in the middle of MC to patch the Starguide and trap the show? I remember having to do that when I briefly served as a Board Op there trapping shows on the weekend for later broadcast off minidisc. Back then, transponders were still being used to get stuff off the bird and they were still using DCS. Transponders lasted until Y2K phase out. Prophet was long after I left. While we had a show airing off the minidisc, I would switch the transponder to get Bob Brinker's Moneytalk and listen in cue during my shift and switch back at end of his show or at end of my shift, whichever came first.

 

[bub]

I remember that weekend JFK jr. died. It was the SAME WEEKEND I got tickets on Saturday to Sunday's Yankee/Expos game. I had to get a part-timer to fill in for my Sunday shift and the only one available last minute, was a fellow Yankee fan. WELL, that Sunday game was YOGI BERRA DAY AND DAVID CONE PITCHED A PERFECT GAME!!!! I called the part-timer immediatly after the game and he was pissed at me!

I was filling in at WELI that Saturday as a last-minute fill and remember getting the call on the hotline from the PD and got direct orders to go to ABC Long Form as they had continuing coverage of that. Orders were to stay with that until it was time to go to the Ravens game (remember the Ravens?).

 

[Info-warrior]

If I remember correctly, who ever at master control at Premiere couldn't really correct it, but rather restarted the first half hour, so it got cut off abrubtly at the bottom of the hour news break. We were recording that show on minidisc to play back later in the day since Paul Pacelli was off. We did air the show except that hour. We ran hour 2, 3, then 2 again.

Were you still using the patch bay in the middle of MC to patch the Starguide and trap the show? I remember having to do that when I briefly served as a Board Op there trapping shows on the weekend for later broadcast off minidisc. Back then, transponders were still being used to get stuff off the bird and they were still using DCS. Transponders lasted until Y2K phase out. Prophet was long after I left. While we had a show airing off the minidisc, I would switch the transponder to get Bob Brinker's Moneytalk and listen in cue during my shift and switch back at end of his show or at end of my shift, whichever came first.

Yep, patch to the minidisc above the DCS terminal in Master Control, remember to also turn the rotary switchs from DCS, or where ever they were set to, to minidisc in otherwise you'll record silence.

WELI had it's studio remodeled a few years ago. New console, new desks and work area. The space is also used more efficiently. Now, the talent is at the other end of the room, instead of being 1 foot or so away from you. You no longer have to duck under the counter when screening calls during a live show.

 

[bub]

WELI had it's studio remodeled a few years ago. New console, new desks and work area. The space is also used more efficiently. Now, the talent is at the other end of the room, instead of being 1 foot or so away from you. You no longer have to duck under the counter when screening calls during a live show.

I recall back in the days before KC101 and WAVZ moved in when WELI was a stand-alone AM. When you walked in the main entrance, if you were looking from the lobby, WELI's air studio (one of them) was on the left. The news studio where newscasts originated was on the right where the KC101 air studio is now (presume). I put the "one of them" qualifier after WELI's air studio because it was common in those days to have one airshift from one studio, a midday shift from another studio, PM drive from another studio and "Telephone Talk" back in the main studio. The patch bay in the middle of the MC floor surrounding the Gates board made all that possible.

 

[JLou04]

I'm a little late to the party, but here's my story from when I worked in CT radio:

When I was in college, I was doing weekends and overnights at KC101. One of the days I pulled the overnight shift was the same night as an evening film class. I'd get out of class, try to grab a nap of an hour or two, and head on over to Radio Towers Park. One class, we had seen a particularly suspenseful thriller and I had a hard time winding down for a nap, so around 1130 I grabbed a couple Mt. Dews and headed off to work.

RTP was a pretty spooky place late at night anyway, especially being the only person there and all the lights being turned off. If it wasn't for the mysterious siren-like call of the snack machine, I would have stayed put all night. But what late night jock can resist a couple Ho-Hos?

Every time I went back to the snack machine (yeah, I made more than one trip, so?), I'd cut through master control and past the transmitter racks and the rest of the guts of the operation. I always got this creepy feeling like someone was behind me, you know, like when you used to run up the basement stairs when you were a kid. I chalked it up to having seen a creepy movie earlier and not having gotten any rest.

When the engineer came in early that morning, in conversation I casually said, "so any stories of this place being haunted or anything?" His reply, "oh yeah, c'mere!" He brought me back to one of the transmitters. As he was opening one of the case doors he said, "that's just George*, just say 'hi George' and he won't bother you". A yellowing obituary was taped to the inside of the door, he was apparently one of the early (if not possibly the first) engineers for the building.

Needless to say, after that, I turned on ALL the lights when I did the overnights and went to the snack machines the long way, through sales, rather than past the transmitters!

*I don't remember if the name was "George" or not, anybody have any insight?

 

[bub]

RTP was a pretty spooky place late at night anyway, especially being the only person there and all the lights being turned off.

When the engineer came in early that morning, in conversation I casually said, "so any stories of this place being haunted or anything?" His reply, "oh yeah, c'mere!" He brought me back to one of the transmitters. As he was opening one of the case doors he said, "that's just George*, just say 'hi George' and he won't bother you". A yellowing obituary was taped to the inside of the door, he was apparently one of the early (if not possibly the first) engineers for the building.

Needless to say, after that, I turned on ALL the lights when I did the overnights and went to the snack machines the long way, through sales, rather than past the transmitters!

Why anyone would want to work an overnight shift with the lights off is beyond me, but hey, whatever floats your boat. ;D I always thought RTP was spooky during normal business hours, but I digress. ;D Does anyone remember the Blue Gates backup transmitter for WELI at RTP? When you opened up the cabinet door, on the inside of the door was a picture of the late WELI Morning Man Ron Rohmer with a "cartoon balloon" that said, "Warmin' up the filaments, eh?" ;D

 

[KerryCollins]

I'm a little late to the party, but here's my story from when I worked in CT radio:

When I was in college, I was doing weekends and overnights at KC101. One of the days I pulled the overnight shift was the same night as an evening film class. I'd get out of class, try to grab a nap of an hour or two, and head on over to Radio Towers Park. One class, we had seen a particularly suspenseful thriller and I had a hard time winding down for a nap, so around 1130 I grabbed a couple Mt. Dews and headed off to work.

RTP was a pretty spooky place late at night anyway, especially being the only person there and all the lights being turned off. If it wasn't for the mysterious siren-like call of the snack machine, I would have stayed put all night. But what late night jock can resist a couple Ho-Hos?

Every time I went back to the snack machine (yeah, I made more than one trip, so?), I'd cut through master control and past the transmitter racks and the rest of the guts of the operation. I always got this creepy feeling like someone was behind me, you know, like when you used to run up the basement stairs when you were a kid. I chalked it up to having seen a creepy movie earlier and not having gotten any rest.

When the engineer came in early that morning, in conversation I casually said, "so any stories of this place being haunted or anything?" His reply, "oh yeah, c'mere!" He brought me back to one of the transmitters. As he was opening one of the case doors he said, "that's just George*, just say 'hi George' and he won't bother you". A yellowing obituary was taped to the inside of the door, he was apparently one of the early (if not possibly the first) engineers for the building.

Needless to say, after that, I turned on ALL the lights when I did the overnights and went to the snack machines the long way, through sales, rather than past the transmitters!

*I don't remember if the name was "George" or not, anybody have any insight?

That was Win Suitor's obituary. Win was the sweetest old man you ever came across. He was a part-time engineer during my earlier years at KCI.

 

[Info-warrior]

WELI's transmitter is a Harris MW-5 fed by a CRL processing chain: love the way that transmitter sounds when the monthly test is being conducted.

As to hauntings of RTP, me thinks the story the engineer told you belongs in the pranks thread of the engineering forum.

 

[ThomasCarten]

I have two WICC stories, both from decades ago.

(1) Al Zotak was the Fixed Base Operator at Bpt Airport and did our beach reports on weekends, long before Morgan Kaolian came on the scene. He'd go up in his Piper or Cessna, travel down the coast, over to Long Island, and take notes on the beach population. When he got back, he'd call us on the phone and read his report, which we would record on one of the newsroom Maggies, after putting it thru a filter so it would sound as if it came from the plane.

When all was set, we'd tell the jock that it was ready and set up for his remote start. The dj would take our 78rpm sfx record of an airplane -- the smallest of which was a DC-3. He'd roll the sfx and then the tape with Al, "your flying beach reporter" over it. Sounded like the bombing of Dresden, but as long as we kept the plane in the background, it went over ok.

(2) One Friday night, the dj was half-soused, as was the newsman; nothing new there. Jack Lawrence, later with CBS and now freelance, and I were hanging out with nothing to do but plan trouble. Jack cut a tape with a sfx of a car screeching into a crash and piling up; I re-arranged the arrow on the news studio mixer's tape pot so normal air volume looked as if it was off. During the cast, the newsman paused for breath after a story, I tossed the cue to Jack, he rolled the crash and there was a moment of silence. The newsman paused, then went into the next piece: "The New Haven Railroad ended its financial tottering today," and lost it.

 

[cadillacjack]

That was Win Suitor's obituary. Win was the sweetest old man you ever came across. He was a part-time engineer during my earlier years at KCI.

Agreed. Win was a really nice guy. He was working part-time with us at WAVZ/WKCI and I seem to remember he worked at an broadcast electronics place (UMC??) in North Haven?

CJ

 

[MarcB]

In June 2004 I signed a time-brokerage contract to do a show on WXCT in Southington. Well it was my first show flying solo (I had done board op work at the station in the past and had been on the Charlie Profit Show a few times) and I get in the studio and it's time for my show to start and I can't remember how any of the equipment worked. The Chief Engineer (I forgot his name, but he also was the CE at the Shop-At-Home station in Bridgeport) had to show me how all the equipment worked. I'm sure he was thinking to himself "How did this guy get a radio show?"

 

[justareporter]

For those who remember him...Ron Salmon (RIP) and his days doing the transmitter change and living over the garage.

 

[bub]

Has anyone had this type of experience?

I'll never forget the time I was jocking on a Sunday morning at the first radio station I ever worked at and while getting the Sunday morning programming ready for after 9:00 AM, totally zoned out and forgot to load a song after the previous song ended. With dead air and in a panic, I grabbed the very first cart I could get my hands on...Don McLean's American Pie - all 8 minutes and 29 seconds of it. I figured I would have to dump the song at the TOH. Without looking at the clock, as divine Providence would have it, I loaded and started it at 8:51:20 AM. You do the math.

 

[bernzee]

Well alright, but just one story or else we'd go on forever! I was doing weekends, Oldies, in Hartford,CT and my first day there, I was told to park my car behind this chain link fence just beyond the parking lot. Naturally I was curious about why and was told that, after dark, the parking lot could be a dangerous place. So, I drove through the gate, into the mud and under the shadow of the seemingly miles high tower and parked my pride and joy there. Sure enough, once I finished my shift, it was mighty dark out there. In fact, it was almost impossible to see whether or not anything was behind the chain link fence but I closed the door behind me and took the stroll. It was only once I got to the gate that I realized that no one had given me a key to open it so I could get my car out! I mean, I was so fired up on that first day it was the last thing I was thinking of! So, I walked back to the station, in the dark, and tried to go back in the door I had just left from and, you guessed it; it was self-locking once it closed. And I didn't have a key for that either! It took quite a bit of pounding on the door to convince someone inside to open it and give me a hand, but for a while I was beginning to wonder if it was some kind of initiation or worse!