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Christmas Memories

N

normhill007

Guest
I'll start this thread with what could be the biggest debacle in the history of radio. Joe Kaley was GM of Oldies 92/WBAX and Duke Issacs was one of our biggest clients. Issacs liked the Boy Scouts and Kaley wanted to endear himself so he decided we'd sell Christmas trees to support the scouts and he had a friend in Allentown who had a tree farm and would get him the trees for little money. So one day, after the morning show ended, everybody, including sales staff, headed up to Issacs to unload a semi loaded with Christmas trees-all 5,000 of them. And so we had trees piled above the body shop, in the used car lot, in the showroom..and Charlie Brown would have loved them. Needless to say, people would drive thru the lot and see the scraggly yuletide twigs and keep on going. So Kaley called his friend and the friend said he'd made a mistake, that those trees were supposed to go to orphanages and he would send some new trees. A couple of days later, after the morning show, we again headed to Issacs to unload another semi loaded with trees. We unloaded another 5,000 trees and then I made the mistake of saying we'd start loading the bad trees, the driver said he didn't have an order to pick up any trees and drove off. The new trees weren't much better so we piled them where we could, and again nobody wanted our slightly better than Charlie Brown trees either. They were falling over on cars, needles were being tracked through the show room, and we started a 2 for 1 sale for 15 bucks, then a 5 for 1 for 10 bucks, then finally a dollar for 10 and still we had almost 10,000 Charlie Brown trees. Finally, Issacs said to get them the hell out of there, so a couple of days later, after the morning show, everybody went to Duke Issacs and this time we only had Kaley's pick up, and after a couple of hundred trips, they were all piled in the station parking lot, and us sticking to everything that wasn't nailed down. Then we tried to give them away and nobody wanted them so they stayed in the parking lot until spring when the Edwardsville city council told us to get rid of the mountain of dead trees, so Kaley had to hire a crew with a chipper that spent most of the day sending them into the field behind the station. Needless to say, we lost Duke Issacs
 
My worst Christmas memory is one where every year at WQEQ we had to play the recording of the "LITTELEST ANGEL". It was off a record that I believe is older than recorded music. So one year I decided to have the part time DJ (who is now a local TV anchor) record the whole show.. opening, show, greetings, and close.. on cassette so we could just stick in in a player and let it run... Well, I'm doing this shift that it's playing and just as the cassette is reaching the climax of the show, which includes the Sponsors little Grandaughter saying MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL... the cassette clicks off!!! I quickly flip it over to side B... nothing!!!! I'm sweating now... there's dead air.. no closing greeting and nothing to buy time with, so I start the next sponsored hour with a totally new set of music and advertiser... Now the phone is ringing and it's the advertiser "Thomas Brothers" of Hazleton, and the owner is livid that their whole family is sitting by the radio waiting for his Grandaughters speech and thier close! I quickly go to the sponsor fling cabinet and grab out the very first Thomas Brother copy I can find and try to do a live drop in and explanation of how the close would go... I'm adlibbing here and do a interrupt that "we are sorry that a special portion of the previous show was omitted.. but Thomas Brothers Natural Gas wants to wish everyone a Merry Christmas from his Littelest Angel to all of you!!" Thinking I had just saved some face, the phone is now ringing again and it's the sponsor again, livid that he's not THOMAS BROTHERS NATUAL GAS... he's THOMAS BROTHERS KITCHENS. There were two THOMAS BROTHERS in Hazleton and in our copy files. At that point, I unplugged the phone and curled up in a ball waiting for sales to ring my neck on the next business day.
 
Christmas morning 1978. Big snow on Christmas Eve and through the night. Probably 7-9" of new snow. Overnight, the x-mitter engineer is running tapes, a tradition of longstanding. At 6:00 AM, the studio in Avoca takes it live. That would be me.

Trouble was, at 6:00 AM, I'm half on/half off of I-81 behind two PennDot plows scraping the interstate in both lanes. Good news and bad news - without lucking out and getting in behind the plows, I would have never so much as gotten onto 81; the bad news, they're doing about 15 mph and it's 6:01, 6:02, 6:03, and I'm about at Davis St. southbound. Making it even more fun is I've been out partying most of the night at a friend's house and I'm working on maybe 2-3 hours sleep tops.

Somehow, I found my way off at Avoca, skidded and slid down the street, fishtailed around the corner, and bullied my way through unplowed snow and into the WARM lot. It's now roughly 6:15. I have no idea how I did it in my big honkin' rear wheel drive sedan, but I jumped out and flew into the newsroom, where a desperate voice on the two-way was begging, pleading for someone to answer at the studio. I hit the key on the two-way mic(I can still that thing with ease) and said, "Merry Christmas! I'm here." It was then into the control room where I slapped some Christmas cart into a machine and let it rip.

Being single with no kids back then, I was always the go-to for Christmas morning. Best I recall, nothing was sponsored on Christmas Eve or Day at WARM, so POed sponsors weren't a consideration. The calls were very few, usually some poor soul calling to thank you for giving up your Christmas to be there. Yeah, like we had any choice.

TRIVIA!

Q) Twice(and only twice)a year WARM would use non-WARM personnel on the air; the night of The Christmas Party, and on Christmas Eve from 7-midnight. Who did they use to cover those two shifts?
 
TRIVIA!

Q) Twice(and only twice)a year WARM would use non-WARM personnel on the air; the night of The Christmas Party, and on Christmas Eve from 7-midnight. Who did they use to cover those two shifts?
[/quote]

Hi Ho Ho masterg, that would be Joe Martin from WCDL and Doug Lane from WWDL.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night :)
 
Dang! You're too fast there, WL. Joe Martin did it for years and years. Don't remember Doug pulling that shift, but don't doubt it at all.

Joe and George Gilbert were pals, which is how it came to be. Suprisingly, Martin never worked at WARM, either in sales or on the air.
 
masterg said:
Dang! You're too fast there, WL. Joe Martin did it for years and years. Don't remember Doug pulling that shift, but don't doubt it at all.

Joe and George Gilbert were pals, which is how it came to be. Suprisingly, Martin never worked at WARM, either in sales or on the air.
Click to expand...


I do recall several years of Lane doing the board shift and Martin on news. Didn't know GG and Martin were pals. Whatever happened to Joe? Last I heard many years ago he was an overnight watchman someplace.
 
Bobby Day did indeed do some work around the holidays, but Bobby qualified(at least in my head)as WARM personnel, because he had worked there once, and did fill-in on a somewhat regular basis.

Joe Martin was Mr. 'CDL. I have zero idea what ever became of him.
 
My most interesting memory....5am Christmas morning, 1991. Get a call from the overnight jock at WCGY Boston...off the air, the aux won't come up and the CE is unavailable.
I get to the shack (which is damn cold) and the main has about 4 grillion fault lights. It's toast. I warm up the aux filaments and try to bring the plate up. BANG!!!!!! the loudest sound I've ever heard.
I trace the problem to a shorted IPA tube and am in the middle of replacing it (thankfully we had a spare) when the door is kicked open by, yup, 2 very pissed off police officers who are now holding me at gunpoint asking what I'm doing. Evidently some neighbor heard the bang and called 911 to report gunshots. After convincing them I'm relatively harmless, they leave me to bring the aux up to about 75% power (the main tube was soft) and Christmas was saved. Of course, not even a thank you from the GM (who was owner Curt Gowdy's son, Trevor).
 
Mine? Same as anyone else's who ever held down the last shift of the day.

It's coming up to Christmas; the PD calls and says, "Tom, we're collapsing the shifts on Xmas and everyone will be doing two hours. So you will come in at 3:00 to signoff. Bye."

There I am, in the studio, sounding as jolly as Old St Nick, wishing everyone just the BEST Christmas ever, in this toilet of a station, with my family back home, cursing all those happy-at-home jocks before me.
 
There I am, in the studio, sounding as jolly as Old St Nick, wishing everyone just the BEST Christmas ever, in this toilet of a station, with my family back home, cursing all those happy-at-home jocks before me
Click to expand...

Perfect description of most every Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I spent in radio.

About the worst of the worst came on a Christmas Eve which was my first ever facing work the next day. But, hey, here's me in radio! It was also my first ever Christmas Eve away from girlfriend, Mom and Dad, sisters, brother.

It was just me and and one other lonely soul, a young woman, sitting in the only open bar in in this small town. Midnight drew near. It was actually snowing gently, silently. For a brief moment, I half expected Rod Serling to appear from the shadows...

When he didn't, I knocked back one more draft, walked around the corner to my furnished room, then caught maybe four hours of fitful sleep. Following my not so long winter's nap, it was time to sign on the 500 watt daytimer and sit there until noon babysitting Christmas music.

Now, you tell me - do I miss radio or what?
 
Oh let's not forget the sobbing phone calls from listeners who missed their (fill in the blank of departed family and friends) while you sat there in a studio not knowing what your living loved ones were doing. Oh the frustration that caused...after the phone call of course. It's Christmas, let's be JOLLY!
 
OK, here's mine, and it's a little different...

1990 - I'm at KRZ doing the 12:00 AM to 6:00 AM shift on Christmas Eve/Day after pulling the 4:00 PM to 12:00 AM shift on WILK, so I've missed all of the holiday with my family. Around 12:30, I get a call from someone who was partaking in a bit of the "Christmas Cheer," which I decide to tape and play back on the air. It was a funny call from a woman calling herself "Little Elf" who was slurring out holiday greetings left and right. People who heard it LOVED the call (including Doc Medek, my PD).

After my shift, I got home to a NASTY answering machine message from my parents - "Little Elf" was my mom (I swear I didn't recognize her voice) and she was completely embarrassed that I had played the call on the air.

So, after missing out on spending Christmas Eve with my family, I then got to miss out on Christmas because I was uninvited for making shame for the family.

:mad:
 
When I was in college I worked at WVIA FM. Being the single guy on the staff, I always had the overnights which wasn't bad. I got to spend time with the family and then worked all night. Interesting callers especially since we were one of the few without canned music. Cabbies, hookers, cops and just plain lonely people. Still makes me want to do a John Paul II and kiss the ground on my front steps.

Yonkstur
 
I also to this day bless the one and only PD I ever had who saw to it that most, if not all, of his full-timers had Christmas Day off, and usually Christmas Eve as well. He knew no one was listening, that even the few that were didn't care who was on the air as long as they were hearing Christmas music.

Most PDs didn't bother even thinking about it, they just slapped you on the schedule like your having to work another holiday was meaningless. Sad to say, it was rather meaningless, most of us became numb to it. I honestly came to forget a lot of holidays were even approaching because there was never a day off involved. Someone would say, "Hey, whaddya doin' for the Fourth?" It'd take about a half-second for me to respond, "Working, what else?"

My family automatically scratched me from most holiday celebrations, knowing full well that I'd have to work.

I doubt I'd go back and change anything, that I'd do things differently and find another career path to wander. But I can say that working holidays and weekends is what ultimately drove me out of radio. It's also what has kept me from considering a return to it, despite a handful of offers over the past several years. Once I make it clear I am not available for any weekends or holidays, the conversation typically ends.

Merry Christmas! I sure hope you have the day off, I do...
 
From a listener...
We lived in NY and my grandparents lived in Plains; they had a serious auto accident xmas eve and we had to rush down to PA. 84/81 weren't finished yet and it was a 5 hour trip... Of course the mighty 590 was on as soon as I could get near a radio; that was the first time I heard " Rockin' around the christmas tree" from Brenda Lee, xmas, 1960. I was 7 years old. Also thanks to Gene Lispi, who remembers towing the car away. Don't ask me how I can remember all this, I can't remember what I did this morning!!!!!

Stil suffering from CRS disease...

Have a cool yule!!!

warm590 ;D
 
I miss the days when radio stations used to start playing a FEW Christmas songs after Thanksgiving and gradually increased it too Christmas Eve. Helped to build some anticipation. Nowadays it's kind of all or nothing. For the first two to three weeks you either listen to Christmas music 24/7 on Magic 93 or the like or basically none at all. Some stations though have added Christmas to the playlist in the last few days.

Oh, and just an aside, can Magic 93 pleeeeeeeeease add a few more Christmas songs. If I hear Bruce Springsteen or Nat King Cole one more time I may scream. These are classic must listen to Christmas songs, just not once every hour.

Merry Christmas
 
I just started today. The Christmas season starts on Christmas Eve and ends with Epiphany, for this guy, so I play the Christmas (and winter) music then. Ok, I'm a contrarian; we need a few. But our station does not have any retail accounts to tie in with, so I can get away with it.

When I was in commercial radio, I'd play winter songs (Sleigh Ride, Winter Wonderland) anytime we had snow, whatever the month.
 
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