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DEAD AIR!!!

I remember napping on the air at 'JDX... it was 1982. I was working overnights and going to Hinds (Freshman Year, oh to be 17 again). I worked 10p to 6a. For about 6 months, I was live from 10p-12m and then we went on to some satellite show from mid to 5am... I would fire off the ID at midnight and then set the alarm for 58 minutes... lay on the floor in front of the console and sleep until the alarm went off... i'd shake it off for a couple of minutes, then hit the ID at 1a,2a, etc ... all during the night. Perkins was cool with it and as a 17 year old kid, that's how I made it thru my Freshman year... can't say my grades were great though. Roooooooooox annne!
 
i fell asleep during a houston astros game.last i remember was the bottom of the 2nd,when i woke up it was bottom of the ninth.took some cold medicine that apparently layed me out .Rough Night.
 
bobrall said:
I finally went back to WKGN ... middays,

That statement reminds me of when I left JDX. Bob What's-his-name, the program director, called me into his office. I already knew he was going to can me, because someone else tipped me to it, and what he was going to say.

He started off with "I don't know if you're ready for middays in Jackson yet." I told him, "That's okay, I'm moving to KSLQ in St. Louis to do middays."

Bob literally collapsed into his chair. I loved it.
 
Funny beachguy.i remember when Marc Sommers got canned in New Orleans and ended up on 77 WABC back when it was a legendary top 40.Talk about pie in the face and eating crow...
 
I let Bob Pittman go. He was working part-time at WRBC. Probably did him a favor looking at what came next.
I have an old aircheck of him on RBC. I'll send it to John to post on his site in the next few days.
 
Bob,
That would be great! I remember listening to Bob on WRBC when driving through Jackson. The 1st time I heard RBC was when I was a Boy Scout at Camp Kickapoo. YeeeHaaaa Rebel Radio!!!
If anyone else has anything they want me to put on the website, let me know. I still have plenty of space.
 
I remember my last days at WRVR in Memphis. Things were not going well between me and Bob Kake (the P. D.). I saw the writing on the wall and left for afternoons at KIX 106 in Birmingham. KIX went from a 6 share to a 22 share in one book!! I sent Bob a note asking how things were going in Memphis. I told him that things were going GREAT in Birmingham. Then I said "We had the highest numbers gain in the U. S.. I hope things are going as well for you in Memphs." I wish I could have been a gnat on the wall in his office when he opened that. The next week we had a write up in R&R. LOVE IT!!!
 
SkinnyJohnny said:
Speaking of napping on the air, I used to bring my alarm clock and nap for 30 minute intervals during the sunday morning programming on WKOR in Starkville. We ran "Power Line" with Brother John Rivers and "The Wolfman Jack Show". I set the alarm and as it went off Wolfman said "Byyeee". I jumped up and ran over to the control board just in time to read a 5 minute newscast. If you'd ever heard my newscasts when I was awake much less half asleep, you have to know how bad that sounded.

I join you in the 'guilty as charged' category of napping during the Sunday broadcast. Only recall missing the end of a show once...talk about a fast dash to the control room for the id and segue into the next show!

I didn't nap all the time, but there where those cases of no sleep from the night before a few times, and the body had some pretty bad timing to catch shut eye.
 
the golden boy said:
I tuned in to Y sometime after 9pm on Saturday night and OHP wasn't on. I thought they may've dumped it or had transmission issues. But after the show the last several Saturday nights/Sunday mornings, I would hear two songs playing at the same time and would go on for a long time.

Oh lord, that is one of my biggest radio pet peeves. Overlapped programming is a surefire way to get people to switch stations. At least with dead air, most folks will listen for a minute just to listen for an on air "oopsie!" ;D

Even my father quit listening to the local oldies station after morning after morning of waking up to a song with a commercial playing underneath. He and both now wake up to public radio. MPB may have plenty of on-air gaffes, but at least the stations don't go off the air when the wind blows. ::)

I've heard overlapping programs and dead air in practically every market I've listened to, even on XM. Heck, XM's had some big screw ups, especially during their first few years. Right around the time I bought my first Roady, the entire service hiccuped and half the channels went down (they're all linked to some master computer system - Dalet?) Even live channels were messed up with that one. The only markets that seem to be on the ball anymoreare the big ones (NY, LA, Chicago, Philly...) And I've never heard any program snafus on any Canadian stations, either.
 
I was listening to Y101 on the way to work this morning, and there was no Rick Dees...wonder if someone forgot to push the button...
 
SkinnyJohnny said:
Speaking of napping on the air, I used to bring my alarm clock and nap for 30 minute intervals during the sunday morning programming on WKOR in Starkville. We ran "Power Line" with Brother John Rivers and "The Wolfman Jack Show". I set the alarm and as it went off Wolfman said "Byyeee". I jumped up and ran over to the control board just in time to read a 5 minute newscast. If you'd ever heard my newscasts when I was awake much less half asleep, you have to know how bad that sounded.
 
SkinnyJohnny said:
Speaking of napping on the air, I used to bring my alarm clock and nap for 30 minute intervals during the sunday morning programming on WKOR in Starkville. We ran "Power Line" with Brother John Rivers and "The Wolfman Jack Show". I set the alarm and as it went off Wolfman said "Byyeee". I jumped up and ran over to the control board just in time to read a 5 minute newscast. If you'd ever heard my newscasts when I was awake much less half asleep, you have to know how bad that sounded.

Hey Johnny:

Remember when we both worked at WHKW and I sometimes pulled an overnight weekend shift? We had some kind of public affairs programming on from 5A to 6A on Sunday and one Sunday, I took a an unexpected nap. Woke up to see Paul (who owned the sign company) comming in the studio to begin his Sunday morning shift. At least the drive back to Starkville was during daylight!

Dr. Bob
 
Oh yes, Paul Hammick. When I first started there, I was doing 3 weekend shifts Saturday Midday, Sat-Sun overnights and then back for noon to 6 Sunday. On most of those overnight shifts, Paul would call me at 4am after a long night at the Chisom Trail in Columbus and have me give him a wake up call at 4:45. I'd call and the phone would ring for 5 or 10 minutes before he'd answer.
 
It would have been early '75 when I was pulling weekend overnighters on ZZQ I decided to put on the live version of "Whippin' Post" and step outside. I cleaned the record and put the bottle of ****** on the cabinet next to the turntable. Went outside where I could look through the window and see the progress of the tone arm so I would know when to head back in. After about twenty minutes the tonearm was still in the middle of the disc. I went back in and found that the back of the tonearm had gotten stuck up against the ****** bottle and had been stuck there for a good ten minutes. No one seemed to notice.

There was also one night I was in really bad shape and decided to have "long song request" night. Anything over 20 minutes. I think I played something like 14 tracks between mid and 6:00 AM. There was also the night Perez took off on one of his runs and I was doing ZZQ and JDX at the same time, running across the hall when the yellow lights would come on to seg the next cart. Fun times.
 
I installed the yeller light at WHKW. I had to convert the ITC cart machines for the two extra tones with kits of parts from ITC. Some of the circuit boards didn't have the holes punched for the extra parts so I had to drill them out. Did it one night in the 'HKW kitchen. One of the few rooms in the Jim Walter home that was used as what it was designed for.

Dr. Bob
 
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