Funniest or most memorable experience in Radio

[exdjted]

I want to lighten things up a bit from politics, hurricanes and the like. So, I thought: What is the funniest or most memorable experience you had working in Radio?

A couple that come to mind for me involved interacting with listeners at live remotes. Back in the early 90s, my Dad owned a station in Hardee County, FL. There was an annual steam engine show/fair called 'Pioneer Park Days' held every year where we would set up a trailer and broadcast live from all week. We were located at the crossroads of the park, and were talking to listeners as they walked by, asking them where they were from, what they were enjoying, etc.
Well, I was approached by this group of older women who looked like they had just stepped out of a bridge club ad. Sun hats, oversized glasses, you get it. I asked them if they were enjoying themselves, when the leader of the group looked at me and said, "Excuse me, are you the young man who reads the news?" "Why, yes ma'am, I am." "Young man, I have to tell you how impressed I was when you read the story of that man that got arrested for f**king that horse. I don't know how you didn't laugh during it." Live. On-air. I was stunned. Speechless. My father and our afternoon guy were rolling on the ground dying laughing. Obviously, I didn't go live again for a couple of hours while I recovered. And made a mental note to never do stories again on Florida Man and animal relations.

Another time we were doing a remote at a grand opening of some sort when this lady walked up to me and said "Are you so and so on W***?" "Yes, ma'am, that's me." "Huh." She said. "You sounded skinnier on-air."

 

[michael hagerty]

It's 1973. I'm 17 years old and the music director at KIBS in Bishop, California, the town where I grew up and was then a senior in high school. It's 270 miles from Los Angeles, 200 miles south of Reno, Nevada, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Population then and now roughly 3,000 people.

Every evening after dinner, I'd go down to the station and see what had come in from the record companies. We played Country in the morning, MOR during middays and afternoons and Top 40 at night. We were the only listenable over the air signal during daylight hours (the next closest station was 1,000 watts and 120 miles away).

But at night, several L.A. and San Francisco stations came in like locals. Not much for teenagers to do in a town like that, so cruising Main Street (2 miles long with turnarounds at the Gulf station and the A&W Root Beer drive-in) and listening to the radio were pretty much it.

In the days of AM car radios with five pushbuttons, the local kids generally had them set for KFRC, San Francisco; KHJ, Los Angeles; KRLA, Pasadena; whatever station Wolfman Jack was on (XERB, Tijuana from 1966-72, KDAY, Santa Monica from 1972-1973) and KIBS.

One day, a record comes in---"My Girl", by Wolfman Jack. I listen, it's not bad. So I walk it into our evening jock. His name was Terry Flood, but he used "Noah Flood" on the air. I tell him I'm not adding it to the playlist, but since he shares audience with Wolfman, if he wants to play it, that's cool---and I go back to my office/record library (in the basement fallout shelter).

The record Noah was playing when I was in the control room starts its fade and on my monitor I hear Noah say:

"Hey, we just got this new record from Wolfman Jack, and I thought it would be fun to have Wolfman introduce it for us, so let's call him up down in L.A."

What? He has had no time to set this up.

(Dial tone, followed by eleven digits being dialed on a rotary phone)

"I'm calling the K-DAY request line now..."

And the phone rings.

And rings.

And rings.

Clearly, Wolf's not gonna answer. On the tenth ring, I'm out of my chair, about to go up and signal to Noah to get out of this when suddenly:

"HELLO, K-DAY!"

"Wolfman Jack?"

"WHO DIS ON THE WOLFMAN TELEPHONE?"

"This is Noah Flood at KIBS in Bishop and I've got your new record "My Girl" and I thought it would be fun if you..."

"K-I-WHAT, MAN?"

"KIBS in Bishop and I've got your new record "My Girl" and I thought..."

"K-I-WHAT, MAN?"

"KIBS in Bishop and I've got your new...."

"K-I-WHAT, MAN?"

"KIBS in Bishop and..."

"K-I-WHAT, MAN?"

"BS."

(pause)

"YOU MEAN LIKE BULLSH*T?"

(Noah half-shrieks, half-gasps and "My Girl" plays)

Noah never did another bit involving the phone while he was with us.

 

[gr8oldies]

At a station where I worked, we had a guy who did a Country music show, where he interviewed all the has-beens and never was-es Country artists. I was on the board when he was interviewing someone from Nashville. The artists talked about his tour, including a concert in Sh*tland. "Where was that again"? He replied "Sh*tland. As in Sh*tland Pony.

 

[Deleted User]

live remote, a band called The Fools, great band BTW

"Hey guys we're on the radio!"

(crowd noise)

"On the count of three yell **** YOU"

And that is when I learned to run at least 7 seconds of delay (this was in the old reel to reel delay trick days)

Luckily it was after 10 PM on a Saturday night

second funniest?

Staffer is giving a tour of the station to a bunch of cub scouts.

He brings them into the production studio, rolls tape, flips the mikes on and has them say ...

Hi We're the Cub Scouts.... when we are not eating Brownies we listen to ....

it was funny and we used it

 

[Daryl Lynn L.A.]

It's 1973. I'm 17 years old and the music director at KIBS in Bishop, California, the town where I grew up and was then a senior in high school. It's 270 miles from Los Angeles, 200 miles south of Reno, Nevada, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Population then and now roughly 3,000 people.

Every evening after dinner, I'd go down to the station and see what had come in from the record companies. We played Country in the morning, MOR during middays and afternoons and Top 40 at night. We were the only listenable over the air signal during daylight hours (the next closest station was 1,000 watts and 120 miles away).

But at night, several L.A. and San Francisco stations came in like locals. Not much for teenagers to do in a town like that, so cruising Main Street (2 miles long with turnarounds at the Gulf station and the A&W Root Beer drive-in) and listening to the radio were pretty much it.

In the days of AM car radios with five pushbuttons, the local kids generally had them set for KFRC, San Francisco; KHJ, Los Angeles; KRLA, Pasadena; whatever station Wolfman Jack was on (XERB, Tijuana from 1966-72, KDAY, Santa Monica from 1972-1973) and KIBS.

One day, a record comes in---"My Girl", by Wolfman Jack. I listen, it's not bad. So I walk it into our evening jock. His name was Terry Flood, but he used "Noah Flood" on the air. I tell him I'm not adding it to the playlist, but since he shares audience with Wolfman, if he wants to play it, that's cool---and I go back to my office/record library (in the basement fallout shelter).

The record Noah was playing when I was in the control room starts its fade and on my monitor I hear Noah say:

"Hey, we just got this new record from Wolfman Jack, and I thought it would be fun to have Wolfman introduce it for us, so let's call him up down in L.A."

What? He has had no time to set this up.

(Dial tone, followed by eleven digits being dialed on a rotary phone)

"I'm calling the K-DAY request line now..."

And the phone rings.

And rings.

And rings.

Clearly, Wolf's not gonna answer. On the tenth ring, I'm out of my chair, about to go up and signal to Noah to get out of this when suddenly:

"HELLO, K-DAY!"

"Wolfman Jack?"

"WHO DIS ON THE WOLFMAN TELEPHONE?"

"This is Noah Flood at KIBS in Bishop and I've got your new record "My Girl" and I thought it would be fun if you..."

"K-I-WHAT, MAN?"

"KIBS in Bishop and I've got your new record "My Girl" and I thought..."

"K-I-WHAT, MAN?"

"KIBS in Bishop and I've got your new...."

"K-I-WHAT, MAN?"

"KIBS in Bishop and..."

"K-I-WHAT, MAN?"

"BS."

(pause)

"YOU MEAN LIKE BULLSH*T?"

(Noah half-shrieks, half-gasps and "My Girl" plays)

Noah never did another bit involving the phone while he was with us.

Fantastic story. . From XERB, Wolfman could be heard at night over most of the nation. Later in his career, IIRC, he worked at KRLA 1110, starting in about 1984. Very fun, high energy personaltiy.

 

[davideduardo]

Fantastic story. . From XERB, Wolfman could be heard at night over most of the nation.

Not really. XERB was highly directional up towards the north-northwest. No signal at all in Phoenix for example. Big signal in Eugene and Klamath Falls, though. But just 50,000 watts.

Where he could be heard in a wide area, from Alabama to New Mexico, from Colorado to Iowa to Tennesse, was on XERF in Villa Acuña, Coah., México. 1570, 250,000 watts directional towards the US.

 

[Daryl Lynn L.A.]

Fantastic story. . From XERB, Wolfman could be heard at night over most of the nation. Later in his career, IIRC, he worked at KRLA 1110, starting in about 1984. Very fun, high energy personaltiy.

Not really. XERB was highly directional up towards the north-northwest. No signal at all in Phoenix for example. Big signal in Eugene and Klamath Falls, though. But just 50,000 watts.

Where he could be heard in a wide area, from Alabama to New Mexico, from Colorado to Iowa to Tennesse, was on XERF in Villa Acuña, Coah., México. 1570, 250,000 watts directional towards the US.

Oops ! I'm sorry ! Is there a way to edit my previous message, so that I can correct it? ( I'm brand new here). If I can find a way to edit my message, I'll delete the mistake. :-( Thank you, from Daryl Lynn L.A.

 

[landtuna]

Not really. XERB was highly directional up towards the north-northwest. No signal at all in Phoenix for example. Big signal in Eugene and Klamath Falls, though. But just 50,000 watts.

Where he could be heard in a wide area, from Alabama to New Mexico, from Colorado to Iowa to Tennesse, was on XERF in Villa Acuña, Coah., México. 1570, 250,000 watts directional towards the US.

Wolfman was very popular on the campus of UC Berserkly near SF during the late 60's. In AZ we used to listen to KOMA, OK City (1520 IIRC).

 

[landtuna]

Oops ! I'm sorry ! Is there a way to edit my previous message, so that I can correct it? ( I'm brand new here). If I can find a way to edit my message, I'll delete the mistake. :-( Thank you, from Daryl Lynn L.A.

This forum gives you only a short period of time to edit a submission. After submission you will notice an 'edit' button on the lower left of the window. Press it and you can edit your posting. Once it disappears your post cannot be edited (but I think you can still delete it then post a replacement).

 

[Daryl Lynn L.A.]

This forum gives you only a short period of time to edit a submission. After submission you will notice an 'edit' button on the lower left of the window. Press it and you can edit your posting. Once it disappears your post cannot be edited (but I think you can still delete it then post a replacement).

(Oops - cannot find a way to edit or delete my message). In the 60's ( long before Wolfman was in "American Graffiti", I listened to Wolfman on XERB from Rosarito Beach, Mexico. ( But according to the moderator, it XERB was only 50,000 watts). I remember how Wolfman always said, "Who dis on the Wolfman phone". Fun guy, with a different voice & different style than what I was used to. - Daryl Lynn L.A.

 

[Daryl Lynn L.A.]

Wolfman was very popular on the campus of UC Berserkly near SF during the late 60's. In AZ we used to listen to KOMA, OK City (1520 IIRC).

Berserkly LOL.

As a kid in L.A., one of my favorite things to do in the 60's was what we called DX -ing. Deep in the night, turn the dial ever so carefully to see how far away we could pull in stations. KOB Albuquerque, KOMA Oklahoma City 1520 with its "kissing tone", KIRO Seattle, KGO San Francisco, KSL Salt Lake City. It seemed magical and mysterious to me.