New 1970s-1980s Radio Topic

[954]

Seriously, I think Greg was one of the most talented on the air at the time. He and Don Agony were really great together. In some respects, I think they were underestimated. I hope both are doing well!

I presume Budell is doing well.... he has three programs on three stations in two states.

I've heard Agony (who now calls himself Don Anthony) doing weather and traffic on three CC stations in two markets, so I guess he's OK, too.

Did you see Budell's funny but true story re WAXY at
http://RadioPages.net/radio/partonme.html ?

73s

 

[John FL]

With the talk of WAXY 106 in the babysitting string, I started thinking of something else that would hopefully be interesting for this string.

I once talked about having visited WAXY 106 in the early 80s with my sister who was in the business at the time. While visiting the station, I put my foot in my mouth by admitting that I listened to Y-100 too. Now, you have to remember, I was around 30 at the time and I'm sure I fit in perfectly with the target demos etc. Besides, Y-100 rocked and I wasn't going to make excuses for listening but I did listen to WAXY on occasion as an alternative.

Rick Shaw was not at the station that day but I was pretty much told by a number of people there that Rick would not have appreciated the comment to say the least. I didn't think much of that incident until a few months later.

I don't want to make more out of this than what it was, but I had won some kind of prize from Y-100 which required my going to the station. That was my one and only visit and that would have obviously been at the 1-95 Hollywood studios. My timing could not have been better. Since I was only taking a short amount of time off from work which was in the Pompano area, I decided to get to Y-100 as early as possible which was 9AM when the "office" opened.

As I was standing in the lobby, the lovely and talented Bill Tanner came out of the studio. Of course I recognized him and I remember saying "Oh My God" or something to that effect. He laughed and about the only thing I could say was this was the second visit I had to a radio station in the past several months. Curious, he asked what other station I was talking about and I told him WAXY 106. Within seconds he replied that they were obsessed over him and Y-100.

It turns out Tanner was very much correct. When most people think of Y-100 rivalry at the time, it's easy to look at 96X and/or I-95. But WAXY I'm sure wanted to play more in the big leagues. As time went on, I did hear comments that WAXY always wanted to cut into Y-100 shares. I'm sure this is what lead to their decision to go more adult contemporary later on when it seemed they sometimes did oldies/sometimes they did not. of course, Majic 102.7 saw an opportunity and WAXY never recovered as a result.

WAXY had a good thing at the time but it would appear their decisions were proved the wrong ones.

What I described was my only visit with Bill Tanner. To this day, I remember every detail of that visit including the weather. I have no idea what I won but meeting the lovely and talented was the best prize of all. Thanks for letting me share some fine memories,,,,

 

[The-Major]

I don't want to make more out of this than what it was, but I had won some kind of prize from Y-100 which required my going to the station. That was my one and only visit and that would have obviously been at the 1-95 Hollywood studios. My timing could not have been better. Since I was only taking a short amount of time off from work which was in the Pompano area, I decided to get to Y-100 as early as possible which was 9AM when the "office" opened.
As I was standing in the lobby, the lovely and talented Bill Tanner came out of the studio. Of course I recognized him and I remember saying "Oh My God" or something to that effect. He laughed and about the only thing I could say was this was the second visit I had to a radio station in the past several months. Curious, he asked what other station I was talking about and I told him WAXY 106. Within seconds he replied that they were obsessed over him and Y-100.
What I described was my only visit with Bill Tanner. To this day, I remember every detail of that visit including the weather. I have no idea what I won but meeting the lovely and talented was the best prize of all. Thanks for letting me share some fine memories,,,,

I have a memorable Y-100 'LIVE in person' experience to share. I've actually already shared it with everyone in here a few months ago, but it's the Summer rerun season - so here's a rerun of that exciting story.

I won an "Uncle Buck" prize package back during the Summer Of 1989 when that movie was premiering. I forgot how I won it. Maybe I was just the 25TH or 100TH caller or something like that on the 'Bobby & Footy' incarnation of the 'Y-100 Morning Zoo'. Back then Bobby was answering his own telephone calls. I asked Bobby if when I came to pick-up my prize package I could actually sit-in with him and Footy for a few hours to see them do the show LIVE and in person. Bobby basically said that if I wanted to I could sit in on the entire show from start to finish ! It was an offer that I simply could not refuse !

He told me which morning to show up bright and early at 6 AM, and so on that morning I woke up at 4 AM, left Homestead AFB by 5 AM, and arrived at the East Sunrise Blvd. Ft. Lauderdale studios of Y-100 at 6 AM. I went up to the 3RD (or whatever) floor they were on back then, and I waited out in the main lobby all by myself. I think it was 'Captain Y' (who was on his way in to the studio) that saw me waiting out there, and he went in and told Bobby that I was waiting for him. Bobby came out several minutes later, greeted me, and brought me in to the LIVE studio. He introduced me (officially) to Captain Y and ultimately Footy. Bobby basically sat me down in-between where he stood and where Footy stood facing each other from across the studio (when they were both in the studio at the same time), and I watched them do everything ! I was having the time of my life. Occasionally Bobby would talk to me, ask me how I was doing, and tell me what he was preparing for. I don't remember Footy saying much to me. This went on for the entire 6 AM to 10 AM time-period of that morning's show. I saw how it was all done. I learned so much about the radio business during those four hours. It was quite the memorable experience - especially since I remember every detail of that day exactly 17 years later here in 2006 !

I had so much fun watching Bobby, Footy, and Captain Y at work that after the show was all done and over with I had forgotten about my "Uncle Buck" prize package. I was nearly to the elevator back down to the ground floor when I realized that I should be carrying my prize. I think I eventually picked it all up from the receptionist out in the main lobby - chef's outfit (including hat), bib, oven mitt, spatula, pancake mix, various recipes on how to make the perfect MASSIVE pancakes, and some other stuff related to various scenes in the movie. I also asked for (and got) a 'Y-100 Morning Zoo' tee-shirt (which I still have to this day although it doesn't fit me anymore).

THE MAJOR REMEMBERS THE GOOD TIMES

 

[top4odj]

John and The Major both bring up great moments in Radio. This is something that I always tried to do when I was on air...Make your listeners a part of your broadcast.

While some of my PD's didn't agree with having "guests" in the studio while on the air (Their feeling was that it took away from your attention to your listening audience), when ever I got the chance, I brought people in to watch. Believe it or not, it helped me do my air shift much better.

Reason being, while you know you (hopefully lol) have thousands tuning in, having someone or several people there, it brought what you do to another level. I always wondered how the person on the other end of my mic was reacting to things I did. This gave me the chance to see it for myself.

Before I got into the radio business, I was a big contest winner. WFUN, then WMYQ. I won so much, I think I was one of the reasons they started the contest rules that you could only win once in so many days. I'd go down to WMYQ every few weeks to pick up albums, t-shirts, and on ocassion, money. Everytime I went, I had them take me to the air studio to say hello to whom ever was on the air at the time. They knew me by name at that point. I'd call in the afternoon drive jock and start shooting ideas for weekend promotions and other on air stuff. One day I met the PD and said "You know, it would be cheaper to hire me than to give me all this free stuff". A few weeks later, I was hired to work in the research dept. (making call outs to survey people on what they listened to), which opened the door to hanging out in the studio in my off hours (at that time the egos weren't so large that the jock was too important to show you the ropes) & making mock airchecks in the production studio.

I worked their after school during the week, and lived there on the weekends. Lee Logan, who was PD at the time, also did a Saturday morning shift. Somehow, I talked him into letting me board op his show. He loved the idea, because all he had to do was talk from the other studio while I did all the work. That's how I perfected my board work. One thing led to another, and soon enough, I got my first weekend air shift, and the rest they say..................is history.

THEY JUST DON'T RUN RADIO STATIONS LIKE THEY USED TO

AMERICAN TOP40DJ