This has turned into quite the cathartic thread. It's like a freakin' AA meeting! I've enjoyed reading the comments from the regular posters along with the comments of guys I've known, admired and worked with over the years.
Al Wallack cracked me up with his recollections about "sparkin' one up" while listening to Harry Abraham, the all night jazz legend on WHAM. By the way, Al and I have known Jim Santella since, well, a helluva long time. I've never seen Jim smoke a cigarette much less herb. And, although he's too modest to admit it, Wallack was always one of the most conversationally smooth jazz jocks I ever listened to back in the day at WEBR.
Nick Seneca is way too self-critical. He's also one of the most erudite guys (and, to quote Wallack a few threads back, occasionally too hip for the room) to work the Country format.
Don Berns, as usual, shows the honesty and openess of a man who's content with himself and his body of work.
The comments about listening to old airchecks are also true. Old airchecks can be excrutiating, because any good jock worth his salt usually hears "something wrong" with what he's done, even though his friends will tell him it was a great bit or an outstanding talk-up... even if the jock himself liked the bit, it's NEVER perfect. You find a jock who listens to a five year old aircheck and thinks it was great and he's probably working at K-Drek in Flotsam River Junction.
I hate to get academic about this, but we're all products of our environment and those we've admired and emulated from our early years and the stations at which we've worked... and what we've done over the years. We get comfortable with certain elements.
Oh yeah, we also get quite deaf. That's DEAF, not def. Think about the deciBel pounding our ears take. Every jock I know in just about every format runs his headphones at warped volume... somewhere around the dB levels of a Who concert... this also affects the way we sound, the way we
think we sound and the way we
try to sound.
BTW, May is
National Better Hearing and Speech Month.
When Don Berns was at KB, he used to do a Saturday night show that was a clinic for aspiring jocks, especially guys like me who were working in the minors and/or in college radio at the time. I learned so much from listening to him on KB and later at WPHD. He's one of the most versatile personalities in the business, and his production is sterling. He's a ball buster, but also quite modest. And he still intentionally mangles my name, from Pasterik to Kasperzak.
One more perspective, consider what jocks hear and do as they introduce songs, read liners, do phoners and bits, backselling songs and talking over intros and talking with their co-hosts and callers. Any jock, in
any format is going to be affected by the format itself, the music he's (she's) playing, it's tempo, the amount of time alloted for things like liners in commercial breaks, the rules or conventions about quarter hour maintenance and other variables.
Variables, for example, might be working the day of the Virginia Tech shootings or the Challenger space shuttle tragedy. On the other end of the spectrum, consider the energy level and aura the day after the Sabres or Bills win a big playoff game or giving a contest winner a new car.
Over the years, I've listened to all kinds of jocks in every format doing their acts and procticing their craft, from News-Talkers like Tom Bauerle to CHR guys like DJ Anthony to AOR guys like Jim Santella. I've also had the chance to talk at length to guys like Shane, Dan Neaverth, John Otto and Stan Roberts about their CRAFT and how they approach it. I only wish I could've recorded some of those conversations. Many of the posters and readers on this board would be fascinated and in some cases, genuinely surprised.
Finally, consider how jocks approach their work as they maintain energy level, momentum and their "acts" as they intro any one or all of the following songs:
"Take Five" the classic from Dave Brubeck
"Go All The Way" by The Raspberries
"When A Man Loves A Woman" the ultimate torch song by Percy Sledge
"Let's Get This Party Started" by Pink
"This Kiss" the multi-format crossover killer by Faith Hill
"Jailhouse Rock" from the King
"The Crunge" ("where's that confounded bridge") by Zep
"God Bless the USA" Lee Greenwood's patriotic anthem
We're all victims of our emotions.
As for me me? Hell, I've probably puked, cooked, and conversed my way through a number of intros, outros, liners, commercials and newscasts at a variety of stations over the years, from Top 40 to AOR to Classic Hits and Classic Rock, with a stopover at Country (WWOL-FM) and a stint at News-Talk. There are days when I don't know where my range is, whether it's A-flat or D-major. And the morning-throat-phlemballs are another trip. Today, I just try to do what's right and do my best while competing with some of the best radio talent, like "JP" and Roger Christian at stations like 97 Rock, Star, WJYE, and WYRK.
As I said, I didn't want to get too academic, and I apologize for this bloated post. A "screed" as Wallack might say.
