Worst Broadcast Day... Ever

[bigdaddyonb97]

It seems like sometimes, no matter how hard I try to fit the circle peg into the square hole, it just won't go.

I'm sure we've all felt this way from one time or another about our on-air product. Today was that day for me. Just couldn't feel the vibe... get into the groove... Yes, I couldn't even pick up what I was laying down... (brother)

Anyway, I thought it would be fun for some of us to share some "worst on air day" stories... lord knows I've got a few...

Thanks and I look forward to reading the replies.

Big Daddy

 

[Ozman]

one of my best was when I left My laptop to run WWLR for a few hours while I went Mountain Biking on The Kingdom Trails up in Burke VT. I had one song a black sabbath song that was live and Ozzy loves to swear in many of his live songs... Luckly, the dj's that were next showed up early and cut the song just after it had begun... talk about luck! wow was that a very close call. since then I have taken extra steps like not putting songs on that have not played at least 10 times and my newest project putting songs from my Ibook G4 song by song to my MacBook checking lyrics and listenening to them as well as playing them on the air but when you have a playlist of 5,000 songs plus 15,000 songs to reveiw that are rock, metal, deep tracks of classic rock it takes a long time

another time was when I put our automation on "live assist" and left to go to class whoops!

-OZ

 

[mistermicrophone]

It seems like sometimes, no matter how hard I try to fit the circle peg into the square hole, it just won't go.

I'm sure we've all felt this way from one time or another about our on-air product. Today was that day for me. Just couldn't feel the vibe... get into the groove... Yes, I couldn't even pick up what I was laying down... (brother)

Anyway, I thought it would be fun for some of us to share some "worst on air day" stories... lord knows I've got a few...

Thanks and I look forward to reading the replies.

Big Daddy

I fell alseep doing an overnight while we were still running carts and CD's...started American Pie and figured I had 8 minutes to "rest"...about 55 minutes later I woke up...that's when I fell in love with Dunkin' Donuts coffee!!

 

[True Grit]

after 29 years, too many to count One that stands out (from 20+ years ago) is a remote at a winter carnival at a lake. Our bag phone pooched, and I had to ask a campowner to use their phone. I have NEVER been on a remote when everything went perfectly, even if it was something as seemingly inconsequential as not having a notepad or enough duct tape. There's always something....

 

[Ozman]

for moble remotes
the CDMA VS GSM cell phone is a big issue up here in VT...
especially when it has come to doing sports games

Have one as your primary, then get one pre-paid with the different band as a back-up.

a good example is in Downtown lyndonville their is no GSM, but their is CDMA no problem, the oppisite goes for my appartment in Saint Johnsbury, plenty of GSM but barely any CDMA near exit 21

another one is in Barton on I-91 exit 25 no CDMA bit plenty of GSM

... I have CDMA....

 

[1976]

That brings back memories- One station I worked for (back in the day) played music on cart. Had 7 in sequence. The night jock loaded up all 7, called his buddy down at the convenience store and told him to call the business line when he heard the song in cart 7. He then curled up on the couch in the lobby and waited on his buddy to call. Apparently it was a busy nite at 7-11 and his friend missed it.
Eventually the business line did ring, and the conversation went: "W---. Hey, how many times are you gonna play those same songs?". How many times have you heard this one? Three. Oh sh--!" Click.

 

[chris560]

I was doing Overnights on a little AM in central Mass. The bathrooms were out of our "Office Suite" so you had to go out into a common area in the building to "P". (Know where THIS one's going??) Yep, locked myself out of the station. Obviously in the early 80's cell-phones didn't exist so after pacing around in the hallway for about 5 minutes I realized I had to do SOMETHING! The 45 I was playing (yep, a 45) was in the dead groove and clicking away on the air. Grabbed a chair and smashed it through the front door. Next day, while they were replacing the glass they installed a keypad.

 

[argytunes]

I think ALL of us have had a bad day or two in broadcasting.

The trick is...Don't take out your frustrations on your listeners (or viewers)! They really don't care about our problems...they just want to be entertained, informed or BOTH! ;D

argytunes

 

[Erie_Lackawanna]

Argy - you know i love you, bud... just what the heck does your reply have to do with this thread?

Seriously - explain?

We're thinking along the lines of when doing a remote at the Yarmouth Clam Festival and the local kids climb the tree and pull the power plug on the WGAN Winnebago.

Or reading live copy when Dick Johnson comes in the studio and sets it on fire.

Or like Larry King's classic radio story of how when he was working at a Classical Station and got an invitation too-good-to-refuse from a lady listener, put on an entire LP side and thought he had it all timed out only to discover when he got back in his car to return to the station that the LP side had been skipping for ten minutes...

there are "bad days" in radio. some of them, in this case, call for reflection and a smile to go along with them.

i'm sure you've got at least ONE of those to share.

 

[santa_cerveza]

For me, there've been a few, but one stands out. Without going into too much detail:

Don't ever, ever play The Nails' "44 Lines About 11 Women" on the air. Ever.

I did without screening it. I screen every unknown song I play now.

(Incidentally, after I realized my mistake, I spent a good 20-25 uninterrupted minutes on-mic complaining about my job, my lousy pay, and life in general to my listeners. After that I screamed obscenities at every caller before hanging up on them. At the time I was sure they loved it, but now I'm second-guessing myself. Was that wrong? Should I not have done that?) ;D

 

[argytunes]

Argy - you know i love you, bud... just what the heck does your reply have to do with this thread?

Seriously - explain?

We're thinking along the lines of when doing a remote at the Yarmouth Clam Festival and the local kids climb the tree and pull the power plug on the WGAN Winnebago.

Or reading live copy when Dick Johnson comes in the studio and sets it on fire.

Or like Larry King's classic radio story of how when he was working at a Classical Station and got an invitation too-good-to-refuse from a lady listener, put on an entire LP side and thought he had it all timed out only to discover when he got back in his car to return to the station that the LP side had been skipping for ten minutes...

there are "bad days" in radio. some of them, in this case, call for reflection and a smile to go along with them.

i'm sure you've got at least ONE of those to share.

Erie..

My point was this. A jock shouldn't let his or her personal frustrations (like being locked out of the studio or inside a bathroom) get out over the airwaves so listeners can hear them.

argytunes

 

[radiothis!]

How 'bout this: a jock shouldn't let his personal frustrations bleed out into a message board. I think just about anyone smart enough to hold a job in radio knows better than to "give the inside story" when they make a mistake, so seriously, no one needs a lecture on good radio practice.

In my humble opinion, half the fun of radio is being able to make a big mistake...and then play it off like it never happened. In college, I had a gig at a commercial station. The PD liked me and gave me a chance to fill in on the morning show. I was pretty thrilled, but really afraid I'd sleep through the alarm clocks (for a college student 8am is early--4am? That was crazy talk!). So I set about 4 clocks. I still woke up 10 minutes late. Rushed into the studio, let the song roll down, opened the mic, said good morning...and looked up to see the real host standing in the doorway. See...I was a week early! Guess that's better than being a week late!

Not the best story, but otherwise, life has been fairly uneventful. Wish I knew more about Dick Johnson lighting your copy on fire, Mr. Erie. That sounds like a great story!

(p.s. Erie-Lackawanna like the railroad? Didn't know you were a train buff? Or are you referring to the region in W.NY?)

 

[Oldbones]

Don't ever, ever play The Nails' "44 Lines About 11 Women" on the air. Ever.

I did without screening it. I screen every unknown song I play now.

I'll go ya one better. This happened to me in the early 70s at a station in the UV that will go un-named. It was kind of a chicken-rock format, but we played some album cuts too. Nilsson's "Son of Schmillson" album had just come out and was in the studio. Safe enough act, right? Anyone familiar with that album knows where this is going...I picked "You're Breaking My Heart" to play, auditioned a little bit of it but managed to miss the (very blatant) F-bombs. Oops!

(Incidentally, after I realized my mistake, I spent a good 20-25 uninterrupted minutes on-mic complaining about my job, my lousy pay, and life in general to my listeners. After that I screamed obscenities at every caller before hanging up on them. At the time I was sure they loved it, but now I'm second-guessing myself. Was that wrong? Should I not have done that?) ;D

Was this intentional or was the mic on & you were unaware of it?

Had something like that happen to me at the aforementioned station. There was something wrong with the console where if you turned off the mic fader the speakers would un-mute, but the mic would sometimes still be live. The other jocks knew about this and always turned the mic fader down when they turned it off just to be safe. I was the new guy, and they forgot to mention this. Nothing inappropriate got on the air, but I did get a couple calls from listeners telling me that I'd forgotten to turn off the mic during songs.

 

[santa_cerveza]

Was this intentional or was the mic on & you were unaware of it?

Had something like that happen to me at the aforementioned station. There was something wrong with the console where if you turned off the mic fader the speakers would un-mute, but the mic would sometimes still be live. The other jocks knew about this and always turned the mic fader down when they turned it off just to be safe. I was the new guy, and they forgot to mention this. Nothing inappropriate got on the air, but I did get a couple calls from listeners telling me that I'd forgotten to turn off the mic during songs.

Naah, Oldbones, it didn't really happen. I was just playfully poking fun at Argytunes for posting off-topic in the thread. Everyone's talking about their worst on-air experiences - the ones that make them cringe to this day - and he's talking about how jocks shouldn't vent their frustrations on the air. Which to me is a given. Any pro should be able to swallow their emotions before keying the mic, right? No offense intended, Argy.

 

[mistermicrophone]

Erie..

My point was this. A jock shouldn't let his or her personal frustrations (like being locked out of the studio or inside a bathroom) get out over the airwaves so listeners can hear them.

argytunes

I disagree. EVERYONE has bad days. A good jock can take personal experiences and make them entertaining to fit the format they are in while making a connection with the listeners (without sounding like they are bitching). Getting locked out is a FUNNY story...hating your boss is relatable...waking up late...losing money in the vending machine...I could go on with everyday things that happen to everyone and good jocks know how to make good content out of those things.

 

[Butters925]

[

[/quote]
Getting locked out is a FUNNY story...hating your boss is relatable...waking up late...losing money in the vending machine...I could go on with everyday things that happen to everyone and good jocks know how to make good content out of those things.
[/quote]

WOW? Did you work for WRED Too???? That sounded like a typical day........
Anyways back in 93 I was at WIDE AM 1400.....yea yeah i know just about everyone has worked there.....Anyways it was a Sunday morning and I spun one of the pods a little fast into cue, it normally would stop.....not that morning. It just kept spinning! While it was spinning it shorted out the board. So not thinking clearly at that early morning I call the Engineer, Well I actually flipped a coin on who I would call Gene or Andy! Andy lost.....I was unaware my ops mgr was coming back from church and heard the silence. He got there about the time andy was calling in to see what the problem was!.....Andy's cure was simple......First patch into other studio....like i said it was too early to process this stuff! Second thing andy said was for my ops mgr to bounce a brick off my head for calling him that early on a Sunday Morning!

Oh and a I got caught getting a.....well....hmm...how do I say this tastefully? A certain morning show host who i worked with happen to walk in the studio while my girlfriend was practicing her Oral Skills.....Thank god this certain former co worker was a ditz and claims they saw nothing.....


Oh and I heard about the script fires on Johnson....too funny!!!

 

[Erie_Lackawanna]

Not the best story, but otherwise, life has been fairly uneventful. Wish I knew more about Dick Johnson lighting your copy on fire, Mr. Erie. That sounds like a great story!

(p.s. Erie-Lackawanna like the railroad? Didn't know you were a train buff? Or are you referring to the region in W.NY?)

Erie Lackawanna - think "Animal House" where Bluto passes out the pins to the newest Deltas and bestows upon them their new names. 1968, neighborhood pirate station run by the "older kids" took me under their wing and let me live the dream. One of the elders was Finster Binstley. Station Manager (kid in whose bedroom said pirate was located) was Ferd Berferd. I was dubbed Erie Lackawanna. No reason.

The copy-on-fire happened to just about anyone who ever held tinder-dry AP Copy in their hands while doing a cast - news, sports or otherwise. Dick Johnson did it to Don Huff, which was in return for Don doing it a few days earlier (Don has told this to folks on occasion). And I think Frank Fixaris set his own copy on fire one day with a lit butt burning on the top edge of a cart deck.

A great story recalled and re-told by the late Cousin Bob involved his morning thing in Portsmouth. Out of the news, newsguy (Don?) tossed it to Bob. Bob hit the cart and nothing happened. While chatting about the lack of music with his newsguy, Cousin removed the cart and remarked about the unravelled tape that "Look at this thing, it's all f---d up." Bob went on to explain later that he didn't even realize "it" had slipped out, and didn't know why, at the time, that his newsguy's jaw was on the floor. He was amazed that there was not ONE phone call - at that time or any other. Bob's easy-going demeanor more than likely left anyone who thought they heard something unusual thinking ... "nah..."

In Biddeford, about which the nightmares (now funny) are plentiful simply owing to the age and condition of the facility and equipment... new young buck broadcaster, younger brother of a CBS RadioRadio VP, didn't have the patch cords properly located for the EBS Tones. yes, he cracked the mic and did his own.

And with a show of hands: How many here were victims of your buddy or co-worker lifting the arm off of your ready-to-roll-slip-cued record as you were nailing the call letters to let the disc fly?

Or how many hit the cart to play a tune, talked it up and turned off the mic at the post only to hear the song end perfectly cold one or two seconds later? (Think "Heart Of Gold" by Neil Young) Long before Ashton, many of us got "Punk'd" by production wizards such as Argy and Nick.

 

[FeedJake]

Speaking of "punk'd," and the "AP copy on fire" pranks, it reminded me of one of my favorite pranks I ever pulled on a co-worker.

I would write the sports copy for myself, and the co-host of the Oldies station across the hall. TRANSLATION...I would do my work, and he'd just take a copy of it. Couple that with the fact that he knew NOTHING about New England sports.

So....this particular morning, I wrote the usual Sox, Pats, Bruins, Celtics sports copy, but on HIS copy, I wrote one additional story about how the Patriots agreed to terms with veteran cornerback Heywood Jablowme.

Yes....he read it.....all the way through....on an Oldies station.

I nearly pooped my pants from laughing so hard.

 

[12 In a Row]

Speaking of "punk'd," and the "AP copy on fire" pranks, it reminded me of one of my favorite pranks I ever pulled on a co-worker.

I would write the sports copy for myself, and the co-host of the Oldies station across the hall. TRANSLATION...I would do my work, and he'd just take a copy of it. Couple that with the fact that he knew NOTHING about New England sports.

So....this particular morning, I wrote the usual Sox, Pats, Bruins, Celtics sports copy, but on HIS copy, I wrote one additional story about how the Patriots agreed to terms with veteran cornerback Heywood Jablowme.

Yes....he read it.....all the way through....on an Oldies station.

I nearly pooped my pants from laughing so hard.

Wow, thats professional and mature.

 

[FeedJake]

Sorry.

Maybe I shouldn't have said "poop."