Alright folks, after some few requests and years of hold-out, I’m posting a couple of my old tapes of me-on-the-air for your listening amusement. These snap-shots of DJ work are called Airchecks. When looking for a new job, a move up in market size, a bigger paycheck and a larger audience, airchecks were included with the resume. Today, if I were looking to hire a new air talent, I could just tune him in on the web.
I really date myself here, kids. These two tapes are over forty years old. Starting as weekend DJ at 16, I was promoted to full-time night jock six months later. At 18, I became program director. My days with a daily air shift total of about a dozen years. For another seven years, I was an off-air PD, then I launched my programming consultancy business in ’83. That led to developing the first music scheduling software for the Mac, which evolved into the first scheduler for Windows. And today, Music 1 is helping young makers of music radio around the globe sound their very best. My good life in this business just keeps on keepin’ on.
In 1977, I was Program Director and Morning man at WGLF in Tallahassee where this was recorded. There are two you-had-to-be-there jokes in it. The back-story for one is: There were some rumblings that the African leader had, shall we say, eaten of human flesh among other atrocities. His countrymen (and ours) wanted him dead. The second line is about a then-new TV show, “Soap”. In it, actor Billy Crystal played the first openly gay character in a television sit-com.
WGLF / Gulf 104 Tallahassee 1977
Four years earlier I was doing the 8-11pm shift at KAAY in Little Rock, a station with a 50KW clear channel frequency. At night, it could be heard from upper Manitoba to Havana (the station had a fan club there, they sent letters of undying love.) We had to use station-given air names. My ego didn’t like that, but J J Stone was a ‘sticky’ DJ name that was easy for listeners to remember.