The Big Green House

Wednesday, April 09, 2003

 

The spirit of radio

This is a picture of me at 18. Yes, I was a teenage DJ. I had to take two busses and a BART train to get to the radio station, which was at a high school in another town, but I was happy to do it.

I had the Friday 3PM � 6PM shift. That�s right, baby: drivetime. The 6-9 shifts were actually more desirable, since they were unformatted. I was required to play those singles you see stacked in front of me on the console; I believe the order was DJ�s choice, red dot, yellow dot, DJ�s choice, green dot, red dot, DJ�s choice, and then start over again. Something like that, anyway. I was just pleased to be on the air. I had what fun I could within the format, although I did get a talking-to from management for following Olivia Newton-John�s �A Little More Love� with �Anarchy in the UK�. In general, though, I had a fair amount of leeway in what I could play.

Most of the albums visible I brought from home. Starting at 11 o�clock and working counter-clockwise we have: Bursting Out, a live album, now apparently out of print, by Jethro Tull; Queen�s News of the World; Obsession by UFO; Neil Young�s After the Gold Rush; and the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack. I believe the album directly on top of RHPS is AC/DC�s Powerage, although I can�t be certain.

Now that I�ve killed whatever credibility I might ever have had, let me remind you that I was 18 and living in the suburbs. Also, I believe I was the first at the station to play The Ramones, The Clash, and The B-52�s. Not that it really matters at this late date.

The studio itself was not much bigger than what you can see in the picture. There was a chair on the other side of the console for visitors. Those cartridges you see to my right were PSAs (Public Service Announcements) and promo spots for the various shows. (Those were a lot of fun to record; I got to destroy a copy of "Le Freak" on mine.) Behind the photographer (probably my girlfriend at the time, who was also chief engineer) was the record library � three seven-foot high racks of vinyl, if I recall correctly. I usually kept the lights pretty low during my shift (atmosphere, don�cha know), but I guess we turned them up for the picture.

It was all a great deal of fun. I really thought I�d found my niche in life, that I�d go on from there to some sleazy little commercial station that would let me spin what I wanted to. You have to remember that this was at the very tail end of the free-form radio era, long before the Clear Channels of the world completed the destruction of commercial radio. Of course stations had formats back then, but many DJ�s were still allowed to program their own music. You actually got a sense of the people spinning the tunes; what the morning guy (or gal � Marla in the Morning on KZAP was a personal fave) played was not going to be repeated on the evening show. In fact, most stations wouldn�t play a song more than once a day. Imagine that! You kids today are gettin� screwed in that respect.

So here�s to KZAP, KSAN, KSFM, and all the other stations whose call letters I can�t remember now. And here�s to KVHS, The Voice of Clayton Valley. Well, I guess they�re calling themselves The Edge these days. Whatever. More power to �em.

bmarkey 4/09/2003 09:26:00 PM