Once upon a time, 30 years ago....

 

Is it unusual to know what you want to do for a living at such a young age?  Because I was about 13 years old.  I was obsessed with a radio station called “Hot 95.9, WNPQ.”  I knew the names of all the radio personalities and when they worked.  I occasionally would call in to the request line to request songs.  One DJ put me on the air requesting “Baby, Don’t Treat Me Bad” by Firehouse.  The morning show host was “The Big Daddy” Mike Adams, and I would call in to play games and win prizes.  I was the proud owner of a Nelson cassette tape and a Vanilla Ice cassette tape because I won the “5 In 10” game. 

A few years later, the owner of the station decided to “flip” the format and one day I turned on the station and it was playing a Carly Simon song.  I was heartbroken.  I kept periodically tuning into the station hoping it was all just a cruel joke, but sadly, it was gone forever.  Little did I know that I experienced my first harsh lesson on the “reality” of the business of radio, but my teenage self was too naïve to comprehend it.  I was still hooked on radio but now I didn’t really have an outlet for my passion.   

Not too much later, I’m 15 years old and a high school sophomore.  My school is hosting a “career day”, and I’m very interested in attending the session hosted by Mr. Bob Scanlon, the general manager of WJER Radio in Dover, OH.  He talked about the ins and outs of the radio station and answered questions from students but the only thing I remember about that day is what Bob said at the end of the hour.  “If anyone here is interested in a career in radio, get in touch with me.  We’ll talk.” 

That was all the motivation I needed.  It’s hard to specifically remember, but I believe I wrote Bob a letter, thanking him for his time to attend career day at my school and indicating to him that I was inspired by what he said at the end of the session.  I AM interested in a career in radio, how do I get started?

I think what happened is I waited two weeks and then I followed up on my letter.  I called WJER’s business line and asked to talk to Bob.  I might as well have been calling a girl to ask her on a date.  I was practically hyperventilating.  If I remember correctly, I wrote down everything I was going to say and was prepared to read it word-for-word. 

Bob picked up the phone.  (How rare is that these days?  Anytime I have to call someone, if I DON’T get their voicemail I’m thrown off).  Bob received my letter and not only knew who I was, he invited me to come to the radio station to meet him and get a tour and talk about what I could do for them.  At this point in my life, it’s probably the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me.  And as it turns out, it set my life on a course that I’ve never deviated from. 

My Mom drove me to the radio station one afternoon after school and decided to wait for me in the parking lot.  She loves to tell people that she thought I’d be in there for about 20 minutes and I’d come out to tell her that I’d be mowing the radio station’s lawn once a week.  Instead, I came out TWO HOURS LATER with the agreement that I’d “shadow” the employees of the radio station for an indefinite period of time.  They were going to train me to be a “DJ”.  If Instagram were invented back then, I would have posted a pic of me standing next to the radio station and my caption would have been something like, “IS THIS REAL LIFE?” with a mind-blown emoji and of course, #blessed.

That was pretty much my spring and summer of 1991.  I would go over to WJER almost every day after school and sit in the control room and watch and talk to the DJ’S.  To their credit, every one of them was so nice and so gracious to me, some of whom I keep in touch with to this day.  Honestly, I wasn’t mature or self-aware enough yet to think that I might have been annoying and a distraction to these people that are trying to do their jobs.  But that entire summer I just absorbed as much as I could, learning the technical side as well as going into the production room every day and “pretending” to do a radio show.  There was tons of practice; I was far from perfect, but that summer I embedded myself into the fabric of that radio station.  They weren’t going to get rid of me, even if they wanted to.  I was going to keep hanging around until I got a job.  My high school “internship” lasted about 5 or 6 months.  (Which today would be absolutely unheard of.  It might even be illegal.  I won’t get into the merits of unpaid internships in this space, but the fact remains that I wouldn’t be where I am today without it.)

Finally, in August of 1991, my big break.  WJER’s FM station decided to add a syndicated show on Sunday afternoons and they needed a board op.  It was Dick Bartley’s “American Gold”.  (oldies).  Basically, it was delivered every week by mail in CD form.  There were 4 CD’s, one CD for every hour of the 4 hour show.  Each CD had 4 cuts on it.  After track 1, I would air the local commercials and then turn on the CD player again to play track 2 and so on and so forth for 4 hours.  And after every third track, I was supposed to READ THE WEATHER FORECAST LIVE ON THE AIR!!!  It was awesome.  What a rush.  I still remember how nervous I was to turn on my microphone for the first time to tell everyone that the valley would be cloudy and 65 overnight, sunny and 85 tomorrow.  Oh my God, the exhilaration.

There was no stopping me now.  I kept my weekly Sunday afternoon board op/weather reader job but would still drop by the radio station and hang out any chance I could get.  I still wanted to have my own “show” where I could talk over and in-between the songs.  I had enough of practicing; I wanted to try the real thing.

In December 1991, I had another fortunate opportunity.  Randy Fox, the morning guy on the AM station got sick with pneumonia!  Not so great for him, obviously, but it worked out fortuitously for me.  I was already on holiday break from school so I had lots of free time on my hands.  To cover for Randy, everyone moved down one shift and WJER asked me to cover OVERNIGHTS!!!  For a WEEK!!!  They asked a 16 year old high school kid to come in and work from MIDNIGHT to 6AM!!!  And I DID IT and I LOVED IT!!!  For the first time in my life, with probably about 2-3 people listening in the Tuscarawas County area, I had my OWN SHOW and got to pick all the songs and talk LIVE on the radio!!  I have absolutely no recordings of me doing it, and most likely if I were able to go back and listen to what I sounded like, I’d be HORRIFIED, but that’s essentially how I got my start.  After that, I became the “fill-in” guy whenever someone was sick or on vacation, and a few months later, they gave me my own show on the FM station.  This was CRAZY.  I had just turned 17 years old, I was a junior in high school, I had a math class that ended at 2:42pm and I had a radio show that started at 3PM.  Luckily, it was a small town, so my commute was only six minutes.

I should also mention that working at WJER, while so much fun and opened up so many doors, gave me literally no street cred in my high school.  This radio station specialized in news and sports and I wasn’t familiar with about 75 percent of the music they played.  (Cat Stevens, “Morning Has Broken”.  Barbara Streisand. Gordon Lightfoot.  The Carpenters.  I think they programmed to area nursing homes.)  I can’t accurately describe to you how difficult it was to introduce a song that I’ve never heard of or not 100 percent sure I was even pronouncing the artist’s name correctly (which sometimes I didn’t).  And of course, literally none of the girls in my high school cared, even though I kept dedicating James Taylor songs to them. 

At WJER, I received a complete radio EDUCATION, along with completing my high school education at the same time.  I couldn’t have asked for a better situation to be in.  I learned so much, from the technical side to finding ways to challenging myself and most importantly, how to act like a professional.  I was there for 3 years total, until 1994 when I left for college full-time at the main campus of Kent State University. 

And this is where the story ends, at least for today.  It was fun for me to reflect on some of these memories, thinking back on how this long radio journey began.  Because in a way, I’ve gone back to the start.  After 20 years of being away from Ohio and family, I’ve come back to the area where it all began, and just in time to celebrate this 30^th anniversary.  (I haven’t even worked in radio since November of last year, am I even allowed to commemorate it?  Will there be an asterisk on this 30^th year?  I don’t know the answer to that question.  I don’t know if anyone can answer that question or if anyone besides me even cares about this stuff.)

Zooming out even further, as my absence from radio stretches into this 9^th month, I can’t help but wonder: does it end here?  Did my career already end and I haven’t realized it yet?  Obviously, radio looks nothing remotely like it did in 1991. It’s more corporate, more soulless, and it’s been declining for years.  On the job front, my age probably doesn’t work in my favor.  My resume might make someone think that they can’t afford me. I’m trying to stay as realistic as I can about my career, even if my ego takes a bruising.  The fact of the matter is this:  2 other companies in Phoenix interviewed me after I was let go, but both of them passed.  That certainly helped me make my decision to move back to Cleveland.  But even here, one station in Cleveland interviewed me, and they passed too.  Yes, I have severely limited my opportunities by only considering jobs in 2 cities, but the fact of the matter is that radio seems to be doing just fine without me. 

But here’s the juxtaposition of that statement which really has me pondering life right now.  As I type this, I’m sitting here in my backyard on a gorgeous Ohio evening.  My family is watching a movie in the park.  I visited my Dad earlier in the nursing home and I think we’re going to watch the Browns game together tomorrow.  Will just started fall baseball, and next week Drew begins fall soccer. I started “Sunday Dinners” at my house, and my entire family is invited over each week.  I’m catching up with all of my friends and I am having a blast.  I feel like I’m NEEDED here.  And of course, I am enjoying recording my podcast with Delaney and working on Lady La’s podcast and one of Dan Patrick’s podcasts.  But If the radio part of my career is indeed over, then there will always be a part of me that will always regret how it ended and how it couldn’t have been on my terms.  Then again, maybe it needed to end this way so I could experience a tremendous loss that enabled me to realize how many other parts of my life weren’t being nourished enough. 

Time will tell if I’ve really reached the finish line of my radio career.  But at this moment in my life, I am happier and more content than I’ve been in YEARS.  And really, isn’t that the damn point?