transmission
Not to date myself too severely, but back in my youth of the late '80s and early '90s, I was a D.J. A disc jockey. A broadcast professional. The seed of my brief career in broadcasting began when I volunteered at WEOS 89.7/90.3 FM, the public radio station at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY (http://www.weos.org). The current jockey of this Saturday night rock/metal show was shortly departing to hit the road with some minor league bands to do their concert lighting. So, I made myself available, came in, and took over. And what a blast it was...
Starting in February of 1987, from 9:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. (but often later), I would plant my teenage self behind the control panel and microphone at WEOS. When I started in radio, we were still using turntables. For any young 'uns out there, back then turntables were used for much more than scratching and samples in rap and house music - they were integral to the industry. It was only the dawn of the compact disc age, and that new-fangled form of digital technology had not yet saturated the marketplace or radio profession. By mid-1988, however, it had, and the studio was soon equipped with a bulky CD player.
Every Saturday night I would sign on and spin my favorite music. As I stated, it was volunteer, so I was not paid, but I did get free records, compact discs, and promotional merchandise. A whole gigantic slew of records, compact discs, and promotional merchandise. After a couple years, I owned a dozen crates filled with record albums. As we trudged toward the end of the decade, my CD collection inflated and multiplied enormously, as well. No one else at the station was interested in "my" music. So, anything ranging from the Cro-Mags and Slayer to Jane's Addiction and Skinny Puppy came my way without question. No, I was not paid with money, but I rarely had to buy any music whatsoever, unless it was an import. In that case, there would be a New York State Thruway trek to Lakeshore Records in Rochester to pick up that particular release... to play on the show.
I was creative with the show's content, playing a hybrid of tunes that ranged the underground music gamut - New York Hardcore like the aforementioned 'Mags, avant-garde metal (Celtic Frost and Voivod), crossover post-punk (Corrosion of Conformity, D.R.I.), alternative rock (a relatively new term back in the '80s) like Jane's Addiction, Faith No More, and Ministry, the early days of grunge (Mother Love Bone, Soundgarden, Green River), punk (Dead Kennedys, The Exploited, Agnostic Front), and aggressive, dead-ahead metal (Metallica, Anacrusis, Hirax) . The whole time I would intersperse the songs with movie quotes I recorded from VHS tapes, like Heathers, Taxi Driver and The Evil Dead II. I'd even toss in intermittent absurdist humor bits from various Monty Python albums. I liked to consider my show innovative and experimental, even if it was just some kid's local college radio show with fourteen listeners and broadcasting from some dinky college dorm basement. Hell, you can pick up WEOS on the Internet, now...
While attending college, through one of my broadcasting classes, I secured a mandatory internship at the Adult Contemporary radio station WSFW 99.3 FM/1110 AM in Seneca Falls, NY. The internship quickly evolved into paid part-time employment. Okay, the pay wasn't great, but hey, it was my first professional job. At the time it seemed more respectable than my other job as a stockboy at the village supermarket.
Now, about "Adult Contemporary" - it's a far cry from what I was pounding out on Saturday nights at WEOS. At WSFW, I had to adhere to their professional broadcasting guidelines - regular breaks, preparing and reading newscasts, producing commercials and Public Service Announcements, weather reports (the weather is big in upstate New York), and playing music that was antipodean of my tastes. Yes, at WSFW I would play Phil Collins, Gloria Estefan, James Ingram, Will to Power, England Dan and John Ford Coley ("I'd Really Love to See You Tonight"), Dan Fogelberg, Mariah Carey (the early years), Whitney Houston, and on and on... Thankfully the music was pre-recorded on huge reel-to-reel tapes, and I never really had to make a decision on what to play - I just had to make sure it was being played.
No complaints, though - the job at WSFW proved a valuable experience, and it was also relatively simple work. After all, I was a trained professional in a small market of the broadcast industry, and if I might say so, damned good at my job.
Eventually, it all came to an end. I applied to another school and was accepted. Except Buffalo was not quite convenient to home - I was not keen on a two hour drive to the Finger Lakes every Saturday to do a radio show, and then endure the same trek back to Buffalo on Sunday. So in January of '90 I handed the reins over to my pal Joe, who had attended school with me (for broadcasting, as well). Joe took over and kept the show alive, and it continues to this day, believe it or not. My old show has developed into something of an ensemble cast of personalities and lots and lots of heavy metal, and has switched time-slots (from Saturday at 9:00 to Friday at 9:00).
So there I was at Buffalo State College and - get this - their campus station, WBNY, would not give me a radio show time-slot without passing a 24 hour training session. This was 24 hours over the course of a week or two (whenever my schedule allowed). I had to scoff at this. I mean, come on - I had been in both college and professional radio for three years and these people wanted me to prove my aptitude? I felt I should have been the exception ( and I still do). Blame it on youthful braggadocio, but I smirked, sneered, gibed - and took a gig reading the news instead. That required no preposterous 24 hour indoctrination period.
Miles and years from WEOS and Buffalo now, I still look back at those buoyant days and nights of youth with a great amount of fondness. And yes, I miss that little radio show at WEOS that still means so much to me - it was unbridled creativity - and I like to think that much of that creativity has transposed itself into my present-day writing and film endeavors.
So on a chilly, dank Friday night here in New York City, roughly fifteen years down the line, and Joe's show tuned in via the Internet, I tip my cap (collecting dust in the hallway closet) to WEOS and college radio everywhere.
Starting in February of 1987, from 9:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. (but often later), I would plant my teenage self behind the control panel and microphone at WEOS. When I started in radio, we were still using turntables. For any young 'uns out there, back then turntables were used for much more than scratching and samples in rap and house music - they were integral to the industry. It was only the dawn of the compact disc age, and that new-fangled form of digital technology had not yet saturated the marketplace or radio profession. By mid-1988, however, it had, and the studio was soon equipped with a bulky CD player.
Every Saturday night I would sign on and spin my favorite music. As I stated, it was volunteer, so I was not paid, but I did get free records, compact discs, and promotional merchandise. A whole gigantic slew of records, compact discs, and promotional merchandise. After a couple years, I owned a dozen crates filled with record albums. As we trudged toward the end of the decade, my CD collection inflated and multiplied enormously, as well. No one else at the station was interested in "my" music. So, anything ranging from the Cro-Mags and Slayer to Jane's Addiction and Skinny Puppy came my way without question. No, I was not paid with money, but I rarely had to buy any music whatsoever, unless it was an import. In that case, there would be a New York State Thruway trek to Lakeshore Records in Rochester to pick up that particular release... to play on the show.
I was creative with the show's content, playing a hybrid of tunes that ranged the underground music gamut - New York Hardcore like the aforementioned 'Mags, avant-garde metal (Celtic Frost and Voivod), crossover post-punk (Corrosion of Conformity, D.R.I.), alternative rock (a relatively new term back in the '80s) like Jane's Addiction, Faith No More, and Ministry, the early days of grunge (Mother Love Bone, Soundgarden, Green River), punk (Dead Kennedys, The Exploited, Agnostic Front), and aggressive, dead-ahead metal (Metallica, Anacrusis, Hirax) . The whole time I would intersperse the songs with movie quotes I recorded from VHS tapes, like Heathers, Taxi Driver and The Evil Dead II. I'd even toss in intermittent absurdist humor bits from various Monty Python albums. I liked to consider my show innovative and experimental, even if it was just some kid's local college radio show with fourteen listeners and broadcasting from some dinky college dorm basement. Hell, you can pick up WEOS on the Internet, now...
While attending college, through one of my broadcasting classes, I secured a mandatory internship at the Adult Contemporary radio station WSFW 99.3 FM/1110 AM in Seneca Falls, NY. The internship quickly evolved into paid part-time employment. Okay, the pay wasn't great, but hey, it was my first professional job. At the time it seemed more respectable than my other job as a stockboy at the village supermarket.
Now, about "Adult Contemporary" - it's a far cry from what I was pounding out on Saturday nights at WEOS. At WSFW, I had to adhere to their professional broadcasting guidelines - regular breaks, preparing and reading newscasts, producing commercials and Public Service Announcements, weather reports (the weather is big in upstate New York), and playing music that was antipodean of my tastes. Yes, at WSFW I would play Phil Collins, Gloria Estefan, James Ingram, Will to Power, England Dan and John Ford Coley ("I'd Really Love to See You Tonight"), Dan Fogelberg, Mariah Carey (the early years), Whitney Houston, and on and on... Thankfully the music was pre-recorded on huge reel-to-reel tapes, and I never really had to make a decision on what to play - I just had to make sure it was being played.
No complaints, though - the job at WSFW proved a valuable experience, and it was also relatively simple work. After all, I was a trained professional in a small market of the broadcast industry, and if I might say so, damned good at my job.
Eventually, it all came to an end. I applied to another school and was accepted. Except Buffalo was not quite convenient to home - I was not keen on a two hour drive to the Finger Lakes every Saturday to do a radio show, and then endure the same trek back to Buffalo on Sunday. So in January of '90 I handed the reins over to my pal Joe, who had attended school with me (for broadcasting, as well). Joe took over and kept the show alive, and it continues to this day, believe it or not. My old show has developed into something of an ensemble cast of personalities and lots and lots of heavy metal, and has switched time-slots (from Saturday at 9:00 to Friday at 9:00).
So there I was at Buffalo State College and - get this - their campus station, WBNY, would not give me a radio show time-slot without passing a 24 hour training session. This was 24 hours over the course of a week or two (whenever my schedule allowed). I had to scoff at this. I mean, come on - I had been in both college and professional radio for three years and these people wanted me to prove my aptitude? I felt I should have been the exception ( and I still do). Blame it on youthful braggadocio, but I smirked, sneered, gibed - and took a gig reading the news instead. That required no preposterous 24 hour indoctrination period.
Miles and years from WEOS and Buffalo now, I still look back at those buoyant days and nights of youth with a great amount of fondness. And yes, I miss that little radio show at WEOS that still means so much to me - it was unbridled creativity - and I like to think that much of that creativity has transposed itself into my present-day writing and film endeavors.
So on a chilly, dank Friday night here in New York City, roughly fifteen years down the line, and Joe's show tuned in via the Internet, I tip my cap (collecting dust in the hallway closet) to WEOS and college radio everywhere.
posted by Walls Falling at 11:22 PM
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