Here it is--Radio Stories

[amayo]

After some consultation, it has been decided that a thread for all radio stories might be a good idea. So--here we go.

I have many and will no doubt share them here in the future, but I'll start with a short one.

Back in the late 80's or early 90's (I honestly don't recall the year)--I was part of the team producing and broadcasting North Marion High School football. We went to Mondsville for a regualr season game and it was just nasty rain all day. Thuderstorms and wind you know the type. It was also very warm and early in the season, so tornadoes were around too. My partner Jeff Carpenter and I arrived and did all the normal pre-game stuff--then got ready for the game. Just as we kicked off, the heavens opened and it rained harder that I've ever seen for about 15 minutes. The first quarter was actually underway and John Marshall was leading by about 13 points when BOOM--lightning struck nearby and the power went out. With mercury vapor lights it takes a few minutes to get them back to full power so we knew it was going to be a while--it was--45 minutes to be exact. Meanwhile the rain continues to fall totally obliterating the windows of the press box, where it seemed hundreds of people were congregating trying to stay dry. As a result the windows were totally fogged INSIDE as well. The game eventually restarted but instead of picking up where they left off, the officials determined they must RESTART the game from the beginning--which North then proceeded to win by shutout...thoroughly pissing off the JM fans and coaches.

Now--I told you that story to tell you this one. During the rain delay. A smallish kid from JM was in the box with us--his job was to be a gofer and run stat sheets. Nice kid who had a ton of questions about radio and music. I enjoyed talking to him and was surprised when I found a letter several years ago thanking me for asnswering his questions. Signed Brad Paisley.

[amayo]

..and here's one I posted in another thread a while back.....

During the heyday of The Great 98 in Fairmont, we lost our ABC feed one morning. I went out back to check the dish, and found a huge hornet's nest had been built inside the LNA cover. There were too many of them for me to fight off, so I went back inside for some spray. However, all I could find was a can of circuit freezer in the engineering room. I grabbed that, and a really massive screwdriver, and went back outside. I got close enough to hit the nest with freezing spray, and the hornets came CASCADING out to the ground. There were hundreds, (or so it seemed at the time).

I used the screwdriver to ream out the nest, and began to withdraw. Just about that time, the hornets began to re-appear. Seems they were not dead, but just frozen. I was luck though, only got about five stings. I'm told the sight of me running and flailing away at the swarm was one of the most amusing sights ever seen.

[amayo]

..and yet another from early in my tenure at the Great 98....


I was doing nights not long after I started at WFGM, and was getting set to read a live PSA for the Preston County Buckwheat Festival over an intro. I was halfway into the reading, when our PD/engineer Mark Mayhugh toddled into the studio, throwing my delivery a bit. Instead of stopping, I did a 15-second PSA as Eddie Murphy DOING Buckwheat! Something like, "Da Pesdun Tanty Buh-weet Bestibal." You get the idea. I thought Mayhugh was gonna have to be peeled off the floor from laughing so hard. He did return the favor several weeks later along with our friend T.J. Jackson. The two of them double mooned me through the studio window as I went live. Needless to say, I lost it!
BTW--did you know a fart against a double pane studio window sounds like thunder!

[sportsvoice]

I have a few good ones from doing sports, such as the Athletic Director that pulled up and threw my game notes in the Dumpster because I left them on the ground while doing my business inside the wonderful porta-john that was their "facilities" at the baseball field.

[Clay JD Walker]

I once got in trouble for slapping station bumper stickers on stripper's asses...same station where I learned that I couldn't hold my whiskey and fell on some junk (at an undisclosed location). Still have a cool scar on my shoulder and a crappy nickname as a result. Let's see...Dustin Diamond used to gig a the Bone in Huntington, and not only had the pleasure of being a part of the morning show interviews with him, but also got to tote his ass around Huntington on the back of a pedal cab and shared many beers with him. That same encounter I leafed what happens if someone called him Screech.
My first night voicetracking another market, the wrong track was sent by engineering error, and the first break went like this...'96.9...W***...it's Clay and these g-d f'ing levels ain't right!!'...another crappy nickname resulted.
Kyle Petty came to the station for a radiothon and blew up the toilet by my office...of course...thinking it had been my smelly IT guy, I said something along the line of 'who s*** in here! Get a plunger and strike a match for Christ's sake!'

[Cameron]

.

[Bob Campbell]

Most embarassing moment ever, and I wouldn't tell it if there wasnt' video of it and a friend(?) who never lets me forget.
Akron, I'm doing Mornings at WONE, Classic Rock. Tim "Ripper" Owens is the lead singer of Judas Priest, the guy who replaced Rob Halford and the guy the movie "Rock Star" is loosely based on. He's from Akron, was a regular guest on the show. Priest is playing the Akron Ribfest in 2002, first gig in Akron with Tim singing. 10,000 people filling this downtown outdoor venue. Other 80's bands on the bill, including EnufZnuf. We're hanging in the dressing room with Chip Z'nuff(sp), who is a major,uh....herbal fan. We're keeping the client happy by partaking with him and talking about the glory days of 80's metal. We talk about how Priest and Scorpions and other bands were so huge.
So....I go up on stage to introduce Priest and proudly say to the entranced throng, "ladies and gentleman, please give a warm Akron welcome on his homecoming show, Ripper Owens and ....Scorpions....uh...Judas Priest"
It was one of those slow motion moments as I heard Scooorrrpiiioonsss coming out of my mouth. So I said Judas Priest and got my ass off the stage, hearing only thunderous applause and figuring nobody noticed.
90 seconds later my Promotions director is backstage laughing his ass off and yellling, "what a dumbass! and I got it all on video". He was in the pit shooting the footage. He plays it, I watch, still thinking, "at least nobody else noticed", when I hear from camera left, "what an asshole!" The camera pans and this guy up against the barrier yells,"what a dumb motherf'er!" and other assorted niceties.
Since then, my Promotions guy, who now is in Sacramento, has used that story on his bio page for every station he's worked at and he calls me regularly at 2 am to remind me. OY, I LOVE this biz.
We did wind up back at the Radisson after the show on the floor the bands were staying on partying like something out of "Almost Famous", so the night wasn't a total loss.

[Clay JD Walker]

Since Cameron brought up dick head moves, I will state that I have been known to, while a jock is out on a smoke break, to swap the monitors from 'fake off air' (realtime) to 'true off air' (23 second delay)...then look through the glass to see his confusion why the automation is stopped but the music is still playing.

Unplugging monitors from the other side of the console is fun...

Forgetting the artist's name while introing them on state is a blast...even more when you forget your airstaff's name...

[Scott Reppert]

Conrad wants to write a book. I should probably save all my stories for that...

[amayo]

Come on Scott--I know you must have ton of Nick stories! No guts--no glory! LOL

[Dave Loudin]

Since I didn't have much of a career, this is not much of a story, but...

Late summer of '78, I was doing a rip-n-read AP world news on WSGB one afternoon. The second or third story described the ongoing situation in Iran. I hadn't pre-read (shock!), so I was caught off guard by the name of the sect that Khomeni was part of. Fortunately, AP had a pronunciation guide, so I figured I'd pronounce SHIITE OK when I got to it.

The next day, one of the other DJs, as he strolled into the office, asked "How about those shitty Moslems?"

[engineer]

Engineering story.......Circa 1994, working at the time for the great Tschudy, the STL coax blew off the tower during a wind storm. It was 7/8" line tied on with nylon zip ties......
Anyway, I do not climb so the station manager wanted me to find someone to fix it. Well, nobody would work for them because they never paid their bills. Finally, the manager broke down and called the Fairmont Fire Department to see if they would bring up a ladder truck. I rolled on the floor laughing as she was talking to the fire chief. A few days later we found a sucker from Ohio that climbed up and fixed it. I don't think he ever got paid.

[engineer]

Another engineering story.....Circa 1994, agreed to check out a site in New Martinsville WV. The station owner was also in the restaurant business and owned several McDonalds. Stayed at the old New Martinsville Motor Lodge for two weeks (which is another story for later). I learned you can only eat McDonald’s food for about two days, even if it is free. I tried to help them as best as I could in the time I was there. The FM transmitter had a wandering RF output level. I found several "drain holes" drilled in the 1 5/8" coax with water dripping out after a rain storm. Went over to the AM site that was along the Ohio river and found the transmitter building with about a foot of water on the floor. Back at the studio, they reported very poor stereo reception and multipath. Nobody knew where the STL dish was, so I went on a treasure hunt only to find the dish laying on a desk in a small office. It was propped up with some boxes, and aimed out a window.

[640radio]

This didn't happen to me, but I heard it on the radio...and it was in West Virginia.

I was born and raised in Charleston and took a job after college at a small Virginia radio station. May weekends I drove home to visit family. On one Sunday afternoon I was listening to an AM station in the White Sulphur area.I don't recall which station. There had been a small plane crash involving a pilot from a small town near where I was working. The announcer had obviously not pre-read the news because you could hear him slow down as his eyes were moving ahead of his mouth and he spotted a word coming up that he didn't know how to pronounce. He paused, then forged ahead confident that he knew how to pronounce Bumpass, Virginia. He said Bump Ass, but that must not have sounded right as he paused to consider what he'd said. He didn't try any other version. Maybe he thought that might call attention to the likely mispronunciation. Then he moved on to more news.

The locals in Virginia pronounce it BUMP us. And this from Wikipedia: "It has received moderate fame for its unusual name. Named for the Bumpass family (from the French Bon Pas meaning "good step") who lived in the area when it was named."

Ross Hunter

[Dave Loudin]

With my fleeting expletive, I did not change tempo or inflection, so no calls afterwards. Well, perhaps that was a sign of how many listeners I had (parents don't count and cows don't have phones...)

[Tom Taggart]

RE: New Martinsville

Nice story, but much of it doesn't ring true. For one thing, the WETZ-AM building is too high to flood, though the roof leaked if it wasn't kept up. Had that place mostly rebuilt after an FCC inspection in late 1992, we took care of the engineering through June 95 under an LMA.

I do know by the late nineties they moved around those third floor studios, in the process disconnecting all the grounding (including copper strap run out of the "loft", over a roof, and down the back wall to a street level ground). Lightning took out several pieces of equipment.

[engineer]

hmm....what doesn't ring true? I guess you are right about the date. Looking back at my logs I was there in twice in July and August of 95, not 94. Nelson Hatchem was the owner; Andy Cannon was the PD and GM. And yes, I understand the river did not flood the building, but they obviously had a severe roof leak that was later repaired. Somewhere I have pictures of the water on the floor, and the old Harris transmitter. I remember tower was series fed with a strange arrangement of multiple copper straps suspended from the building over to the tower. Several people had their hands on the place before my arrival. The studios were on the third floor already when I arrived, and I never moved or changed any grounding that I can remember. What else was done and by whom, I don't know. I can tell you this. The place was a train wreck from studio to transmitter. The FM transmitter, Rockwell or Collins I believe, was in horrible condition, and yes, holes were drilled the in the line because water was getting into it somewhere on the tower. The STL was a nightmare. I'm not sure where the STL dish was when you left there, but it was not on the roof when I got there. It was inside the building! Nelson had a local guy install a pipe mast on the chimney. Another problem was the STL transmitter and receivers were different brands, one Moseley and one other strange brand. The bandwidths of the two did not match. The station had "no" stereo coverage beyond the transmitter site. The composite spectrum was trashed from 19 kHz up through 53 kHz. Nelson did finally buy a new low cost STL system. Anyway, somewhere I have some pictures of the place. It was one of the worst engineered radio stations I have ever worked at. I basically put a few band aids on some major problems. It all needed rebuilt from the ground up.

RE: New Martinsville

Nice story, but much of it doesn't ring true. For one thing, the WETZ-AM building is too high to flood, though the roof leaked if it wasn't kept up. Had that place mostly rebuilt after an FCC inspection in late 1992, we took care of the engineering through June 95 under an LMA.

I do know by the late nineties they moved around those third floor studios, in the process disconnecting all the grounding (including copper strap run out of the "loft", over a roof, and down the back wall to a street level ground). Lightning took out several pieces of equipment.

[Tom Taggart]

righttttt...

[Scott Reppert]

Oh oh. Someone mentioned "roof leak". Makes me gotta share one:

Early in my WTCS career, we had a severe storm go through overnight on Saturday. During the Sunday morning shift ("Search The Scriptures", Miracle Revival Center, Italian Hour), "Big Nick" Fantasia kept calling Jeff Audia and I over and over and over, telling us to "get Rudy Zaccagnini on the phone and tell him to get over there in twenty minutes...MY ROOF IS FALLING IN"!!!
This went on for two hours until Nick got there himself and took care of the situation.

Five or so years later, after going through a Spring season of torrential rainstorm after rainstorm, I walked back into the Engineering Room one night and saw the stars...twinkling in the sky...through the roof. Well, remembering how frantic "Big Nick" had been back on that Sunday morning in 1979, I decided I'd better get him on the phone because, whereas the first time around "my roof is falling in" had been an exaggeration, this time it was truth! I called the house 26 times, the Madison three times and Poky Dot twice...and each time he said I was "nuts" or asked me what kind of smoke I was smoking.

Finally, around midnight, he showed up. Looked up through the roof at the stars, looked over at me, looked back up through the roof, turned around and said, "Well! What do you know? You was tellin' the truth", and walked back to the front of the building and sat down in his office.

Me? I wanted to call Rudy Zaccagnini...

[engineer]

righttttt...

Oh, come on Tom, I know it has been fifteen years, but you have to remember the different make STL's for WNMR. The Moseley and God knows what receiver, with non-linear composite VCA's? The Rockwell transmitter with the motorized tuning and loading? The Rockwell wandering output power which had Kerry crossing the river every few days to repair. The Harris MW over at the WETZ with no back door, and a floor fan to keep it cool? The suspended copper "hammock" straps and ever changing "Z" of the tower. The + reactance the MW was eating?

Nelson bought the stations and had no clue about the radio business. But he was a businessman, and he did understand that WNMR had virtually no listenable stereo signal. Outside of a new Optimod, Nelson bought some "new junk" for both stations, but at least if was new. Oh those details.......and who can forget the New Martinsville Motor Lodge