Phil Collins, Elton John, and Gloria Estefan dominated Adult Contemporary radio back in the 1980s and '90s, yet have disappeared from modern radio. Seemingly, the only time you ever hear them is at the grocery store or your local CVS. This blog remembers the music, the stories and the quirky characters from my days working in Adult Contemporary radio.
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Pointer Sisters "Dare Me"
When your boss tells you he's dressing up like the Phantom from Phantom of the Opera and will pump gas at a local gas station, you shrug your shoulders and say, "Alriighty then". When he adds that he'd like to be interviewed in character on the morning show, you cringe and agree to it because, well, he's your boss. The whole ordeal started when an Account Executive at the radio station sold a package to a local gas station where we would do on-air call-ins for a week from their gas station. Nothing more exciting than that, right?!? Since our Program Director didn't want the call-ins to sound too salesy, he hatched the idea of the Fill 'Er Up Phantom. The premise focused on the Phantom filling up people's gas tanks at various gas stations for a week from 5:30 until 6:00 in the morning. In turn, we would interview him each morning on the air. Some would say we managed to turn a lemon into delicious lemonade. A few weeks after our boss debuted on our show as the Fill 'Er Up Phantom, he fired us.