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.
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Delerium featuring Sarah McLachlan "Silence"
The door to the on-air studio opened late one evening at the soft rock radio station where I worked as a board operator and in walked Keith, the station's chief engineer. Keith was a character. He told great stories, had an infectious laugh, liked his whiskey, and was rumored to take naps in the transmitter room. Keith told me that at midnight he was taking the radio station off the air so they could performed scheduled transmitter maintenance. Before this happened, he said I needed to go on the air and give the station's call letters. Since I was simply a board operator, I had never gone on the air (a board operator does everything a DJ does -- except talk).
"Do you have headphones?" Keith asked.
"No, why?" I responded.
"You're gonna need them when you go on the air."
I quickly found a beaten-up set of headphones that looked like they lost a fight with a hungry German Shepherd.
"What do you want me to say?" I asked Keith.
"Just do the legal ID which is the call letters and Chicago and then say that we'll be off for a few hours," Keith nonchalantly responded.
I could almost feel my heart beating through the clunky headphones as I muttered through Keith's check-list of things to say. It was the first time I went on the air at Chicago's Windy 100, but it wouldn't be the last...