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The Non-Dynamic Duo: Me, Adam West, and Batman at the X103 Car Expo

When I was a wee lad, I had job at a radio station.  I was lucky enough to work on both the AM and FM sides of the dial.  The FM station was known as X103 and we were in the prehistoric rotary dial days before the Age of Digital Radio Tuners.  One night, I was working on the FM side, and a listener called and told me he’d just spent $5,000.00USD on a new home stereo rig and his FM tuner was digital and our station was coming in clearest at 102.7 and not 103.  He asked me why that was, and I told him that the station was actually broadcasting at 102.7, but that the rotary dial methods made 103 close enough for advertising purposes.  The caller grunted and told me to fix it.  A few years later, “X103” was gone, replaced by: “102.7 FM.”

In the early 1980’s, I was told by the radio station I had to work a weekend car expo for X103.  I wasn’t thrilled about it, but I was the low man on the hiring pole and they were going to pay me time and a half, so standing around for six hours handing out X103 car window stickers would at least stick some money in my pocket.  I was also told that Adam West, aka Batman, had been hired and flown in from California to appear with me at the X103 van.  Adam would be dressed in full Batman regalia.  I was surprised that a big star like Adam West would be in Lincoln, Nebraska at a car show standing next to me.

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Broken Families and Half-Brothers and Whole-Sisters

I was born in a time when being a child from a “broken family” meant your mother and father were divorced and you were irretrievably marked in the marketplace of social commerce as damaged goods.  Today, there’s slightly less stigma of being from a broken family — because there are so many more of them now — but that broken label is still hard to shake even if you never let it directly affect you.

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You Are Listening to New York

I love mashups that give you a different perspective on living.  We love Urban Cave Art and now there’s a new treat for your ears called — YouAreListening.to — where you sit and listen to the police sounds of the city set to a random soundtrack.

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Imus Back in Business on Fox

On December 5, 2007, we wrote about Don Imus’ infertile return to broadcast radio.  We were disappointed then, as we still are now, that he was so able to nimbly skirt around his bigoted and racist insults against the females on the Rutgers basketball team. On Monday, Imus started to simulcast his ancient and tired radio show on the Fox Business channel. 

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Howard Stern Killed Satellite Radio

Howard Stern is obnoxious.  He used to be charmingly so when he was on broadcast radio, but ever since he ruined his career by moving to satellite radio, his brand of humor has gone out of dire style — and the satellite radio industry is left quaking in his wake, poorer, broken, and wondering where it all went wrong — as Stern grew richer in their losses while also becoming less influential much more unpopular.

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The Nature of the Producer

The nature of the producer is to provide money for a creative project and manage the schedule for getting things done.  The best producers are invisible.  The producer’s essence is felt, but their being fades into the background to support the vision of others.

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The Mighty 1290 KOIL

I was raised on radio and — at 13-years-old — I worked on the radio over the next decade of my life.

One of the brightest lights of my radio upbringing happened late at night when I was on the verge of falling asleep and “The Mighty 1290 KOIL: Omaha’s Original Rocker!” would sing to me from a tiny transistor radio at my bedside.

KOIL Radio was a magnificent and under-appreciated jewel in the midst of the despair of the Omaha urban core and all around the dry flatlands surrounding the city.
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The Nature of Part Time

What is the nature of a part time job?

It is to be a swing person that can work in a finger snap? Or is the nature of part time to be willing to work the shifts no one else wants?

As a youngster, I was involved in radio a lot and I loved the live medium.

I was a part timer that worked the weekends and the weekend overnights.  If someone took ill during the week, I had to sit in the chair and take over with less than an hour’s notice.

Wherever I was in the city, when the radio called, I had to go.  That dedication to work meant I missed a lot of weekend opportunities to spend time with friends and to have any sort of a social life.

Being on the radio raised no peer chits.  In fact, there was a certain resentment among my friends and associates that I was “too young” to be on the radio, and that I should be working as a waiter in a restaurant like them.

The moment of clarity about working on the radio hit me an hour after I had four wisdom teeth removed.  I was pumped up with codeine and not feeling good.  I could not speak.  I could barely open my swollen mouth.

The phone rang.

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Radio Make Goods

As a lad, I was raised on radio and later on I worked in radio.

Radio is the life of the imagination magnified by the heat of a hundred suns.  Television and film do all the cold thinking for you as you merely sit there and allow the experience to wash over you.  Radiophiles are the new active intellectuals of world.

I always admired the idea of the radio “Make Good” which is sort of related to the matter previously addressed here in — You Cannot Push a Shove — and a Make Good consisted of the re-airing of a commercial that was missed, had technical trouble, or was not fully played.

As the on-air announcer, you had total control over the Make Good.  You’d fill out a sheet of paper explaining what happened to the spot and you’d re-air the commercial as soon as you could within the same day part in which the original spot was supposed to run.

The ability to own the error and to instantly “make up for” a mistake — that may or may not have been your fault — was a tremendous and appreciated power given to the individual for the greater goodness of the company.

Make Goods are the free bottle of wine when your dinner is late.  The effort is appreciated, it adds value to your day, and a Make Good presumes the fault is not in the consumer, but in the business.

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Return of the Racist: Don Imus on ABC Radio

I suppose it was inevitable: Don Imus of “Rutgers Nappy Headed-Hos” fame is back on radio as of Monday and one can only begin to wonder about the why of his return.


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