- Yes, I DID play in a band…
Next?
:)Q:)
Were you an AM or FM DJ? What was the advantages/disadvantages of either format? Which did you prefer?
Were you able to play what you wanted, or did the station management dictate the playlists?
Were there any songs that struck you immediately as having a ‘new sound’ and being obviously great?
-
I was FM from 12 - 6, and on Sundays I was on with the Preachers on AM!
-
As an FM DJ from 12-6 am (on weekdays), I could play ANYTHING I wanted , including “Stairway To Heaven” or “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” by CCR and anyything by Klaatu
Guess what I did through those long tunes?
- Never met Pat O’Day , but I DID meet “The Gator”!
Q
Whenever you had to go poop did you play a long song like Stairway to Heaven or Green grass and high tides?
Uh…yeah…umm…can you play “Truckin’” by the Dead and dedicate it to Karen? Thanks.
Hope you like the “pristine” version?
And “Dead” i-cated to…
Karen!
Q
Yes, I did!!
Only not just to poop.
Sometimes I barely made it back!
Q
How varied was your playlist? Did they allow you to play stuff from The Velvet Undergrund? Was it strictly rock-oriented or did you play cuts from, for example, Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” or any of Stevie Wonder’s albums from the mid-70s?
There is a whole sub-genre of rock songs that owe their popularity to 70s era DJ’s bowels - “bowel-movement music”. On KY-102 in Kansas City, one DJ played Traffic’s Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys every day at around the same time. Man was as regular as clockwork.
What was your broadcast market?
Are there any acts that you were among the first to play?
When, in your estimation, did Rock ‘n’ Roll die?
And I know mah "Kiddos’ was a-waitin’ for this one:
Og bless Jerry!
Just look at him!
Q
Do you have to keep a list of songs that had to be ‘fixed’ before they could be played on the air? I mean like the songs that contain colorful words or phrases in their original version that somehow become tamer when played on the radio. How did that work. Were you just given different versions of the songs to play?
-
Low Spark was one, sure enough, but I had to listen at that time, since I was at war with the VC…
-
THAT side of Marvin was a touch too early for me, because I flunked out of what was then called “West Georgia College” soon after.
-
Stevie? You’re kidding me, right??? This was the fucking SOUTH in the early 70’s! They scrubbed the rest of it off the godamm album!.
Only thing they let me play by him in the middle of the night was I Was Made To Love Her.
Little black music except for Otis and James and some others I’m gonna forget to mention.
Yup. Still existed even in the 70’s.
Not my heritage though.
Mine is the 6 million Jews. And I hate that part of me. I surely do.
Q
If that’s the case, I’m guessing playing anything by The Velvet Underground (even at 3 a.m. Monday morning) probably would’ve gotten you physically thrown out of the station.
Anyway, since you were going to school at West Georgia College, am I correct in assuming that you played a lot of Allman Brothers?
Ok since no one else has asked yet and I assume that the statute of limitations has passed, what about payola.
Declan
-
No payola. Too late for that, and I would not accepted it anyway.
-
Allman Bros? Idlewide South. Live At The Fillmore followed me into the military.
-
No list. Just keep it relatively clean.
-
Nope, no Velvet. We had to leave them to the college station.
Speaking of which (I worked there too): Do any of y’all have a copy of The Wilderness Road Gospel Hour?
On the college station, I think we “broke” that one.
On WBTR (the FM station), we thought we broke this one too: (and that was after my USAF days)…
I used to love listening to 45’s sent to the studio. I’d play them on “cue” between album cuts.
Sometimes I’d send notes back.
I wonder if any of them ever “took”?
Q
What one had to do, was roll a tape of a “show”, but never mention the time or temp or what day it was.
Then one just had to start the tape, play it back one night, lock the doors, hope like hell it wouldn’t “catch” and go get laid.
That’s how I met D.
If y’all tell her that, and I’m still alive, I will kick yo’ ass! 
J/K, I’m too old to kick anybody’s ass. 
Q
Program Director took “care” of that. Janis Ian got snuck in.
We had 2 stations at that time, WLBB (country) and WBTR (rock) (I could have looked at the LBB DJ through the glass separating us). BB used to sign off at sundown, but BTR kept right on rockin 24-7’.
Q