Never did, Earl and if he’s in Atlanta, he’s keeping a very low profile.
I once read (here, I believe) that he was knocking out some shows in Europe, but other than finding a song called “Still, Still Still” referred to as being on a compilation album called “Christmas In Europe” - nothing.
Found this on google just now:
And for our friends who may not know Mr. South, here’s a website where you can hear this fantastic singer-songwriter’s work:
Thanks
Q
Yep, you’re talking about the “Cruisin’” series, which go from ‘55 with Jumpin’ Joe Oxford to '70 with Larry Lujack. Further info on them can be found here:
http://leemichaelwithers.tripod.com/cruisin.htm
It was actually these that got me interested in airchecks about 1972 or so. I eventually got the whole original set (there have been versions since these that have substituted songs and cut bits out, and they’re nowhere near as good as the originals).
With my introduction to the internet, I have been able to download many airchecks from various sources (and lots of OTR shows also).
And yes, I still do cassette…it’s the format I grew up and feel most comfortable with, although I am getting into MP3’s also.
Hey Quasi, thanks for bringing back many memories. I got into radio around 1980, but I listened fondly way before that. It’s not nearly as fun now, but it’s a living. Everything is digital now, but I still remember how to edit with a razor blade, as if I will ever have to do that again! Keep Rockin’!
Thanks for the compliment and the link, Pitter Patter and In Winnipeg.
I have a cassette of the first band I ever drummed for called “The Watchmen” (and yes, WE had the name first!) that I sure would like to send someone who could not only put it on cd, but also see if they can “re-master” it?
It was recorded in a radio station’s “preacher’s pit”. That’s the area BELOW the Deejay’s board which has boom mikes and enough room for not only the preacher, but also the singers and/or small congregation.
Here’s a true and funny story from “back in the day”:
We had an “electric curtain” we could close after we introduced the preacher and which covered the glass looking down into the “pit”.
Well, I did that once after getting the guy on the air and closed the curtain.
He stopped talking!
WTF???
So I opened the curtain and he started up again.
Well, okay, so I closed it, and he stopped AGAIN!
Dood!
So I left the board, got one of his congregation out and whispered to her he shouldn’t stop just because I closed the curtain.
Thanks
Quasi
Mr. DJ, could you play *Let My Heart Do the Walking *by the Supremes? Thanks!
Comin’ up! 
Enjoy, and let me imagine you’re dancing along, okay?
Q
Thanks! And of course I’m dancing! How could I not! Well, good-bye my love, happy life, my love! I’m tired and I’m headed for the door! …gonna let my heart do the walking, yes I am!
Oh, and since we’re in the “Disco Era”?
Here’s another true tale from the “Quasi-Archives”.
Right around the time the above song was popular, we had a guy join us on the staff calling himself “Dr. Disco”. He was on 12mn-6am.
What made this guy special, was not only that he was a super disco deejay, he also dressed like a doctor (in whites with stethoscope around his neck). His personality (I kid you not!) was that of the comic with the weird hair who talked really slow and nerdy (can’t think of his name - HELP?)
Now, keep in mind this was midnight to six in a MEDIUM market station!
The only listeners we had were night shift workers and whacked-out college students.
Okay, so one night he was due to relieve me and he was late. No idea why. (No cell phones in those days).
Because I was also news-director, I had sitting beside me a police scanner and listened incredulously as I heard a cop call in a report:
“Yeah, base? I got this guy pulled over going 75 in a 55, tag number xxx-xxx, in a VW Beetle, and he says he’s ‘Dr. Disco’, and he’s trying to get to work at WBTR! over?”
Long silence then lots of giggling.
Then “Hold one, unit 4”.
Phone rings (as I knew it would).
“Ah, unit 4? Yup, he’s ‘Dr. Disco’ and works at FM92 on the Bremen Highway. Craig says he’s late for work and could we give him a break this time?”
“10-4, Base.”
10 minutes later, here he comes, all in a tizzy with the cop behind him and I unlock the door and let them in…
“Bill! I NEEED a few minutes to calm down! This whole thing has me SOOOOO upset!”
Cop, standing in the lobby, holding his nose, shaking his head, belly just a-shakin’
“Okay, go get a Coke and I’ll just play “Stairway” till you pull yourself together.”
Cop just looks at me, rolls his eyes, shakes his head and walks out.
Ol Doc musta made his night, is all I can figger.
I just wish I could remember the name name of the COMEDIAN he reminds me of!
Dr. Disco. I’ll never forget him.
Thanks
Q
Emo Phillips!!!
Yay!!!
Q
It was my pleasure.
And that isn’t just an “automatic” response, it truly is a pleasure as well as very good therapy for me to be able to write/talk about those things with which I am most familiar: music, drumming, guitar, this, cycling and animal welfare.
Many of you have noticed that I am having difficulty making myself understood in what I call “current event” threads, which is very frustrating for a guy who majored in English Lit and minored in Journalism. Dementia will do that to you.
To be able to discuss those things which I experienced in the past, is, as I said, very good therapy and my counsellor agrees. I have linked her to some of the “problem” threads and some of these, and she feels it’s very beneficial to me to interact with y’all.
So keep asking me stuff, and excuse me if I don’t make sense in other threads sometimes.
Thanks
Q
Gimme five songs, never made it to top ten popularity, that you happened to really like from playing 'em on the air.
Or… hey, remember any novelty acts? Like The Streak?
1st of five, for my good friend E-Sabbath!
Really did make it to #18 on Billboard!
Thanks
Q
Q
Note: Some of these are “live” versions and may require volume adjustments, sorry.
Q
There’s a story that goes with this song as well.
Of course, as you’d expect, we used the “___damn long” version of that song, but there’s more. We weren’t sent the promo album so we borrowed the one the station “across town” played.
When he put it on the cart, our PD (program director) noticed something was wrong right away, and it wasn’t the word “Godamn” either.
The song had been recorded onto cart (like an 8-track cartridge, in case you’re just joining us) just a little faster than it’s normal speed and that’s a HUGE “No-No”.
Why do you think they (the other station) did that?
They didn’t do it to every song in rotation, but they routinely sped up the music on some of them in order to create more time for commercials.
We played it a few times, but then our PD got cold feet because our station manager at that time was already in trouble with the FCC and we didn’t wanna add any more fuel to the flame.
By this time, I was becoming burned out on radio and not being able to break into major market news (Atlanta), I went to work for the Sherwin-Williams Company, moved to Panama City Florida (transferred there), divorced D (who is once again my wife) and was transferred again by S-W to Lexington Masschusetts where I co-managed an S-W.
One of the most pleasant experiences (there weren’t many, during that Winter of my Discontent) was meeting Stephen Jo Bladd, the drummer for one of my favorite party bands, and even though this was the 80’s and I was no longer in radio, here’s a little bonus in tribute of that day when he bought a can of paint from me:
Get your mops out and let’s dance!
Whew! That was quite an “exercise” there, E!
How’d I do?
Thanks, Buddy!
Bill
Ram Jam, covering Black Betty. Funny thing about this is that the original blues version of this song, by Leadbelly, is not only acapella, but almost spoken.
Hey, J. Geils! Nobody remembers that except for Angel is a Centerfold. Not bad, man. Good choices, good times, all of them.
Did you (or any fellow DJ’s) ever run afoul of the FCC regulations for cursing or any other kind of verbal innuendo on the air that upset the Feds?
Okay, I’m going to answer this with a “yes, but not me” (mostly the Atlanta jocks got in hot water with this) and perhaps later go into some detail into what influenced my decision to get out of radio (in addition to not being able to “break into” the Atlanta major market).
Back in the 70’s, FCC agents used to ride around with recorders in their cars and randomly select certain frequencies to see if they heard any “irregularities”. They may still do this, I don’t know.
If so, a complaint was filed, the station was presented with the evidence of the infraction and was fined accordingly by that government agency.
As a deejay, I was never “busted”. Also, never as a news director/reporter/talk show host (though I did my share of apologizing for some of my ahem editorials.)
That’s not to say I didn’t “push the envelope” or *get close * to the good/bad taste line, but during those years, we were encouraged to write our own material, and as long as we stayed within the “boundaries”, all was well.
Anything to pull in the listeners and climb up in the Arbitron (http://www.arbitron.com/home/content.stm) ratings.
This will also answer another question up-thread as to whether I/we related to WKRP at all. Yes, we did : Dr. Johnny Fever - Wikipedia, although I was in no way a “Les Nessman”. Quite the opposite. Whatever “shenanigans”, I pulled in my deejay persona, I transferred to the news director “mode”.
IOW, I had a “good time”, okay?
There’s more I want to tell you about those days, but I am waiting for a decision from the admins/mods as to whether I can do that.
I hope that answers your question In Winnipeg, and if y’all have anything else on your minds, please ask away!
As I told IW (thanks for the aircheck links, BTW), I am having a serious “nostalgia attack” here!
Thanks
Q
In an up-thread post, I mentioned being “burned out” on medium market radio and my inability to break into the major Atlanta market even though I won numerous Associated Press awards including the coveted “Best News Operation”.
There were other reasons I left, and they need to be included, if only to show how they impacted my life.
From the time I joined both the AM and FM stations I worked for till the time I left, there was much turmoil regarding the management and those of us who loved working there (and working together) and we ultimately split loyalties because of the FCC decision I will link you to below.
It’s a lot to read, but to “cut to the chase”, it involved our station manager’s opposition to the opening of another station “across town” for which I later also worked.
Basically, the FCC responded to the manner in which that opposition was presented.
Since this is a matter of public record, I asked our administrators’ permission to link you to it and they have allowed me to do so.
If you’re interested at all in broadcasting and the FCC laws which govern it, I recommend you at least scan it.
They don’t mince words.
http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/557/557.F2d.866.75-1568.html
While the case was under appeal, we, of course, continued to broadcast, but in hopes it would bring about a successful appeal, we went into “high gear” by increasing our “presence” in the community.
This impacted my career in that I was encouraged to support any major charity (MDA, Heart Association, American Cancer Society, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to name a few) and ensure both stations’ call letters were kept prevalent in all promotional ads.
So in addition to gathering, writing/reporting the news, and writing and producing my daily talk show, I was now involved with the organization and management of these events on behalf of the stations.
In all fairness, I have to say that I didn’t do it all myself (the logistics, I mean), but I was the principal “on the air” personality.
The telethons made for some very long days and nights.
It got to the point where I would meet people in the supermarket who would stop me and say something like, “Bill, we love your shows, but it seems like you’re on the radio for one charity or another almost every week!”, and they were right. Even I was getting sick of hearing myself and of writing new ways of asking people to contribute money for one thing or another.
I began to drink heavily, had no time for our son or my wife, and put a strain on my marriage which ultimately ended in divorce.
Many times station personnel wouldn’t get paychecks on time (we were owned by a company in Bay Minette, Alabama), and it got to the point where we almost asked the Sunday preachers to include us in their prayers!
Although the appeal was denied by the FCC, the AM station didn’t “go dark”.
At the “last minute”, it was bought by a conglomerate of local business persons and was allowed to continue broadcasting. The buyout saved a station which had served its public since the 50’s.
However, it also caused a rift between station personnel.
Instead of offering our listeners a combination of country music and rural programming on AM and Top 40 music on FM we were now competitors. My talk show up to then was simulcast. Now they Am had their own host.
We began saying snarky things about each other on the air, which was, in retrospect, sickening. We even had competing softball teams. Ultimately, the door which connected the two studios was barred and the glass parition painted over.
WLBB (at 1100 Khz) was a sunup/sundown station, meaning we signed on and off at those times.
I still have fond memories of the sign-off dialogue on WLBB: “Sunset over West Georgia… brings to a close another broadcast day…” followed by the song “Georgia On My Mind”.
WBTR-FM (92.1 Mhz) stayed on 24-7 and also featured the radio broadcast of the Atlanta Braves games (A big “tune-out” factor, but also a big “revenue-generator”) as well as Friday night High School Football.
I ultimately left the station (s) and people I so enjoyed working with, and went “across town”, where things were less stressful (just news and the talk show - nothing else), but by then it was too late: I had “fallen out of love” with radio and ultimately went to work for Sherwin-Williams.
I don’t regret those years. Some of the times were very good ones, especially when we helped support our listening “community” any way we could.
Especially during the winter storms when I would catch a ride with our local law enforcement officers so that I could sign the station on and announce the school and work closings.
This was also a time that local businesses (who never bought any ads) could benefit from letting the public know they were open for business:
“FiFi’s Lingerie Shop will be open today for all your lingerie needs”… etc.
So yeah, it wasn’t all bad, and yeah, I do miss it (and dream about it) but even though sometimes I’m tempted, it wouldn’t be the “same” for me if I were to go back to it.
Not only because of the times, but also because of the format changes.
Except for early mornings and the talk shows, what is spoken is pretty much scripted, and I’m too much of a “blabbermouth” to ever confine myself to “intro’ing” or “outro’ing” a song or reading something off a pre-printed card.
Thanks for reading, and by all means, continue to ask questions.
There’s much more to tell.
Quasi