Post by Travis on May 9, 2005 18:16:42 GMT -5
Grab something to eat and a cold drink. I may be a bit winded on this one.
When I was hanging out in the WAKY studios I would generally sit in the control room with the jock. There was generally a chair right next to the door which I believed was reserved for WAKY's uninvited guests. I say uninvited because Johnny Randolph frowned on visitors being in the building after hours. He especially did not want visitors in the control room at any time. There's an article on this site in which Bill Bailey actually reads one of Randolph's memos (regarding visitors) right over the air, verbatim, and the words in the memo are printed in the interview.
Visitors could be very distracting to the jock and were generally the cause of dead air. Records would run out (with nothing cued on the other turntable). A break would occur, but the spots had not even been pulled & loaded. An extro would start fading and the jock would throw open the mic and have no idea what he was going to say. Believe me. As an unauthorized visitor in the control room I have seen it all and... uh... maybe I should have left that line out.
It wasn't just Randolph. Many program directors have had to deal with the problem of jocks allowing visitors to hangout in the control room. You can even see where this issue was addressed in one of Terrell Metheny's memos on the WKLO site. Metheny goes as far as to point out that not only visitors are a problem, but station employees running in & out of the control room "too much" are a problem as well. Not only did visitors cause the problems described above, but they also detracted from the jock's ability to speak to the listeners as if "one to one" on the radio.
Today, it's easy to look back and see why I should not have been in that control room, but I was 17 and it was just so cool to be in there. It was generally on weekends, and very late at night, so hopefully I didn't cause too much harm. Mike Griffin was doing weekends at the time and I spent many hours sitting in the control room with him. I'm sure that as he reads this he now realizes why his ratings were in the basement at that time (JUST KIDDING, MIKE). ;D
Looking back on those days I can clearly remember a small sign that was mounted in the upper northwest corner of the control room. It was positioned to where the jock could easily see it from his location within the somewhat horseshoe shaped console, which was also facing northwest. Whenever the jock was on the mic, my eyes would wonder all over the room (mentally photographing everything for use on this website some 34 years later)
Quite often, my eyes would be drawn to that sign and I can still see the message that was on it. It was actually a question and it merely asked, "Are you sounding #1?"
With unauthorized visitors in the studio and numerous 'regulars' on the phones (which was also just as distracting) it's a wonder. But, all turned out well and there's no question today that these guys not only sounded #1, they were #1. And for most of us, they are still #1. So, if you're in the biz today, are you sounding #1?
When I was hanging out in the WAKY studios I would generally sit in the control room with the jock. There was generally a chair right next to the door which I believed was reserved for WAKY's uninvited guests. I say uninvited because Johnny Randolph frowned on visitors being in the building after hours. He especially did not want visitors in the control room at any time. There's an article on this site in which Bill Bailey actually reads one of Randolph's memos (regarding visitors) right over the air, verbatim, and the words in the memo are printed in the interview.
Visitors could be very distracting to the jock and were generally the cause of dead air. Records would run out (with nothing cued on the other turntable). A break would occur, but the spots had not even been pulled & loaded. An extro would start fading and the jock would throw open the mic and have no idea what he was going to say. Believe me. As an unauthorized visitor in the control room I have seen it all and... uh... maybe I should have left that line out.
It wasn't just Randolph. Many program directors have had to deal with the problem of jocks allowing visitors to hangout in the control room. You can even see where this issue was addressed in one of Terrell Metheny's memos on the WKLO site. Metheny goes as far as to point out that not only visitors are a problem, but station employees running in & out of the control room "too much" are a problem as well. Not only did visitors cause the problems described above, but they also detracted from the jock's ability to speak to the listeners as if "one to one" on the radio.
Today, it's easy to look back and see why I should not have been in that control room, but I was 17 and it was just so cool to be in there. It was generally on weekends, and very late at night, so hopefully I didn't cause too much harm. Mike Griffin was doing weekends at the time and I spent many hours sitting in the control room with him. I'm sure that as he reads this he now realizes why his ratings were in the basement at that time (JUST KIDDING, MIKE). ;D
Looking back on those days I can clearly remember a small sign that was mounted in the upper northwest corner of the control room. It was positioned to where the jock could easily see it from his location within the somewhat horseshoe shaped console, which was also facing northwest. Whenever the jock was on the mic, my eyes would wonder all over the room (mentally photographing everything for use on this website some 34 years later)
Quite often, my eyes would be drawn to that sign and I can still see the message that was on it. It was actually a question and it merely asked, "Are you sounding #1?"With unauthorized visitors in the studio and numerous 'regulars' on the phones (which was also just as distracting) it's a wonder. But, all turned out well and there's no question today that these guys not only sounded #1, they were #1. And for most of us, they are still #1. So, if you're in the biz today, are you sounding #1?