Thursday, September 20, 2007

I Love Radio

























I love radio! I've loved it since I was a kid. I began to love radio because as a kid I was quite the insomniac. I'd just lay awake forever bored to tears, until one day my mom gave me a tiny transistor radio, and my whole world opened up. I would listen to my little radio in bed in our home in New York City. I listened to radio stations from Boston, Nashville, Chicago, Syracuse and places in between. Back then there were quite a few AM radio stations with incredible power. Some with a half million watts. So as the night fell and many local radio stations reduced their power, stations from all over could be heard.

Disc jockeys as they used to be called kept me company. I listened to all genre of music, country, rock, soul, what ever they played. Consequently my tastes in music are all over the place. As I got older FM radio became more and more popular. But I remember when AM stations were the top stations.

My parents divorced when I was young and my dad moved to the L.A. area. When I visited him I took my little radio along, and once again it kept me company. I remember listening to KDAY AM in Los Angeles. I'm not sure if it was the number one station but it seemed everyone was listening to it.

As I got older radio continued to play an important part in my life. As pre-teen and teen in N.Y. I listened to Disco 92 WKTU- FM, which was the disco radio station everyone listened to. And although disco seems to have gotten almost joke status these days, it was great. I really wonder if what we were listening to on WKTU was what the rest of the country was listening to because it was great music. Not the corny disco like Saturday Night Fever, but music that was really the precursor to what's now known as house music. Stuff like the Gibson Brothers singing their song Cuba or Machine singing There But For The Grace Of God Go I. Not the stuff you would here on pop disco radio stations. There was a D.J. at WKTU called Poco, he was the man, everybody knew who Poco was.

Then of course as anyone who was anywhere near N.Y. in the 70's or 80's knows, there was WBLS - FM. They played R&B and some disco after WKTU came along. But again it was more Dance or house music then that pop disco that people think of. The Premier D.J. at WBLS was Frankie Crocker, or as he would call himself, "The Chief Rocker Frankie Crocker".

So-called boom boxes were in fashion then and you could hear either WBLS or WKTU on pretty much everybody's boom box. I would still listen to other radio stations when my friends weren't around. Stations like WNEW - FM and WPLJ - FM which played rock. I was into everybody from Genesis to Led Zeppelin to Peter Frampton to Patti Smith. When I was in Los Angeles as I got a little older I began to listen to KLOS - FM which was the local rock station and I still listened to R&B stations like Stevie Wonder's KJLH - FM.

I never lost my love for radio. In fact it seemed to get stronger in my 20's. I'm not sure why but I had the urge then to do more than listen. After I did my 'time' in college I found myself living in the South. One day I got in my car and on a whim went to the local number one radio station and asked to speak to the program director about a job. No haps. I was turned away for lack of experience. But I was meant to work in radio it seems. I went to an employment agency a few days later to find a regular job and I was asked if I'd be interested in a receptionist position. I of course said yes since I needed a job, and guess where the position was! The same radio station that I'd been to looking for a job. The regular receptionist was going on maternity leave! Once I was in the door that was all she wrote!

Within two months I was on the air at the number one radio station in the area. At first like all radio D.J. brand newbians I worked overnights and I loved it! Now I was the voice that people listened to as they lay awake at night or worked or drove or whatever. The best part was taking calls from listeners. Some just wanted to hear a particular song and some wanted to win a prize but some just wanted to say hi. I was in love.

Radio was not my first great passion, Ballet was. I adored ballet. I took class at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City. I was in love with 'the dance' as we would say. But my parents were defiantly not in love with the dance. "Can you make a living as a ballet dancer?" "That's not really a career, ballet". That's what I heard until they decided to withdrew all funding for my dance endeavors.

So I'd found my second great passion, radio. Over the next several years I worked at lots of radio stations. Country stations, gospel, jazz (back when there were actually commercial jazz radio stations), R&B, classic rock. It didn't matter to me and I had perfect training listening to so many different types of music growing up, I was familiar with just about everything.

Those were wonderful years. I met so many incredible people. I met people in radio, music artists, actors, writers, you name it. Everyone it seemed eventually visited radio stations. I was even at times fairly well known. I did personal appearances and actually got paid for it. As they say it was a heady time.

And then it all came to a terrible, screeching, crashing, horrible end.

The end was called The Telecommunications Act Of 1996. The then President of the United States Bill Clinton happily signed it into law on February 8, 1996. And that was the end of radio as I knew and loved it. The law basically dropped most of the limits on how many radio stations an entity could own in a particular market.

Corporate radio was born. Individual ownership quickly became a thing of the past as radio station owners were not willing to pass up thirty or forty million dollars for their radio stations. Consolidation was all the rage and before you knew it one or two radio giants like Clear Channel Communications owned half the stations in a radio market. It was like seeing your best friend ruin their life before your very eyes with no way to stop them. I was depressed.

So, that was it. I was not willing to deal with the boring corporate radio thing. The one format fits all plastic radio was not for me.

I don't listen to music radio at all now. It puts me into a coma. It's constant repetition, the same ten songs played over and over and on all the stations. Some radio announcers are not even at the station they are broadcast over. They do their shows remotely and it's piped in. But I still love radio, the same way I still love ballet. I listen to radio stations via the Internet from all over the world, Europe, Africa, Canada, The U.K.

I don't know if I'll ever work in radio again, but I still fall asleep listening to AM radio.

11 comments:

Monica Roberts said...

Ms Deauz,
I feel you on the love for radio.

My dad was program director for a station in Houston. Growing up I was alwayds around the station for one reason or another. I got to hang out at a lot of remotes around town, got to see a lot of concerts and had a cutting edge music collection ;)

I ended up cohosting a radio talk show myself on KPFT-FM.

If it ween't for Cathy Hughes, the Telecommunications Act would have killed Black radio.

Mes Deux Cents said...

Hi Monica,

Wow! I didn't know there was a Pacifica station in Houston. There is one in a city near me. I've been debating wheather to go by there for about 3 years now. But they have a lot of internal nonsense going on.

I listen to WPFW in Washington, D.C. online sometimes.

What was your talk show about? Would condiser ever doing a radio show again?

As far as Cathy Hughes is concerned, I'll just say that's a topic that would take a long time to cover. She is also a good topic for a post though.

pomegranate queen said...

YES. this post rocked my world. a tribute post to RADIO. thank you thank you thank you.

Monica Roberts said...

KPFT-FM has a colorful history. The station's transmitter was bombed twice by the Klan, and just a little over a month ago somebody took a shot through the big picture window in the studio that narrowly missed the onair DJ that hosts the zydeco show they do.

KPFT-FM stayed out of the Pacifica battle which is basically Bay Area drama.

The show I cohosted from 1999-2001 was called 'After Hours'. It was a GLBT radio show hosted by Jimmy Carper which discussed GLBT issues. Of course, I talked about transgender, politics and other issues from an African-American perspective.

They're starting a low power community station here in Louisville and I'm thinking about doing it again. I'm also considering an internet radio one as well.

I have a blog post on Cathy in my 'Women I Admire' series

My dad knew a lot of the DJ's of his generation like Frankie and the late Jack 'The Rapper' Gibson.

Black Radio was (and still is) special. My dad worked for KYOK-AM.
YThere was a competing AM daytimer called KCOH-AM which is still around. Unfortunately KYOK-AM got bought by Disney, so I definitely share your dislike of corporate radio Clear Channel style.

Mes Deux Cents said...

P.Q.
Thank you for stopping by, I'm glad you enjoyed the post and it's nice knowing their are other radio lovers in the blogisphere!

Mes Deux Cents said...

Monica,

I was just reading something about low power radio. It seems really interesting. More people should really take advantage of it. From what I read though the approval process is unnessicarily complicated which has caused a lot of people to miss out. Please let me know if you decide to do something with low power radio, I hope it will be online too.

And about online radio, at first it was kind of a free for all now it seems to be calming down a bit, also they worked out some royalty nonesense which is good.

I'm very excited to hear you may do something I can listen to online. Have you checked out Blogger Radio? I've listened to a few shows on there by bloggers it seems pretty simple and works well.

I'm going to search your archive and read your post on Cathy Hughes.

So your dad knew Jack Gibson, wow he's a legend. I was really lucky to grow up listening to Frankie Crocker. He had some problems in the 80's but he's still one of the great ones.

Jackie said...

You bring back such wonderful memories. I had a little red Zenith transistor radio that was my most prized possession. Like you, I'd put that thing under my pillow and pick all kinds of stations after the local Chicago ones went dark. We had great radio in Chicago. The Black station, WVON, featured Pervis Spann the Blues Man and the legendary and still broadcasting Herb Kent the Cool Gent.
Of course we had WLS with Dick Biondi, Clark Weber, Larry Lujack and even Don Mcneil's Breakfast Club and later came DJ's like Bob Sirot.

Then yep, FM which only played classical music, started playing great rock like Led Zepplin.

The 1996 Telecommunications fiasco is the subject of one of my very first posts. I cannot tell you how horrible I think this is and how along with Rwanda, I can never get around Clinton allowing it to happen on his watch. I truly believe this terrible FCC change has and will hurt this nation. It kills the differing voices of independent radio stations and replaces it with one thought spread across the country. This is un-American and dangerous. Don't get me started. The scary thing is people don't even realize what's happening.

WVON is now all talk and run by Melody Spann. Although swallowed up by one of the conglamerates, Ms. Spann has managed to keep it true to it's mission. She has an amazing radio history also. Thanks for this post and thanks Monica too.

Mes Deux Cents said...

Hi Jackie,

You're right most Americans's are not paying attention and don't know how important independant voices are. In fact I think if we had not had the Telecommunications Act there would have been a lot of dissenting voices speaking out against the American war in Iraq.

I listen online to WVON in the morning. I hear Santita Jackson's show. And by the way isn't she Jessie Jacksons daughter?

There are only a few Black talk stations but I try to listen to them as much as possible, WAOK in Atlanta is interesting.

I'm going to check your archive for your post about the Telecommunications Act.

Monica Roberts said...

I remember some guy by the name of Tom Joyner who used to work for WGCI-FM when I visited relatives Chicago for the first time in 1986.

Jackie said...

Santita is Rev. Jackson's daughter.

Monica, Tom Joyner is very famous here and around the country. He was known as the Fly Jock because he started flying between Chicago (WGCI) and Dallas to do radio shows, every day. That guy racked up some serious sky miles.

Monica Roberts said...

He's a class act and I'm a big TJMS fan.

When my dad got sick in 1990 he called the house to check on him along with many other peeps in the Black radio world.

Like we've all noted on various levels, there's just something special about Black radio.

One of the things I miss about home is Majic 102, but the fact I have a Radio One station here in Da Ville ironically called Magic 101 make's life bearable here.

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About Me

West Coast, United States
African American, Poet?, Vegetarian, Music lover, Agoraphobic, Social Phobic

My Favorite Poet

My Favorite Poet
Staceyann Chin

My Favorite Track Athlete

My Favorite Track Athlete
Christine Arron