Sunday, April 21, 2019

Working the Weekend Radio Shifts

If you worked in radio and are of a certain age, you probably started off working the weekend shifts. That was the path to that top 40 record show that you coveted. We had an alliterative name for these shifts, but it was rude and I’ll spare you those details.

Like most of the other DJs of my time, that is the way I started. I was hired to be a control operator and “run board” on the Georgia Tech football games at WCOS – FM back in 1965. Most of you won’t remember that WCOS – FM carried the Georgia Tech football games back in the day when our morning man, Bob Fulton was the play by play announcer for the Atlanta School. He was the “Voice of the Gamecocks” at the University of South Carolina for so long that few remember that he did play by play for two other southeastern college teams; the Arkansas Razorbacks was the other one.

At the end of the ‘65 football season the college kid working the Sunday Morning and Evening Shifts on WCOS – AM moved on to other interests and I was selected to take them over. So I ran the mostly pre-recorded shows from 6 AM until noon and then again from 6 PM until 1 AM Monday mornings. I was happy for two reasons. The first one was that left me free to go to school and to do the Dawn Patrol Show on WUSC – AM. The second was the last four hours of the Sunday Evening shift was a top 40 record show. Between the Monday – Friday shows on WUSC and the four hour Sunday Evening show on WCOS, I was in seventh heaven, spinning those 45 RPM records and rocking the air chair. Many an early Munday morning when April Black came in to do the “All Night Satellite” show I wasn’t quite ready to give up the microphone. Besides, I was the only one on the air after midnight, all the other stations signed off then.

Since those weekend shifts were solo shifts, I also had a key to the studios on the second floor of the Cornell Arms Apartments where the station was located. I was big stuff now!

Left: A Coca-Cola vending machine similar to the one in the WCOS Offices This was the time that my lifelong addiction to Pepsi began. In the station offices across the hall from the studios there was a vintage Coca-Cola vending machine. Nellie, our receptionists kept that thing stocked with not only Coke products but also 7-Up, Ginger Ale, Pepsi, and Nehi grape and orange drinks. It was during this short part time employment period that I discovered that Pepsi’s were the better choice; they maintained their fizz longer sitting on the shelf of the table where the cart machines sat, to the left and slightly behind the DJ air chair. Especially on that seven hour long Sunday night shift, the shelf life of an open pop bottle took on the highest priority. Especially when talking a lot those last four hours.

So twice a shift, I would grab the office key from the hook on the wall of the studio near the Third Class Radiotelephone licenses that were required to operate the transmitters. The key was attached to a large piece of plywood in order to keep someone from putting the key in his or her pocket, forgetting it and taking it home. I’d put my dime in, grab the nearest Pepsi, open it with the bottle opener attached to the side of the cooler and make my way back to the studios just in time for the announcement at the end of the record or the taped program that was on the air. With all the hydration, sugar and caffeine, I felt that I could easily go forever.

That got put to the test once. The Sunday Afternoon DJ fell ill suddenly and I got the call from Woody, our program director, asking if I could cover that shift as well. Talk about approach / avoidance, that was a six hour record show, but doing that would mean that I would be on the air from 6 AM Sunday morning until 1 AM the following Monday morning! 19 Hours!!! Without hesitation, I said “Sure Boss! I got this!” Without the help of Scotty Quick one of the other DJs at the station, my best friend and his timely gift of a hamburger steak from the old Capital Restaurant on Main Street I would have never made it.

Now one thing I forgot to mention; while doing the Sunday Evening record show on AM, the weekend DJ was SIMULTANEOUSLY doing a live classical music show on the FM station from 9 until 11 PM. This was accomplished via a record player in the back of the studio and the “B” side of the AM audio console. So just before 9 PM, as the taped program was in its final minutes on the AM station, I had to take a set of transmitter reading on both the AM and FM stations, find a break in the music on the FM Automation, stop it, turn off the stereo subcarrier on the FM transmitter, patch the “B” side of the console to the telephone line feeding that transmitter, give a station break on FM and announce the first selection on the classical music show and start the record. Then when the taped show ended on the AM station, give a station break and read a five minute newscast. And finally start the first record on the AM record show. All this activity was on two channels of one audio console. That was hard even for the young pup I was then. I doubt that I could do that now. I would probably trip over my feet and land flat on my face in front of the rack that held the patch panel and the “Levil Devil.”

At that point I needed a drink. So grab the key and get another Pepsi from the machine in the office. A long pull of caffeine and I was ready for the record show.

These days my longest on air shift is only three hours, 10 AM – 1 PM Saturdays on Our Generation Radio. During the summer months I have another on WUSC-FM Mondays from 9 AM – Noon. All are record shows. No more control operator shifts for me. Besides, the control operator in today’s radio station except for live sports events is a computer. Those are a long way back in the rear view mirror of my memories. Oh MY!

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