Don't Touch That Dial

Much to my surprise I'm back on the radio for the first time since the mid-1980s. I offerred to do a blues program Sundays from 3:00 - 6:00 PM on WQRI FM, the Roger Williams University FM radio station in Bristol, Rhode Island.


Ironically, I first went on the air with WOBC AM/FM, the Oberlin College radio station in Oberlin, Ohio. The great thing about college radio is that it doesn't depend on overbearing advertisers to keep the lights on, so you can take some chances. My first shift was afternoon drive on the AM, which allowed me to play some of my favorite Motown artists as well as spitting out a lot of the hip phrases I had grown up listening to on New York radio. After a year I made the transition from AM soul brother wanna be to laidback FM rocker - almost like the shift in the industry itself at the time- and switched from Curtis Mayfield, Gladys Knight and the Temptations to Jeff Beck, the Jefferson Airplane and Country Joe and the Fish. This rather inauspicious beginning lead to over a decade in commercial radio behind the microphone, which I would have done for nothing but fortunately got paid for. I suppose I've come full circle - starting out in college radio and ending up in college radio.


The strangest part of the experience was the method in which I played the music. To think that I spent years meticulously placing needles in vinyl grooves, even taping a coin to the stylus so the needle wouldn't skip, not to mention yelling at people to walk softly in the studio, only to find that now I can use my Ipod. All I had to do was plug a jack into the earphone hole. At first this was a great discovery - I could program the entire show in advance, listen to it over and over to make sure the sequence was right, then finally put it on the air with enough time to say something that sounded intelligent.


Consequently, I showed up at the appointed hour, relying on the janitor to let me in, plugged in the jack, and pressed the Ipod button at the start of the program. But then -much to my dismay - the technology began to unravel. The Ipod began "eating" the songs so they would start halfway through, or skip a song entirely or - even worse- pause for an inordinate amount of seconds before seguing between tunes. I got hyper - I hate dead air. I had brought along a few CDs in case I needed a Plan B, and I ended up resorting to them so I could tighten up the music and cross fade from one song to another. It almost started to feel like the old days,bringing back the overriding fear of not knowing what's going to happen next. The Ipod made me so comfortable I forgot that the show was supposed to be work.


Anyway, I'll be back on this coming Sunday at 88.3 FM or at wqri.rwu.edu for streaming audio - that is, as long as the janitor shows up. My Ipod will be part of the mix, but it won't replace my own efforts at putting songs together. Technology is beneficial as long as you control it, thus proving that human beings are not totally irelevant - yet.