Still Radio Gaga

 

At WGCH, Sep 2, 2023

Thirty-three years ago last night, I knocked on the door of WMJV-FM, colloquially known as "Majic 105."

I'd been to the studio a few nights earlier to get trained on the board and review any specifics of the station's format. The person who trained me -- air name John Harrison -- remains a dear friend all these years later.

Then, after a late dinner, I drove to the building just outside of Patterson, NY for my first air shift. I was prepared for the midnight to 6 a.m. shift with a thermos of hot coffee and NoDoz.

Thus, as Sep 2 began, I started my life in broadcasting. I had been hired to do the Saturday/Sunday overnight shift playing music on an adult contemporary FM station.

The DJ on the air let me into the building and asked if I wanted him to stay until I was settled in.

Nah. It was time to take off the training wheels.

Except, the first song came to an end and I wasn't ready to go on the air yet. I had a touch of stage fright.

The second song brought the same result.

I argued with myself. There were no rules about when I had to go on the air but I knew I'd have to eventually.

I knew I needed to flip the switch and turn up the rotary pot so that listeners could hear the new guy.

I came up with three scenarios:

1) Keep pressing play on the CD's for the next roughly six hours and go home. I might get fired. I might not.

2) Run, let the station go to dead air, and never look back. 

3) Turn on the mic and say something.

Obviously, I chose option three. I stumbled through my first time on the air and have been involved in broadcasting in some way almost ever since. I did have a stretch where I was out of the business after Majic 105 and I parted roughly a year later.

That served as a mighty lesson for me. The DJ on before me every Saturday night had a wicked ego and wasn't a big fan of me or John Harrison. He certainly didn't like that John and I were good friends. What he was, however, was tight with management. I was the first cut in the process of that battle.

The shame of it was we even had decent ratings. I know my audience was strong until around 2 a.m. every weekend. They'd call me and ask for requests and I mostly obliged. A few would even come and visit me in the studio, thus giving me a bit of a reprieve from the exhaustion I felt.

Again, it was an adult contemporary station so there were myriad ballads and soft rock hits of the early 90s on the air. I could also reach for a few older hits and that often regenerated me. However, while Whitney Houston was an amazing singer, she also had me reaching for the thermos of coffee.

Radio is far more formatted now. Most stations don't allow for drifting away from the playlist and it's generally all computerized. In my case, I had some latitude in which CD's I cued up to play. In fact, to help settle my nerves, I played "The Heart of Rock and Roll" by Huey Lewis and the News within my first hour on the air.

The hours from, say, 2 a.m. until 5 were the toughest. Sometimes I'd reach for a longer song -- think "Hotel California" or "American Pie" -- to walk around the station, use the restroom, and even step outside.

However, going outside wasn't always the best because Majic 105 was located in the woods off New York State Route 292. You were quite likely to have a deer looking in the windows at you.

But the radio bug also got its talons into me. John Harrison eventually began to work the shift following me and we decided that I should do a sports report every morning before I drove away. Of course, that led to us chatting sometimes until after 7.

Oh, and his then-girlfriend Simonetta worked the morning shift on the daytime AM shift in the next room. That room was empty during my shift since the station was off the air until she showed up. Sometimes, the hanging clock would just swing creepily, moved by the air conditioner from the grate a few feet above it. Indeed, the overnights got a bit lonely there. 

So, yeah, it was time to just talk to them before stumbling home and going on with my Sunday after a few hours of sleep.

Incidentally, John (and it feels weird calling him that) and Simonetta eventually married. They have two kids and live in Massachusetts.

I took my lumps in my first foray into radio. The politics, sure, but also the reality of critics and the exhaustion of the schedule as well. Yet I definitely loved it.

After my time at Majic ended, I stayed out of the business as I focused on going to college and working full-time during the day. Maybe radio wasn't for me after all?

Then I got a phone call from John. He had been offered an opening to do some fill-in work at WREF in Ridgefield.

"Thanks, but I'm going to pass," he said. "But I know a guy..."

I threw an audition tape together and was soon doing board-op work and occasional DJ shifts in Ridgefield. Among the things I ran the board for?

High School football. I kid you not.

But WREF would also go away, getting sold to the group that ran WLAD in Danbury at the time. Instead of thinking I had a potential full-time gig, I was now serving as an assistant general manager during the transition.

Two of my WREF colleagues -- Steve Goodwin and Luke Michaels -- told me not to worry. They worked at another radio station and they'd pass my name along.

As we closed up WREF, with me doing the last on-air shift (I didn't know anything about it but it was in a small sorry in the Ridgefield Press), I prepared for the next radio adventure.

I was offered a Sunday morning fill-in board op gig for the aforementioned Steve Goodwin.

On WGCH.

Where I've been for the past 26 years.

I loved playing music on Majic 105 and have had talks about maybe playing music again one day. 

However, I hope we all agree I found where I belonged: calling games on WGCH and everywhere else that this insane business has led me. Oh, I've done so many other things -- news anchor, reporter, election night correspondent, producer, engineer, and so on -- but sports will likely be what I'm remembered for.

I have countless moments of doubt, anger, disappointment, and befuddlement thanks to radio. 

I also have countless moments of joy, laughter, and shock that I get to do what I do.

For 33 years you -- the audience --  have graced me with kindness, praise, warmth, and support. You've even kicked me in the tail when I've needed it.

In return, I've tried to give you honesty, integrity, entertainment, accuracy, and authenticity.

We've become friends even if it's just through a radio or device.

It -- and you -- have enriched my life.

Thank you. Despite whatever doubts I deal with, I still love it.

Oh, and the NoDoz that night in 1990 was an absolutely awful decision. It was the only time I ever took that since my heart raced and I couldn't sleep I got home after my first shift.