VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Jowillie]

You know you're an aging radio guy when....

(Thanks to Charles Laquidara for this one:)

• You were first hired by a GM who actually worked in radio before becoming a GM.
• You excitedly turn the radio up at the sound of "dead air" on the competitor's station.
• Engineers could actually fix things without sending them back to the manufacturer.
• You know the difference between good reel-to-reel tape and cheap reel-to-reel tape.
• You have a white wax pencil, a razor blade, and a spool of 3M splicing tape in your desk drawer -- just in case.
• You can post a record, run down the hall, go to the bathroom, and be back in 2:50 for the segue.
• You knew exactly where to put the tone on the end of a carted song.
• Sixty percent of your wardrobe has a station logo on it.
• You always had a screwdriver in the studio so you could take a fouled-up cart apart at a moment's notice.
• You always had a solution for an LP that "skipped".
• You still refer to CDs as "records".
• Your family thinks you're successful, but you know know you were just lucky.
• You played practical jokes on the air without fear of lawsuits.
• You answer your home phone with the station call letters.
• You have several old air-check cassettes in a cardboard box in your closet that you wouldn't dream of letting anyone hear anymore, but you'll never throw them out or tape over them. Never!

• You can still see scars on your finger when you got cut using a razor blade, and cleaned out the cut with head-cleaning alcohol and an extra long cotton swab on a wooden stick.
• You still have dreams of a song running out and not being able to find the control room door.

• You've ever told a listener, "Yeah. I'll get that right on for you."
• You have at least 19 pictures of you with famous people whom you haven't seen since, and wouldn't know you today if you bit 'em on the butt.

• You ran a phone contest and nobody called, so you made up a name and gave the tickets to your cousin.
_________________
Wild Willie Edwards
www.hometowntvtoday.com
http://vomictest.blogspot.com

[bobsouer]

[billelder]

Yup. That's all me. Especially the "2:50 Bathroom Guy" and the "white wax pencil, a razor blade, and a spool of 3M splicing tape." Actually, we were classy. We had "Splice Tabs!"

Great stuff.

[asnively]

I remember splice tabs. Handy things, them. I fixed a hem in my skirt with a few once.
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og kush plants

[Mike Cain]

You still do an intro over the song playing on the car radio and you don't step on the first line of the song.
Mike Cain
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A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.

[Deirdre]

Anybody ever keep a little notebook for segue ideas?
Or super segues-- three-in-a-row?
_________________
DBCooperVO.com
IMDB

[Jowillie]

..and in the early days....
Your date became concerned because you hit the radio button when a song came on because you only wanted to hear the breaks and not the tunes.

Record reps actually brought you neat stuff and took you to lunch. (if the Justice Dept is reading this, that never happened )
_________________
Wild Willie Edwards
www.hometowntvtoday.com
http://vomictest.blogspot.com

[glittlefield]

[Doc]

The Oldies station at which I worked some 16 years ago was housed in a facility where they chose to put the bathroom (yes, only 1) clear on the other side of that 1-story building. When I first started there they had no auto sequencer so if that burrito I ate before my shift decided to "do its thing", I can't tell ya the dance I did. It usually involved several trips back and forth to make segues. I did it, but I sure sweat a lot!

I also remember when I started in radio 30 years ago, my first gig was in Gallup, NM. We had NO splicing tools/facilities. We made ALL our edits by the ancient process known as "slip cueing". Anyone remember that?

[CWToo]

You could tell how popular a 45 was by how much cue-burn there was at the beginning of the song.

ADDENDUMB: You know what "cue-burn" is.

[Doc]

LMAO!!!

[allensco]

[billelder]

Yup. You know you're an old timer when you have to explain "backtime into a network." LOL They have that "trying to teach a dog algebra" look.

[Moe Egan]

Too Funny! I scored 18 outa 20! I have to share that whenever I hear American Pie on the radio, I still figure the jock has a tummy ache and needs a long bathroom break....that was always my excuse.

How about...have you ever bragged to anyone about your production skills: "One take, straight to cart"??

Or..has this ever happened to you....a friend of my daughter's was over once and we took out an LP to play some music. Her eyes lit up and she said "Wow. THAT's what a record looks like?" I aged 25 years in that single moment!

This was fun remembering the good old days which didn't seem so great at the time
moe
_________________
Moe Egan
i want to be the voice in your head.
~~~~~

[Deirdre]

The Record-Running-Out dream is my only recurring nightmare.
_________________
DBCooperVO.com
IMDB