WHERE IT BEGAN....

The next three blogs are going to be probably among my most personal that I have ever written. I do so, knowing that I may be sharing probably a few things that many of you who know me know about. But, my purpose in writing them is to hopefully to help someone out there who has gone through or is going through a rough time in their lives. We don’t always handle things the way that we should, and I am as guilty of this as anyone.

When I was seventeen, I began working at…..the radio station. Let’s just call it that, as everyone knows where I am referring to. As someone who made up his own imaginary radio station----WBRQ in beautiful and growing Burns, TN---and made recordings of it on an old boom box my grandmother gave me when I was nine, I was in heaven when I began training. Hank Walker was the disc jockey who taught me. The first lesson I ever received in radio etiquette was the art of saying the call letters……W is not pronounced the way you might think…..It’s Double-U-B-R-Q….There I go, back into my imaginary world again…LOL. I soon began a regular shift when I was junior in high school, and did afternoons before moving to the mornings four years later.

There’s something about turning on a microphone. Some get scared about it, and to be honest, when I first back-announced a song (“Bop” by Dan Seals), I was very much apprehensive. But, the idea that people were out there listening quickly evaporated when I came to the thought process that it’s just one microphone. Maybe that’s how everyone deals with it, I don’t know, but it worked for me.

And, I loved it. As someone who was very much a loner growing up, radio was a perfect outlet for me. I recall that Ralph Emery once said he got into the trade because he wanted people to listen to him. That’s exactly how it was for me. I made so many great friendships that I still treasure to this day. I’ve been guests at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, pallbearers at funerals, and even best man at weddings all because of the relationships I made.

Then, there are the people I worked with over the years. So many great and talented people. It’s almost like a fraternity, and if you actually ran a radio station with someone…..kind of like war. Sales, Sports, On-Air, you go through it all. I shouldn’t single anyone out, but there’s a gentleman out there named Ken Loggains that I worked with for eleven years….that is kind of my Hawkeye to my B.J….or vice versa, I don’t know. But working with people like him, Warren Medley, Randy Tidwell, and Marcia Campbell (who I worked for on the Interstate Radio Network…which put me on overnights at THE country station that mattered the most---WSM-AM) is something I will always treasure. Being associated with WNKX Radio in Centerville, TN and the people there was also a delight.

Then, as a music fan (what led me to radio in the first place), getting to meet many of the artists and performers I grew up with was something that I cherish to this day……George Jones, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, I have been blessed enough to interview them all, and am thankful for it. Possibly the biggest thrill for me as an interviewer was getting to talk with Earl Hamner, Jr. (The real-life “John-Boy,” who was the creator of The Waltons.) Imagine, if you will, sitting in a studio, and you hear this voice that you have heard since childhood coming out from over the phone line. That was a great moment, to say the least.

Working at “the radio station” was flying by the seat of the pants. It also qualifies as my on the job training. I had a little bit of direction from my program director, Gordon Rhodes, but the main thing he taught me was to “not sweat the small stuff.” Truthfully, he had another phrase for it, but we won’t go there. Radio has been called a “theater of the mind,” and that may be true…..but what goes on behind the scenes might actually be more funny than what comes out on the air. I guess what I am trying to say is that WKRP was “reality television” before there was such a thing.

From 1991 until 2009, I went through my last two years of high school, my not-so-roaring 20’s, deaths of those close to me, marriage to the love of my life, and fatherhood. I made more friendships and music business contacts there than I could have imagined. You might have thought it would have lasted forever-----but it didn’t, and I’ll pick up the story there next week…..