How surviving the weekly beatings turned me into a real pro

I suppose it’s only in a market as small as Terre Haute that a guy can be hired off the street to work on the radio, but that’s what happened to me. It’s not that I hadn’t been on the air before – I had been a disk jockey all through college on the campus radio station. I had a blast, but I knew it was all strictly amateur. After I graduated, one day while out and about I happened to be wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the college station’s logo. A fellow approached me and introduced himself as Chip, the program director at WBOW. He asked if I worked in radio and wondered if I’d be interested in part-time on-air work at his station.

On the air

I was game, and so a couple weeks later I was very excited to be sitting at the controls in WBOW’s studio. Chip was there to show me the ropes. He explained the format clock and showed me how to find songs, jingles, sweepers, and spots in the cart library. He ran through the liner cards and said that I needed to backtime to the news at the top of the hour. Clock? Spots? Jingles? Sweepers? Cart? Liner? Backtime? It was a whole new language. Except for opening the mic and talking, WBOW was unlike anything I’d ever done on the radio. I began to worry that I’d gotten in over my head. As Chip figured out how little I knew, he rolled his eyes, sighed, muttered something about how hard it was to find experienced talent in “this nowhere market,” and began to teach me about professional radio.

Chip explained and re-explained the format clock, which laid out the order of the songs and breaks, until I could execute it consistently. He kept giving me tips until I figured out how to backtime each hour so the last song ended just as ABC News started at precisely the top of the hour. And every week I dropped a cassette tape into a special deck that recorded everything I said into the microphone. It created what Chip called a “scoped aircheck.” We listened to it together each week and he bluntly challenged me to get better.

“Stop saying degrees! The high tomorrow will be 58! Everybody knows that’s 58 degrees!”

“And right there, you did that annnd thing again as you moved from one topic to another, like you’re connecting cars on a train. Cut it out! I want to hear you go smoothly from the beginning of your break to the end!”

“You stepped on the vocals on that song! C’mon, time it out, know what you’re going to say and how long it will take!”

Chip did not pull punches. He knew it, too; he called these sessions my “weekly beating.”

I sometimes came by the station during Chip’s shifts to sit in the studio with him so I could watch and listen. He thoughtfully prepared for every break, reviewing material he brought in with him that day to talk about. Before he opened the mic, he made sure everything he was going to use — a liner card, maybe a newspaper clipping, and all the spots (commercials) — were ready to go. Then he put his hands on the buttons and knobs he would use during the break and sat quietly under his headphones, listening to the end of the song that was playing. He knew how every song in the library ended, and he would count beats as he opened the mic so he could start talking at just the right moment. He had a subtle sense of timing — he always knew the very moment, a sweet spot in time, to do the next thing, and how to do it in a way that kept the audience’s attention. I could see he was doing what he was trying to get me to do, and I started to hear how these little things were the difference between some guy playing music and talking, and a talented pro delivering fresh, vital radio that kept listeners tuned in because they wanted to hear what was next.

As I kept practicing what Chip taught and modeled, it started to click. I could hear myself getting better on my aircheck tapes. Soon I achieved basic mastery and was starting to sound like a pro. I felt good about the talent I was building.

I didn’t realize then how rare of an opportunity it was to learn from someone who really knew what he was doing. I’ve never experienced it again. But I’m hopeful. I got a new boss at work a few weeks ago, someone we hired from outside for her considerable experience. She’s accomplished several things I’ve wanted to do but haven’t been able to figure out. I can tell just from this short time we’ve worked together that I stand to learn a lot from her. I’m looking forward to growing rapidly, just as I did under Chip. I just hope she’s not the type to give out weekly beatings!


Comments

17 responses to “How surviving the weekly beatings turned me into a real pro”

  1. Lone Primate Avatar

    Wow, there’s a whole lot to love about this post. :) I enjoy the scoops (no waistband jokes, please!); they’re easy to listen to. I would never have picked up on that “aaaannnd” thing myself… nor objected to it, but then I’m no radio anything, let alone pro.

    I’m fascinated but utterly flummoxed at the idea of knowing how to time all this out and fit it together on the fly. Magicians’ tricks. :)

    I like the attitude you have to your new boss. I think my own first instinct would be to be threatened by someone else’s superior knowledge like that, despite the fact that I’ve had a couple of experiences like yours, and one of them very recent. It shows a real maturity (if I may say so) and a level of self-confidence you’ve achieved that I haven’t.

    1. Jim Avatar

      The thing about the annnnnd problem is that I’d say it one or two times each break. It became like water torture to the listener.

      The timing isn’t as hard as it looks like. It’s kind of like riding a bike — once you learn how to balance, you just do it. It can take time to learn balance, though.

      Let me tell you, with all the change we’ve had recently at work, including being acquired, having a new boss wasn’t at the top of my want list. But the opportunity to learn and get better is hard to resist.

  2. ryoko861 Avatar

    I would love to sit in on a radio show! All the DJ’s I listen to seem to enjoy what they do. They laugh, screw up, laugh about it, have guests, all that stuff. There is one station though that I really want to go through their cart and get some new songs in it. You can only hear “Jungle Love” so many times.

    1. Jim Avatar

      Like so many DJs I know like to say, working on the radio beats having a job!

  3. jacullman Avatar

    My husband was student manager a his college radio station – the gig helped defray his education expenses. Afterwards, he went into the business — from 1980 through 1993. I met him when I was an intern at the station where he was working in Chicago. Some of the most interesting, infuriating, funny and eccentric people were in that buisiness. Those days are sadly gone now, with the mega-ownership and decline of local programming… and opportunities for newbies like you and my husband were able to experience. Absloutely oved your post —

    1. Jim Avatar

      I agree with you about the kinds of people you meet in radio, and about how mega-ownership has really changed the game. I wrote about that, too:

      http://jimgrey.wordpress.com/2009/07/30/its-a-shame-whats-happened-to-radio/

  4. Holly Vandervort Avatar

    I never realized there was so much that goes into a radio broadcast. I guess I always imagined that DJ’s are just naturally good talkers. But the subtleties of any business is what makes it great…it’s that ability to make something look easy. And I agree that regular beatings, while difficult, are what make us grow. The rejections I have received for my writing have helped to make me the writer I am today (still a work in progress, of course, with many more beatings to come, I’m sure).

    Good luck with the new boss. I know that can be a stressful thing, but it sounds like you have the right perspective.

    1. Jim Avatar

      A good DJ makes all the behind-the-scenes stuff transparent so the listener can focus entirely on the entertainment!

      There are other ways to learn and grow that don’t involve beatings, but sometimes beatings are what you get!

  5. Todd Pack Avatar

    I was a teenage disc jockey. It was a lot of fun. I’ll bet I could still start a record, give a time check, read the weather and intro the song before the vocals start.

    1. Todd Pack Avatar

      P.S. You look so earnest in that picture!

    2. Jim Avatar

      You just have to know how much time you have on the intro! I actually felt relieved when I switched to the rock station where we didn’t talk over intros. Lots easier. And “earnest” should be my middle name.

  6. doon po sa amin Avatar

    hello, there.

    so glad for you for the chance to do something you love and are proud of. keep on! best wishes. :))

    1. Jim Avatar

      Thank you! It was a lot of fun.

  7. Renee Davies Avatar

    I bet that job was stressful until you were passed the learning curve. It sounds very interesting. It’s nice to have a pic of your days in radio, eh?

    1. Jim Avatar

      It was stressful at first, but I still had fun! My on-air photos are courtesy my ex-wife. We were dating at the time.

  8. versakay Avatar
    versakay

    Good gurus are like that. Just like your parents. They may beat you up, occassionally or periodically, much depends on how good a student you are. But they do pull their punches, they do not like to turn you away. And good pupils, like Jim, are not deterredby the beatings and they learn.
    Eager, as always, to learn, (don’t bash me) , of your experiences with your new boss.

    1. Jim Avatar

      Good gurus are hard to come by! And the diligent student gets beat up less often.

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