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I'll just lock the studio door while I say this...


Ted O'Reilly

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  • 2 weeks later...

But why did she hit the station ID? You quit, break programming, walk away, leave the mic open so it catches the sound of the cart rack hitting the floor ...

Edit to say that I made $6 or $7 an hour in my first radio gig, weekend overnights at WTNT Tallahassee. When I got my first full time job, I believe it was $10 an hour. Radio sucks, and what ensured that I wouldn't stay in it was the discovery that I wasn't going to move up from Tallahassee (market number 104, if I remember correctly) but could barely get interest from stations in the tiniest towns in the middle of nowhere, for even less money.

Edited by Dan Gould
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Guest Bill Barton

But why did she hit the station ID? You quit, break programming, walk away, leave the mic open so it catches the sound of the cart rack hitting the floor ... :rofl::w Exactly!

Edit to say that I made $6 or $7 an hour in my first radio gig, weekend overnights at WTNT Tallahassee. When I got my first full time job, I believe it was $10 an hour. Radio sucks, and what ensured that I wouldn't stay in it was the discovery that I wasn't going to move up from Tallahassee (market number 104, if I remember correctly) but could barely get interest from stations in the tiniest towns in the middle of nowhere, for even less money. For a bit over 20 years I actually (barely) made a living doing radio, most of it jazz or alternative. At one point in the 1980s I was working for three stations simultaneously, one full-time and two part-time (I had to have a big sign to hang up in front of the console to remind myself where the hell I was so I wouldn't give the wrong ID!) It's been over a decade now since I've been able to make any $ at it. Now it's back to being a volunteer and doing it as a creative outlet. Ironic in a way when I think back on the 13 years I did a weekly jazz show on a commercial station with complete artistic control of the content. Those were the days...

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Ironic in a way when I think back on the 13 years I did a weekly jazz show on a commercial station with complete artistic control of the content. Those were the days...

That was the highlight of my career as well. That F/T job was at a soft AC station. Part of my Saturday night duties was to roll a godawful smooth jazz show hosted by Dave Koz. So I figured it couldn't hury to pitch a "Romantic Jazz" show that would fit into the format with a mix of familiar vocalists like Sinatra and Ella with ballads by Ben Webster and Dexter and others. But it got even better when another station flipped to a smooth jazz format. At that point the boss wasn't going to stick with the Koz program, and actually came to me with a proposal for a two hour show to be called "Real Jazz" (they play "smooth", we play "real"). I produced about 40 of those. Nothing like GoM does with his show, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Funny thing was I would always ask for comments/requests at least one break an hour, and you never knew what would happen. Most of the time the phone wouldn't ring, or one person would call. Then every once in a while I'd get three or four calls, one after the other - "we love your show" "great to hear this music on the radio". And I did have one hard core fan - an elderly lady who would never call, she would write. I must have received four or five letters from her that I've got filed away somewhere.

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