First time on the air....

["Robert Paine" <macandrew@prodigy.net>]

Christmas Day 1976, W-104 (WIOF) FM, Waterbury CT. I had the 1 to 6:05
shift. 104 ran the Drake-Chenault Great American Country service and the
routine was to feature one artist's Christmas album each half hour.

Intro-album cut-45-album cut, etc.-tag and :15 past-more music-end tag-ID.
Every half hour.

I had to do a five minute newscast at 6 so I showed up early to pull my
news. Good thing I did - it wouldn't have helped much had I known how to
change the ribbon. AP didn't send anything after 12:50 PM. The print was so
light that I spent the afternoon trying to decipher what it was that I was
supposed to read. The afternoon was playing music, running down the hall
every ten minutes ( I wasn't TOO nervous) and reading nearly illegible
print. I did the news at 6, while my relief watched over my shoulder. At
6:05 I played an ID, punched up the automation and sat back in the chair,
completely wiped.

Got home about 7. At 7:30 I bade my wife and children Merry Christmas and
crashed....till about eleven next morning.

After kicking around the biz for twenty years or so and moving to the
Baltimore-Washington area, I took the admonitions of legendary DC morning
team Harden and Weaver and went out and got a real job.

Re: Donna's comments about being told they "didn't put girls on the air", I
wonder if they had listened to WNAC and WTIC. Umm, if I'm not mistaken,
wouldn't Louise Morgan and Jean Colbert qualify as girls (actually women but
you get the idea)? Not to mention Una King of WTHT.

Re: air names...at my last gig (WMJS-FM, Prince Frederick MD), I was told
"no air names". Real names had to be used. Now, I'm not ashamed of my real
name but I think Bob McAndrew has a better ring. Listened to a jazz station
one night and there was a guy using MY name - well, the same name. Called
him and asked why he chose "Bob Payne". Said his real name was Czech or
Polish and quite unpronouncable. I told him that is my real name and if I
could have gotten away with it, he was welcome to mine if management would
let me use his. He was amused.

 Macandrew   (baby-boomer who expects to receive greetings soon from AARP -
which I HOPE means American Assoc. of  Rock 'n Rollin' People - I ain't
ready for th' other.)

 Macandrew