From May 12, 2006

Even though I do not have this information on the FAQ page on WTIT.net , the most common question I get asked is, “How did you find new DJs for Tape Radio when DJs left?” For the first 15 years, the answer is simple. All the guys who were invited to join were school or neighborhood friends of mine. Bouncing Billy and Killer Joe had been neighborhood friends of mine since we were ten-years-old. Galloping Gary and I met in public school. In addition, of course, were friends of the existing DJ staff. Killer Joe ran into a little league teammate at a game, both watching their old team. That night, his friend became Johnnie Walker and completed our original five DJs. Johnnie met Gregarious Greg in college. Greg would start contributing in 1973 and ironically replaced Killer Joe in 1974.

In the mid-eighties, replacing a DJ involved both close friends, such as the Cosmic Commando and Rock Rolling, or social friends such as B.B. Bacardi and Bob Smirnoff. My ex-wife and I threw New Years parties from 1970, the year we met and after we married until I DJ’d at night during the mid seventies. We started the parties up again in the eighties. Along with the WTIT DJs, we’d invite neighbors and social friends. My ex-wife was a housewife by this time (Yea, I know that is not “PC”, but that’s what we called it then) and knew a lot of neighbors. On New Year’s Eve 1987, a neighborhood guy, that I never met, came to our party. I think his name was Rich. He cornered Rock Rolling in our studio. He had never seen anyone who had a Tape Radio studio in his or her home. (Go figure…) I was elsewhere at the party. Suddenly Rock came out of the studio rushing over to talk to me. He said, “Hey, you need to talk to Rich”. After I asked who the hell was “Rich”, Rock grabbed my arm to lead me to the studio.

I saw Rich, and he proceeded to tell me how cool he thought our Tape Radio thing was, and asked whether he could join. No one had ever done this before, and come to think of it, since. We had our five and at that time it was Rock, Johnnie, Cos, B.B. and I. But, what the heck, I said sure. He was to start as “J. Fox” the next Wednesday. I told the DJs at the party. They were all friendly, and welcomed J. Fox aboard. Later, Rock said he was sorry that he didn’t handle it better. “Bud, he said he has wanted to do this his whole life.” I paused a second and asked, “He told you that he wanted to come over to my house and talk into a tape recorder, his whole life?” To this day, I am still not sure what he meant. Johnnie has an expression that I love. He says, “Life is strange. And then it gets a lot weirder.” Our collective Tape Radio lives were about to get really weird.

Next Time: The complete J. Fox, “The New Guy” short and bizarre Tape Radio experience. Stay tuned, or as we say on tape, “Keep your tape tuned…”

From May 12, 2006

Even though I do not have this information on the FAQ page on WTIT.net , the most common question I get asked is, “How did you find new DJs for Tape Radio when DJs left?” For the first 15 years, the answer is simple. All the guys who were invited to join were school or neighborhood friends of mine. Bouncing Billy and Killer Joe had been neighborhood friends of mine since we were ten-years-old. Galloping Gary and I met in public school. In addition, of course, were friends of the existing DJ staff. Killer Joe ran into a little league teammate at a game, both watching their old team. That night, his friend became Johnnie Walker and completed our original five DJs. Johnnie met Gregarious Greg in college. Greg would start contributing in 1973 and ironically replaced Killer Joe in 1974.

In the mid-eighties, replacing a DJ involved both close friends, such as the Cosmic Commando and Rock Rolling, or social friends such as B.B. Bacardi and Bob Smirnoff. My ex-wife and I threw New Years parties from 1970, the year we met and after we married until I DJ’d at night during the mid seventies. We started the parties up again in the eighties. Along with the WTIT DJs, we’d invite neighbors and social friends. My ex-wife was a housewife by this time (Yea, I know that is not “PC”, but that’s what we called it then) and knew a lot of neighbors. On New Year’s Eve 1987, a neighborhood guy, that I never met, came to our party. I think his name was Rich. He cornered Rock Rolling in our studio. He had never seen anyone who had a Tape Radio studio in his or her home. (Go figure…) I was elsewhere at the party. Suddenly Rock came out of the studio rushing over to talk to me. He said, “Hey, you need to talk to Rich”. After I asked who the hell was “Rich”, Rock grabbed my arm to lead me to the studio.

I saw Rich, and he proceeded to tell me how cool he thought our Tape Radio thing was, and asked whether he could join. No one had ever done this before, and come to think of it, since. We had our five and at that time it was Rock, Johnnie, Cos, B.B. and I. But, what the heck, I said sure. He was to start as “J. Fox” the next Wednesday. I told the DJs at the party. They were all friendly, and welcomed J. Fox aboard. Later, Rock said he was sorry that he didn’t handle it better. “Bud, he said he has wanted to do this his whole life.” I paused a second and asked, “He told you that he wanted to come over to my house and talk into a tape recorder, his whole life?” To this day, I am still not sure what he meant. Johnnie has an expression that I love. He says, “Life is strange. And then it gets a lot weirder.” Our collective Tape Radio lives were about to get really weird.

Next Time: The complete J. Fox, “The New Guy” short and bizarre Tape Radio experience. Stay tuned, or as we say on tape, “Keep your tape tuned…”

From May 12, 2006

Even though I do not have this information on the FAQ page on WTIT.net , the most common question I get asked is, “How did you find new DJs for Tape Radio when DJs left?” For the first 15 years, the answer is simple. All the guys who were invited to join were school or neighborhood friends of mine. Bouncing Billy and Killer Joe had been neighborhood friends of mine since we were ten-years-old. Galloping Gary and I met in public school. In addition, of course, were friends of the existing DJ staff. Killer Joe ran into a little league teammate at a game, both watching their old team. That night, his friend became Johnnie Walker and completed our original five DJs. Johnnie met Gregarious Greg in college. Greg would start contributing in 1973 and ironically replaced Killer Joe in 1974.

In the mid-eighties, replacing a DJ involved both close friends, such as the Cosmic Commando and Rock Rolling, or social friends such as B.B. Bacardi and Bob Smirnoff. My ex-wife and I threw New Years parties from 1970, the year we met and after we married until I DJ’d at night during the mid seventies. We started the parties up again in the eighties. Along with the WTIT DJs, we’d invite neighbors and social friends. My ex-wife was a housewife by this time (Yea, I know that is not “PC”, but that’s what we called it then) and knew a lot of neighbors. On New Year’s Eve 1987, a neighborhood guy, that I never met, came to our party. I think his name was Rich. He cornered Rock Rolling in our studio. He had never seen anyone who had a Tape Radio studio in his or her home. (Go figure…) I was elsewhere at the party. Suddenly Rock came out of the studio rushing over to talk to me. He said, “Hey, you need to talk to Rich”. After I asked who the hell was “Rich”, Rock grabbed my arm to lead me to the studio.

I saw Rich, and he proceeded to tell me how cool he thought our Tape Radio thing was, and asked whether he could join. No one had ever done this before, and come to think of it, since. We had our five and at that time it was Rock, Johnnie, Cos, B.B. and I. But, what the heck, I said sure. He was to start as “J. Fox” the next Wednesday. I told the DJs at the party. They were all friendly, and welcomed J. Fox aboard. Later, Rock said he was sorry that he didn’t handle it better. “Bud, he said he has wanted to do this his whole life.” I paused a second and asked, “He told you that he wanted to come over to my house and talk into a tape recorder, his whole life?” To this day, I am still not sure what he meant. Johnnie has an expression that I love. He says, “Life is strange. And then it gets a lot weirder.” Our collective Tape Radio lives were about to get really weird.

Next Time: The complete J. Fox, “The New Guy” short and bizarre Tape Radio experience. Stay tuned, or as we say on tape, “Keep your tape tuned…”

One of the interesting things about being in sales is that you meet so many people during the course of a day that some are bound to say something either interesting or amusing. Today it happened twice.

I was first in a liquor store of one of my customers. A man came up to me and asked, “Would you like to buy a truck?” An interesting question since I have only driven a truck when I rented one from U-Haul. And that was over twenty years ago. I looked at the gentleman and responded, “No need, but thanks for asking.” He looked back as he was leaving the store and said, “It is really good for towing.” I responded, “Does that mean if I want to tow something, or does it mean that it is so shot I’d have to have it towed a lot?” He just rolled his eyes and left.

Later in the day I stopped at a gas station for a soda where I happen to know the owner. The man in front of me said to the owner, “I want to buy a winning lottery ticket.” I looked at the owner and asked, “Isn’t that an oxymoron?” The owner looked back at me and said, “No. He’s just a regular moron.”

One of the interesting things about being in sales is that you meet so many people during the course of a day that some are bound to say something either interesting or amusing. Today it happened twice.

I was first in a liquor store of one of my customers. A man came up to me and asked, “Would you like to buy a truck?” An interesting question since I have only driven a truck when I rented one from U-Haul. And that was over twenty years ago. I looked at the gentleman and responded, “No need, but thanks for asking.” He looked back as he was leaving the store and said, “It is really good for towing.” I responded, “Does that mean if I want to tow something, or does it mean that it is so shot I’d have to have it towed a lot?” He just rolled his eyes and left.

Later in the day I stopped at a gas station for a soda where I happen to know the owner. The man in front of me said to the owner, “I want to buy a winning lottery ticket.” I looked at the owner and asked, “Isn’t that an oxymoron?” The owner looked back at me and said, “No. He’s just a regular moron.”

One of the interesting things about being in sales is that you meet so many people during the course of a day that some are bound to say something either interesting or amusing. Today it happened twice.

I was first in a liquor store of one of my customers. A man came up to me and asked, “Would you like to buy a truck?” An interesting question since I have only driven a truck when I rented one from U-Haul. And that was over twenty years ago. I looked at the gentleman and responded, “No need, but thanks for asking.” He looked back as he was leaving the store and said, “It is really good for towing.” I responded, “Does that mean if I want to tow something, or does it mean that it is so shot I’d have to have it towed a lot?” He just rolled his eyes and left.

Later in the day I stopped at a gas station for a soda where I happen to know the owner. The man in front of me said to the owner, “I want to buy a winning lottery ticket.” I looked at the owner and asked, “Isn’t that an oxymoron?” The owner looked back at me and said, “No. He’s just a regular moron.”

WTIT has two blogs on this fine Google site. One is the blog you are presently reading; the other is WTIT Tape Radio: The Photos. This one I have signed in from the start as “WTIT”. The other account I have signed in with using my email address. (I do realize now that I did not need to set up a separate identity for the WTIT Photo Blog. Hey, I was a “newby” way back then.) Now Google has decided that in the Beta edition I have to use my Google email address to get in. The big problem though is that doing that sends me to the wrong blog.

Google has a “Help” site. It asks you to explain “as detailed as possible” your problem. Silly me, I did just that. About thirty seconds later I got an “auto-reply” stating that Google can’t possibly answer all the email questions and listed Google “help FAQ’s”. Why did I have to give them “detailed information” to get that? Don’t get me wrong, even as a “baby boomer” I love the technical age in which we live. I won’t get in my car without my IPOD. I enjoy maintaining what I think is developing into a humorous blog with the occasional “rant”.

Now, I am not even sure when or if this blog that I am typing will be posted. I should check my second email to Google. I probably have already received yet a new “auto-response.” …I just figured out if I just hit enough links on the “my accounts” section, I would get into the right blog (more or less accidentally). I think I have earned a martini. Now, I have to find the Smirnoff. It has to be easier than finding an actual person to speak with at Google. But, it is nice (though accidental) to post this blog. There. Rant over; you are now free to “rant amongst yourselves…”