[Editor’s Note:] As part of National Disc Jockey Day, MVO: The Voice-Over Guys asked some of the guys to share a story or two from their radio days.
Fully 50% of the stories we got back we can’t publish because we’re not sure if the statute of limitations has expired, questions would be asked (some by spouses, some by the police) and none of the MVO guys would survive a day in the clink. We know this because some have had the brief experience (allegedly).
So after tirelessly editing, here’s this radio story from MVO: The Voice-Over Guys’ PETER K. O’CONNELL.
I worked at two radio stations in my life. One for 4 years and one for 1 week (where I summarily quit and was fired in the same phone call — a whole other story for next year’s National Disc Jockey Day).
The longer tenured jock position was at WVUD-FM in Dayton – which goes by a different name and frequency today. This change of calls and frequency may or may not be because of the stain left behind from my on-air performance.
Over at HitRadio 100, we liked to give things away because I promise you Daytonians loved free stuff (but the station’s 50,000 watt signal covered three states so our friends in Kentucky and Indiana got free stuff too if they were the 9th caller). And, boy, if you EVER wanted to be sure you had listeners, just give something away and watch the phone lines ignite!
So one evening, your humble host was on the air during a free turkey giveaway for Thanksgiving (no, we didn’t drop them from the air ala “WKRP in Cinncinnati” – still one of the great TV broadcast comedy scenes in history, btw). The way listeners knew to call in and win was they heard a very distinctive turkey gobble.
The gobble SFX was loaded on a multi-tiered cart machine where we also played music, commercials and jingles. Except during my shift, I was not scheduled to give away a turkey. No problem.
As I was coming out of a commercial stop set, I punched the board button for the station jingle to lead back to music. I was supposed to hear “Double-You Vee You DEEEEE!”
I heard “Gobble, Gobble, Gobble”.
Crap!!!
There is a special internal sphincter in every broadcaster that tightens and twists when you press the wrong button on the board or say the very wrong thing on air. There is no undo button in live radio.
So I hit the button (the correct one this time) for the jingle and the next song. Dreading what was coming next, I looked over at the phone bank whose lights now blinked furiously. Ravenous Daytonians were demanding the chance to win that damn turkey that I wasn’t actually supposed to be giving away.
In my panicked brain , I was trying to figure out how I was going to explain to my parents how I got fired for improperly giving away a turkey. Or what the Program Director would say BEFORE he fired me. Would the FCC come to my home and arrest me?!
Those phone lights wouldn’t stop blinking. God! Please stop blinking! Ack!!!
The following moments were a blur but I think pulled the one/two combo of “sorry, you’re not caller 9, try again” and “we have our winner, try again later” as I sped through answering the lines. It was an eternity. Sleep that night? Not much.
Fired? No, the PD was completely cool as I came clean and explained my honest mistake the next day.
But to this day, when I hear a turkey gobble, I sense that special broadcaster sphincter muscle, just for a second.
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