National DJ Day

In honor of National Disc Jockey Day, I'll post some embarrassing pictures with a station list. I started in radio in 1978 when I was offered Sundays being a preacher-tape jockey at a 500 watt AM daytime station in Claremore, Oklahoma (KWPR). That was the kind of station that was severely understaffed, where a person would be expected to everything at least once. After one year, I had moved from weekends to morning drive, I did news, sales, production, emptied ashtrays and carried out the trash. It was the best hands on education I could have, so much so that I passed the FCC licensing test without cracking a book until I was on the plane to the FCC branch in Dallas.

Knit caps with a pom pom, headphones as an eyepatch at KWPR.

It had been my dream to go to film school at USC or Brooks in Santa Barbara, but I was having so much fun in radio that dream never came to pass. I didn't mind- I was making money, paying my rent and car payments, and I moved up the ranks through Tulsa, Albuquerque, Dallas and Los Angeles. Besides, I was meeting (and photographing) all of my musical heroes! What's not to love?

The Definitive List:

KWPR AM Claremore Ok
KMOD FM Tulsa
KCFO FM Tulsa
KFMG FM Albuquerque
KLTY FM Dallas
KHYI FM Dallas
KQLZ FM Los Angeles
KODZ FM Dallas
KLIF AM Dallas
KKZN, KPLX, Dallas
ABC Radio Networks Dallas

KMOD FM Overnights, you can see it my eyes

Big boy studios at Y-95 Dallas, 1988.

Next time I'll tell the story about the time Wolfman Jack and I went to interview Smokey Robinson...