Confessions of a Rock and Roll Disk Jockey - the big city - Stories for my Grandchildren

I'm documenting my illustrious career in broadcasting. You know, sort of rehearsing for the official biography. The first part is here.

When I left for college, Mr. McB. wrote a letter of recommendation (in spite of all the shenanigans) and told me to go see his friend, the owner of KRBC Radio and TV in Abilene. It must have been a strong friendship because he put me to work immediately in the 8pm to midnight slot seven days a week, plus Saturday mornings! Compared to "On the spot with 1/2 a watt!" KRBC was the big time. I had arrived... and the audience response was immediate and huge. Previously, that time period was uninterrupted easy listening. To make room for me, they dumped that and continued with the Rock and Roll format and this made a LOT of people unhappy, it seems. I was largely oblivious to the furor, and fortunately it was not until later that I learned about all the complaints!

Two events from that first semester really stand out. The  first was a remote broadcast at a sock-hop at the Dyess AFB Youth Center. KRBC was well-equipped for remote broadcasts with a variety of portable set-ups, ranging from a small DJ desk to the mobile trailer (I wrote about the trailer at the West Texas Fair here). I had the DJ desk, and the deal was to play records all evening and in between chat with the kids and the sponsors on the air. I alternated with a live band that was there, and naturally I thought I would interview the band members too. It went something like this:

Me, to the band leader - "And let's talk with the guys in the band. Your name is..."
Band leader to me - "John Jones."
Me, to the drummer - "And you are..."
Drummer - "John Jones."
Me to the guitar player - "Uhh, and your name is..."
Guitar player - "John Jones."
Me to the bass player - "Let me guess..."
Bass player - "Yep. John Jones."

I thought that went pretty well, and when I started up the next record, the leader said, "You idiot! We all go to ACU and we'll get kicked out for playing a dance!" Actually I found out later that the leader didn't attend ACU - he was on the faculty! It was at that point that I realized, Hmm. I'm using my real name, and I'm out here playing for a dance. Is this going to be a really short semester?

The second event was the station's Christmas Party. Folks, here I was fresh from Podunk high, and believe me, I never imagined... I thought about crawling under the table, but there were already people under there. Let me just summarize by saying that was the last station Christmas Party at Abilene Country Club. I managed to leave before the cops got there and an announcer on the TV side and two women from traffic were fired the next morning! The story made the front page of the Reporter News! It was April before I quit worrying about a call from the Dean's office! "No sir, Dean Faulkner. I had no idea what to expect! Honest!" Okay, maybe the grandchildren don't need to know this story.

There were four or five guys (and one gal) from ACU working in radio and TV in Abilene at the time I was in school. Naturally we knew each other, and we would hang out together some, especially during school breaks when everyone else went home and we stayed behind to work. Back then - perhaps they still do - the dorms closed during the Christmas break, and we all scrambled for a place to stay. One Christmas, there were a bunch of us guys crashing in an 8x8 one-bed hutment normally occupied by a married couple (she went home for the holidays, he had to stay and work).

I don't know how to describe the hutments - army surplus, shoddily-built shacks used for married housing back then. You had to see them to understand about the hutments. Suffice it to say that there was barely room for two in a hutment; there is no way six can live there, unless they slept in shifts, which is exactly what we did. It was wall-to-wall mattress (two of them) and often the bed would still be warm from the all-night guys who had just gone to work when I got there about 12:30am. Another time several us stayed with an upper classman who had an off-campus apartment. He was the night director on the TV side and we both happened to be dating the night receptionist at the station. Awkward.

The jobs kept us there year round, of course. One summer I roomed with a guy who had a midnight to dawn shift at another station - we only saw each other weekends. We were in Edwards - the only air conditioned men's dorm and there was a block of white acoustic tiles on the ceiling for sound deadening purposes. The block was 8 tiles by 8 tiles, so we put dark construction paper on every other tile and pinned paper chess pieces on the ceiling. Before I left for work I would make a move, and when he came in he would counter.  We never finished the game - he married a local girl before the summer was over.

I had a part in his wedding. My role was to sit by his mother, who was NOT happy about the marriage, and when the priest (it was in an Episcopal church) came to the part about "If any here have cause..." I was to make sure Momma did not stand up and shout, "Me! I have objections!" Seriously, that was my job! This guy stayed in broadcasting and became a well-respected news director, retiring recently after a 38 year run at a station in northern Nevada. His current wife is not the girl he married that summer, so maybe Momma was right.

Next: the benefits of being a famous DJ; Girls, Gifts and Payola