Up until the mid 70’s there was little or no format in regards to the music.  The program director simply decided that if he was going to play a new album, he put it in the studio.  Early on, very little got rejected. Usually the record library was divided into two parts.  Close to the turntables, very often in a peach crate or something like that, were the new albums.  Then along the walls of the studio were the albums that were no longer current.  You tended to play more of the newer albums because they were the most exciting.

The DJ’s then simply picked among what was there. The previous DJ left the list of tunes he played on his show so you could avoid repeating what was already played.  When you had a DJ who knew what he was doing the radio station was great.   The trouble was, not every DJ had the same talents and frequently they allowed themselves to get “distracted”.  They might be very stoned. They might be very stoned and talking to some babe on the phone.  They might be very stoned and talking to some babe who came by the station to party.  You get the idea.   Some people needed some control.

The first attempts at formatic control by the program director took the form of a china marker or grease pencil.  This was a very rudimentary and crude attempt  to keep bad music off of the radio. The program director simply took a grease pencil and drew a stripe across the offending cut.  Very often in the case of weaker albums, you might see a stripe across an entire album side.  Sometimes there might be only one or two available cuts.  Cuts got “greased out” if they had profanity.  If you tried to play one of these cuts on the air it would skip and pop, not to mention gumming up the stylus on the turntable.

Invariably, you would go to an album to play a certain cut and discover that it was greased out.  The resulting emotion was outrage that the PD was so stupid that he greased out this excellent track.  A few resigned themselves to fate.  The rest of us decided to exercise an option.

It didn’t take long to discover that lighter fluid did an excellent job of removing grease marks.   Soon there were several cans of lighter fluid and clean white rags hidden about the studio. We learned to use a sparing amount of fluid and put it only on the mark itself. You let it sit for a moment and then using the smallest motion you wiped off the mark.  We were careful not to wipe around the whole cut so that you didn’t spread the dissolved gunk onto the rest of the record. If the PD hadn’t pressed too hard and scratched the record, this usually did the trick.

Your only concern was if the PD was listening and he was aware that he had greased that track out.  You would usually find out quickly by way of a call on the “hot line.”   This sometimes resulted in scratching out the cuts with a nail.  

 

This brings up two stories regarding greasing out records.

One time Frank Zappa was in the studio doing an interview. He had many tracks that got greased out because of profanity.   I pulled out one of his albums to play it and he saw the grease marks.   “What is this??” he said with no small amount of aggravation.  “That means don’t play it.”, was my reply.  “What cretin would do that?” he demanded.  I pointed out to him that the greased out track featured the F-word.  I also pointed out to him that many of his better tracks often had something in them which would get us in trouble if we played them. I got the impression that he did it on purpose.   That seemed to calm him down.

Another story concerns KSHE’s main competition, KADI, which is now KHITS.  I was working there in 1973 when the station burned down.   The studio had one of those drop ceilings which made a good place to hide lighter fluid. Each jock had his own stash. There was also a little closet in the studio which sheltered a can or two.

After the fire, I was having a surreal moment in the burned studio.  The dials on the control board had melted and sagged down and looked like a Salvador Dali painting. The program log lying on the desk was charred black except for the white outline of a BIC pen that was laying there at the time of the fire.   Many of the albums warped with the heat.  Looking straight up you could see the stars through a burned whole in the roof. Some things were still mushy from the fire hoses and everything reeked of smoke.

There were two men in the studio who I assumed were investigating the origins of the fire.  They made some comments about “accelerant” and “amateurs”.  I realized that they had found the charred lighter fluid cans in weird places around the studio and suspected arson.  I told them why those cans of lighter fluid were there but I don’t think that they believed me.