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When I realized that I could write about my time at KMOX, I got excited about the prospect. The more that I thought about it, the more I realized what a lucky kid I was to have my first commercial radio experience at The Voice of St. Louis.
I was a Mass Communications Major at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville and the Production Director for WSIE-FM when it first went on the air.
That got me an internship at KMOX that later lead to a part time weekend newswriter job.
In 1970, KMOX was one of the premier radio stations in ...
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I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with several masters at the art of broadcasting. One of them was John McCormack, The Man Who Walks and Talks at Midnight.
He was the overnight host at KMOX and he actually played music…at times. I was hired as overnight news writer and was responsible for keeping The Man supplied with news and features.
John McCormack was a truly cool person. He was dapper and gentlemanly. He was slim and sported a mustache and often a cravat around his neck. He was tan. In a movie of his ...
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In 1970, KMOX had a news staff with reporters and people with actual journalism skills. I was hired to write weekend overnight news.
In those days the main news source was the teletype. Anyone over 50 is probably familiar with these automatic typewriters and the clattering sound that they made. Most radio stations had one or two. KMOX had seven. They made so much noise that they were enclosed in a long closet with glass sliding doors. A teletype is an automatic typewriter with a long roll of paper (just like a roll of toilet paper!) mounted on it. The ...
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When I worked for KMOX in 1970 I had access to the Cardinal games and I could go sit in the press area. It was a treat to be able to do this because Jim White’s show would come on after the night games and I could go to the game and leave around the eighth inning and walk over to the radio station to prepare for Jim White’s show. Having free access to things like ball games and concerts is a real treat because it allows you to “drop in”. I can go to a concert that I may ...
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My first KMOX experience was as an intern. I was Jim White’s assistant. Jim White was a long-term fixture at KMOX and most of the time he did a nighttime talk show.
He was a nice guy and he was good to me. I think he was happy then. I remember him say once that he was 32. He was aware that he had one of the best jobs in radio.
I would sit in the control room with the producer. The producer was usually a part timer. They might be teachers or something like that by day, but would ...
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I was at KADI in 1973 when the station was destroyed by fire. Miraculously, we were back on the air the next day! The transmitter room was not burned but only suffered heat and smoke damage. The engineers replaced some wiring that was damaged by the heat and put us back on the air. We were very generously offered the use of a production studio by KSLQ, which was a Top 40 station based in Clayton.
We had to start from square one! We had nothing… no music, no commercials, nothing! The jocks brought in an assortment of greatest hits ...
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I have been backstage at many events, many times! Like many things, the backstage experience has changed a lot over the years.
In the late 60’s, rock concerts were still a relatively new event and things could be pretty loose. Many times someone with a good rap could talk themselves backstage rather easily. Before I was in radio I became quite an artist at gaining entrance to concerts and backstage areas. (See Richipedia Sneaking Into Concerts).
The secret was to act alone. Too many people tried to sneak in en masse. (This rule does not apply to good looking ...
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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.
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I have been doing radio since fall of 1968. The Beatles were still together. Jimi, Janis, and Jim were still alive. Led Zeppelin was months away from their first album. The Who were working on Tommy. I could go on with this much further, but you get the idea. I had the wonderful experience of playing most of the Classic Rock repertoire on the radio when it was all new!
We all had big mail slots at the radio station and almost every week we would come into work and there would be albums, sometimes as many as 10 or ...
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One of the early jocks (who shall remain nameless) was a great guy and a friend of mine. He was also very hyper and very spacy. I never worked with a guy who left the studio as much as he did. In those days your shift was a whole series of deadlines, three minute and thirty second deadlines or sixty-second deadlines. Nothing was automated and you had to be there to start and stop every record and every commercial precisely on time. This called for a high degree of concentration and left you surprisingly tired after your show. Bearing down ...
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