Radio these days is no fun any more. They are all computerized and you just don't get the fun of when a live person was controlling the music. There used to be a lot of fun things they did on the radio in my area such as....

Mixing: Some stations used to mix on Saturday nights.

Megamix: One station made a new megamix about once a month back in 1983. The megamix would be about 10 or 15 minutes and would consist of several snips of multiple songs blended to absolute perfection. Dammitt, it was an AM station with a very weak signal though so when I recorded them, they were full of static and tape hiss.

Dedication Line: People would call in and voice their dedication over the air.

Testify Time: People would call in and tell the DJ their problem over the air. The DJ would then respond by answering their problem with an appropriate song. He usually had the record cued to the opening lyric in the song that answered their question and then he would let the rest of the song play.

Smash It Or Trash It: The DJ would play a brand new song for the first time and people would call in and either "smash it" or "trash it".

What are some fun things you remember about radio?
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[Edited 7/8/06 20:43pm]

KMOJ still does mixes, and a lot of times they're really good!

In 2002, there was a station called "The Max". It played 1980s pop 24/7. On Saturday nights they had a satellite mix show called "12 Inch Saturday Night" that was really great. Unfortunately, that station lasted exactly one year before the format changed to blues. The blues format lasted around a year before it changed to black gospel.

In 2004, there was an R&B oldies station that had an old school funk and disco mix show on Saturday nights called "The Crown Royal Mix". I kept my tapes recording every Saturday night. The station lasted about a year. One Saturday night I had my tape all set to record and here comes some damn country music. They had changed their format. About a year later, they changed to white gospel.

What's this one year shit? Do they give them a one year trial or something?

vainandy said:

Radio stations in the Twin Cities don't last long either. For a major metropolitan area, radio here by and large is terrible.

vainandy said:

When an artist's album was played in it's entirely at midnight...



Before the album came out...

All of the stations in my area still do this except "testify time" hehe why would u want to hear that?

When the radio station would play at the top of the hour 3 songs
by various artists. Like the DJ would say at the top of the hour i got
the first of 3 in a row from the bad bad barkays. Damn those were the days.

Seems like every time an actual good one comes along, they don't last long. The shitty ones last forever.

do stations still do the "Quiet Storm" ????

This particular DJ was known for being very humorous. I remember one night, this woman called in and said her boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend. The DJ told her to find her boyfriend's best friend, put her hand on his knee, inch her hand up his leg, look in his eyes and tell him something like this.....(the record would start cued at the lyrics)....

"Here we are in this big ole empty room. Staring each other down. You want me just as much as I want you. Let's stop fooling around. Take me baby...."

He never played a song that gave them a normal reply....always a humorous one.

He also used to take a 12 inch, turn in over, and rap over the instrumental. He could come up with some funny stuff in his rap. It was like hearing "The Jeffersons" playing the dozens.
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[Edited 7/8/06 21:18pm]

there's a bunch of fun stuff i remember hearing on the radio. the station i heard all this on was the now long-defunct KUCB, 89.3 FM in des moines, iowa:

wes hall: he was des moines's answer to folks like frankie crocker and freddie bell...he spun a lotta old-school stuff and was just an all-around fun guy to listen to. he did the drive-time mix every evening, and on friday at 5 p.m. he would bust out with the love boat theme song and sing along with it, it was just crazy!

the soul plane: before that shitty-assed snoop dogg movie, there was a radio show that came on every friday and saturday night by the same name. it was headed by the lone blue-eyed dj at 89.3, jeff t. he sounded kinna hokey as hell, but he was super-cool and always spun some nice jams. from 11 p.m till midnight on both nights, he'd open up the studio phone lines for the "phone check", where all of us teenagers would call in and send out shout-outs to their little homies and what-not. i remember one time hearing my two nieces sending shout-outs to each other in separate calls, and telling each other to go home otherwise they'll get in trouble or something. not to mention phone check was live, so jeff t. would get prank phone calls from muthafuckas from time to time and he'd have to hang up on 'em.

dj phat rat: he did a hip-hop show every saturday afternoon...i met 'im briefly during a little tour of KUCB i went to when i was a kid (i forgot what it was for, i think it was some summer program i was in or something).

dj nighthawk: this cat's real name is wayne ford, and he's always been very-well known in the black community in des moines; he founded urban dreams, a human services place that does community outreach and that sorta thing--my aunt darlene worked there for a time before she was murdered a few years ago. anyway, back in the day he was a dj at KUCB, under the name "dj nighthawk". this brotha was the catalyst in my love for old-school music--if it weren't for his show, i wouldn't know half of what i've learned about it. i listened to dj nighthawk's show religiously when i was a kid, and it was a blast--i remember during songs that were super-funky, like junior walker & the all-stars' "shotgun", he'd bust out on the mike and go "HEEEEEYYYYY!!!" at random while the song was playing. in fact, i can't listen to "shotgun" without hearing dj nighthawk's voice in my head.

if there's more stuff from KUCB that i remember, i'll be back on here...

CHIC0 said:

KMOJ here in mpls still does, during the overnight hours...

'Roll Call'

In the 'Lou we'd call in to Dr. Jockenstein on Z100 and rap over the instrumental for Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's 'It's Nasty' (which was really the music from Tom Tom Club's 'Genius Of Love').

I said, 'What's your name'?
I said, 'What's your sign'?
Who's that number one school?
Who's your favorite teacher with the golden rule?

107.5 WGCI in Chicago does most of these things still.

They have Crazy Howard McGee in the morning w/ crew, The Bad Boyz Mike Love and The Diz in the evening doing Chi-town shot outs that crack me up when I can catch them, and then there's DJ Phantom with other "mixologists" to boot.
I think one of there personalities does a "Smash It or Trash It" in the afternoon too.

Oh! And the best part is on Sunday's when they bust out gospel music block in the morning. Love it.

I listed what I miss about radio here:
http://www.prince.org/msg/8/194052

It was the "free form" FM format where the DJs just played what they wanted.
You never knew what you were going to hear from one night to the next. That was fun.

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

allstatenorthside said:

they did that on KUCB too. i remember whenever i spent the weekend over at my grandma's house she'd always have her big ol' stereo turned on every sunday morning to have gospel blasting through the house as she did sunday housecleaning. plus they'd broadcast sermons from one of the local churches.

KMOJ has gospel most of the day on sundays too, i think...

CHIC0 said:

*cues thunder clap effect

vainandy said:

Back in New Orleans & Baton Rouge, they have two diva dance FM stations that still do some of that. There is no telling how long that going to last.

Both stations made it pass the one year mark!

Also, the top 10. Every night at 9:00 p.m., people would call in their choice for the number one song for the night. At 10:00 p.m., the DJ would play a top ten from the calls he received.

RipHer2Shreds said:

i'm still pissed that they took v-105 (disco and funk) and mix 104 ('80s stuff) off the air and replaced 'em with the fuckin jack-fm format and drive 105.

CinisterCee said:

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Sho nuff...

I got my big break in Austin, and worked at other stations and cities including Dallas and Las Vegas before coming to Los Angeles. Now, I do what I love for a living; play love requests and dedications, Monday - Friday nights from 7p - 12a during "The Quiet Storm" on HOT 92Jamz. Thanks for listening.

...Sean Andre


CHICO, what's on 92.3 on your radio?


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Here in Philly we have two old school R&B stations, 105.3 WDAS FM and 107.9 WRNB FM. During the week we get the same BULLSHIT mid-tempo ballad mix of songs where they'll play the same twenty old school songs all day and the same new school R&B songs all day but on Saturday night both stations have they're Saturday Night FUNK MIX. The DJ on 107.9 is wack with a capital W, he plays the standard old school funk Saturday after Saturday, sometimes in the same order, but the DJ on 105.3 is very good. He'll play the standards but he'll mix them with rare album cuts and all kinda goodies, he has a good ear for the GROOVE!
[Edited 7/8/06 22:20pm]

I remember when the "Yo Momma" song was big, the radio station would play the extended mix and you could call in and give a yo momma shout out to someone else during the instrumental riff.

[/quote]I remember when the "Yo Momma" song was big, the radio station would play the extended mix and you could call in and give a yo momma shout out to someone else during the instrumental riff.

I remember something like that, very funny stuff.


Monday - Friday we have "Retro throw back lunch hour" where all of the old school jams are played for an hour. You'll catch me pushing my speakers to the limit when they put on "You dropped the bomb on me" among others. It's a nice break from the heavily repeated "new music" they repeat all day long.

We have that here in Atlanta as well, it's called the Old-School Free Lunch.

Hot 107.9 (the Hip-Hop station) still does alot of the things that vainandy mentioned, at least the 6-10 pm DJ's do.

During the summer holidays, they mix from 10am Friday to about 10pm Monday. It's great to listen to while cooking and stuff.
[Edited 7/9/06 20:07pm]

vainandy said:

wtf, this still happens!

back in the day,our local R&B radio station (KSOL) used to do fun things like...


***Play an entire album at midnight---every night,they would play a different album in it's entirety.I remember in the summer of 1981,I stayed up late to hear Rick James' 'Street Songs' album.The next year,they played Princes' entire '1999' album on the night before Thanksgiving 1982.The response was so great that they played his album again on Christmas Eve.Most of us had our tape recorders handy,lol.

***Artist megamixes---Beginning in 1983,KSOL used to have special mixes featuring songs by a specific artist.Most of these mixes were made by DJ Michael Erikson.There was an exclusive Prince mix,a Michael Jackson mix,a Donna Summer mix,etc...each mix would last at least a half hour.The Prince mix,in particular,was outstanding.Notably,they made another Prince mix in 1984,after 'Purple Rain' had been released.

***Album spotlight---whenever an eagerly awaited new album would be released,KSOL would get an advance copy and "spotlight" it,several days before it was available in stores.I still remember when they gave Prince's '1999' album the spotlight treatment.They aired several tracks: "Little Red Corvette","DMSR","Automatic","International Lover".I was going nuts hearing these songs for the first time and I couldn't wait to get the album!

***"double shots"---For all I know,radio stations probably still do this.They used to play a song by an artist then follow it up with another song by that same artist.In the disco era,they frequently played Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls" together (the songs are segued together on the album).In 1982,they sometimes followed up The Time's "777-9311" with the crazy B-side "Grace".

vainandy said:

they still do all this stuff on the radio.

Christopher said:

He wouldn't know.Most of us "old school" folks don't listen to the radio anymore