Radio Daze 96-97

I hope everyone enjoyed the Sign O' The Times box. Keep leaving notes regarding problems with the files and I'll try to get them fixed ASAP. As for me, I'm gonna be out and about this week so please forgive me if there isn't a post every day. It's been kinda rough lately. I got a part time job, then lost that part time job when I had to call off sick, and now my girlfriend lets me know her job, the one for which I had to pack up everything in a hurry and move to somewhere I'm not terribly familiar with, may be in jeopardy if she can't make her performance look awesome on a test, so she's freaking out which just makes me miserable. I've got an interview tomorrow but I don't think I'll get that job, but I do have other options and have to talk with her about them. Anyway, none of those things should slow the site down, but it sure would be nice if I could get paid to do something like this instead of hunting for a full time job somewhere. I know, kinda a pipe dream, but it works for some people.

I don't know if anyone will be interested in the tracks posted here today but I was digging through some tapes of my radio shows at WFAL AM in Bowling Green from 96 and 97 and recorded a bunch of old airchecks and promos. I'm only responsible for two of them but they all sound good so I thought it would be cool to post them with a little commentary.


WFAL radio 96-97

01 The Big Box Of Rock airchecks
The Big Box Of Rock was a show that some of the station managers had and they got to interview musicians and low-rent celebs on a regular basis. It was a very cool show and gained some infamy for an interview with, if I remember correctly, Bret Michaels of Poison, who misunderstood a statement about the Gallagher Brothers of Oasis fame and thought the hosts were talking about Gallagher, the shitty comedian who used to smash watermelons on stage. Bret started cursing on the air only to be stopped by the hosts, corrected, and then he mentioned that he'd kick the Gallagher Brothers asses too. Anyway, I loved the show and I loved their airchecks, so one day with my pal, The Queen Of Slack, we played a bunch of the airchecks for about thirty seconds just to hear them. One of the hosts was in the building and didn't like it, but after I sang his praises he forgave us.

02 Daisy's Flower Trip ad
I can't remember if Daisy was her real name or not, but she was FINE! She had a really good show and could talk nice and sexy at the drop of a hat. I filled in for her a few times for which I normally got badgered as to why I was there and she wasn't.

03 Flipside ad (incomplete)
This was some kinda hippy shop where everything smelled awful and they had black light posters and Phish paraphernalia. Generally speaking I avoid places like those as if there was a plague sighting. That said, I thought the ads the station made for them were really good. This ad was damaged so I spliced it back together but some of it is missing.

04 Let's Injure Dave ad
My first show! It was on from 6am to 10am Saturday mornings. I SUCKED! I yelled and screamed a lot and was terribly annoying. It was a lot of fun though. I created this commercial with a guy everyone nicknamed Fat Spank, although I can't remember why. It was kinda disrespectful and Spank (sorry guy) was a really nice dude. Regardless, Spank really liked the commercial and we did the voices of the people being whipped. Daisy is the sexy voice over top the agonizing voices. I wanted to include the show's intro too but I couldn't find a tape of it.

05 MNOP ad
MNOP was my second show and a notable improvement. I wasn't yelling into the mic or doing shitty voices much any more. Unfortunately, I had decided to rename myself Ink for the show, clearly for stupid reasons which I'm glad I can't recall. The promo stuck, but I started referring to myself as Dave again after the second show. I did all the voices in this ad and produced most of it if I remember correctly. There is even a little bit of backmasked demon speech in there. I thought I was Mr. Bigshit when I put this together!

06 Solarium ad
Most of the ads that WFAL played were created at the station, usually by Fat Spank, although there was a strange PSA we had to play about deer birth control which was sent to us by god-knows-who. Anyway, this one is for a local tanning place.

07 Sterling's ad
Sterling's was a local grocery store. I don't know if it's still there or not. I remember applying for a job there but it was such a long walk that I was glad they didn't hire me. Nonetheless, didn't stop me from renting porno at the video store next door to them.

08 WFAL Crushing Your Head aircheck
Funny aircheck with a sample from The Kids In The Hall.

09 WFAL Generic aircheck
title says it all

10 WFAL Kill Your Hootie aircheck
Matt Shiverdecker (please forgive me if I misspelled your name Matt) was in charge of the music review department and had a bunch of us listen to new music before we could add it to rotation. I remember getting to hear the second Korn album a few days before release and running into some kid who just about lost his mind that I had it before it came out. Anyway, Matt HATED Hootie and The Blowfish, as did most of us, and decided to do an anti-Hootie aircheck for which he did all the voices. This is one of the coolest things ever and has been on my iPod for years! Matt is still on the air at WOXY, though many may know him better as Shiv which has been his nickname for a long, long time. You can find more about the infamous Shiv here. Dude, if you ever try a career in hip-hop, that's your stage name! The Infamous Shiv!

11 WFAL Soundsystem ad
WFAL had their own mobile soundsystem for which they could be hired to DJ your event. The commercial is a little dated, okay, IT'S A LOT DATED, as is anything to do with the Bingoboys, but they did a good job of rockin' a party!

12 WFAL Space Cowboy aircheck
Homer for the win! I seem to recall a lot of Simpsons joke ads from back in the day.

13 WFAL Thingie aircheck
Spank is the voice of the father and the announcer, though I don't know who was the voice of Tommy. Disturbing only in the way that most so-called "alternative" radio stations started doing ads like these not because they were funny or creative, but because they thought it would get them closer to the Howard Stern market. I can vouch that this one was created because of a twisted sense of humor!


Hope you liked this twisted trip down memory lane. WFAL was a great experience for me because it was the first time I ever got to work in a radio station and also the first time I felt like people might be listening to my musical favorites. There are so many goofy stories from around that time I remember, like when I was DJing on a Saturday morning before a big holiday (can't remember if it was Christmas or Thanksgiving) and got a call from the nearby women's prison asking if I could dedicate Rod Stewart's Forever Young to the inmates. This was after I'd played Frank Zappa's The Adventures Of Greggary Peccary for about a half hour. We didn't have any Rod lying around so I played 4 Non Blondes' cover of Led Zep's Misty Mountain Hop. The guard called back to thank me, though I'm not sure he should have bothered.