1983 D.J. For Hire

In the Spring of 1983, I was a member of the morning class at Trans American School of Broadcasting (which later became Madison Media Institute). There were twenty some wannabe media people. In April of that year, we were busy recording demo tapes to send to radio stations. My tape had a combination of my amazing song intros and a sports report that included the following story (which can be found on Wikipedia)… North Carolina State, coached by Jim Valvano, won the national title with a 54–52 victory in the final game over Houston, coached by Guy Lewis. The ending of the final game is one of the most famous in college basketball history, with a buzzer-beating dunk by Lorenzo Charles off a desperation shot from 30 feet out by Dereck Whittenburg. My stunning delivery and diction yielded zero call backs from station managers. To be fair at that time (like many jobs) there were many more people fighting for the same position. The usual response was “we would love to hire you, but we need someone with experience”. When I wasn’t working on my skills, I was wasting tokens at the Schofield Arcade playing Donkey Kong, Pac Man, Dig Dug, Frogger, Galaga, Tron, and Burger Time. While I was hanging out and working toward the high score of the day, I was hearing the cool sounds of the day. Spring of 1983 faves include, Little Red Corvette-Prince, Separate Ways-Journey, Der Kommissar-After the Fire, Photograph-Def Leppard, Straight from the Heart-Bryan Adams, Billie Jean-Michael Jackson, and Stray Cat Strut-Stray Cats. These all made great choices when the Aubry Sound Mobile DJ Service was spinning records at the local hops. The young ladies were adorned with head bands and leg warmers as they boogied to the latest hits.

Saturday night I will try to use what I learned at radio school as I maneuver through the requests for fifties through the eighty’s music. Those Were the Days will hit the airwaves with hits between six and midnight on WRCO FM, WRCO.com, and through the Civic Media app. My show will turn 40 in October of 2026! I am still trying my best in case the Trans AM teachers are listening to their student. My buddy Bill Scott who you have heard covering the Packers through the years and yours truly may be the only media graduates from the spring of 1983 that are still on the radio. The rest realized quickly that low pay and nights and weekends were not for them. They probably didn’t love it as much as I have through the years. I am blessed to be able to still rock and roll on the weekends.

Phil

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