On the Air
My son David has been in radio
broadcasting most of his adult life. For a few years he was
producer and later anchor on the national public radio
program “Marketplace”. He is now at the University of Texas
working on a doctorate in journalism and hosting a program
on KUT in Austin called “Texas Music Matters”.
He was very interested in CB radio in his teen years. He
knew all of the local radio operators and stayed on the CB
radio most of the time.
He always had a part time job as he grew up. While he was
still in high school, I saw an ad for a disc jockey on
weekends at a small radio station in McDonough, Georgia. I
thought this would be something that he would be interested
in since he enjoyed the CB radio so much, but he wasn’t. I
asked him to at least try for the job. To please me he went
for the interview and got the position. On weekends I’d
keep my radio on listening to him. I thought he was great!
The radio station was on the top floor in the Spratlin
Building in McDonough. This was the tallest building in
McDonough with four or five floors. It was relatively new
with all of the modern features, elevators and doors with
panic hardware.
One Sunday afternoon I was stretched out on the sofa, half
asleep, listening to him. On the half hour he would give
the time and the current temperature. On Sundays he was the
only one in the building. At the end of one of the records
there was silence. Then I could hear a sound like
“whop-whop, whop-whop”. I knew that the record had ended.
“Oh my goodness! He’s gone to sleep,” I thought.
I rushed to the telephone and called the station, but there
was no answer. I ran out and jumped in my car, turned on
the radio, and headed for McDonough, about twenty miles
away. All the way over, I still heard the “whop-whop,
whop-whop” sound. I hoped nothing had happened to him.
As I got to the city limits of McDonough, the owner of the
station came on the air. “We have been experiencing
difficulty and have been temporarily off the air. We shall
now resume programming”, he announced.
I had no idea what had happened but since the station owner
was there, I decided to returned back home. David came back
on the air and everything continued as normal.
Later I telephoned him at the station to find out what had
happened. Looking out the window from the top floor he
could see his car. He had gotten to the station very early
that morning and he had left his lights on. He decided to
put on a record, rush down and turn them off while the
record was playing. In his haste he had forgotten that the
building was locked on Sunday and that the panic hardware
on the outside doors would let you out, but not back in. He
was locked out. The station owner was listening too and
rushed to the rescue. David stuck with the job and this
humble beginning has resulted in his broadcasting career.