Larry Scott mailed this to me and I thought you'd enjoy the list. Some of them really hit home!

YOU KNOW YOU'RE AN AGING DISC JOCKEY WHEN...

- You were first hired by a GM who actually worked in radio before becoming GM.

- Radio stations were no place for kids.

- You excitedly turn the radio up at the sound of "dead air" on the competitor's station.

- Sales guys wore Old Spice to cover the smell of liquor.

- Engineers could actually fix things without sending them back to the manufacturer.

- You worked for only ONE station, and you could name the guy who owned it.

- Radio stations used to have enough on-air talent to field a softball team every summer.

- You used to smoke in a radio station and nobody cared.

- Engineers always had the worst body odor, not because they worked too hard, but because they just didn't shower that often.

- You know the difference between good reel-to-reel tape and cheap reel-to-reel tape.

- Religious radio stations were locally owned, run by an old Protestant minister and his wife, never had more than 20 listeners at any given time, and still made money.

- You have a white wax pencil, a razor blade, and a spool of 3M splicing tape in your desk drawer - - just in case.

- You can post a record, run down the hall, go to the bathroom, and be back in 2:50 for the segue.

- You knew exactly where to put the tone on the end of a carted song.

- You only did "make-goods" if the client complained. Otherwise, who cares?

- You can remember the name of the very first "girl" that was hired in your market as a DJ.

- Somebody would say, "You have a face for radio," and it was still funny.

- Sixty percent of your wardrobe has a station logo on it.

- You always had a screwdriver in the studio so you could take a fouled-up cart apart at a moment's notice.

- You always had a solution for an LP that "skipped."

- You would spend hours splicing and editing a parody tape until it was "just right," but didn't care how bad that commercial was you recorded.

- You still refer to CDs as "records."

- You played practical jokes on the air without fear of lawsuits.

- You answer your home phone with the station call letters.

- You used to fight with the news guy over air-time. After all, what was more important: your joke or that tornado warning?

- You knew how to change the ribbon on the Teletype machine, but you hated to do it because "...that's the news guy's job."

- You know at least 2 people in sales that take credit for you keeping your job.

- You have several old air-check cassettes in a cardboard box in your basement that you wouldn't dream of letting anyone hear anymore, but, you'll never throw them out or tape over them. Never!

- You can still see scars on your finger when you got cut using a razor blade and cleaned out the cut with head-cleaning alcohol and an extra long cotton swab on a wooden stick.

- You still have dreams of a song running out and not being able to find the control room door.

- You've ever told a listener, "Yeah. I'll get that right on for you."

- You have a couple of old transistor radios around the house with corroded batteries inside them.

- People who ride in your car exclaim, "Why is your radio so loud?"

- You remember when promotion men brought new LPs to the station - and you played them the same day.

- You have at least 19 pictures of you with famous people whom you haven't seen since, and wouldn't know you today if you bit 'em on the ass.

- You wish you could have been on "Name That Tune" because you would have won a million bucks.

- You even REMEMBER "Name That Tune."

- You were a half an hour late for an appearance and blamed it on the directions you received from the sales person.

- You've run a phone contest and nobody called, so you made up a name and gave the tickets to your cousin.

- You remember when people actually thought radio was important.

- Your family thinks you're successful, but you know better.

frickin hilarious...AND absolutely RIGHT ON!!

loved reading it!

thanks!

I think I just read my entire radio career flash in front of me.

- You remember when there was no music log, only a format clock showing which group (or stack!) of records to play from (with a "dig" policy).

- You remember when you had to take transmitter readings every 30 minutes.

- You remember when Traffic departments used an index card system to schedule spots, and then they TYPED out the log. (And eventually used White-Out to make changes).

- You remember when control rooms had picture windows in malls or on busy streets.

- You changed the reel-to-reel tapes of an automation system.

- You remember that the GM had an affair with a 17-year old intern, and did not get arrested/fired/sued.

- You remember when every station traded-out every thing they could: food, gas, car washes, clothes, furnishings, appliances, etc. And most of the time the physical things intended for the station ended up in the GM or Sales Manager's house or Disco.

- You remember when the owner would come to the Christmas party and make a point of talking to each and every person.

- You still have dreams of a song running out and not being able to find the control room door

That is the one that gets to me the most. LOL, man I still wake up in cold sweats on that one. Thanks for a great list and lots of funny memories!

Dodger: In my dreams, I can't figure out how the board works for some reason.

Question for anyone: When was the last time you were given a "Key" to your station? I think it was 1987 for me.

Dodger wrote <<<You still have dreams of a song running out and not being able to find the control room door<<<

There is a DJ working in PDX at the moment who left the control room while a song was playing, went into another room in the station only to have the door handle come off in his hand when he opened the door to get back into the control room....result 20 minutes of dead air until the DJ was "rescued".

- Being promoted to MD meant you handled putting the colored Avery dots on the labels of the 45's.

- You could take your airstaff to play donkey baseball against a local high school team without getting a call from OSHA or a lawyer.

- "Clear Channel" meant you were heard in 38 states and Canada at night.

- Time, temperature and PSA's were considered service elements, not unwanted historic artifacts.

- Music stations had local news in PM Drive.

...at least once every couple of years you overslept, ran out the door in your jammies to get the station "on the air" and the phone was ringing off the hook while you turned on the transmitter.

...you have airchecks on reel tape, cassette, CD AND in MP3. (for you really old DJs, do you have acetate and wire recordings?)

...you "broke" a song because it sounded great and you NEVER got a call from a record company rep.

...someone says something that sounds like a song lyric, and you say the next line.

....You have a white wax pencil, a razor blade, and a spool of 3M splicing tape in your desk drawer - - just in case.

Still in my briefcase!

...."Clear Channel" meant you were heard in 38 states and Canada at night.

WWWE now WTAM and doesn't cover 38 states and half of Canada any more!

....(for you really old DJs, do you have acetate and wire recordings?)

Wax cylinders!

....You've run a phone contest and nobody called,

500 dollar trivia. It was my own money, so I got to keep it.

I remember owners who gave turkeys to the employees at thanksgiving, and a small bonus check and a bottle of liquor at christmas, AND sprang for the office party!

You remember going to the FCC field office to take a test to get a 1st, 2nd or 3rd Class Radiotelephone License (because you needed it to sign on the transmitter log).

You know what a record cleaning brush looks like.

You remember when all studio consoles had round volume pots instead of slide pots.

Can you say "cue burn."

you know how to actually use a microphone without popping p's, distorting, or talking into the top instead of the front!

you know how to enunciate clearly and modulate your voice in a pleasing manner rather than mumbling, slurring, or saying UH... LIKE YA KNOW... etc.

You can still say in 10 words what it takes everyone else 25 words to say.

you wouldn't be caught dead listening to the 80's station.

........Author: Craig_adams
Thursday, December 28, 2006 - 12:01 am


Dodger: In my dreams, I can't figure out how the board works for some reason.

Question for anyone: When was the last time you were given a "Key" to your station? I think it was 1987 for me........

In my dream, my song is running out and I can't find a cart to slam in the deck.

Last time I was given a station key, was about two months ago. What's really funny, is that one of the stations in our group is KLIQ-FM! Wow!!!!

Great post. I can relate to way too many of them.

....were given a "Key" to your station?

2001, and I still have it! When they fire you by phone, it's not worth the drive all the way down to turn it in.... hell, they changed the locks twice in the month before they let me go. Funny, the guy couldn't fire anyone face to face.

How can something so true be so funny? I laughed my tail off as I went down the list. I can relate to EVERY ONE OF THEM!!! I ran across a pack of old white grease pencils just the other day...and the old airchecks that NO ONE will ever hear...and I'll never throw away!

Thanks KQ4....great post!

"You remember going to the FCC field office to take a test to get a 1st, 2nd or 3rd Class Radiotelephone License (because you needed it to sign on the transmitter log)..."

Actually, Steve, what I remember is Element 9, the test for the "broadcast endorsement" for the 3rd class. It tested to see if you could read analog meters. Weeded out a few people!

Anyone remember the schools that guaranteed a First Phone ticket in two weeks?

I AM really old ... related to EVERYTHING on this list ... got a key to the station at my first job, KBZY in Salem, 1975.

Lets not forget teletype ribbons needing to be changed on the wknd and not finding any!

My first commercial job had turntables. But they were not "broadcast" turntables, instead standard home use types. Took about three seconds to go from start to correct speed. (could not "slip-cue")...so the jocks had it down to a science of how to say the four call letters in exactly three seconds. That actually gave the station a very consistent sound! However, great amusement over the new guys coming in and trying to get the timing down.

Paul,

That would be Ron Bailey School of Broadcast.

(here's one more) You remember what microphone reverb sounds like.

Steve, ah yes, Ron Bailey...were they would guarantee you a job...in Gillette, Wyoming.

Reverb! Don't get me started...one of my favorite subjects. Almost every top40 station east of the Mississippi used it, but for some reason never took hold on the west coast, to any great extent. One of those odd radio differences between geographic regions in the U.S., and I have no idea why.

....were they would guarantee you a job...in Gillette, Wyoming.

where former Cumulus Eugene muck up Russ D. will put you on the air.....


Or the midwest counterpart The WIXY school of broacasting which had a placement record of 97 percent for graduates*

(graduates meant getting an approved audition tape and passing the third phone... Of my class of 23, 3 passed the 3rd. WSBT cost 1000 bucks in 1975, that got you 3 months of schoolin', studio time until you got a job and access to equipment and "training" You started in Filthy, West Virginia, or Obsolete PA, or Hillbilly Hills, Kentucky.....

W.S.B.T. is now the Ohio Center for Broadcasting, and cost many multiples of my 1000. I believe the female sidekick on WTAM mentioned 22K. BUT HEY, your first job might be in the bigs... Especially if you have boobs!

That would correctly be Ron BAILIE ...

I went to Ron Bailie for my first phoney. You had to memorize all the questions and the correct answers that would ever be given on the FCC tests. There were 571 for the second phone and 351 for the first. It was more than 2 weeks. There was a break in the middle for the holidays and you also had to schedule, take and receive the results of the tests. It seems like it was more like 2 months, give or take. When I walked out of the FCC both times, there was no doubt in my mind that I had gotten all the answers correct.

Ah yes, the six week wonder courses. Learn the questions and the appropriate answers.
But did you understand what you were doing? At least they were probably all multiple choice questions.

When I took my First Phone (this dates me) there were some essay questions that you had to show your work and also had to draw some radiation patterns. Also had to know about vacuum tubes.

Now, you not only don't need to know anything, you don't even need a license.
We've come a long way.

No but I didn't think I'd need to, in order to be a DJ. The FCC required a First Class License to operate a directional station. I believe it also applied to high power AMs and certain classes of FM.

Ah, Element 9! In the olden days at Centralia College, the school required all dj's to be fully licensed, even though the station was only 10 watts. So I drove up to Seattle with my four crisp one dollar bills (the FCC WILL NOT make change) and CHOKED ON ELEMENT 9!. Got it a few weeks later, but my third phone had the dreaded broadcast endorsement stamp on it.

I got my first phone through Bailie. Anyone wish to explain "tits up"? This is literally the only test answer I can remember, and it was really on my test!

I wanna hear the goods on "tits up"!

The funny thing about Element 9 was that there was a point where they changed the test but not the study materials and none(at least, not many)of my classmates were able to pass it. I didn't have that problem, having already taken the test while still in high school.

I had a temporary 3rd class license that was good for a year, if I remember it correctly. During that year I was able to broadcast with the understanding that I would get my 3rd class before that year was up.

Just as I was getting ready to take my 3rd class test the FCC changed it's regulations. So all I had to do was to mail in for my credit card size "Restricted Radio Telephone Operation Permit." Dated 7-13-79.

I didn't need element 9 because I already had my First Class (with Radar Endorsement of all things) before Element 9 came out. I did look over the materials for it, however, and did not see anything difficult or hard in it. They all looked like simple common sense stuff.
The one I had trouble with was the second class, element 3. All that ship to shore and frequency tolerance stuff that I could care less about. It tripped me up for the longest time. Took me three times to pass that test. Once I got it, I went back a week later and took element 4 and got my first phone.

Didn't go to the 6week wonder course. Did it all on my own. Probably would have saved a lot of time if I had done the course. But, that was early 60's and I was poor. Still am.

This is great! I still have my tape splicing kit, and "borrowed" the disc cleaning brush from my last radio employer.

Trivia question:

So, all you old time PDX'ers; Name the current tennant of the PDX building where we all took our FCC license tests back in the day.

Was this where HAM radio tests were also administered? If so, I've been there, but cannot seem to recall who is there now...

"So, all you old time PDX'ers; Name the current tennant of the PDX building where we all took our FCC license tests back in the day."

The former Multnomah Hotel, 319 SW Pine Street? Current home of Embassy Suites Portland Hotel?

...you still start to panic every time a song ends at a party and nothing else is cued up.

Would you get on a plane which has pilot who went to the Ron Bailie Flight School to memorize all of the multiple choice questions on the FAA Pilot test?

62, no I wouldn't, but I didn't get my first phone to be a pilot, or even a chief engineer. Just wanted to make myself more marketable by being able to take meter readings at night at any station.

The FCC eliminated that license requirement shortly thereafter.

The course wasn't all just memorizing. Bare technical basics were covered, but the instruction came too fast to retain much. The last weeks were devoted to practice tests.

And missing_, "tits up" refers to a oscillator waveform. We were told that the "tits up" waveform was one of the multiple choice options, take it because it was always the right answer.

Hilarious!

--->thanks!

I would have remembered that so it must have been a more recent answer. If it's the one I'm thinking of, they completely restored the Multnomah Hotel, not that long ago. When did Embassy Suites go in and did they tear it down anyway?

Embassy Suites Hotel Portland - Downtown

Love the thread Kq4...The old memories brought tears to my eyes.
from Ron Ballie to license testing. That's really how it used to be kids, swear to God!. It was just yesterday!

Thank you, KQIV guy for the link and you have a great site, by the way! It looks like Embassy took over the restored hotel and changed its name. That's good to know.

Yep! I remember the crash course too. It was 6 or 8 weeks at the Missouri Technical School in St. Louis.

We had to drive to Kansas City to take the test. Twice, once for the Second Class and about 3 weeks later for the First Class and Ship Radar Endorsement.

There were 10 of us that started the class and I think about 7 or 8 finished the course and got our "tickets".

I got mine primarily because I had my own 2Way radio shop and at that time, '75 to '80, you had to have at least a 2nd Class license to work on any transmitter (at least to make frequency and power adjustments or any repair that affected either).

When it came time to renew back when they switched to the General, they were accepting a photo copy of your license for the renewal. I sent them one and so I still have my First Phone with out the RENEWED stamped through it!

I have it hanging on the wall ABOVE my General! Take THAT, FCC!

Those were the good old days!

Former FCC Portland office is now:

"Ming's Dynasty & Sushi Bar"

Thanks for all the kind words! And, Craig, I'm puzzled. The FCC office I am familiar with, both for commercial and amateur dealings, was at 319 SW Pine (Multnomah Hotel). Ming's is in the Postal (Failing) Building at 510 SW 3rd. What am I missing here?

The dreaded element 9... I have been searching the web for a copy of sample questions from this test as it existed back in the 60's (or so). It would be "fun" to review!
Anybody have a link?

my god..this thread was my broadcast life!!!
let me add one more...playing an LP on 45..

The FCC moved to the Federal Building and remained there for some years before being shuttered and merged with the Seattle office. The 17th floor sounds familiar; I'm thinking 1775.

How 'bout public service programs on reel-to-reel? Shows like Henry Morgan's Hooked on Books? Anything from Washington State University, like Pets and Vets, or, from the Southern Baptists, Powerline or Country Crossroads?

Lands o' goshen, thems were da days!

Jr_tech

Found this.....is this it?

http://members.aol.com/ab0di/el9c4.html

You know what's weird? I'm 22, never held a job in radio (outside of a short-lived stint on the now-defunkt carrier current FM in high school) yet it's amazing how much of this holds true for me, although most (all) of it deals with technical aspects:

You know the difference between good reel-to-reel tape and cheap reel-to-reel tape.

You have a white wax pencil, a razor blade, and a spool of 3M splicing tape in your desk drawer - - just in case. <--Still do!

(The Akai 1720, ya know........used to be my Grampa's tape deck and now I have it..........)

You knew exactly where to put the tone on the end of a carted song.

(What's weird is that, around 2001 at EHS we were still using cartridges. Not on a Gates system, and I have no idea what they had but I do know it was really, REALLY old and about to fall apart.....)

You always had a screwdriver in the studio so you could take a fouled-up cart apart at a moment's notice. <--But now, for me it's a fouled-up DVD player. Unfortunately my two DVD players still use a Caddy-load system and those are getting stuck all the time.

You always had a solution for an LP that "skipped."

You would spend hours splicing and editing a parody tape until it was "just right," but didn't care how bad that commercial was you recorded. <--I can spend hours editing a parody MPEG3 until it's just right but I didn't even care how bad that SoldOnHold project was I recorded!

You still refer to CDs as "records." <--I do. Dead serious. If anybody on here actually (coincidentally) knows me personally you'd know that for a fact.

You have several old air-check cassettes in a cardboard box in your basement that you wouldn't dream of letting anyone hear anymore, but, you'll never throw them out or tape over them. Never! <--only difference in my case is, instead of tapes they are on CDs. In fact I just dug up a couple discs of my old airchecks from an experimental broadcast I had a few years ago and listened for a while. Painful...........

You can still see scars on your finger when you got cut using a razor blade and cleaned out the cut with head-cleaning alcohol and an extra long cotton swab on a wooden stick. <--yup, again the Akai will do dat!

You have a couple of old transistor radios around the house with corroded batteries inside them.

Now I just made myself feel really dated for my age!! Just think, while kids my age nowdays are embracing CD players, Myspace pages and those "Pod" gizmos, here I am with my reel to reel deck, my manual typewriter and my Quad receiver!! Sad.............

Kq4: Just trying to be funny. The original FRC office was there.

Oh, that's good news Craig! Thought I had lost a few more marbles!

Darktemper:
I don't think so... the element 9 link that you posted appears to be related to the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Maritime_Distress_Safety_System

Not something that I would think a broadcaster should need to know. Thanks for the link... interesting stuff !

I am not yet old enough to use the word "nowdays" or alternatively, "nowadays".

Anyone remember getting Earl Nightengale on record? The album cut played, the you went to commercial and recued the record for his final comment. I dont remember having to send them back at the end of the week. I do remember a mountain of EN records in boxes with their air date on the side...... Funny we never did a "Best OF" on weekends!

I almost got fired for goofing on Earl Nightengale. 1981, FM Hot AC, top morning show in the (small) market, and I had to run Earl at 8:03am. I was young and irreverent, and saw Earl as a bad demographic fit, so, I started having fun with him.

His vignettes always started with, "Thank you", so the local talent could introduce him live. I started doing silly intros, which Earl would always acknowledge in his polite, pre-recorded way.

I finally got called on the carpet for one day saying, "It's 8-03, time for...pssst, hey, Earl! You're at half-mast, buddy!"

...followed by the sound of a zipper closing.

"Thank you."

The local sponsor of the feature thought it was hysterical, so I got to keep my gig. Looking back, Earl's stuff was very, very good, but I still think it was not what 18-34s wanted to hear.

Haven't dropped in for a while, but dear god... cue burn (my personal favorite)! Earl Nightengale! Razor blades! Splicing tape! Wax pencils!

For Craig Adams: Remember having to spin the metal roller on the reel-to-reel with a twist of the wrist before starting a spot dub to cart?

Motozak, you are an old soul in that young body and were born in the wrong decade, that's for sure. Funny stuff all the way through this post! Thanks for every hilarious memory.

You always had a solution for an LP that "skipped."-At KFMY in Eugene, we had a selection of coins for that very purpose...plus you could use them if you were really broke, which was usually right after you got paid.

Iris: Nice to hear you again! I've also missed your input here on pdxradio.

Ben: I sure do remember that old reel to reel! What stories it could tell!

Roger: Earl Nightengale was played right here in River City on KPAM & KPFM later KPAM-FM.

Radiowoman~

You know, a LOT of folks lately (just had a couplea experiences at Vancouver Mall yesterday) even look at me and seem to think I am about 15.....or 16...... ;o)

Ya know what my solution for records that skip is? Discwasher D-4 system (still surprised I still have almost a whole bottle of cleaning fluid after 20+ years......it was my dad's) and a *very slightly* higher tracking force than usual.

If you track your cartridge at 1 1/4gm., try running it at a little under 1 1/2gm. instead. Doesn't wear out records (i.e. tear them up) as fast as using pennies on the tone arm! (Learned this the hard way, B.T.W., with my Gran'ma's 78 player when I was a kid, circa 1993!!)

And re: experience in this stuff coming with age~
You think some of it could be hereditary? My Grampa was always the avid recordist (still is....)

This topic was the best ever...
I remember the teletype ribbon always breaking and always getting stuck with ink on my hands for the entire day.
And, for the newsies...the A.P. conventions when we all got smashed and the stations paid for us to go.
I remember Christmas parties and stock from KEX. I remember when station management asked for input from staff. Ah...those were the days.

yes, we did Earl on Top-40....

(though our play list was about 4 weeks behind.)

I liked Earl, but then I was a regular Paul Harvey listener at 17 also. Definitely not in the demo, but reach out if you want to grow an audience, sometimes you have to communicate with those outside the demo, without pissin' off those in it...

I can say pissin' can't I? If not, I withdraw the comment!

You know you're an aging disc jockey when...

sometimes, you just know...............

Or how about in your rip and read days when no news person was in on the weekends, you grab the wire, quickly assemble a newscast and half way through a story you realize the teletype was stuck in one place. Editing on the fly as we say.

My favorite, rip and read, is a weather forecast. I still have that yellowed torn piece of wire copy.... which predicted up to 6 inches of new SNOT by evening. Of course I broke up while reading that in my 6:10am weather, as I did every other weather I read that day.

No wonder everyone uses TV DAVE and the channel 88 Acky Wacky Triple Doppler weather now.

Not to be picky but I'm thinking it hasn't been Vancouver Mall for a decade or so. I don't recall the current name.

Vancouver Mall is now the "Westfield Mall". Beaverton Mall has also changed to "Cedar Hills Crossing" and Clackamas Town Center has changed to "KXL Crossing At Clackamas Town Center Memorial Mall-Transmitter Site".

Westfield. Whatever. It will always be Van-mall.

KXL may have put that patch of ground on the air, but it was Tonya who got all three nets to anchor newscasts from it.

(Now the rink is coming out, just as Trojan's cooling tower came down and the ghost ramps for the Mt. Hood Freeway are being removed. Preserve our notorious landmarks!)

I remember Earl Nightengale on KISN at 4 or 5 pm in the late sixties. I could never figure that out.

It's actually Westfield Shoppingtowne Vancouver

Jeff: You must remember Earl Nightengale from KPAM 1410kc which had a Top 40 format similar to KISN.

I got my first class license one summer in Atlanta. Elkins Institute of Radio. EIR for all you geeks out there. ;)
6 weeks of humidity, heat, the Varsity (I hear it's still there) and grits with breakfast. "I'm not eating those....they're moving!"
Like semoochie said. Memorize all the questions and all the answers. By the end of 6 weeks, I knew the material, not only could I tell you the correct choice for each question, but could usually recite all the other incorrect choices as well.

Great post. Thanks for the memories. I laughed a lot.

You can call it Westfield Shopping Mall or whatever, but those that have been there since the beginning and frequented it know it as Vancouver Mall. And they will continue to call it that.

Seems like many towns have a Westfields Shopping Mall...... I saw one in Brandon Florida. There are also others. Not having been to Beaverton for a long time, I had no idea they changed the name of Beaverton Town Center and if I were to talk about it, that is what I would still call it.

I grew up a few blocks off Union Ave. You can change the name to anything you want. However, when I still talk about it and mention a long time business there, I still refer to it as Union Avenue. That is what I always knew it to be. It is just an automatic thing. I don't think about it.
And 620 was KGW.... until they left Delta Park. I went by there yesterday and it is now a wet swamp.

Jimbo: "Beaverton Town Center" & "The Beaverton Mall" are two different locations. Beaverton Fred Meyer is where "Beaverton Town Center" is and even that name has changed slightly to "Beaverton Town Square".

Thanks Craig,
You are correct. I used to work in Beaverton off and on since 1973 but haven't since 2001. Driving HWY 26 over Sylvan, 217, and anywhere in Beaverton area is such a hassle anymore that I just never go there anymore. Best to stay away from there. Hence, I get confused on the locations. It happens when you get older.

It's a good thing I don't work at KPTV or KPDX. I'd hate having to drive there everyday from Portland eastside. The drive took me 30-35 mins in 1973-1983. In 2000 it was taking an hour on the best days.
Plus, I detest metered on ramps. They don't improve anything. Particularly the way they run them here.

Yes, the Westfield brand name simply does not work here. Southcenter at 405/5 in Seattle, will always be Southcenter. Not Westfield. It really is amazing how these corporations think that they can really change local mindsets. Give it up and put your corporate ego aside. (If a family member or aquaintence told me they wanted to go to Westfield Mall,I would have responded, "huh?"