January 21st is OUR day in the Sun. Here's what's on the web about this day and it isn't much:

"Today is National Disc Jockey Day, a day to appreciate radio disc jockeys."

Let me add to this celebration some vintage writing about the Disc Jockey, taken from "The Announcer's Handbook" by Ben G. Henneke & Edward S. Dumit (c) 1959:
________________________________________________________________
"The nation's top disc jockeys are now the highest paid radio personnel. While many thousands of "dee-jays" cannot be said to be sharing in the profits, they are in a growing field with the possibility of becoming equivalent to certain Hollywood stars in popularity. The limit of growth is set by one's own possibilities; since virtually all the "dee-jay's" shows are ad libbed, the announcer's success depends on an ability to create a free flow of imaginative "chatter."

"In addition, he must know his music, his public's tastes, and the background of all the currently popular vocal and instrumental artists. He should become saturated with the biographical and news items from the trade journals. The public considers the disc jockey an authority in his field; he can't cover up lack of musical knowledge with simple intros of the "So-and-so sings Blank" variety, for then he is only a humanized title card. On the other hand, the musically illiterate announcer who can mold a clever phrase invariably achieves more success than the mobile statistical encyclopedia who hasn't an original thought in a headful."

"Radio stations have developed their own personalities; some allow a relaxed, leisurely attitude, while others forbid a split-second's silence. We have said the "dee-jay" is a personality; it should be added that the developing neophyte must adapt his style to suit his station's policy or resign himself to an extended search for a station whose personality complements his own."
________________________________________________________________
There is more written about the DJ. Things like selecting your own music but that's really out of step today.

Do I qualify as a disc jockey? I do play by play and voice track weekends. To all you real pro's on this board...happy disc jockey day!!

Are there really any "disc jockeys" anymore?
A. We don't play discs.
B. Voice tracking isn't being a "dj". (sorry chris)
C. As was reported in the article above, "dj's" don't have anything to do with anything like that anymore.

So if you are still a "dj", Happy DJ Day! For the rest of us that have been cast aside to do weather between national talk show hosts, yippee!

If anyone is wondering what a Disc Jockey did in the past, look at his hand in the picture below, holding the record as the turntable moved under the felt and the needle most likely in the groove of the record, ready to be played as soon as he let go. It's called a "Slip Cue". One of the reasons you cued up a record this way instead of the quarter turn, was if your turntable was slow at the starting point.

http://www.laradio.com/hillikerkppckingmanstudio.jpg

Thanks Craig that was cool and brings back memories. I am not as old as some here, but I do remember the days of holding that record in place with my finger and then letting her rip because our turntable WAS a bit slow.
I then remember when the record labels started sending these "CD" things. I figured they would be like 8 tracks, wouldn't last. My boss and I even refused to buy a cd player, what for? No one will buy these silly discs. Then if I remember right, RCA was the first to send out ONLY Cd's and eventually they all did and we finally bought 3 cd players! Haha!
Then one day I walked into a studio and after searching frantically for the cart player, cd players, turntables, anything that would play the music, spots etc, what was I going to play? The GM looked at me like I was from Mars and pointed to the computer screen right in front of me and said "just push the green button dummy!"
The art is gone, the computer is here and old "disc jockeys" all go to Heaven don't they?

The art, now, is what you do when the computer isn't playing anything (i.e. between the songs). Perhaps "disk jockey" isn't the right term anymore. Anybody got an alternative? Should we go with "radio hosts", or "on-air talent"? They just don't seem to have the same kick as DJ.

I certainly do consider myself a "DJ." All you have to do is ask my listeners.

Nowhere in that 1959 story did it say what kind of technology you needed to be a "DJ." Being in touch with music and listener (i.e., inform and entertain) is the gist. It’s not about technology it’s about content.

I also have done plenty of "live" radio in my 25 plus years of broadcasting. So as much as you (Roger) may feel I don't qualify in using today's vernacular I strongly disagree. And I have the emails and Christmas cards from my listeners to prove it.

The term DJ seems to apply to people who work clubs and high school dances, now. Any many of them use computers instead of disc, too.

I remember the old days of carrying crates of albums and turntables to high schools and junior highs. I never really liked jocking dances, but the extra money for a poor small-town "radio personality" was nice.

Yes the term DJ probably does reflect a different time. I still "DJ" plenty of wedding receptions, company functions and the like. I am currently using CD's but am hoping to leap into the all-digital realm for these events sometime this year.

However when you mention radio or club DJ, most people know what you mean.

"Disk (or Disc) Jockey" probably is still appropriate. We now use Hard Disks and/or Compact Discs, no?

Happy DJ Day, everyone!

Happy DJ day to all you DJ's,

"This is Jolly Johnny Jamison playing the stacks and stacks of the big song wax!"
That's a DJ! Happy DJ Day!

But I am not a DJ, my one stint, approx 30 minutes on air, did not go well.

---

quote:

"John R. told me you don't work for the radio station. You work for the people out there."

Wolfman Jack

---

One big difference between the 1959 DJ and the voice-tracked personalities of today is that the DJ of yesteryear was ad-libbing live on the air. He had no way of correcting his mistakes (the use of "he" is intentional here, as most of those DJs were male). Sometime between 1959 and today, ad-libbed banter and the role of being someone considered "an authority in his field" became the domain of talk radio hosts.

Putting things in perspective, I would imagine that many people in 1959 might have looked at the ad-libbed nature of DJ programs as a degradation of the medium, when compared to the network radio programming of the pre-television era.

There is still an ad-lib or spontaneous quality to at least the voice tracking my wife and I do. Those of us who do VT often leave in some mistakes, because for one, we all make them and two if the mistake doesn't take away from the bit.

Having my wife to banter with gives a very "live" feel. For sure if we make a very big mistake we can either start over or just pause for the edit that will happen.

My point is being a "DJ" still takes skill in preparing your show and then presenting it. Connecting with a listener in that one on one moment can still be achieved.

Happy DJ Day!

I am truly blessed to not only being able to play the music on the board live, but I get to crack the mic and talk about the music and the weather and cool stuff happening in our neck of the woods.

And this is a rarity, I can pick my own music to play if I want to. In fact, our listeners appreciate that.

We also do "instant requests". We will do everything we can to play a requested song as soon as possible.

Gawd I love this BIZ!

"Perhaps "disk jockey" isn't the right term anymore. Anybody got an alternative?"

For those who "Voice Track" how about instead of DJ, The VTJ?

Mikel, I'm guessing your station is below 92.1 on the FM dial...

"Putting things in perspective, I would imagine that many people in 1959 might have looked at the ad-libbed nature of DJ programs as a degradation of the medium, when compared to the network radio programming of the pre-television era."
I don't know that that is really true. I certainly did not. In 1959, most network radio programming was live. If mistakes were made, well, that is the way it was. Other than scripted programs. Let's see now, there was the Breakfast club, etc.

Local dj's in 1959 were pretty much one person in the studio doing everything. I remember before cart machines. When KEX, KGW, KXL had four turntables to play stuff on. When KEX moved to SW 5th, they had the console raised and two turntables underneath it and one on each side. And, most tone arms were long enough to play 16" disks, where many of the spots and promos were on, including pre-recorded programs.

Some big name DJ's in big cities with union contracts did not play the records. They sat in an announce booth with a microphone and the engineer played the records and spots. The dj was just talent, not operator. I may be have the station wrong but I think it was that way at KFRC in San Francisco. I stopped by there sometime in the early 60's and that is what they did. They were not using carts at the time but some kind of flexible disc that they kept in some kind of file folder box and would put them in a machine to play different spots and jingles. The DJ would communicate through the intercom what he wanted to do next and they used hand signals when to progress.

But, time goes on and technology changes and roles change. We have evolved to what we have now.... good or bad, it is what it is. You either flow with the changes and adapt or you get out.

I think, technically speaking, things are better today but somehow I think it was more fun back in the 50's and 60's. It was new and exciting.

HERO, 92.9 Oldies Radio K-DOCK. KDCQ in Coos Bay Oregon. I know, all of this is rare. But our management wants live radio in Coos County.

Mikel I love that you are so passionate about radio. That will carry you farther than you know.

One of the cool things I get to do is feature NW artists and bands with a monthly feature called the NW Spotlight. I can fudge a little on formatics to make this work. But it does bring a local vibe to the station. Being on a locally owned station has it’s advantages.

Plus we find local web sites, get PSA material from the station and have web sites where we can download artist sound bites too.

I still have the same passion as you Mikel but I like living in Portland because it allows my wife and I to find voice work that really pays the bills. Our Vting work keeps us in front of mic daily and keeps our finger on the industry without having to get up early, which means we here for our kids every morning and all the other amenities that come from working at home.

Ya, when you had to slip que a record instead of backing up a quarter turn much of the time was due to the fact that the enginner didnt change the worn puck on the clutch mechanism underneath the turntable top.

I worked in one station where management didnt want to buy new pucks, so this techno geek would bathe the pucks in solvent of some sort to 'rough" them up a bit and create a temporary higher friction surface on the puck so that the table wouldnt slip and wow so much on a cold start. Sometimes you could get another few months out of a puck doing that little proceedure.

The puck story reminds me of the times when a DJ would shut down the station at midnight, You'd catch hell if you didn't take the turntables out of gear. Leaving them in gear would begin to leave flat spots on the puck, making a bumpy ride for records later.

I typically used the slip cue if the the song playing had a hard cold ending and the next song had a cold vocal intro.

@Craig_adams: Bit Jockey?

Does anyone else remember waiting on hold for Word Perfect/Borland tech support when they used to have "hold jockeys?"

"Hey - that was 'Leave It' by Yes. Right now it looks like WordPerfect for Windows has the longest wait time at 23 minutes. TurboPascal callers ought to be getting through in just under 3 minutes..."

All of this "puck talk" reminded me of the good old days at KQIV. Our two Russco Cue-Master turntables each ran well over twelve hours a day, seven days a week for at least three years. In all of that time, I don't recall ever having to re-felt the platters or replace the idlers ("pucks"). 24-hour LIVE radio, baby! Now, those were the days!

I've heard many old time radio shows and the comedy and variety shows were FULL of adlibs!

Kq4, you had a good crew of DJs who knew how to treat turntables! Thats why you didnt have to change idlers ! Those DJs were probably trained somewhere to neutral the clutch arm each time when not in use.

I was never a big fan of slip starting. 45s were not so bad, but albums God ! You better have a good center weight on the record or your slip start might be 'for crap"....Biggest reason I didnt like slip starting was because the damned turntable should be tight enough to start at full speed after a quarter turn backup..and if it wasnt, fix it !

Another reason I didnt like to do slip start was that you better have a good felt on that table or you are liable to have a tone arm flippin slam bake sounding like hell over the air...

ad libs..ya...way back it was more like Vaudeville
and limited ways of fast recording for playback elements and editing...live city !

Ahhhh remember "CUE BURN"? The noisy hissy mini scratches at the begin of a song that was cued and cued again.

Records sound better than CD's. There I said it.

Ya and on a well used record , you could actually see 'the Marriana trench' scored into the vinyl if you looked at it just right in a bright light.

Sirius actually creates that annoyiing cue burn ambience for thier 14, Classic Vinyl channel. I find that a bit overbearing...but thats just me.

Software created cue burn. Oh yeah baby we got it all now!!

"Some big name DJ's in big cities with union contracts did not play the records. They sat in an announce booth with a microphone and the engineer played the records and spots."

My understanding is that Lee Rogers at KUPL sits on the other side on the console, and doesn't handle any computer or format elements. That is apparently all handled by the on-air producer. His role is just as host, and that's it; no editing phoners, no touching the board- nothing. BTW- I respect the guy, and I understand he has plenty of duties within the company outside of the morning show. But, I'm just saying, he apparently doesn't "jockey" anything.

There was something a lot more physically personal about using the old-school tools. Learning how to run a board really well was a challenging prerequisite for succeeding as an on-air talent. There was an artful and complex choreography involved in bringing the elements together into a smooth finished product. That's part of why working at KYA in SF was a surprising disappointment, at least for me. The engineers couldn't run the board half as well as the air staff could.

I was lucky enough to be both a jock and a news guy at some really strong stations, and realized that the nimble spontaneity of running your own controls lent a rhythm and flow to your air performance that no mouse-clicking can duplicate. Not that I'd go back, but it was cool.

Totally true John. Jocking a live show was a high. You had total control of everything.

I remember when I was doing the request line one weekend night at KGW while Tom Brooks was on the air. For the first time he allowed me to play a jingle then start the next song. The jingle was on cart, the song on turntable. He cued everything up and was right next to me. I called my dad up and told him to listen.

Song is fading I hit the jingle and then the remote key to the turntable. Not quite tight enough, but not bad for a first time.

I called up my dad and was so excited I don't think he understood a word I said. It was truly a very cool moment for me as a high school kid.

Chris: What year were You at KGW answering the request line?

1845

I'm gonna ask Alexander Graham Bell to confirm that...right after I pick up the mess I made when I dragged half the contents of my desktop with me when I fell on the floor from laughing too hard!

Ya, and Tom Brooks was using a Morse Code key to do his breaks...OH I forgot, the Telegraph hadnt been invented yet, in 1845...ah that was about 10 years later....

Chris must have been the currier on horseback.

And Alex Bell was just a twinkle in someone's eye in 1845. DOB. March 3, 1847.

No wonder I had trouble finding him!

(Back to the desk mess...)

This was posted to another list a week ago, and I figured this thread was a fair place to share it: Denny Sanders gives a six-minute video tour of Cleveland's WMMS in 1976, the freeform FM era: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCESH9eXULg

Jeffrey: FANTASTIC FIND! If any of you listened to KGON, KQIV, KVAN or KQFM in the 70's, check this out. AOR Format, Records and NO slide board. What a trip back!

Smoking in the studio and putting his fingerprints on the record grooves, yikes!

I miss AOR more than I can say. KGON in the 70's was heaven: no doofy morning show letting us "eavesdrop" on their conversation, way cool Dick Sheetz overnight, women in both drive times...no predictable playlist.

That was a great glimpse of what was and a fun trip backwards for me. Thanks!

Wow...that WAS a gas! Thanks for sharing the clip. Reallly captured the feel of the day. I could almost smell the vinyl amongst the odor of stale smoke! KGON was a lot like that when they first went on the air...I was down the hall at KYXI.

(And I had yet another unintended flashback...the TV guy doing that report was an anchor at channel 10 in Phoenix when I arrived here in '91!)