December, 1993:
I’m aware that people most enjoy the episodes in which terrible things happen to me. Although no misfortunes befell me this month, returning to two former radio stomping grounds as an “Expert From Out of Town” felt both gratifying and a little odd.
I don’t have any illustrations for this posting, so as usual I’m filling the gap with a photo of Tuesday Weld.
Back in the ’90s, I rarely found myself with a seminar booked in December. But I was pleased to be invited to visit Tampa, Florida, for a couple of days to work with the air staff of WXTB.
Their program director, Greg Mull, scheduled a full-day seminar for the entire staff on the first day. On the second day, I got up VERY early and silently sat in on their very successful morning show. This, in fact, was my very first Morning Show Tune-Up.
Greg had devised quite an unusual strategy for an AOR morning show: all request, every day, hosted by a personality-oriented morning team. My mission was simply to observe during the show.
(I was pleased to learn that, although the morning team initially was a bit apprehensive about my being there, eventually they completely forgot that I was sitting in the corner and just went about entertaining their listeners.)
I made a lot of notes, not regarding “things they were doing wrong” but rather observations on ways they might structure what they’re doing in a more consistent and powerful manner. The rest of the day was spent sharing my thoughts first with Greg and then with the morning team.
Although I cannot pretend to have been thrilled to get up at the crack of dawn, once I was awake I found the entire process rather exhilarating. And, more importantly, it appeared that Greg and his morning show thought the exercise was worthwhile, too.
The trip offered some emotional resonance for me: I hadn’t been on the West Coast of Florida since leaving the state (my early radio career was spent there) nearly 20 years before. Back then, Tampa was a real big market to me, and I would have loved to work there. Now here I was, returning in the role of the supposed big shot from Los Angeles.
But even this didn’t feel as strange as my second seminar trip of December, as I drove from San Francisco Airport to KSJO in San Jose. Not only had this station been one of my competitors 17 years earlier; its PD, Dana Jang, had programmed it against my station. Now I was coming to coach his air staff. It felt rather disorienting, pulling into the KSJO driveway. But, as always, once inside the radio station — Well, when I’m inside a radio station, I feel at home.
