A radio story from radio legend Gary Owens, excerpted from my book, PERSONALITY RADIO.
I used to have a running battle at KMPC about the air conditioning.
We had three separate booths from which the disc jockeys broadcast. Invariably, during the hot summer months the air conditioning in mine was always on the fritz.
I’d walk down the hall and it would be 72 degrees; in my booth it would be about 87. I’d work in my t-shirt, and I’d be perspiring and I couldn’t think, and nothing would be done.
I’d ask each day, “Is the air conditioning fixed?”
“Oh, they tell us it’s going to be taken care of today.”
Three months it went on.
So one day I came in and was doing “bad air conditioning jokes” on the air: “Because our air conditioning doesn’t work, it’s so hot in here that…”
And they sent a man over from KTLA-TV. He said, “Mr. Owens, I’m here to fix the air conditioning.”
I said, “Thank God you’re here!”
He walked around to where my engineer, Bud Stalker, was. Stalker was playing the cartridges and stuff, and suddenly Stalker starts laughing. He said to me, “You won’t believe what just happened!”
I said, “I’ll believe anything.”
“The man walked over here,” he said, “and the record was playing. He reached over and turned down the on-air monitor knob…and then he said, ‘Is that any cooler?’”
And then the guy left! We never saw him again.
Download your copy of PERSONALITY RADIO here.
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Gary is a class act. I met him back in the early ’70’s when I was about 14 years old. I was touring Universal Studios and he was doing his show live in the amphitheater. Even then I knew I wanted to be in radio so I waited til his show was over and all the autograph seekers had gone. Mr. Owens spent a good 20 minutes talking to a skinny little pimple faced teenager about a career in radio. Great guy!
Gary Owens: “If it wasn’t for radio, there would be a hole in the dashboard of your car.”