DAN O’DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO

LEAP OF FAITH RADIO PRODUCTION with Bobby Ocean

Tell ya an old days radio story that contains a pixel of ‘universal,’ still applicable today –

Pretty early on, before I could mentally collage a quick mix of radio stars I wanted to emulate, this self-assumed cousin of Huckleberry Finn figured out that side-stepping the usual nine-to-five grind was possible thus essential. This Disc Jockey job, where ya call playing songs ‘work’, was going to be my raft down the Miss-a-commute.

Cool job, too, easy and quick – in those days. Small market, no prep, just show up and ad-lib between records and spots. In a wink, the show was over. Quick.

Look Ma, I’m in Show Biz!

But easy and quick kinda disappeared right around the time the Other Room beckoned.

Something evolving in me HAD to be involved in the station’s Other Room, the one I could go into and create anything in the whole wide universe.

Anything. Come on, that’s a strong draw. Magnet and steel, for me.

At a time when air talent thought commercials were to be avoided and Liners were of no value, That Room was where I developed into “that production guy,” and, in my innocence, my first task was loving that room and everything in it.

And that Room vibed me right back.

Spend enough time in That Room and your ears hear more, you become more deeply aware of the station’s overall image, its DJs as a Team, an audio unity is there waiting for a response. I knew I could do something about it there.

We grew together, and I watched as That Room added dimension, morphing from the first hand-made station rig to the latest Major Market marvel, all at my command, to harness Imagination! That Room had a very sacred purpose, to bring actual sound to ethereal programming ideas and extrapolated listener action-reaction notions. It was my bridge to Divinity. I had toll-free access. Hey, ma…

Except, for a Magic Lamp, it was used for quite a few mundane tasks, I began to notice. Then, just as I was about to get my mind wrapped around that, my work as a DJ increased, as now I was a Boss Jock. In the next blink, That Room was taken away from me. My fault, career move. Union rules, you know.

Now I watched other people do stuff in That Room.

Mostly That Room isn’t used properly, I thought. Rather than control the glorious Imagination, and then put it to wondrous use, The Prod Room is used to cram ninety-five seconds worth of meaningless words into a 60 second space.

Knowing it could be better, I created a role at the station called ‘Production Director,’ insisted on being so knighted, and, as such, then wrote all the promos, found all the music, marked all the copy with music timing, worked WITH the engineer, imagine that. With mind power, who needed to physically touch the equipment? Which was looking so cool, more and more, I happened to note…

Ever since I was a very young man, bold enough to think I could get away with working less by calling myself a disc jockey, I have been too mesmerized trying to ‘get it right’ in That Room to realize that it’s really the most demanding job, the one that usually takes the most time.

So, over the spread of a while, I was able to designate a space in my home for That Room, modeled from top to bottom with experience. Now it’s where I work. I named it Mysterious Ways. Great little kick ass studio, big in power, true in aim.

And Time taught me two rules for That Room. The first – Imagination is not meant to be controlled, it is meant to be enjoyed and interpreted.

And, secondly, I may name That Room whatever I want, but it is really…your imagination.