{"id":20149,"date":"2018-03-20T00:00:39","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T07:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/?p=20149"},"modified":"2018-03-20T00:00:39","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T07:00:39","slug":"my-first-day-disc-jockey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/my-first-day-disc-jockey\/","title":{"rendered":"MY FIRST DAY AS A RADIO DISC JOCKEY"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"first<\/a>There are some things they don\u2019t prepare you for in radio<\/span> school.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I traveled from Los Angeles to a tiny town in Virginia for my first <\/span>radio job<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

My first day on the air was a Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

The jock before me split as soon as I began my show, and I was alone in the building.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first hour went pretty well. <\/span><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t \u201cwow\u201d any records. <\/span><\/p>\n

There was no noticeable dead air.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, from inside the studio, I began to hear a competing radio station.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not talking about some annoying RF interference. <\/span><\/p>\n

Another radio station was blaring from a speaker in the on-air studio.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the time, American radio stations had something called the <\/span>Emergency Broadcast System<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Within each county, one station was designated “the EBS station.” <\/span><\/p>\n

In case of emergency, everyone was supposed to tune to that one station while the others suspended their regular programming.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each station’s on-air studio had a sealed envelope with the secret authorization password, so we could confirm if an alert was for an actual emergency. <\/span><\/p>\n

Just like in FAIL-SAFE.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The Emergency Broadcast System was begun during the Cold War, and fortunately it never needed to be employed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like all broadcast studios, ours was equipped with an EBS monitor. <\/span><\/p>\n

I was hearing our local EBS station through the monitor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Four Things You Need To Know About That EBS Monitor<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

1. It had no \u201coff\u201d switch.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. It had no volume control.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. It was hard-wired into the circuitry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most importantly:<\/span><\/p>\n

4. It did not mute when I opened the studio microphone.<\/span><\/p>\n

So for the rest of my show, every time I cracked the mic to read a live commercial, spot tag, public service announcement, newscast, etc., my audience heard a tinny version of the \u201cbig\u201d station 15 miles away, through the EBS speaker and into my microphone.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a less than glorious start to my <\/span>radio career<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As I write this, I recall the long-buried memory of returning to my new apartment in that tiny town, filled with despair and thinking, \u201cI\u2019ve made a terrible mistake. I\u2019ll never be able to do this.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

But tomorrow was going to be another working day, so I tried to get some rest.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are some things they don\u2019t prepare you for in radio school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[205,203,206,204],"class_list":{"0":"post-20149","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-first-day-on-radio","8":"tag-radio-dj","9":"tag-radio-personalities","10":"tag-radio-stories"},"yoast_head":"\nMY FIRST DAY AS A RADIO DISC JOCKEY - Dan O'Day<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My first day on the air as a radio jock was a Saturday. The DJ before me split as soon as I began my show, and I was alone in the building. The first hour went pretty well. 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