Swap Shop

One of the joys of small and medium market radio is the contact by phone with my listeners both on the air and off. This was no more apparent that at radio home number four, WBKI, in tiny Bremen, Georgia. We had a live call in show called Swap Shop. It was tremendous fun. Callers would phone in their radio classified ads. Anything from bedding and blankets to cars, trucks and farm animals. Along the way I made some telephone friends who felt they knew me personally. I suppose I did a fairly good job of listening to them and recapping what was listed after the conversation ended.

This was all of course absolutely live, without profanity delay, to the air. I was always fearful of losing our FCC license over some nut dropping a cuss word or two. It never happened though. Whew. There is nothing like doing seat of your pants radio. Introducing records is ok, but nothing beat witnessing the unexpected, unscripted, spontaneous and organic process that was Swap Shop. I had a few regulars; Ole Waco Nut for one who lived in nearby, you guessed it, Waco, Georgia, that is. I think he made his living selling items on our show.

Then there was town gossip, Virginia, who who had all the latest news from the whacky goings on in the little town along with her plugs for fresh eggs and chickens from her farm. She visited in person on my last day at the station to wish me farewell. We had an entire hour wall to wall with callers. Quite surprising, with a 2,500 watt signal, the hour never lagged.

I had attempted at number two radio home, WSPZ, something called On Air Market a quarter hour show that seemed like an eternity. I came in around 3:45 pm for the show where no live callers were featured due to our owners’ paranoia. The savory seasoning of live conversation was missing, thus the show, like the station in general, was extremely bland. I had a producer screening and taking dictation of caller submissions who would chime in when needed, like Roz on the TV show Frazier.

Market Calls on 900 AM in Savannah was similar. As a fledgling broadcaster I feared accepting the challenge of live call-in until 1986 when I had three years DJ experience under my belt at my first radio home. Previously, I had refused hosting the show. The one time I finally did it my delivery was so impersonal and unmemorable that I overcompensated and overshadowed the callers not allowing personality to shine through. I got almost every recapped phone number wrong. Thank God it was only 30 minutes. Actually, 20 minutes of show and 10 minutes of pervasive music to fill the voids. Seven years later It prepared me for Swap Shop on WBKI in what not to do.

Stay tuned.