A DJ Saved My Life

I was nervous. My dad had prepared a cassette tape of the first two weekly episodes of the Jesus is Lord Broadcast—a half hour brokered time preacher’s show on local 5,000 watt WEAS-AM in Savannah, Georgia. In a scene reminiscent of the 1987 movie Broadcast News, the tape was rushed—hand delivered— to the station just in time for the 12 noon airing that first Saturday we went to air. It was a small miracle that I got there in the first place.

Finally finding it, the station was not at all what I expected: located in a residential neighborhood, a fairly large two story clapboard house. A large wide wooden staircase led up to a screened porch and an unlocked front door to the reception area. Somehow I found myself on the upper floor having been misdirected around the obvious studio downstairs by a musical commotion. 

I heard loud music from a direction that I assumed was emanating from the studio. I never forgot the song playing: Indeep’s “Last Night a DJ Saved My life”. “Please,” I thought, “Somebody save me, I can’t find the studio!” It was a ghost town in there. Now clear as crystal, I realized the music and disembodied DJs were from a stereo cabinet the FM used to monitor their air. But, where was the studio? I tried a couple doors that opened into empty offices. Nothing! Time was wasting. I felt like a cat-burglar. Had all the DJ’s, like Elvis, left the building? Maybe I could steal all those gold records and certificates of live remotes promoting something called a “Budweiser Beer Bash” proudly displayed on the office walls. What sort of Christian station allowed such vulgar trophies in the first place? In the mind of a conservatively raised 17 year old Bud and Gospel Preaching did not mix. But, I digress.

Gospel 90 and its 100,000 watt FM were sister stations in the same building. Obviously, the FM dominated the decor choices. Had my dad seen what I saw that day he would have turned tail and run. But our sponsor—Manning’s Discount Furniture—was counting on us to deliver a product. So, I resumed my search. It was one minute to show time when I discovered stairs leading down into a pit of ugly brown carpeting; both on the floors and the walls located inside a haphazardly constructed addition encased in cinder block and plywood. The place reeked of cigarette and God knows what other type smoke, both legal and not. To the right was the FM control room. In the middle was the “Production Room.” And to the left was my future work home, WEAS-AM, “Gospel 90.” The doors were unlabeled; my ears had to determine which studio to enter. I chose wisely.

3, 2, 1, cue tape! Jesus is Lord was broadcast via 5,000 watts from the AM side. Our premiere went on without a second to spare—literally. Dennis; the DJ on duty, sighed relief as he politely waved me away returning to conversation with another visitor, presumably his wife. I was happy. Then I questioned, “How do I get out?”

We will continue the story of our FM soul sister next time on the Peanut Whistle. Read about E-Man, Casanova Jones, Stormin’ Norman and the other DJ’s who shared our space. Until then…

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden, The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved

Radio on TV

Here is a fun re-post of a recent Gospel Aircheck blog entry:

“Baby if you ever wondered / Wondered whatever became of me / I'm livin' on the air in Cincinnati / Cincinnati WKRP.” 

Over 40? You remember the show in first run like I do or maybe you became a fan later in re-runs on TV Land. Whatever the case WKRP in Cincinnati is one of my favorite TV shows about radio.


At the start of my radio career the show was still on CBS and I'd often compare the situations and characters to real life at my little dysfunctional radio family. There was a Mr. Carlson, a real life Venus Fly Trap, a Herb Tarlek and a few mini Doctor Johnny Fever's running around. We even had our version of the Loni Anderson character, the hot receptionist Jennifer Marlowe. Never mind who took on which role; the show was spot-on with realistic social interaction.


While WKRP was somewhat accurate in its depiction of radio culture I thought the equipment props and the way the actors handled the technical details of broadcasting fell short. It's a silly quibble―I know―the show is dang funny and makes up for these “short-comings.”

WKRP basis was a real radio station, my hometown, Atlanta's WQXI-AM. Their “Skinny” Bobby Harper was the Dr. Johnny Fever prototype. WQXI (known locally as “Quixie in Dixie”) was a popular Top-40 outfit in the late 60' and early '70's. Many of the episodes are based on actual events experienced by series creator, Hugh Wilson, former Atlanta ad man.

That brings me to wonder what other shows that I can remember that had radio themes. Most obvious is Frasier on 11 seasons with NBC. With a much more high brow appeal than 'KRP, the series chronicles the life of psychiatrist / radio talk show host Frasier Crane played by Kelsey Grammer. The show had some of the best written episodes of any show, period. It remained an excellent example of great TV and proved consistent over all eleven seasons. What I loved about Frasier was that it involved more than just radio related themes with deep character development and very funny situations. The production values were unequaled and satisfied my technical side with real identifiable radio equipment props that satisfied the techno geek in me.


This is far from an exhaustive survey of TV shows about radio; I've only touched on two. Others that come to mind are: News Radio on NBC in the mid-90's staring Saturday Night Live alum Phil Hartman who was murdered in 1998 by his wife in real life. (The show only lasted one more season following his untimely death. It was never again the same without his comic genius.) A 2008 show on CBS; Gary Unmarried, involves recently divorced Gary Brooks, played by Jay Mohr, who finds himself switching careers from a house painter to his dream job as host on an all-sports station. Unfortunately, the show has been canceled by CBS despite well written scripts and a great cast. It's all about the ratings, baby!


Stay tuned


Coming soon to the Peanut Whistle "E-Man: A DJ Saved My Life": How my first radio home dealt with two radio stations of opposed formats crammed into one facility and my inauspicious introduction to "E93"


©2010 Neal Rhoden, The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.

Radio Reflections

The author c.1987

Reflecting in 2010 on the state of what was I feel quite fortunate to have worked in the radio broadcast arena when I did.

Today radio has become irrelevant. I've covered this topic many times in the past on the Aircheck blog; so, I don't feel it necessary to go down that road once more today.

Often when one's supposed purpose in life is questioned a change of season or scenery is in order. In 1995 I had already spent 12 years of my life in broadcasting in virtual anonymity and felt that I had done all I could do in the field and escaped to 13 years in retail never seriously regretting my decision in light of financial reasons not due to any love loss.

Someone influential in my formative years warned that, "Once radio gets in your blood it is impossible to cure." He was right. But, what choice does one have once bitten by the "Radio Bug" when the whole industry has been turned on its collective ear?

The answer: redefine the skill set and adapt in a 21st century setting.

Again, I believe that my generation of broadcasters were the last of the breed anchored in the heritage of the medium while yearning for the new digital technologies so common today. The same technologies that have killed radio as we knew it. Rest in peace Radio.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden,The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.

More Freebies

Back again on the Internet beat the Peanut Whistle has returned with some great free forever software and services many of you can use.

One of our faves is Picasa™ from Google. For electronic photo sharing and storage and—did we mention?—it is free. Google offers a full gigabyte of storage of your priceless pics. Instead of the photo software native to our computers the Whistle has opted for Picasa. Check it out at http://www.google.com/picasa

For photo editing try Paint Dot Net; a surprisingly comprehensive and feature laden image editing software 100% no charge forever. Many of the things you can do in Photoshop™ are done just as well with Paint Dot Net. Follow the link above or: http://www.getpaint.net 

Finally, the Peanut Whistle has found a wonderful file storage site that is totally free; we now use it for all our audio storage. The sound clip elements on this and our sister blog, Gospel Aircheck plus the Gospel Rewind Podcasts are handled by DivShare. You get 5 Gigs of storage and 10 Gigs of monthly downloads. They offer more storage for a fee, but we highly recommend the free starter package. So far, so good; they promise storage is forever. Recently that offer seemed very attractive due to a failure with another so called free storage site that erased all our sound files because their 90 day inactivity policy. Do not use File Factory get DivShare.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden, The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved



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Deal Me!

What a fantastic time was had by all! Last Friday night I played announcer for a live version of the classic game show Let's Make a Deal!

The butterflies abated at show time; I was once again in my element, although this type of audience participation show never entered my repertoire until then. I brought along my "Traveling Microphone" (thanks Paul Harvey) to get that larger than life blast out to the traders.

I think we surprised everyone who once thought I was an unassuming bench warmer in the church that hosted the game show fund raiser. I noticed a few puzzled faces in the crowd trying to reconcile that voice with my face.

Our "Monty Hall" was one of our regular musicians in the church who is used to the live audiences and is not shy. He kept the crowd well entertained with deals donated from some of our local businesses. Of course I provided the Jay Stewart to his Monty Hall. We referred to each other by our new found stage names. One thing I learned: the TV pros make it look much easier than it is.

It was all in good fun, though. We'll need some tweaking before it's ready for prime time.

Stay tuned

©2010 The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.

Rabbit Ears

Wow! I love the new technological age we live in now — especially High Definition TV. What I like about it is, digital TV returns free television — truly no cost — back to all of us with just old fashioned “rabbit ears”.

With digital the signal is delivered with astounding picture and sound quality never experienced in analog.

One thing Washington got right — for a change — was mandating the Switch to DTV last year.

Living in the Metro Atlanta area we can receive over 30 channels of free over-the-air TV — most of them in HD. This is all without a cable bill. I said, “Goodbye and good riddance” to Comcast months ago when I discovered this secret cable companies don’t want us knowing. Plus, suppose I install an honest to goodness roof-top setup — I believe many more channels would come in. You see, each TV station has the ability to transmit one or more additional channels along with their primary signal. There is one local station that has 10 or so extra “virtual” channels.

Digital TV has a few quirks; signal strength is important. Make sure your antenna is pointed correctly. This process is fairly easy, though. Search YouTube for more information under, “Homemade HDTV antenna.” I opted for Walmart™ and a less than $50 price point.

Before I go, here is one more thing about cable you should know. You’re not getting real High Definition TV on 99% of your channels, when you subscribe to basic service; true HD costs $100 more a month with an additional cable box. Simple rabbit ears feed genuine HD to that new plasma or LCD screen when the stations’ signal allows — 100% of the time.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden, The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.

Wheeling and Dealing

This week I have been invited to help out with Family Fun Night at my church as a booth announcer for a live version of the classic TV game show Let’s Make a Deal. It sounds like a lot of fun is in store for families. Donated prizes are promised and, of course, there will be “Zonks.” Will it be curtain number one, two or three? Our live version will only have two curtains, but the game is the same.

I’ll take lots of photos and post them here. I can’t wait to see all the crazy costumes, which you’ll see here on The Peanut Whistle. Look out world.

See my Facebook profile for the details. If you’re in the area come and join us!

Stay tuned

© 2010 Neal Rhoden and The Peanut Whistle

Today's Radio Rant

Mark Twain once quipped, "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated," after his premature obituary had been published in the New York Journal. His exact quote has been a matter of academic contention over the years but I quote (or paraphrase) him today to prove a point about radio.

Reading the radio trades these days can be a bit discouraging; they're constantly reporting its demise, especially in Internet forums. They bemoan the corporate take overs, the absence of local talent with hometown appeal, and lack of public interest as causes. While these are valid arguments, radio isn't dead -- yet.

My podcast hobby has been a mostly effective panacea for my radio jones; much like reading about the Superbowl and actually being there, my hobby pales next to the real thing. I'm strictly an armchair quarterback. In fact, hordes of radio people with more marketable resumés are unemployed or in unrelated fields now.

Surely careers have died, but the industry as a whole will continue to exist--only in a different form. Music and information will be delivered in a way unknown currently to AM, FM and even TV professionals. The recent switch to digital TV from analog last year is only the beginning of change. Traditional radio is on life support; but, I'm afraid as soon as cheap (or free) high speed wireless Internet is available to the masses (on a scale equal to the ubiquitous transistor radio of old) the plug will be pulled.

In other words: the end will be when these new media technologies are truly mobile and free everywhere, just as radio has been for generations.

I believe my anonymous grandchildren will witness this event in their lifetimes. However, this grim prognosis was forecast when television debuted in the late 1940's. MTV threatened in the '80's. Radio kept on kicking. Bottom line: who knows? Like the Digital Mandate illustrates, our government authorities will continue to press us all into the 21st century like it or not. Radio is not immune.

Stay tuned 

©2010 The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.

Is There a Doctor in the House

My search for the reset button continues. The summer coming on with four kids in tow is going to be very exciting; time to dust of the home gym and get into shape. I got the weight off about 15 years ago and kept it off; for the most part. Ten years ago I gained back a few pounds. Long story short, I dropped the extra baggage when, at age 40, I developed acute appendicitis and required emergency surgery. Usually, much younger people have trouble with their appendix. Leave it to me... 

I don't recommend this sort of diet plan. But it turned out as a blessing in disguise. We got a funny story out of it.

You see, my wife Angie was 9 months pregnant with our baby daughter. One Tuesday morning during this time I developed an intense pain on my lower right side. To say it was intense is an understatement. Anyway, I went on to work. My work ethic is so strong (or maybe, I'm stupid or just fear doctors) that I suffered 8 hours in awful gut wrenching pain. As I was to learn later my appendix had already perforated. I could have died, but this gets funnier. Pain pills had no effect as the symptoms grew worse. Angie, with resolute calm drove me to the nearest emergency room. By the time we were called the attending nurses swarmed...Angie. "Let's get you up stairs immediately, honey!" they addressed my wife, visibly expecting. "No, it's my husband!" she replied. Hours passed and the next day I had laproscopically delivered my appendix to the world thus upstaging my wife and new daughter by just a week or so. On a serious side; I am forever in my wife's debt for her unselfish companionship during this scary episode four years ago.

Stay tuned

©2010 The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.