Return to Radio

I have been busy lately. That’s news, both good and bad,  for the Peanut Whistle.

When it seemed that my former career had come to an end, opportunity called—literally.

  Some quick background: I began a 12 year career as a disk jockey exactly 29 years ago today (May 29, 1983). By 1995, I left broadcasting for a more lucrative endeavor—retail store management. My passion for those days were buried until one day in 2008 a dreadfully boring job ended and I began writing about and researching my old life. It became an obsession that, by 2012, culminated in yet another burnout. I had overloaded myself—this blog became one of four I wrote, plus my book still in the works.

Back to the present. My old station manager phoned me in June of 2011, while  my family and I were vacationing in Florida. We had just entered the gates of marvelous Sea World Orlando when my cell rang. The voice on the other end was unmistakable; She and I had worked together in my formative years at my first radio home in historic Savannah, Georgia. My old friend needed an engineer pronto and thought I could recommend someone in the Atlanta area—my home for the last 26 years. She was in town helping out our former bosses, once owners of a regional radio empire with stations from Memphis to Miami. They had sold off almost all of their properties (including our old AM/FM in Savannah in 1998). These owners now retained only Atlanta and Valdosta in the great state of Georgia. Poor timing notwithstanding, I gave her a name from my past, the only engineer I could remember by name. It never crossed my mind that I might be considered a contender for the task.

Over the next several months we corresponded via e-mail and Facebook, never quite able to mesh schedules. The Atlanta station was a 50,000 watt daytimer with the same owner since its inception in 1947. Back in 1986, when I moved from Savannah to Atlanta, my station offered transfer there. I didn’t take the job and wound up at a 5,000 watt church owned Christian station. Long story short, I finally toured the facility on May 8th (a quarter century later). My friend is now general manager. To be kind, they have some technical issues.

I’ve said all this as introduction to my next blog series—a worm’s eye view of radio or my new gig as consultant slash engineer for a true diamond in the rough and how I intend to bring back and maintain the equipment. The format is someone else’s concern, for now…

Stay tuned.