“Why am I torturing myself with this?”

Sometimes you have to ask yourself that question.  But then there are instances when there’s a bright moment and you realize you are being “rewarded” in a sense for all the trials and tribulations. 
You realize how important all that hard work was.  For me, it’s often an exercise in patience…with both myself and others.
In a music situation “Why can’t I (or whomever) play that song perfect RIGHT NOW!?”

 Additionally, my version of “perfect” may be different from what someone elses version may be.
As a musician who plays music other people have written, like it or not, performing their work is usually a creative form. It is interpreting their song – not duplicating it.   

 Playing a $100 a-person bar gig, we cannot hope to re-capture that moment in the studio when a producer worked intensely with the talent to put them in the right frame of mind in order to deliver that performance.  Given their level of talent, background, technical skills, inspiration, equipment and the fact no two humans are alike – it’s not completely impossible but downright difficult to “clone” their song from their record.  And what’s the point anyway?
If the bar owner really wanted a cover band to sound EXACTLY like the record, why not just get the CD and play it!?  For that matter, the bar owner merely needs a bunch of plasma TV’s, a DVD player and start building a collection of concert footage of the original artists…. rather that hire a band.


  Best Buy has a nice collection of live music DVDs.  Shhhhhhhhh.  Don’t tell them.  We may be outta work for real then.
          -Bob

 

Don Phillips and Nicole Salem
By Bob Burnham

Don and in a different situations, Nicole were at one time regulars on the radio who made me laugh.  They are both at least for the moment, “out” of radio.  That’s about all they have in common and they are already missed. 

Salem did traffic on the Deminski and Doyle show on 97.1 which saw its demise (at least for now) at the end of 2007.

Phillips was a long-time (over 20 years) overnight fixture at WOMC, 104.3.  These were both CBS stations, but that really makes no difference. 

Don had some health issues he was trying to resolve, but was let go by the station in this month (April 2007).   Don graduated from Specs Howard in the 1970s and was lucky enough to be hired by the late Paul Christy at WCAR-FM, who gave him his first big break.

Salem arrived at WKRK as an intern, but soon landed in “the other building” as traffic girl for her paid gig.  Obviously, she graduated from Specs much more recently.

I cannot fault anyone in the decision process which ended their respective tenures.  As they say, “these things happen.” 

Salem recently called in to Gregg Henson’s internet radio show on Blog Talk Radio basically to say “hi.” She had an incredible upbeat attitude.  Henson knew her as an intern and made references about how her career had blossomed since then.    

“I guess I just grew up!”  she said, and spoke fondly of the years she spent working with Deminski and Doyle.  “It was the best job I ever had,” she said.

No one who made daily appearances on Jeff and Bill’s show (AKA “D and D”)  could ever escape becoming an on-air “regular” that listeners would get to know.  Nicole was no exception.  Though frequently the target of their jokes, she was an active participant in many of their most memorable on-air antics.  Like the rest of the “cast”, on the show Salem developed her own fans as well.  D & D made her a part of the show, but her persona was completely her own. She is unique, talented and will go as far as she wants, what ever her next chapter will be.  You can be sure she will kick some serious butt!

I have a different feeling toward Don Phillips.  He and I go back many years as far back as the disco era as a personal friend.


Growing up in Garden City, Michigan, Don and I were involved in a short-lived broadcast program at the Livonia YMCA as well as other projects.   

Don and I would later work together at Southfield’s WSHJ-FM working under Bob Sneddon, who gave Don the Program Director position.  I was basically an overnight jock there, who by day, worked at AM radio stations.    

Don’s paying gig was spinning disco tunes at “The Connection” in Flatrock.  I filled in for him a few times, but he was the best at what he did there, too. 

Sneddon (at WSHJ) hooked Don up with a gig at the original WDRQ, and me doing middays at WBRB-AM, but we still worked on projects.  Don was always the “talent” and I was always the “engineer.”  My job was to make him sound good, but I never had to work very hard. 

I always say I’ve been lucky because I have worked with the best in the business, and Don Phillips is certainly among them.

The reason all of us do radio is because it is so much fun!  But the part that makes it fun is the people.  Good radio cannot exist without good people.

During career burps, the best people ALWAYS land on top.  While Salem and Phillips  are two completely unrelated people from wildly different walks of life and generations, they are both at the top of their game in what they do.

And to think they both spent time at Specs Howard…. What’s up with that!? 

Best wishes Nicole Salem and Don Phillips!  You both rock.

And speaking or ROCK, Nicole is currently in the WRIF Rock Girl 2008 competition.  If you read this in time, check out her video and give her your vote!   

http://www.wrif.com/rockgirl2008/girls/Nicole/

To hear “Gregg and Victor” check out:
http://bannedinternetradio.com/


Or his blog at
www.gregghenson.com

 

Surviving formats and ownership changes
By Bob Burnham

As Jack Webb of 1950s "Dragnet" would say, "the story you're about to read is true..."

however, the names were NOT changed!


I spent a good chunk of my career at WCAR Radio, a directional AM station in Garden City, Michigan.  It was licensed  “Livonia-Detroit” presumably because its signal blanketed the Detroit suburb of Livonia both day and night.  

Historically, at 1090 AM – it was the sister to WBRB in Mt. Clemens (where I also worked).  The original letters were WERB, then WTAK, the first all-talk station in the Detroit area.   The next set of call letters were WIID. When Golden West (Gene Autry) purchased the original WCAR (1130 AM) it became WCXI and switched to a country format.  

The original WCAR call letters were freed up.  WIID switched to WCAR.  

In 1979, the station (now WCAR) acquired its 24-hour license (daytime only before then) and added six more towers to the four it already had. The owner, Walter Wolpin, hired former WWJ-AM and WAAM-AM salesman, Jack Bailey to manage the operation.  The station was under Bailey’s direction for most of the years I was at the station.

In the late 1990s, Wolpin sold the station to the Children’s Broadcasting Corporation, also known as “Radio Aahs,” a satellite-fed syndicated format originating from Minneapolis.  Most of the existing staff supporting the combination talk, brokered and ethnic shows had to be, as they say, “let go.” 

“Radio Aahs” was similar in format to today’s Radio Disney, targeting younger listeners.  A failed partnership between Disney and Aahs, however, was the start of the downfall of this owner.  

WCAR was eventually sold in the late 1990s.  At that time, Jack Bailey resigned and long-time employee and current Program Director, Susan McGraw assumed the GM role.  McGraw and I were soon the only surviving employees from the original staff. 

A failed first attempt to sell the station gave us an extra year of employment.  I can’t imagine what we filled our hours with during that period. I do recall many trips to a nearby restaurant where traditionally we took staff as their “goodbye meal.”

By then, I had installed equipment that allowed the engineer to monitor the stations’ ten towers and transmitter from a home computer. The station was now fully equipped for unattended operation and automatically changed directional patterns and power at sunrise and sunset.  A computer handled all programming elements as well.

We had returned partially to the brokered format obviously because it generated revenue to keep us employed.   Most of our best clients, however, had already gone to WPON, WNZK or the re-named WLLZ-AM (560 AM which had been WHND).

So what DID we fill those hours with?

No, it WASN'T the Susan and Bob show 24 hours!

We broadcast a satellite-fed format from the original Children’s Broadcast Corporation studio in Minneapolis.  It was called “Beat Radio.”  I had thought disco was already long dead by then (especially on an AM station!), but these people didn't think so, apparently.


"Beat Radio” was produced by a group of former pirate operators in Minneapolis, presumably because they could finally have an audience legally.  At the same time, Children’s Broadcasting had someone who would work for free to keep their remaining stations operating while they looked for buyers.  “Beat Radio” obviously ceased to exist once all the stations were sold. 

That year – 1998 – is mostly a blur. By then, I had a few other major projects already underway including a syndication facility only a mile from WCAR.
Children’s Broadcasting would continue to fight Disney in the courtroom.  

It was clear that Christopher Dahl, Children’s President, was the inspiration for the Radio Disney format, but in running his business, Mr. Dahl had made some poor choices in my opinion, on the stations he chose to affiliate.  

The format was a hard sell, so the solution was to BUY stations in cities he chose to affiliate.  That was how he acquired WCAR – our station.    I call it “our” station because that’s the way it felt for many of those years. 

While McGraw literally worked her way up at the station starting originally while still a high school student, I started a little differently.  I began hosting a show for WCAR called “Radio Vault” in 1988.  Having developed a relationship with the General Manager, about a year and a half later, I became their Chief Engineer.  

I replaced Chris Arnaut who stayed only briefly having replaced Mike Numerick.  Mike had been with WCAR for several years, replacing Don Oswalt. Mike went to WXYT, and Chris went to WKSG-FM.   I stayed with WCAR through December of 1998.  At that time, I assumed the Chief Engineer position for the four Cumulus stations in Ann Arbor and one in Monroe, Michigan.

And that’s not all --
During my stay at WCAR, a severe storm took down one of our nighttime towers.  Replacing that tower and actually coaxing it into working properly took a full year of work and compilation of data to be submitted to the FCC.  This was greatly complicated by cellular structures that were being erected within walking distance WCAR’s tower site. Most of the actual “grunt work” under which WCAR was re-licensed was done either by me personally or a crew under my direction.  This eventually involved measuring literally hundreds of locations in the Detroit area to prove the station was operating according to its license…and repeating it all over again when the cellular construction contaminated my work!

In a separate adventure, to further reduce operating costs, I obtained proper FAA approval and re-licensing from the FCC to allow WCAR to extinguish (as in permanently turn off) three of its six nighttime towers lights. Up until then, six towers had been required to be lit since 1979.  If you drive by the site today, the same three towers (out of ten) are the same ones designated by me that are lit at night.

From the WCAR years, there are many stories like these and many accomplishments.  It was not a perfect place, but it was a great place to call “home” for so many of those years with a staff that felt like a family.  The best part was those friendships and the very diverse range of people I worked with whom are the very lifeblood of any great radio station.

WCAR is still in operation today with the same call letters.  It is now programmed by Michigan Catholic Radio. 

 

 

Surviving the Tax Man

George Harrison wrote and sang about the Tax Man, I live it.

The wild and wacky life I lead comes at a price.

Every year at this time I go through a ritual of doing tax prep for my Accountant.  

But mine isn’t like "normal" people (whatever that is) because radio and its related things I do to survive  make for mountains of paperwork.

Once I get past this week though, I promise I’ll have some fresh tales to tell.

Meantime, if you wanna tap into some OLD radio in the Detroit area or listen on their web stream, WHFR 89.3 from Henry Ford Community College is carrying my stuff Monday nights from 11:00 to midnight.  Mystery and horror are featured…everything from Suspense to Inner Sanctum to I Love a Mystery.  Check it out.  On the web, it’s
www.whfr.com.  WHFR also does a great job giving an outlet to local Detroit musicians.
Bob