Throwback Thursday – May 31st 1982
OK, let's hop aboard the Whale Time Machine, and travel back to May 31st, 1982 for personal reasons. I think we have enough power to get there, even though it seems like an eternity away.
On that day, a Monday, which was actually Memorial Day, I was working on The Whale, even though no one else was around in the building except for the DJ before me. Can't remember who that was.
I was on the air that day, 36 years ago, because it was my first day of full time employment at WAAL-FM. Back then, the radio station was located on the second and third floors of 122 State Street, Binghamton, across the street from where we are now.
I remember walking up the many steps inside the office building to the second floor, leading down a long hallway to the entrance of the combinations of WAAL and WKOP radio. Saying I was a bit nervous, would be an understatement.
The combination of getting familiar with the studio equipment, saying the right call letters rather than the ones I had been saying for the previous two years in Elmira, and trying to follow the music format correctly by finding the albums quickly sure did make me nervous.
Yes, we played all our music off albums. No 45s, cassette tapes, compact discs, computers...just beautiful record albums, placed on huge professional turntables. Leaving the studio for an extended time was not an option back then.
Looking back, it's amazing how much has changed in the radio industry and in world for that matter. 36 years may not seem like a long time in the scheme of all things, but to realize how much different the world is today compared to the early 80s is staggering.
So, off I go into my 36th year at 99.1 The Whale. Thanks for listening, and hanging with me on this crazy ride!