Have you ever wondered what it's like inside a radio station? Did you do anything about it? Linda Caroll-Bradd, Deloris Lynders and I (Elle James) did. Our first ever, SARA field trip.
Our motivation? Deloris and I are writing a book called Different Wavelengths and it centers around a radio station. In order to be accurate, we wanted to hear from the folks working a radio station. We couldn't rely totally on what we saw on the television show Frazier.
On September 28th, the three of us met at Taco Cabana in Boerne and set off for KFAN Radio Station in Fredricksburg, Texas, also known as the Rebel Radio. I'd called ahead and spoken with David Weinheimer, a.k.a. David Foster, who invited us to come spend an hour with his boss, J.D. Rose.
It just happened David was working a "remote" at the square on Main Street in Fredricksburg, so we stopped there on our way to the station. He sat in a rocking chair on a trailer rigged with a false house front and a porch with the words Front Porch written in large letters over the top. He was covering an alternative energy expo, interviewing participants using a microphone hooked up to a remote transmitter called a Marty box. The device has a 15-20 mile radius for transmitting, otherwise they have to use a telephone line to transmit. Between his interviews, the radio station played music and commercials. They communicated via the Marty box.
Next stop, the real McCoy, KFAN where we met J.D Rose, our tour guide. He showed us the control room and the production room. In the control room, the D.J. does the talking into a microphone. In the production room, the sound technician can screen calls and key information about the caller into a computer, which then flashes the information onto a screen in the control room. The D.J. can then switch the caller on by sliding a switch called the slider pot to the volume he prefers.
If they need to censor something said, there is an eight second delay before the sound is heard over the radio. The sound technician, or board operator, in the production room can hit the cough switch to blank out the word or words spoken. There is also a cough, or mute, switch in the control room for when a D.J. needs to cough or clear his throat.
Who works in a radio station? The General Manager or Producer chooses the program lineup using local talent or syndicated programs. The advantage of syndicated programs is you don't have to pay local talent, just a board operator. Account executives are the sales force responsible for selling the commercial space, the life-blood of the radio station. DJ's are the ones doing the talking between songs, commercials, programs or whatever else they choose in the line up. They can operate as both a DJ and a board operator if necessary, and they do at KFAN. It's a crazy juggling routine trying to keep dead air to a minimum. Their timing has to be right on to switch from talking, to news, to commercials and back to the music or talk show, depending on what kind of radio station it is. DJ's usually have a name they use for the radio different from their own. It saves them from getting prank calls at home.
The board operator or sound technician screens calls, runs the commercials, tracks the time and plugs into the syndicated programs via satellite. He lets the talk show hosts know when they need to cut the conversation short so they can go to a commercial break or national news program.
Prime time for a radio station is the "morning drive" and the "afternoon drive". People are most likely to listen during these times and they have to pack them best shows.
We asked J.D. what were the funniest things that ever happened to him at the radio station and he had a hard time coming up with just one. He mentioned the program director pouring ice water down his back while he was talking on the air. They also got a call from a person in a mental institution.
When we described our book and some of the situations we had planned to happen in the radio station, J.D. was quick to suggest even more risky situations. His idea was to have the hero and his latest bimbo making out in the production room and accidentally switching the recording button on, taping the entire episode for the heroine to hear later. We detected a little romance in the crew at KFAN radio station and suggested they join us any time to pursue their careers as romance writers.
All in all, it was a very enlightening fieldtrip and I highly recommend everyone join us on the next one, when we go to the DPS crime lab in Austin. Stay tuned for date and time.
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