37 Years In Radio: My Career And How Radio Has Changed!

Coming up in December, I will celebrate 37 years as an on air talent in the Evansville market. Almost that complete time has been spent at 103.1.

In December 1979 after attending Wabash College in Mt.Carmel and working on their station at 89.1, I had a friend who worked for 1280 WGBF-FM, which at the time was a Top 40 station and #1 in the market.  This was really before the development on FM radio in our market.  1280 WGBF=FM was also called The River City Rocker.  Not very accurate in describing a station that also played Donna Summer, The Sugarhill Gang and Jim Croce.

In 1980, the owners bought the station that was at 103.1, then called KC103.  It was pure album rock. The studios were then housed near Niagra, KY, which was literally a glorified mobile house with a couple extra rooms built on.  The first time I went to that studio, it was mid afternoon and two DJ's were in the control room studio smoking pot and playing an entire side of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon".  Upon returning to the AM station, which was on Washington Ave across from St.Marys in Evansville, the General Manager asked me if I'd like to work there, as they were turning 1280 into more of an adult station.  I jumped at the chance to work for KC103 of course.  Back in those days, the music was recorded onto what looked like an old 8 track tape, called a cart.  So you would load up a machine that held 6 carts, and put your song, a sweeper (Station ID) and commercials and you would have to fire them off by hand, pushing a button to start the next element on your commercial of music log.

KC103 was a true album station. Most of the DJ's sounded like they were stoned, and we would play songs so long that they had to be played off of vinyl. In other words too long for a cart.  I started doing overnights and after  couple of years did afternoons.  That was until a group of local investors bought the AM and FM stations and flipped KC103 to B103, a crappy version of a Top 40 station.  during that year I worked at WKDQ before it was country. I also became a booking agent for th Local Musicians Union, which no longer exists in this town.  So a year into the new owners had run the station into th ground both ratings wise and revenue wise.

Along came local icon, the late Larry Aiken. I had heard that he was thinking about making 103.1 rock again, and I drove him crazy to get a job.  Sending him all kinds of info on my vision for such a station.  By August 15th, 1987 we were on the air as Real Rock GBF.  I could not have been happier.  From then on, 103.1 has rocked, celebrating our 30th anniversary next year. We switched 103.1 back to The River City Rocker 103GBF and throughout those years the station was wildly successful.  Here, in 2017, we remain the top choice for rock radio listeners in the tri-state.  We went through about 4-5 ownership changes, I became operations manager and Program Director of 103.1, carts an vinyl were way in the rear view mirror.  Now all the songs and digital files loaded into our automation system. This means you don't have to push any buttons until it's time to talk. Finally modern age technology.

Thanks to all my friends and listeners for sticking with us all these years. Our customers, like you are the best.  It's because no one makes you listen, you do so because you choose to. I'm grateful for that everyday. Thank you.