After my first taste of being on the air at Mix 96, I was instantly hooked. I knew from that moment on what my calling in life was. I had already fallen in love with radio, just by hanging around the station and making friends with everyone there. However, the adrenaline rush that came from opening up the microphone and having thousands of people listen was more than enough to erase any doubts that it was what I wanted to do professionally.
I spent the better part of my childhood listening to the radio, calling stations for requests and contests. My love for radio actually dated well before my first time visiting the station. Radio had been a major influence on my life, and had provided the soundtrack to my childhood, adolescent years, and more importantly my teens. By working in the broadcast industry, I felt like I had the opportunity to play a small part in other people’s lives the same way.
The remainder of 1992 into 1993 I spent numerous hours at the radio station working on my craft. I remained at AM 1460 WEWO running the board for various shows, as well as doing board work for the FM station Mix 96. I spent my early Saturday mornings running the ‘Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown’ and Sunday evenings running ‘American Top Forty with Casey Kasem’, followed by two hours of my own air shift. I also spent a few overnights working 12mid-6a on the air when there was a spot that needed to be filled. Between both stations, I worked crazy hours and often got little sleep, but I loved every minute of it.
My friend Chris had started doing a show on Saturday nights called ‘The Saturday Night Hot Mix with Shadow Haze’, and he allowed me to co host the show with him. So while that wasn’t my own show, it was time behind the microphone. We had fun with callers and joking around on the air. It was my favorite three hours of the week.
I also landed a gig at the local teen club ‘Rockers’ deejaying on Friday nights. It was easy money, and a lot of fun. It was there that I met a little blond girl from nearby Maxton, NC that captured my attention.
She was like me, in the fact that she had a soft spot for iconic figures from times before we were born. She was a huge fan of Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, and James Dean. I had never known another girl like her. Her knowledge and passion for things Pop Culture fascinated me. I began a friendship with her that lasted for quite a while. The problem with our relationship was that in time, I wanted more than friendship, but friendship was all she wanted from me.
I was the go-to man she went to when whatever guy she was dating was treating her badly. “I wish he was more like you” she would often say.
I wondered if she knew how badly that cut me. She knew I wanted more than just being her friend, as we had discussed it on numerous occasions.
She often said things like –“I don’t deserve a guy like you” or “You can do so much better than me”.
She was so hard to read. She acted like she was interested in me, we spent hours on the phone together, she danced TONS of slow dances with me at the club I was working at, she gave me all the signs that she was interested in me… But she never was willing to take it to the next step. I could never tell if she was flirting, being nice, or leading me on. It might have been a combination of all three, but it kept me interested enough to keep coming back for more.
When 1993 came around, I had all but distanced myself from everyone I knew in High School. Everyone except of course, my best friend David ‘Tater’ Turner – A Great American. Most of my friends from high school had moved away to college, whereas I stayed back in Laurinburg to pursue my radio dreams. Tater went to nearby Pembroke University (now known as UNC-Pembroke), and remained in Laurinburg as well, so our relationship really didn’t change too much.
I promised my parents that I was just going to take one year off from school before going away to college. I felt like if I left the station at that juncture, that I would bring to a halt all of the momentum I was getting in the early stages of my radio career.
To be honest, I kept myself so busy working odd hours at the radio station that I didn’t really take the time to think about friends I had back in High School. The only person that entered my mind on a frequent basis was Megan Alba Biel. I didn’t know where she had gone off to school or anything about what she was doing, but that didn’t stop me for wondering. I thought once we both were away from high school, I would move on and stop thinking about her, much like the rest of the things tied to High School. But that was not the case. In my mind she still set the mark for everything that was beautiful, even if I couldn’t see her beauty on a first hand basis any longer.
By mid 93, things were starting to change even more around the station. I was getting more and more hours on the air. It was mostly fill- in work and lots of overnight hours, but I relished in every opportunity I had to turn on a microphone.
My friend Chris had taken a job in Philly working for a radio production company, and that made me a little sad, as we had become close. Then in June, almost one year to the day after my first day on the air at Mix 96, I found out that Mix was becoming ‘Oldies 96.5’. That was a crushing blow to me.
While I have a deep love for classic R&B, and other great oldies songs, it wasn’t a format that a 19 year old could really flourish in. I remained on as a part timer, but started to feel the urge to move on to something different.
I started asking around to various radio friends, both at the station I worked at, as well as other stations in the NC area where they would recommend me going off to school. Almost unanimously they said I should go to Central Carolina Community College in Sanford NC. College teacher Jerry Farmer had been teaching there for many years, and had high job placement, as well as a great network of radio professionals come from there.
I was burnt out on playing “Good times and Great Oldies”. I was also feeling just as burnt out being the eternal shoulder to cry on for the little blond girl from Maxton. It was obvious that relationship wasn’t going to go the way I wanted it to go. It was time to make a change and move away from Laurinburg for the first time. I was going to go to college and become a “Jerry’s Kid” (That is what Mr. Farmer’s students were lovingly and jokingly called).
I didn’t know it at the time, but the move would start a chain of events that would lead me to fulfilling a life long dream. It also meant that in time, I would have the chance to see a familiar figure that I had all but given up on seeing again.
Love Y’all
d
