RADIO: SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

When I moved to Minden, Louisiana the church already had a program  similar to the one I had produced in Iowa.  Boe Cook, the radio station’s owner, had persuaded the church to take the spot announcement approach many years earlier when a previous preacher had gotten caught up in a debate with another on-the-air preacher.  Boe thought it was hurting business, so he suggested they might get more out of the spots.  

KASO, the Minden station was a little laid back.  They didn’t adhere to strict time constraints. Boe told me that I could speak until the cart (tape cartridge) ran out, and that was about four minutes.   I usually didn’t take that much time, but I it enabled me to get through my material without watching the second hand on the clock too carefully.  Ironically enough the program’s same was “Something to Think About.”  Gordon Cole, another broadcast professional, was a member of our congregation, and helped me get started with broadcasting in Minden. I used the same approach that I had previously used in Cedar Rapids but my tag line for each segment was, “And that’s something to think about.”

Boe was something of a character.  He did the first live radio broadcast of a golf tournament in the history of broadcasting.   He put a transmitter in the back of his station wagon, and took a microphone with him as he drove around the course.   One year I made some comments about racial harmony on Martin Luther’s King’s birthday.   A few days later, some Ku Klux Klan literature showed up in my yard.  I mentioned it the station’s program manager.  He told me this story about Boe.  Boe had done an editorial on racial harmony some years prior to that time.  An irate listener called him and threatened to come to radio station and give him a whipping.  Boe said, “Let me know which way you’re coming.  I’ll meet you half way.”   Boe was in his seventies at the time.   When Boe called the guy’s hand he changed his mind about engaging the old man in a fist fight.

As they were in Cedar Rapids, the people who worked at the station were incredibly supportive.  At one time, they even talked to me about putting the program into syndication, and seeking commercial sponsors so they could market it to other stations.   I never chose to go down that track, and I don’t think it was any more than a passing thought on their part, but it was a good ego boost.

During the last few programs I presented at Minden, the station had switched over to a digital format.  Boe had died, and Gordon had purchased the station He was making technological improvements.  

Prior to the digital age, I recorded to broadcasts on reel to reel tapes.  I would start a spot with, “Take 1.”   I would write down the number of takes that I used for each spot, and the engineer would make a cart of the last one.   When we went to digital, I recorded them on the computer, and just started over when I made a mistake.   The only one that showed up on the file would be the last take.  

Radio stations operate in a totally different way today than they did when I started out in Cameron, Texas.  I don’t think I could apply for a job as a DJ.  I wouldn’t know a thing about the board, and wouldn’t understand the terminology.