October is almost over and I have neglected to explain the banner. It does seem rather dated looking because it should. It’s an imitation of an Eighties rock station logo, namely WQFM. I found a memorial page to Milwaukee radio which had some of the bumper stickers scanned and posted.
Twenty years ago I was smack in the middle of my internship with the troubled and doomed WQFM; the parent company finally pulled the plug in 1996, then moved the call letters to another one of its stations in nowhere PA. What did I do? Not much really but I was given the title of intern-producer for the relatively new morning show.
In September, I had my falling out with John Bryson at WMUR. Over the Summer of 1988, the disaffected faction twisted me around to their viewpoint because I foolishly let them. This resulted in a nasty argument in which I painted myself into a corner (stupid ego). One of us had to go or the friction for the remainder of the semester would be intolerable; the damage was pretty serious. Bryson was the general manager so it looked bleak for me. My brief successful time as promotions manager was going to end under an ugly, dark cloud.
Then out of the blue, someone from the disaffected faction told me about the internship with WQFM. I rushed down to the studio, had a brief meeting with the general manager and had an audition the next morning. What the “audition” entailed was sitting around, writing some news copy and editing a taped conversation with a contest winner. I landed the gig despite the morning show’s primary guy being sick that day.
For the whole semester, I had to wake up at 4-4:30 AM every week day, trudge down to the studio at Wisconsin Avenue and Sixth and participate in helping out the morning show of Steven Alan Segal and Susie Austin. Sadly, their morning program wasn’t very interesting but it didn’t worry me, I was working (for free) at a commercial station. The experience would look great on my resume and this gig could lead to bigger things. Besides, I needed something to vindicate my decisions, attitude and whatever to shove in Bryson’s face. What a waste of energy.
Working with Susie was always great, especially on the days Steven called in sick or went home early. She usually let me operate the board during the last hour of the show because most people were at work by 9 AM when there were fewer talking breaks. I wish I got to work with Susie more often though. She had a great voice and was an encouraging presence. I only hope Susie survived all the cuts caused by the Republicans’ 1996 law giving Clear Channel, Emmis and other baronies the right to own everything as they homogenized it.
As for the “star” Steven, he was a different case. I could tell he was under a lot of pressure to turn WQFM’s fortunes around. Anyone who thinks a morning show is the lynchpin to success is an idiot in my opinion, especially if the content during the rest of the day is crap. And whoever decided to go with Steven was even dumber. I’m confident the executive responsible for hiring him was long gone after the ink on his contract dried. To be fair to him, I didn’t hate the guy, I just didn’t think he was the right person for the gig. Steven was a competent DJ with two decades of experience, if his stories panned out to be true. I felt he was a better fit for a wussy “mix” or oldies station. Rock stations are locked into this mindset that shows must be loud, obnoxious and usually staffed with bullies. Whenever he was around, I never got to operate the board yet he wanted my input on trying to write something funny; I felt he was trying to use me there. Oh, I still helped him out most of the time because I wasn’t a complete mercenary. Some of the more interesting things I got to do for the show involved production thankfully: recording a DJ in Brisbane to plug the Midnight Oil show; talking to Jack Sikma when he joined the Bucks; meeting comedian Jay Johnstone (the ventriloquist from Soap); setting up Steven’s left-channel dirty joke of the day (if you care, ask me via e-mail, it was rather lame); and my report on the big Metallica concert before Thanksgiving. The latter bit seemed funny at first but I think it just demonstrated how out of touch WQFM was on which direction popular music was going.
Things would wrap up around 10:30 AM and I’d head back to Marquette to attend class. This usually resulted in me nodding off, especially in Philosophy 050. Most days, I tried to squeeze in a power nap at the main library before my late afternoon-early evening classes. It all feels like a blur looking back now, I barely recall which courses I even took. Oddly, I didn’t drop anything neither and I was loaded with 15 hours. How I managed to pull of a 2.70 GPA was a miracle.
My current self would probably call my younger incarnation a complete dope for doing this. Then again, I was in college, my grandparents and loans already covered the lion’s share of the expenses so getting tickets, records or other trinkets in return was adequate for all the sleep I lost. The goal was to gain the advantageous experience at graduation in a couple years because my long-term goal was to become an actual promotions director, not a DJ, program or music director; I never felt I had the talent in those areas. The sacrifice paid off in my opinion. I was lined up to work in the promotions department the following semester when I returned from Christmas break and I was only needed in the afternoons.
Defecting to the promotions department was a wise move. During my Christmas vacation in San Diego, Steven was fired and replaced by an even blander duo of losers from Bowling Green. The worst part of it was how he found out…through a mean-spirited morning-show plug on a competitor’s station, the much hated WLZR. I think he saw it coming. Steven received little-to-no support from his co-workers. I even recalled one sales executive openly stating how much she hated him and she had a client who complained over an appearance Steven made. Due to a promise I made to Trip Reed (the boss of San Diego’s 91X) I had to see Steven in person one last time to give a gift from Trip. Bitter was an understatement to describe Steven’s mood that afternoon. Looking back, I think he might have been hired to be a scapegoat to fuel some kind of coup because there was a new general manager and program director in place as well. Unlike Steven, these predecessors left for greener pastures.
Would I do it all over again knowing what I know now? Probably, since I will never get back the dozens of hours of sleep I lost and no one imagined the horrible consolidation of radio stations happening in the Eighties. Radio remained profitable, relevant and exciting then. Walkmans, CD players and tape decks in cars were no threat in the pre-Internet era. It would take a couple more semesters of working in this “business” before I wised up to pursue a different career path. My only regret over this point in time is the destroyed friendship with John Bryson. We never patched things up.
Mike “The Bax” Baxendale wrote a pretty good history about his time with WQFM if you’re curious. I also found an e-mail address for Susie through the blog Bax posted in. I think I’ll drop her a line, see if she answers. I want to thank her for good time I had and the advice I should’ve taken sooner: get a degree in something more useful.
