When I was much younger (I'm talking 10 or 11 years old), I remember having my childhood friend Geoff sleep over pretty frequently. We decided one night to make our own radio show. We set up my old Panasonic boombox that had built in microphones and proceeded to record ourselves talking about anything and everything onto cassette tape. I can remember each of us flipping thru the JC Penny catalog looking for what we wanted to get for Christmas. There was even a whole part of the "show" where we did nothing but quote Cannonball Run. Even then I was obsessed with that movie. We'd also flip between us talking and the radio to see if there was a song on that we wanted to record. It was funny hearing us since our voices hadn't changed yet so we sounded so young.As I got older and was almost old enough to drive, I made my own mix tapes so I'd have cool music to listen to once I got my licence. I mentioned my old "radio broadcast" to my friend Erik and we decided to make our own show. We got real hi-tech. We went to Radio Shack and bought a microphone and plugged it into my stereo shelf system. (You know the ones that looked like individual components, but were actually a record player, radio and dual cassete deck all in one.) We set up a playlist and recorded a real radio show. One of us would set up the music while the other introduced the songs. We called the station "98.6 FM WBOG", and our tag line was "Coming to you straight from the bog". (We picked an even numbered station because they don't really exist in the US.) We played mostly 80's rock like Whitesnake, Skid Row, Cinderella, Ratt, Scorpions, Ozzy and Metallica. At the end of each 45 minute side, we'd do our own paridy of whatever commercial was playing a lot on the radio at that time. We did one for Pizza Hut & US Army. I remember we got a little punchy on a some of them, to the point that we'd be craking up mid-recording.
I wish I could find a copy of that tape and transfer it to CD, MP3 file or something to preserve it. As I await the birth of my second child, I guess I can't help but look back on the memories of my life prior to marriage, kids, mortgage, and being an all around adult.
8 comments:
Ray (of the Metal Minute) and I used to record tapes where we do probably some of the worst skits ever done. We were in ninth grade and would loan them to each other. We thought they were funny then. i am sure they were actually quite awful.
Ever think of re-doing it as a podcast?
Mark - I had a feeling you and Ray had similar experinces.
Fuzz - That's definately an idea. I'll try to swing it one day between diaper changes (my kids, not mine).
I would soooo listen to your station. It's better than the crap out there now!
-- david
My father was a DJ from 1955-1969, and as a kid, I always wanted to be one, too. Then reality set in and I realized that with my bad speech impediment, that was not a possibility. Bless my parents, though; they never told me I couldn't do it. Oh well..I coulda been the next Cousin Brucie or Scott Shannon, ya know?
I can see it now.....Mike's 80's Rock Podcast!! I'm sure there are enough of you metal heads out there where it just might take off!!! LOL
That's awesome.
I did the same thing when I was a kid. We would do fake radio interviews and talk shows, cracking up in the middle of it.
It was fun, and I still love doing stuff like that.
I think that's why I do podcasting now.
That sounds like a lot of fun, I wouldn't mind being a radio dj. When I was around ten me and a bunch of my friends made a band and the instruments we played were just stuff you would find around the house, our drums were banging on the seat I remember. That was how we made use of the tape recorder.
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