I moved to Gisborne, New Zealand and took a position with 89FM as programme director (with extra letters added) and did the afternoon show for several months. It turned out I was right, but not immediately. And that’s when I realized that perhaps morning radio wasn’t going to be for me as a primary role. Not all the jokes worked, but I never wanted to punch down. I’ve always enjoyed making people laugh or smile on my radio show, and I always tried to do it in what I thought was a fun and “smart” way.
I naively thought that the listeners wouldn’t go for it, and – perhaps more importantly – I didn’t go for doing it. Many other morning shows did do the bits and go for the laughs. Could someone show me what I am missing here?” “Maybe I am no fun,” I recall saying, “but I am not seeing the comedic angle in a double murder. What sort of wacky fun would we have with the topic? Could we start writing parody songs? Do we know anyone who could do an OJ impression? What sort of jokes could be done? I wasn’t having any of it. Every day after the show there was a meeting/critique session with our program director, and that’s when the OJ question came up. It got trotted out the morning of June 20th. Any time I asked questions like “So, we have an all-day event in the park? What’s our rain plan?” I was being unnecessarily negative I thought I was looking out for the health and safety of my underpaid staff. The “negative” label followed me as a program director, too, usually by upper management who had a tendency to not think things through. A team player would do this, you know, sanctity of marriage argument be damned. I objected to the idea, and that’s where I first earned the “negative” label. Then we’d take them to Reno where they’d watch us get divorced. To wit: once, in a meeting, it was proposed that my female co-host and I take a group of listeners with us to Las Vegas, NV, where they’d watch us get married. Tough room.) The edgy stuff that passed for fun on WYMG wasn’t going to work with the Oldies audience, and yet it was constantly suggested for our show. (When I came on board, my contract provided for a bonus for making #2, “since we don’t expect that you’ll ever hit #1 with them in the market.” I hit #2, and they fell to #4, and were shown the door, if I recall correctly. The flagship station in the building was legendary rocker WYMG-FM, and I worked down the hall from Don and Liz, who ruled mornings in Springfield for quite some time. The powers that be at the cluster didn’t seem entirely comfortable with having an Oldies station. But I learned a whole lot in that experience: most importantly – and I perhaps didn’t realize it at the time – that I was not cut out to do a morning show.
I only spent, when all was said and done, five months working at this station, ending my contract early to move to New Zealand that August. The station had gone on the air earlier that year, and I was brought aboard shortly after the final demise of WCFL-FM in Morris, where I had been toiling as the last employee kept after the rest of the airstaff was sent home as part of the station’s bankruptcy. I was working as the lead character of the show on Oldies WQQL-FM in Springfield, Illinois. This was the topic of conversation after my morning show finished on Monday, June 20, 1994.
“So – what are we going to do about the O.J. (The famous Los Angeles Times photo of the Bronco chase.)