What makes the Internet so awesome? One major reason is that you can find anything about anyone online if you know how to search for the information.
AmericanRadioHistory.com is a treasure trove of broadcasting history. Over 5 million pages of various radio and TV trade publications have been scanned and digitized. Among these is Radio & Records. For those who were never in ‘da biz’, R&R was published every week from 1973-2008. It contained industry news, music charts for all formats (Top 40, etc.), and job openings.
In the fall of 1984, I was working for a small AM polka station in Minnesota. It was here that I discovered the magic of R&R’s “Opportunities” section. I wasn’t very good on-the-air. But I was young, aggressive, and willing to move anywhere. I wanted to be a nighttime rock jock. The guy who got to play all the cool music, got the most leeway in what he could do, and got all the girls!
Not really expecting much (did I mention I wasn’t very good on-the-air?), I sent out about 15 tapes. Which took a lot of time in those days because every cover letter had to be typed by hand and every tape had to be duplicated one at a time. To my amazement, I received 3 job offers! One was in Texas, one was in Wisconsin, and one was in Kansas. Of course, I took the one that offered the most money. Two weeks later, I was the new evening DJ at KWKR in Garden CIty, Kansas.
Here is the actual ad that I responded to from October 26, 1984. To many, this is no big deal. But to an Internet and radio geek like me, finding something like this after 3 decades is very cool!
