Hey everybody, I'm getting a chance at being a real FM DJ!!!

Hey forum friends,
Tonight I'm getting a chance to fulfill a dream I had as a five year old. At five when everybody wanted to be a cop or fireman, I wanted to be a radio DJ when I grew up. As you know, being a radio DJ is a totally different thing after the early 1990's.

But now I'm excited to share that tonight I will be starting as a host in my own time slot, spinning Jazz on Stevens Point college FM radio. Every Thursday at 7-10 pm cst. I'm truly honored to have been blessed with this opportunity. As well as dipping into my own collection, the station has tons of jazz vinyl, some really obscure stuff. I'm given free reign to play whatever style of jazz I feel like, so I get to play new exotic jazz as well as original jazz from 78rpm. The stations turntables do have a 78 speed, but it's too much of a hassle to swap out carts and preamps, so i'll be playing unadultered transfers I made to cd in a 78 showcase segment. I hope people will enjoy what may be the first time they will hear jazz on its original format without digital alterations.

Please forgive me if this is shameful self promotion, but I thought a few of you may be interested in tuning in. I always like getting chances to share music with the forum family. And I thank everybody here for the music and knowledge you have shared with me that help me make this dream a reality. If you want to join me on Thursday nights at 7pm cst, you can tunein online at Wwsp90fm.org or with the Tune-in app. I'd love to play a request at some time for a fellow forum-ster.
Thanks everybody! Peace,
Jake

 

It's always great when someone's dream come true. There are so many fantastic records to choose from I bet the time will fly by.

 

Way to go. I discovered so much great music when I had my own college radio show.

 

That's really cool!

Now, don't screw it up.

 

I would certainly listen in if I lived nearby. Many blessings and good wishes to you on your musical endeavor!

-Richard

 

Awesome, that's always been a bit of a dream of mine as well. How did you go about getting your own timeslot? Congrats!

 

Very cool.

Play Misty for me.

 

Had some mutual friends with the executive staff there. A few of them recommend me to the program director and on there word alone, was offered a daytime general programming shift. Guess they were impressed since I was willing to do anything and was pretty fearless. I started to get invited as a guest co-host for some of the other executive staffs shows. The program director was filling in on the jazz show for the summer and admitted that he didn't know that much jazz. So I recommended stuff I'd know he'd like,(some later Buddy Rich, the one Steve remastered, some CTI stuff and Tony Williams Lifetime. Heavier stuff) then picked up any spare jazz shifts that I could make, and co hosted with the program director for some crazy shows! He gave me dibs on whatever I wanted to do for the fall! A real honor! I hope to keep doing jazz and develop another show of my own.

My advice, just volunteer and make yourself easily available.

I certainly will next week! I was actually planning on playing that, but am in the ugly process of rearranging my records and couldn't find it. The station didn't have it either.

Thanks for all the kind words! Also should mention the 78RPM segment I did was a hit!

Peace, jake

 

Congratulations! Nice to hear when someone gets a chamce to live their dreams.

 

You're gonna make a great DJ kid... Ya lousy bum! Just kidding Very awesome to have an opportunity like this come someones way. Have fun, best of luck and here's to many more Thursday nights! Great time slot too!

 

Good luck and have fun!

I did the DJ thing Monday afternoons for a year in school. I'm not sure how much great music I discovered in retrospect; the only one I know for sure was checking out the studio version of Procol Harum's As Strong as Samson (which I now consider the best song of the '70s) after hearing a live version on commercial radio. One of a very few songs I discovered this way (ESP by Shonen Knife is another that comes to mind).

 

Cool!

 

Congrats and we'll be looking for career updates regarding The All New JAZZ with JAKE show.

 

that's GREAT!!! I'm happy for you.

 

I did a weekly Insomniac show - 10:00 PM to 5:00 AM - for about a year at a local community station - so much fun, though it could be a bit of a slog at around 3 when no one was listening but the serious weirdos. We had a ton of freedom to experiment though because the program director didn't give a shyte what we played as long as we filled airtime. We'd do stuff like play nothing but two minute punk songs for an entire hour or make long, crazy mixes a la Over The Edge. My musical knowledge expanded rapidly as we gleefully pawed through the station's stacks of ancient wax looking for worthy content. I'd love to do something like that again, albeit much shorter and earlier, but alas the community stations have gone the way of the Dodo in our area. Anyway, good luck!

 

Great story - where's a link so we can listen?

 

Very cool opportunity. Can you play a show dedicated to one artist? In light of a recent thread here, how about All Things Monk!?

 

Being a DJ at a college station is something everyone who loves music should have a chance to experence. Of all the extra curricular activities I had opportunity to participate in (and there were way too many, as my grades reflected), being on air at the radio station was by far the most rewarding and most fun. Best of luck to you and have a great time.

 

Congratulations and good luck , ya lucky pup!

 

I totally could. The first time I subbed a jazz shift was the week after Ornette Coleman died. I did half the show all Ornette because I thought nobody else would. The station manager freaked out (in a good way). He thought it was the coolest thing. I was going to do the whole show, I switched it to half when I saw all the cool rare vinyl they had. I wanted to play some of that since I thought I wouldn't get another chance to do it. I will totally do that at some point and give you a heads up. Monk, along with Fats Waller are the first two artist I could listen to all day long and not get sick of. Guess I'd have to do an all Fats show.

 

Here's the link. Thanks!
www.wwsp90fm.org

 

Looks like you're finally out of...Purgatory! Excited for you!

 

Congratulations, I hope you will find it a rewarding experience. I was a college radio DJ back in the 80's. The quote above is what makes college radio special. "Free reign" is what's missing on commercial radio today.

I played Contemporary Christian Rock, this was during the era when Dylan's "Slow Train" and U2 were crossing over. Had there been a commercial Christian station I doubt that they would have played those two artists next to Petra and Larry Norman. I even played Stan Freberg's "Green Chri$tma$" during the Christmas season.

 

Wow, that sure beats the station I was on! WUJC (Now known as WJCU) had an erp of only 750w and was interfered with often by a 100,000w commercial station across Lake Erie in Windsor, ON Canada CJOM. Some summer days it did not even pay to turn our transmitter on (my show started at 6 AM, the station was not 24 hr so I was the one who signed the station on). Driving to the station if I heard CJOM's signal I knew few outside of a few blocks of the station would hear our signal.

 

What are your listener numbers like?