Your first song as a DJ

In the 80s, there was a small FM radio station in Port Huron MI (I'm going to guess that it was St. Clair County Community College) that used the same song for their sign-on and sign-off: The Star-Spangled Banner.
The sign-on was José Feliciano's version and the sign-off was the Jimi Hendrix rendition.
Very cool.

Never mind "first song", I would use this as my theme song: "Work to Do" - Average White Band.

 

I don't remember my very first song as a college DJ, but I remember repeatedly playing Black Flag, a battered copy of KISS Alive II, and "Cooky Puss," the Beastie Brothers single that had just come to the station. (I was going to link to the last, but having checked out the lyrics again, I'll pass....) I had the ultimate dead shift, so it was basically me playing whatever I was into at the time with no continuity whatsoever.

 

Always wanted to start a bootleg station in my bedroom when I was in my late teen years - I think by the end of it, I wanted to start it off with Joy Division - Transmission. Just to announce, this isn't gonna be some rotation station BS. A reminder of the old school radio I hear about and be super freeform, until I get caught of course.

 

It really depends on the crowd and the expectation.
A dj's job is to provide a service, not to entertain themselves.

If it was dinner music I would generally stick with mellow classical and light jazz

It if was dance music for 50 and over - Buddy Holly Rave On

If it was dance music for 30-50 - New Order Blue Monday or Thieves Like Us

Dance music for under 30's - Christina Aguilera Dirrty

Me dj-ing a party at my house ... it would depend on my mood lol

 

Okay, but you're gonna miss some good stuff

 

I always wanted as many people as possible to hear the MGMT song "sibberaian breaks" as I think it's a modern masterpiece so I would play that first.

 

My definition of rock n roll is whatever it takes to make you shake your stuff...

 

How did you get that gig? A low powered FM station just started up here in Tacoma Washington KTQA 95.3 FM); there isn’t much scheduled programming yet. I emailed them with a proposal for a late night jazz show. No answer. What kind of training, background or licensure does an amateur DJ for one of these low powered stations need?

 

Basically, I had the name of the program director; I e-mailed him with my interest and what I wanted to do, and he was intrigued. My show started at 1 1/2 hours long; it then expanded to two hours, and sometimes, it goes even longer.

When I was a DJ in college, I needed an FCC Restricted Radiotelephone License, but that was in 1981. Even in those days, all you had to do was apply for it; you didn't need to take a test. Today, you don't even need that to be on the air; that requirement was eliminated in 1995.

Basically, as long as you give the legal station ID within several minutes either way of the top of the hour, and avoid George Carlin's seven dirty words and a few selected others, you're OK, and after 10 pm and before 6 am, even those words aren't off limits. I have a small handful of songs I don't play before 10 pm.

The default setup at our station is automation 24/7 in a Triple A format. I and the other live DJs turn off the automation when we broadcast live from the studio.

You'll want to find out what kind of setup the station has. Our studio is pretty bare-bones; amazingly, it has no way to play physical media. Some DJs create Spotify playlists; as for me, because I own 99 percent of the music I play, I convert my vinyl and CDs to .wav files and put them on a thumb drive, which I can use at the station. We use a common program on a Mac to play our music; if you get in, someone at the station will show you how to use whatever they have.

If you've got a name of the station manager/program director and an e-mail address, that's a good start. Low-powered stations that are hyper-local may be more open to diverse programming such as your jazz show. Be persistent without nagging, and make sure the station is actively seeking volunteers (because that is likely all it will be, depending on whether the station license is commercial or non-commercial). I like to claim that I have tens of listeners, but our station also streams, so every once in a while, my shows have listeners as far away as California.

 

Jerry Lee Lewis "Whole Lot Of Shakin' Goin' On" > I think the song answers for itself!

 

I 'dj'd' my sr year of HS, playing music for 1/2 hr before homeroom. Really made me start the day on an up note.

First song--Volunteers by Airplane from Woodstock. "Alright friends you have seen the heavy groups, now you will hear morning maniac music, believe me. It's a new dawn.'
It was also to put a finger in the eye of our obese principal who seemed to be stuck in the seventies. Hated long hair, hippie music. He actually liked sports more than academics.
Here we were in 1975, and some of us still remembered the revolution in 1968 and were waiting for people like you to die.

 

Don’t remember the first song of my college radio show, just the format. Three-consecutive songs from the same artist - usually two well known songs with a deep cut in between - or in some cases the reverse.

I used to pre-record the music part of the show to cassette from my expanding CD collection. This allowed me to study during the show - because I only had to hit pause on the deck and jump in with announcements, etc. every 15 minutes or so. I always seemed to have tests scheduled for the next day.

I never had any idea how many were listening. I remember one week my roommates came to the studio for the show and convinced me to have people call in requests so we could tell if anyone was listening. I hadn’t done that before because we had just re-started the station after many years and most of the music in studio was 10+ years old. I remembered being really surprised when people actually called.

 

I think my first song played as a mobile DJ back in 1985 might have been “Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and the News.

 

I had a show on my college radio station, and I played mostly Reggae, since I was in the corn belt I opened with “ Take Me Home, Country Roads” by Toots and The Maytals

 

I would put Stairway down on the platter and right after the is first verse starts I would drag the needle, yell out “booger” and play some Nugent!!

 

Isn’t this like figuring out what the first song should be on a playlist, one that is designed for an event like a party?
From that experience, I always figure not many are listening to what you have on, so go for a mood that will become more important in a bit, like LZs Rain Song following Song Remains... If it’s a radio show, .love Kinks Around the Dial
Ramones RnR Radio etc.

 

First song at a college station in 1985 was "Washington Bullets" by The Clash. I was a political science major. I remember getting a phone call from some "older guy" who was out of his mind with happiness that I played the Stones "Shine A Light".

Last song in '86 was "Glad To See You Go" by The Ramones.

 

The very first track I ever played on my Tuesday night 8.30pm to Midnight Shift was an edited version of THICK AS A BRICK roughly 6 minutes long.
THE station mainly plays 60's and 70's so I stick to that, but add a few 80's tracks for good measure.
I now do a 60's@6 program every Tuesday which is 60's requests as well as Wednesday drive time.
I have a very good choice of music available, there are thousands of songs in the Radio stations music database spanning six decades. I always bring in a large case of CDs, most of which I've recorded myself from original cd albums or vinyl.
Many 'requesters' (I think) like to try and catch me out by requesting some old obscure song which I obviously don't have .. However there is always YouTube.
Some tracks on YouTube now have commercials at the end so you gotta be quick with the fader!
Some presenters like to start with the same theme/music every shift. I prefer getting straight into a good uptempo rock/pop song to suck in the audience.