One year ago, I was blessed, truly blessed, to have been able to take part in the 1st WLHA Resurrection/Reunion Weekend, an event organized and operated by Casey Peckham and his band of merry DJs in full collaboration with the staff and DJs of WSUM-FM, the college radio station on the University Of Wisconsin-Madison campus, and as far as I am concerned the very best radio station in the entire city.
As I chronicled in my July 2013 posting on this site, WSUM rose brilliantly and gloriously from the ashes of WLHA, just like the mythical Phoenix, and this event was indeed as advertised, a chance to resurrect 'LHA on 'SUM with the very same DJs that populated the collegiate driven airwaves between the years of 1952-1993. Yet most importantly, the event was designed to be a celebration of the history of the radio station in all of its incarnations and the DJs that brought it to vibrant life...even when we could barely be heard due to comically low wattage and radio wave frequencies. For me, last year's event, on which I had the opportunity to perform a two hour radio show, lifted my radio driven spirit higher than I could have even imagined and it fueled me with extreme hopes that such an event could possibly be repeated. On the weekend of July 11th-July 13th of this year, it was.
And the event only got bigger...
With regards to choosing music for this year's event, I certainly did not need to bring as many CDs as I brought before. I still filled a crate--as I just wanted to have a series of options--but this time, I filled it only halfway. As the weekend approached, Casey sent out mass e-mails, providing everyone with pertinent updates and information and by the time the event was a mere few days away, Casey elicited sage-like radio advice and wisdom, which indeed gave me considerable food for thought. "But please personalize your shows with the audience saying something about yourself and your days at WLHA," Casey instructed. "Have some fun and they will likely have fun too listening. The audience owns iPods and they do not need us for hour long non-stop music sets."
I did take Casey's words to heart but I was also a tad confused at how I would accomplish what he was requesting of all of us. You see, when I performed my DJ show last year, I may have possibly been the only representative from my particular DJ era that weekend. Additionally, during my early Sunday morning time slot, I was one of only two people in the entire WSUM studios. I played 24 songs within my two hour time frame and I did try to include relevant stories of my late 1980's/early 1990's DJ days. Still, it was ultimately a solo affair. I initially assumed that this year would basically be the same as last year albeit with 30 minutes less on-air time. However I was soon to discover once again, and even in these very unusual circumstances, that less is more. And how voluminously more of an experience it was.
In her message to me, Lisa asked me if I would be interested in having her join and assist me in the studio for this year's show, mainly as a means to see WSUM and be involved with the WLHA themes and memorabilia without having the responsibility of putting together an entire show. I was thrilled to have Lisa join me, as she truly represented the tail end of the WLHA era. If the story of WLHA had been captured in a Dickensian styled novel, any chapters that featured me would exist near the end, setting the stage for the final chapters which would undoubtedly include her. Her presence would help me greatly in feeling less solitary as well as gathering a certain solidarity for our specific time in WLHA history.
And soon, there were even more...
For my third year at WLHA, I became the Music Director after responding to a handwritten advertisement posted in the station at the conclusion of the previous semester in the Spring. In addition to speaking with record labels, having our playlist information and call letters placed within the College Music Journal (CMJ), and of course experience then endless Christmas morning feeling of receiving ALL of the new music to hit the station, being the Music Director afforded me the opportunity to meet all of the prospective DJs as well as have the chance to get to know the returning DJs. It was here where I first met Kelly Adamson (now Kelly Klaschus) and Sue Whittaker.
Kelly and Sue were, and remain, life long friends and at the time I met them, they would soon host their own weekly three hour radio show on which they would heavily feature artists and bands local to Wisconsin. Through knowing them at WLHA, and mostly through a series of shared classes, they would eventually become two people with whom I would have a pivotal friendship throughout my final two years of college. Through Kelly, I met her boyfriend and (then) future WLHA DJ Brian Klaschus, as well as her (then) future husband and parent to their 14 year old son Alex, whom I met during the Resurrection/Reunion weekend. Through my adventures as a Badger Buddy, Kelly and Sue met Sandor Gallo, my Freshman charge and one with whom I also developed a deep friendship during the same time period, as we eventually became roommates during my Senior year. Sandor also became a highly involved participant in my Music Director duties in regards to helping me listen to the growing mountain of new music that would arrive to the station (an amount I could not have possibly listened to entirely on my own) as well as gracing the album jackets with his specialized brand of hand written colloquialisms to discourage any DJ album theft.
Last year, Kelly and Sue were unable to participate due to previously scheduled commitments. This year, they were determined not to miss out and once the schedule was released, I saw that they would have their show directly after my own show, making our era even more represented plus making the "Reunion" aspect more powerfully meaningful. As the weekend grew closer, there were a few minor scheduling changes to accommodate the various 'LHA DJs prior commitments outside of the event and soon, my show was re-scheduled to occur immediately after Kelly and Sue's show. To that, Casey asked if I wouldn't mind dropping by for Kelly and Sue's show just in case they needed any assistance as I was a tad more familiar with the sound board than they, since they hadn't even seen it yet. As if I needed any more incentive to see my friends and get back to that beautiful studio.
Casey and his trusty cohorts remained on hand in the studio to assist them with their nearly all vinyl program so I had the pleasure to just watch alongside Kelly's family. And then, very organically, Kelly and Sue mentioned me on-air and then invited me to join in the banter between songs. Never was it my intention to join their show, because it was their show and I just wished for them to gather the full experience of being in that studio just as I had one year ago. But this is how Kelly and Sue are as people. So gracious. So inviting. So welcoming and warm and believe me, these are two women whose smiles and laughter would disarm even the most entrenched cynic and you immediately find yourself fully swayed by their openness.
Kelly and Sue's show flowed seamlessly into my own show at 1:00 p.m., as re-scheduled, and by this time, Lisa Grueneberg had also arrived to the studios, making the reunion especially complete. Inspired by Kelly and Sue's graciousness, Lisa joined me on the air throughout the program, as we continued the stories and frivolity around the actual music.
I really think that if one is open to it, a DJ is always in the process of learning and figuring out how to make a really good show.This year, as you may have already witnessed from my published playlist, I played 14 songs within my 90 minutes, and I have to say that many of the songs I had mentally prepared myself to play were tossed out of the window as I wanted to allow myself to be inspired by the mood of the day. Back in the WLHA days, when DJs had a weekly three show program to fill, you could easily stretch out as you wished and provide quite an ocean of material. And of course, if you didn't get to something you had wished to play, there was always next week. So of course with this specialized event, it was a one time only experience, and I had to re-think and make the show something that just had to connect. A show that was fast, energetic, and filled with movement. There really wasn't the space for those musical peaks and valleys that I loved, and frankly it really wasn't appropriate and would have bordered on being self-indulgent. In fact, this new radio show taught me how to edit myself and again devise how to make an enjoyable program that still represented me while thinking of the audience as well. This show had to be personal and public.
With that, I was pleasantly surprised to have received a complimentary phone call during my show's second song, as well as one more later in the program. Both callers were kind and excited enough to share music suggestions they liked with me and that is what this station is all about. At its very best, WLHA and WSUM provide the framework for building a community where the shared love is music and everyone from DJs to listeners are all participants. It is a celebration of collaboration, conversation and communication and in the spirit of that, I did turn to Lisa for her expert advice concerning a song I had been thinking of playing but was having second thoughts. Now, Lisa has scoffed at me with my praise for her as the following is what she wrote to me afterwards:
Oh yes, my EXPERT advice
Scott: should I play a slow one or a fast one next?
Lisa: well, this one is slow so I think a fast one.
Yup, that is why I've made my millions in radio
Yes! It was expert advice!! Lisa showed me that the dialogue between a DJ and other DJs, the audience and the music itself is a continuous process. I had to think about what mood I was trying to establish. With a weekly three hour program, I had the time and space to make it whatever it needed to be. With a one time only 90 minute program during a celebratory weekend, I quickly realized that perhaps this is not the place for a series of stunning ballads and 12 minute prog rock epics. This weekend was a party and it needed to sound as such, especially with all of the transparency you are bound to hear on student radio, from dead air, to on air and technical mistakes, flubs and everything in between!
But most of all, having this year to share with Kelly, Sue, Lisa, Brian and Sandor filled me rapturously and I have been floating through the afterglow ever since I left the studios. Kelly wrote to me afterwards and expressed the following sentiments: "It was the high point of my year!!! I can't even tell you how high I still feel. Just walking on air with a big old smile on my face and no one knows why? :)"
Which leads me to perhaps the most seismic aspect of the whole weekend, the true gathering of a sense of being a part of something that is just bigger than one radio show. That I, and all of the other DJs from the past and the present, are all contributing to an on-going legacy.
What really rang loudly to me throughout the weekend, as I listened and participated, was not only how this event has only grown but understanding what WLHA has meant to generations of former UW Madison students. On the very first night, I listened to a woman named Ginger Alberts Goral, who just might be an age to be someone's Grandmother based upon a photo I saw. And yet, her bubbly voice sounded like she was no more than 19 yeas old. I heard another DJ from the 1970's era who mentioned that he once lived in Botkin House inside of the Tripp Hall dormitories and I instantly felt a wave of solidarity as that was the exact dorm I lived in for my four years. Before I left the station, I had a conversation with a man who went by the on-air handle of "Charlie Brown" in...1967, two years before I was born. If that didn't give me a true sense of history and legacy, then nothing else would have. And every instance that I felt a new connection to something that remains so beloved to me, my sense of connection only grew more powerful as well as humbling.
I truly hope the DJs of WSUM weren't irritated by this weekend and I hope that at least some of them were even listening in because unlike so many of us DJs from the past, we never had the sense that we were being heard at all...at least I didn't have that sense. Back then, I just crafted my weekly shows for myself and hopefully for whomever was out in the world and just happened upon my show, even if it was just one soul. But now, with WSUM, these DJs are more than aware that they are not only being heard but they indeed are being listened to. And that includes being listened to by other DJs, even ones from WLHA.
For instance, I count myself as a fan of the highly popular Saturday night program "The Heavy Petting Zoo," a completely un-ironic trip to the make out music of the 1930's-1950's, and a show which just recently celebrated its 9th year on the air and is hosted by the surprisingly youthful and honey voiced sounding Grandma Cyd. I am also a big fan of the brilliantly titled Monday night program "The Study Lounge" hosted by Petey, a DJ who strikes to the heart of my musical wheelhouse and has also inspired me (often) to head straight to either I-tunes or B-Side Records on State Street to capture some new music. And in fact, the full programming diversity of WSUM has far exceeded what I ever thought a student radio station could encompass, and that is precisely why WSUM is the best station in all of Madison, as far as I am concerned.
Soon, I will draft a letter to WSUM General Manager Dave Black and Station Manager Chali Pittman requesting that the station strongly consider making the Resurrection/Reunion weekends an annual event as it does provide a powerful linkage between the present and the past, all the while working in tandem to ensure the future of this wonderful radio station. And indeed that is what this entity is. Despite the changes in call letters, locations, technology and so on, it is all one station. And I believe that it will forever be a part of me and I hope that I am able to keep doing my small part in always being a part of it. When I walk around those studios, sit in that chair behind that amazing soundboard with the vistas of Lake Mendota in the distance, I am telling you, this was the vision in my head when I sat in those funky underground WLHA studios. What exists in reality is the radio station of my dreams.
Resurrection/Reunion weekend year three? I hope it happens and if it does, count me in and let's make it even bigger than ever!!!!
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