2 hours. 24 songs. And it all felt like two seconds...
It has been two days since I exited the real world radio airwaves of WSUM-FM, the so-called "Snake On the Lake" and celebrated student radio station of my alma mater, the University Of Wisconsin-Madison, and I am still basking in the brilliant afterglow of performing my first full fledged radio show in 22 years! As I have expressed to you several times in the past, during my college years I was a DJ at the student radio station, which then operated under the call letters of WLHA. Each week, on Saturday nights between 10 p.m.-1 a.m., I performed a three hour radio show devoted to playing my favorite music that ranged from "Beatles to Bauhaus," and as evidenced by the title of this posting, my four years as a disc jockey were nothing less than a childhood fantasy completely fulfilled. It was an experience that I will treasure for the remainder of my days on this Earth and for eons after that. It was an experience that I have also missed tremendously and have longed to be able to have the opportunity to be a DJ once again. This past weekend, that opportunity finally arrived.
Dear readers and listeners, I was so very blessed to have been able to have taken part in the "WLHA Resurrection/Reunion Weekend," an event during which the full programming of WSUM would morph into its former self via a collective of DJs from years and years past. I was first informed of this event through an e-mail by a former 'LHA associate, college friend and the one who gave me my first shot at life ON-AIR, Tobin Neis. I received my second announcement while driving around Madison and listening to 'SUM, when I heard an advertisement promoting this event in which former DJs would take part. After hearing that ad, I knew that there was absolutely no way conceivable that I was going to miss out on an event such as this one and I immediately began to gather information about what would take place and how I could take part, if possible. With endless gratitude to Kevin "Casey" Peckham, the keeper of the eternal flame of WLHA, I was able to make my grand return and I cannot express enough to you how much of a blast the experience of returning to radio was for me...although I will do my very best to try.
PART ONE: REWIND 1987-1991
As I have also expressed to you in the past, I became a DJ at the beginning of my Freshman year of college in 1987 and continued throughout nearly the entirety of my college career, which concluded with my graduation in 1991. During my tenure, I eventually ascended to the role of Music Director and for my Senior year, a turbulent stretch as the Station Manager. My desire to enter into a life in radio began during childhood with my intense love and endless fascination with the world on the other side of my radio speakers as I felt a kinship and almost devotional hero worship to Chicago morning AM DJs like the eternal Larry Lujack with his "Animal Stories" on WLS, FM shock jocks Steve Dahl and Garry Meier plus the myriad of voices and personalities that augmented the very music that would shape my life. Enchanted viewings of television's "WKRP In Cincinnati" fanned the radio flames vigorously as well.
On a family visit to the University Of Wisconsin-Madison campus at the dawn of my entrance into high school, I do have a vague memory of hearing a taste of the student radio station as my parents were flipping through the radio stations while driving around the city. Once I was accepted into the college four years later, my family made a return visit to the campus and I vividly remember making myself a mental note to be sure to investigate any future possibilities in radio, an exploration I held tightly in secrecy from my extremely strict parents as something like being a disc jockeys would easily be seen as a pursuit much too frivolous to concentrate upon especially when my main focus should be riveted upon my education. At this point in my specific origin story, things get to be a bit hazy...
Believe it or not, the actual beginnings of how I became a WLHA disc jockey are lost in the sands of time, very strange considering how seismic of a life event these four years were to me. I do remember somehow discovering the time and place of a meeting of potential new DJs with the then current 'LHA staff and management team, of which the aforementioned Tobin Neis was a part. I remember a crucial bit of radio advice Tobin imparted upon everyone in the room in the event they were awarded with a radio broadcast...absolutely NEVER say, "...And that was..." when announcing your playlist. Why, I do not know. But, I am telling you, I have never forgotten it and it was locked in my brain even this past weekend.
I remember having a brief interview with the top 'LHA brass and asking if I could actually play the full, nearly 18 minute version of Pink Floyd's "Dogs" from the "Animals" album on the air, a request to which they said, "Sure." I think I dissolved into a barrage of excited babbling at the sheer thought of being able to maybe play whatever songs I wanted to play. After being "hired" (as this was a volunteer position), I remember almost missing my very first show because I had been mistaken as to the actual date of when the station would officially begin broadcasting for the semester and I only made it just in the nick of time as the Station Manager just happened to spot me in a dining hall after a morning class! I remember meeting a young woman named Michelle (her last name completely escapes me) who hosted a local radio show on the now defunct Madison rock radio station WMAD FM entitled "Radio Free Madison," who also worked at WLHA as the Music Director, I believe. During my DJ era, the jockeys were asked to provide Michelle with their program's playlist each week. I performed my duty so diligently that I always wrote a "THANK YOU" to her for allowing me to be part of this radio station. In retrospect, I have this feeling that she was quite possibly either annoyed or even disturbed out by my continuous (or even relentless) gratitude. But I just wanted her to know that this was a time that I was not about to take for granted and my appreciation with being allowed to be included knew no bounds.
I wish that I had a collection of photographs from my DJ era to show you, to fully allow you to envision the location of where some of my fondest college memories took place. For your continuing education, the WLHA studios (such as they were) were housed in the deep dark bowels of the J.F. Friedrick Center, a UW campus extension hotel building held for conferences, and was located just a hair past the Lakeshore dormitories (where I resided for four years). To gain entrance into the station, you would ring a buzzer on the back door of the building, a sound that would alert the DJ on-air to quickly venture upstairs to open the door for you, that is unless you were part of radio management team and possessed a station key, as I did during my final two years.
Once you have found your way into the inner sanctum of WLHA, you would have found a.small, moldy, musty smelling space with ancient, soiled carpeting, the remains of a couch or tiny hide-a-bed, and tiles missing from the ceiling exposing a morass of wires. The tiny DJ booth featured two turntables, one microphone, a telephone and extremely archaic electronic equipment even for 1987's standards. At that time, the station did not own a CD player since the full sea change from vinyl to compact digital discs had not yet reached its full fruition, a time that was almost made complete by the time I graduated. The record library was housed in one room and was a disastrous ode to disorganization and creative alphabetizing. Items were often missing or long forgotten. Records were often being swiped and stolen by DJs. We broadcasted in FM mono with a booming voltage of one and a half watts of power, which made the act of actually hearing the station extremely difficult. It was a space that was seemingly held together by scotch tape, rubber bands, paper clips and a sheer force of will combined with a love of music and I could not have loved it more!
Being a part of student radio, whether as the listener or as the DJ, is a symbiotic experience unlike anything one could hope to have when listening to the radio, I think. For me, student radio is a reflection of a particular time and place for a very specific collective of individuals who are all trying to find their way and interpersonal connections through the world of college and the period of their late adolescence and early twenties all at the same time and with their voices and music as the glue to bind them together. As a listener, you had the opportunity to hear people just like you spinning the songs that were most meaningful to them, utilizing the music almost as signals to any and everyone possibly listening in search of connection and solidarity as well as enjoyment and entertainment.
As a DJ, and really speaking for myself, my first shows were completely self-indulgent...just as they should have been. I had to sow my wild oats, so to speak, by indulging myself in the euphoria of just being able to choose whatever music I wanted to play for three hours, regardless of trends or even the audience. Yes, I did indeed play that 18 minute Pink Floyd song, and happily so. I bombarded the airwaves with the very songs that commercial radio refused to play with unabashed defiance. Yet, once I sort of had that aspect of the DJ experience out of my system, I began to actually think seriously about what it would take to actually make a good radio show to listen to. I could still play those songs that commercial radio wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, but I could do it in a way that was considerably less of a bratty middle finger and much more as a dialogue between myself and anyone listening from their dorm room. I wanted the listener to enjoy what I was playing as much as I was and when I did have the bravery to speak on air, I hoped that I was a friendly, approachable and confidant enough voice that would be enjoyable to listen to as well. I hoped to provide the very musical information that commercial DJs tended not to deliver. I hoped that my speaking voice was one people wouldn't mind hearing, and I also knew that I really wanted the music to do the "talking" so my own voice wouldn't take up too much of your time. Mostly, I hoped that listeners could hear the fun that I was having and in turn, you would have fun too...if only you could hear us or even knew about us in the first place.
Even further, I began to think seriously about how a DJ had the potential to weave a certain spell over the listener. I began to think about how one song would or could lead into the next song, either through a theme or tempo or specific chords played or just through a certain indescribable mood the music conveyed. I guess that although this was radio, I began to think of my show as being akin to an album--a personal artistic statement from me to the listener, where the songs themselves spoke for me. This was necessary for me because the WLHA experience was also a way for a person like myself, who tended to avoid the collegiate party scene, an alternative way to connect with other people. And after piecing all of those elements together, that's when I realized that college radio could be absolutely anything a DJ wanted it to be and there was nearly no other radio that was like it at all. Nothing was dictated to me and therefore, I felt complete freedom. I felt so in my element that I finally felt invincible. If only that feeling could last forever...
By my Senior year, I have to admit that WLHA was beginning to show some considerable wear and tear on my spirit. Certainly, there was a bit of a strain with doing the radio show week after week when life was starting to rapidly move forwards from school to the real world. Figuring out whether I wanted to lead off the next show with either XTC or The Godfathers didn't seem to carry the same amount of urgency as wondering what job I was going to have to have upon graduation. Additionally, and most importantly, I had fallen in love with the girl who would one day marry me and we were planning to live together once our diplomas were in hand, a decision which then led to an extremely turbulent and somewhat estranged few years between myself and my parents.
So, while I retained my duties as Music Director and Station Manager, I relinquished my DJ slot for my final semester at school. But even the duties I retained for that final year carried much more weight than I had anticipated or even desired. You see, WLHA was in serious trouble with the Lakeshore Halls Association (that's the "L.H.A." of the call letters) due to a severe mismanagement of funds to which I have had some ideas but have NEVER known any of the full details. The grown-ups wanted to pull the plug and it was up to me and a few DJs to attend a collection of meetings to ensure that the worst did not happen. As serious as it all was, I did feel my mind wandering. Not because I didn't care. Quite the contrary, I cared more than anything even though I felt to be way out of my depth. The problem was that I did not get involved with WLHA to deal with "boardroom" stresses. I joined WLHA for music and music alone. Unfortunately, that was not to be as the music was not enough to keep WLHA alive.
WLHA finally reached its demise in 1993 when WMAD made its return to the airwaves to capitalize upon the sonic boom of the alternative music scene and cited the student station for FCC violations. Even though I was two years out of college, I remained in Madison and even worked on campus, so I still felt strong ties to the school I loved so dearly It saddened me that a school with a student body population of 40,000 students did not have a radio station for its very own anymore and it seemed as if that dream has finally been extinguished. If I had been able to singlehandedly create a new station for the students, I would have done so in a heartbeat. But I was not able and I just didn't even begin to know how...
PART TWO: THE REBIRTH AND THE FIRST RETURN
As the proverbial phoenix rose from the ashes, so did WLHA. In 1996, WLHA was reborn as the new student radio station WSUM. Where 'LHA as I knew it seemed to function almost as a version of pirate radio, the first incarnation of WSUM was even further off the grid as it operated solely as an internet station. When I first heard the station in this form, it was as if they were broadcasting from a submarine miles upon miles beneath the sea. I was thrilled that the students were able to have a radio station again but I was still pulling for them to break out of obscurity and take the airwaves with a vengeance.
On February 22, 2002, that day finally arrived as WSUM, complete with a new FCC license and newly constructed radio tower, make a gigantic return to terrestrial broadcasting and oh what a joyous time that was to be able to hear these college students as clear as a bell no matter where I was in the city. The free local weekly newspaper the Isthmus wrote a lovely profile on the new station, to which I responded with a letter to the Editor expressing my happiness with the piece and the station itself. My letter was printed and was seen by the powers that be at WSUM and before I knew it, I was invited to see the new station, which was then housed on State Street directly above Urban Outfitters, and participate in an on-air interview during which I would be asked about my DJ era. What a pleasure it was to see the radio station in the way that it should have been during my time and blessedly so for the current student's time. Up to the minute and state of the art technology abound and a sense of professionalism that just didn't really exist during my time combined with their obvious enthusiasm was supremely evident and it just made my heart sing. (I have to admit that I just HATED how they referred to me as "Sir." I was just 33 at the time and I couldn't have looked to be that old already, did I? It was like a knife to the heart, I tell you!) The interview went very well and the DJs even allowed me to play a quick four song set of music before I had to dash away and head to work.
I felt so content as I knew that, at long last, the students of UW-Madison would have and operate the radio station they so richly deserved. But, I have to say that after placing those headphones over my ears, speaking into that microphone and spinning those songs again primal feelings I had stored within my DNA about radio and my past DJ life were profoundly stirred and I hoped that maybe one day I could revisit in an een more significant fashion...
PART THREE: JULY 14, 2013-SAVAGE SCOTT IS BACK ON THE AIR
And now, we find ourselves in 2013, and I will never cease to amaze me with how much things can change.
Near the epicenter of the UW campus and directly across the street from the towering Southeastern campus dormitories, there used to be a slightly seedy stone slab configuration called University Square. This location was home to a convenience store called Discount Den. A highly popular ice cream establishment called the Chocolate Shoppe. There was the Paisan's Italilan restaurant, a Post Office hub, Bob's Copy Shop and even a four screen movie theater, where I spent a tremendous amount of time during college and afterwards seeing midnight showings of Alan Parker's "Pink Floyd: The Wall" (1982), hit commercial films like John Hughes' "Uncle Buck" (1989), controversial features from Spike Lee, Ridley Scott's "Thelma And Louise" (1991) and I even crossed a picket line to see Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation Of Christ" (1989). And truth be told, I also (and willingly) saw terrible movies like..."K-9" (1989). For those of you still paying attention, University Square was also an early home to the satirical newspaper The Onion, which was created in Madison and had an office space next to the shady video game arcade.
Since those days, University Square as I knew it has been relegated to the sands of time and memory as it was demolished, as well as the Southeast dormitory Ogg Hall (the very dorm in which I spent my first week on campus as part of a university Minority Outreach program). In its place, a gargantuan sized and ritzy high rise has been erected which houses luxurious student apartments, a coffee shop, grocery store, underground parking, University offices and now...the new, official home of WSUM-FM student radio.
Once I had been fully informed to the happenings of the WLHA Resurrection/Reunion weekend, and had also been offered a two hour slot to perform as a DJ once again on the early morning of Sunday, July 14th, I arrived to the WSUM studios to wait for the aforementioned Kevin "Casey" Peckham to greet me and bring me inside. As I sat outside, gazing around at how much the campus had changed, I looked and saw two gentlemen-one was shorter and bespectacled while the other was taller with graying hair-approaching me in the distance.
I am telling you, it was the studio radio station of my dreams made real with large glass doors adorned with the station's call letters which opened up into an actual office space with a reception desk, couch, nearby restroom facility and unlike my era, an actual mission statement.
As Lee performed his show, I exited the main studio to walk around some more and that was when I had the pleasure to meet Eric Wiig, a new student DJ who hosts his weekly program "Wiggy's Audio Dreamsicle" directly from his laptop over the airwaves! He told me about his show and also informed me that he is currently in the process of alphabetizing and even digitizing all of the old vinyl albums from the WLHA era. "Do you wanna see the records?" he asked. ABSOLUTELY!!!
Eric brought me into a room which held the shelves and vault of the old WLHA vinyl albums, a shocking discovery as I felt those albums would have been lost to the four winds after over twenty years and the student station ending and beginning and shifting locations over and again.
"You guys really wrote all over the albums back then!" he exclaimed.
"Yes! Because we wanted to discourage the staff from stealing the albums!" I explained.
"You guys has whole conversations on those albums!" laughed Eric.
"Yes, we really did!"
Eric then spoke of his intense love for Fishbone and how he felt that their 1991 album "The Reality Of My Surroundings" was one of the very best albums of the '90s--an endorsement to which I completely agreed. I told him that very album was released just before I had graduated and then, he took me back to the record library to show me something...
And then, after all of that, it was finally time to go on the air. One thing to understand about being a DJ in my era is that there were no producers or engineers to assist you. it was you and you alone and if something went wrong, it was completely sink or swim time--the hallmark of college radio as it is the exact time to make a fool of yourself on the air as you try to find your way. I set myself up in the studio, grabbed the headphones, received a crash course in how all of the studio technology worked and instructions to play a PSA advertisement and a station ID logo during the show. I was introduced via an audio fanfare created by Casey and with a push of a button, Paul McCartney and Wings' "Venus And Mars" began to play.
While I did have a couple of on air hiccups that Eric so graciously helped me navigate, performing a full show again was nothing less than euphoric as well as eye opening. During my era, our times of programming were fairly limited where WSUM's programming is essentially 24/7 so time constraints are much stricter than in years past. With my old show, I could let things go as long as I wished because I was the final show of the programming day. But not at this time on a Sunday morning. I had two hours to play whatever I wanted and two hours only. I realized quickly that a seven minute song really does indeed last for seven minutes (the equivalent of possibly three shorter songs) and I couldn't stretch time, so to speak. But, I found my groove, played the requests I had promised others I would play and I even was able to pay tribute to my beloved college best friend and on-air co-host for one year, the inimitable "Cruisin' Susan."
By the time the final strains of R.E.M.'s "Electrolite" played through, my return to the radio was complete and while checking my Facebook page in the studio, I realized that my days of wondering if I was being heard at all were long over as friends as far away as Texas could hear the show via on-line streaming, something that did not exist during my DJ days in any form whatsoever. I was beaming, charged, jazzed and buzzed. I could have performed for six more hours if they needed me too and I expressed as much to Eric as I had packed up and was ready to make my exit.
"Well, you know... you could have your own show," he said.
"Huh?" I asked, very confused. "My own show? But this is student radio and I am clearly not a student anymore."
"You see, WSUM is a non-profit organization and to help with funding, we perform community outreach work and giving a member of the community their own radio show fulfills that," he explained. "All you would really have to do is to take the training sometime this summer and in the fall, you could have your own show again."
My own radio show, all over again? My own show!!! Now, that would be something wouldn't it. To play my favorite music. To be heard in ways I never had been before. The suggestion was extremely tempting. But as I drove home and thought about it, I decided that despite Eric's generous suggestion, I was content to know that I had my time. I had my four years in radio and now, WSUM is designed solely for the student radio dreamers of today. It is their time now and they should have this beautiful station. And also this time, they should run with it as best and as fearlessly as they are able, for it will NEVER be like this time ever again. Certainly, if there is another special event like the Resurrection/Reunion weekend again, COUNT ME IN and I expressed as much to Casey.
But for now...WSUM is for them to create and for all of us to listen.
So what 24 songs did I play during my 2 hours? Stay tuned...
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