-
This Mother F**ker Is Still Shaking!
November 19, 2013
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. -
Voicetracking a part of or s a whole air shift has become the norm for our business. Ah yes, no mistakes, perfect breaks ... all well and good, but I do miss those live 24-hour days when the possibilities of verbal mishaps could turn into future content for a radio bloopers reel. Many of us, at one time or another, have said or done something worthy of the Blunder's Hall of Fame. I figured you would get a laugh at the misadventures of some of our fellow broadcasters, but first I will start with one of my less than stellar moments.
One of my most embarrassing moments was the night I shouted, "This mother f**ker is still shaking" during a San Francisco earthquake on an open microphone, during someone else's show! It happened on a Saturday night after a week of earthquakes and reminders of how to protect ourselves during one. Our station and the towers were on a service road adjacent to the Bay Bridge. It was 6:32p during Dan Shannon's show. Prince, "I Wanna Be Your Lover" was playing and I was asking Dan if he was worried about being on the air during a quake with the possibility of the towers falling on the station. He told me engineering had told him the towers were constructed in a way for that not to happen. I looked him in the eye and asked when was the last time this theory had been tested and as his eyes widened and jaw dropped, the cart racks started shaking and stuff was falling on the floor. I was pacing our large on-air studio, and Dan was just sitting at the board. It was a terrifying moment, I was freaking out, and what seemed like an eternity only lasted a few seconds.
When the rumbling abruptly stopped, I could hear myself saying, "This mother f**ker is still shaking." Dan immediately looked down at the board and then back at me and said, "The mic was on." Already calculating problems, I immediately said, "According to the FCC, the person on the board is responsible for what goes out over the air." He just looked at me and I realized my days in the Bay Area might be over. Worse, my shift started at 7p and I was hoping nobody had heard my panicked cursing. Just in case, I called my PD and let him know what had happened. He soothed my fears and I got through my show.
The overnight guy was on time for his shift and we talked a bit, as I was heading for the back door, he shouted, "By the way, is anything still shaking?" You have to realize throughout my shift I had answered every request line to see if anyone had heard what I said and with him saying those words, I felt weak in the knees. The weekend was sleepless and Monday came too quickly. The PD had me come in prior to my shift and listen to the logger recording of the incident. Sitting in his office I thought to myself, I was at the back of the studio, I could not have been that loud. Boy was I wrong, what I said pegged into the red, way over top of the song. It took several months to get over what happened. Then one night talking to a lady on the request line she asked "By the way, a few months ago my husband and I were driving back from Tahoe and heard someone cursing about the earthquake, what was that all about?" The very consoling PD who kept me from losing my job and would become instrumental in my radio career was none other than "The Doctor," Jerry Boulding.
Here are some awkward situations other personalities shared:
John Quinn, Public Affairs Marketing Exec ABC 7, Media Consultant, International Affairs, Nonprofit
I was being very naughty on the floor with the all-night jockette. I was caught by the GM as he passed by the studio window. Henceforce, he never looked in the studio again. LOL
Jeff Hunter, PD, 98.3 KDAR
It was early on my career in my home town of Rochester NY. I was doing 7p-midnight on WROC-A, a "Good Times Music" format. It was coming to the end of my air shift when the request line was blinking, so on the air I took the call, and the person on the air just screamed "F##k you." I just froze for a moment like a deer in headlights and then quickly shut the phone and my mic off the air and went into commercials. I was so upset by this I couldn't sleep that nigh, worried I was going to get fired. The next day I went into my PD's office and told him that something happened last night. And he said, "I know, someone swore on the air." I asked, "How do you know that?" and he said, "Another jock called me." So, at that point I thought he was going to fire me. "No," he said, "but you obviously learned an important lesson." I said, "Yyea, screen the calls before you put them on the air." And that lesson was ingrained in mind forever.
Jack Hineritz, News Director at Cumulus Media
Anchoring morning drive news block on KRLD/Dallas in 1999, the lead story was about the Cowboys Darryl Johnston's career-ending injury. The editor included the phrase "bulging disk" in the copy several times; the last time it came out of my mouth, "bulging dick." I then tossed it to my co-anchor, who had to cut to commercial. It was only a 50KW blowtorch of a radio station.
Bob Johnson, Broadcast Sales Consultant
The very first words I ever uttered on public airwaves -- circa 1960 -- were a live intro to a Sunday morning church service on my hometown (Ashland, OH) 250-watt AM outlet. It went like this, "Ladies and Gentlemen, WATG now joins this week's service at the Trinity Lutheran Church, located at the corner of Third and Orange Streets. Here with this week's message is Pastor Robert Kinsey." Because I was brand new, the station manager was standing behind me, patching in the remote hookup. When no sound emanated from the church, he looked at me with a question in his eyes, said "What's the matter?" to which I replied, "I don't know but I'm not getting a G** D*** thing." And of course, I hadn't TURNED OFF THE MIC!! Welcome to live radio!
Melissa Luke, Professional Speaker
I was speaking in front of 200 people in a four-hour training session. I put them on task with something so I could go to the bathroom and jump on a quick radio interview. The host asked where I was, and I told him I was in Scottsdale, AZ training some of the most boring people I had ever encountered in personal history. I returned back to the conference room to find 200 people looking at me in horror. I asked what was wrong with them. No one said a word for what seemed like an eternity. Finally someone said, "Um ...your mic was on while you were in the bathroom and on the radio show. "
Dan Sherman, Owner, Sherman Productions / Journalist Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
I had a special moment only once in 40 years; it was as I was turning on the mic to say, "Time for the 9a news." And for the umpteenth time, when I turned on the mic it didn't light up to confirm it was on. I'd been bugging the engineer to fix in for weeks. With a couple of seconds to air I punched the mic button and nothing happened. To which I responded, "F##k you" loud and clear. Following the newscast, the GM manager met me outside the studio door. She said, "I want to hear an apology now, and then I don't want to hear anything more about this." I apologized on-air. When the station manager discovered what had happened he went over the GM's head and suspended me for a day without pay. He's still a jerk, but I learned my lesson.
Chisha Mubambe
The power had gone out while I was talking on the radio at a station I worked for in 2011, so I forgot to switch off the mic and was busy talking to my girlfriend on the phone about how hot and heavy the previous night was! By the time I'd realized the mic was on, the power was back and people around the city knew what position was the last she and I had performed! The studio phone lines didn't stop flashing after that.
-
-