It was mid-to-late October, and as is typical for St. Louis, the first nip of winter was in the air. However, this was October, 1982, and it was memorable for two reasons: First, the St. Louis Cardinals had just won the World Series after a 15 year drought. Second, I just landed my first radio gig.
Actually, I learned about landing the job while the Cardinals were battling the Milwaukee Brewers during the fall classic. I remember the Broadcast Center calling to tell me that they had some very good news. They asked me to come to the school and talk with their placement director as soon as possible. I, of course, obliged.
When I arrived, the placement director (for the life of me, I can't remember his name...) asked me, "how does Florida sound?". I think I responded by saying something like, "awesome". He told that he played my air-check for Jim Allen, the Program Director for 'Fish Radio' in Niceville, Florida.
In my subsequent phone call, Allen came right out and told me that the station wanted someone who could do both the evening air-shift and sell advertising time during the day. He told me that Fish Radio (WFSH) was a stand-alone AM station with 'block' formatting. This meant that listeners could hear the formats of Country, Big Bands or Top-40. It all depended on what time the listener would tune in.
Fish's format block for the 7PM-Midnight shift was Top-40 and Allen asked if I'd be interested doing it. Of course I would. I accepted his job offer and began working on November 1st.
One can make the journey from St. Louis to northwest Florida in less than a day if he or she really leadfoots it. But time was on my side. I decided to visit my brother Tim while making an overnight stop in Nashville, Tennessee. After an enjoyable reunion with Tim (These have been far too rare.), I drove the rest of the way. When I entered Florala, Alabama, I knew I was close. At last, I crossed the Florida border and spotted a huge billboard with the following message: "Welcome to the Emerald Coast..Florida's Best Kept Secret".
And the marketers using this description in their advertising strategy were not exaggerating, not in the least. As it turned out, Niceville was less than a 15 minute drive to Fort Walton Beach and Destin, places where one could find the most pristine, snowy white beaches complemented with alluring gulf shore waters in various shades of turquoise, aqua and blue.
(Recently, some of this idyllic quality to the area's beaches has been lost because of two factors:
- The tourism industry has been relatively late to capitalize on the area's beauty. Back in the early 80's, college spring breakers converged on other party locales, such as Daytona and Fort Lauderdale.
- Last year, the British Petroleum oil spill left a devastating and catastrophic mark on the entire Gulf region, including the Fort Walton Beach, Destin and Niceville area.)
Even though Niceville was physically just a hop, skip and a jump away from all this splendor, culturally, however, it was a world away. It was off the beaten path. Few, if any, tourists visited Niceville. (Although it did provide excellent sunning and fishing with access to the Choctawhatchee Bay.) It was swampy, bayou country that offered nearly 100 percent daily humidity during the summer. The county courthouse flew a Confederate battle flag...and local residents referred to the area as 'L.A.'...lower Alabama.
'Fish Radio' targeted this Niceville demographic of rednecks, less prosperous retirees and Air Force military personnel. Yes, I almost forgot to mention that Niceville and the entire 'Emerald Coast' are completely surrounded by Eglin Air Force Base...which is nearly as large some U.S. states in area. Niceville had many radio choices with at least a dozen stations beaming in from Fort Walton Beach, Pensacola (home to a great rock station, TK-101!) and Panama City. But, 'the Fish' was THE Niceville station.
On my first day, Jim Allen handed me a pile of roughly three dozen 45 records which appeared as if he had just bought from the record store just before my arrival. He told me to 'mix these up along with a few songs from their 'oldies' collection. And he added," don't forget to play the news and the legal I.D. at the top of the hour...and of course,the commercials on the log!" That was the extent of my prep.
I can still remember the first song I played. I openend the mike, and nervously said something like, "hello ladies and gentlemen. I'm Joel Wells and here's the Steve Miller Band with Abracadabra, here on the Fish." (Those last four words became somewhat of a crutch for me as I recall.)
This was 1982, and MTV had pretty much become mainstream. Video hadn't really killed the radio star, but it definitely had his or her attention. Our playlist basically consisted of tracks that wer hit videos at the time. I believe the number one hit at the time was "Up Where We Belong" by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, which, of course, we played into the ground. Another monster hit of the time was Mellencamp's "Jack and Diane."
And lest we forget, this nauseating hit from Toni Basil:
This lasted until March 1983, until 'Fish Radio' experienced, shall we say, an inside revolt.
I seems the morning guy, who played country during his show, had convinced the station manager to change to an all-country format and to hire his son-in-law, Gary Gray, as the new PD. Gray came in from WPAP of Panama City, which he told me often was a reporting station for the now departed Radio & Records magazine. (I wasn't sure of the significance of this at the time, but I knew it had to be good since Gray, more or less wore it as a badge of honor.)
Nonetheless, Gray seemed to take to me as I was able to hang on to my job. Allen, they guy who originally hired me and the midday guy who played Big Band music didn't fare quite so well. They got gassed.
I was relieved to still have a job, but I soon had to get acclamated to the fact that I was required to play Country music. Since I grew up in St. Louis, my only real knowledge of the genre didn't extend much beyond Glen Campbell, Hee Haw and Porter Waggoner, all of whom I knew from watching television. Gray told me to act as if I had been playing country all my life and to have fun with it. It worked. As a matter of fact I actually began to acquire a taste for it.
The following are some of the country songs I remember playing:
1. Johnny Lee/Cherokee Fiddle
2. Waylon & Willie/Just to Satisfy You
and 3. Shelly West/Jose Cuervo
but by June of 83, it seemed that that there was a lot inside politics going within the station...and with the station itself and town merchants. It seemed my meager commission and pay checks were beginning to bounce. Gary Gray just suddenly didn't show up for work one day with no explanation. I later discovered that he got busted for dealing drugs. I decided it was time for me to exit. I quit WFSH, but decided to stay in the area and party my ass off for about a month. I had a girlfriend who was gracious enough to late me stay at her place. I realize that it wasn't one of my most responsible moments, but then again I was 25, single and living near the beach.
Coming up: Part III, Back on Track, Oklahoma and Culture Shock
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