August 12, 2025 • 38 mins
This week on Wired Together, we welcome legendary South Hill radio personality Greg Thrift — proof that even in an age of automation, personality still wins.
From his first day behind the mic to the big tech shifts that changed radio forever, Greg shares laugh-out-loud stories, behind-the-scenes memories, and a few truths about keeping community connection alive in a digital world.
Whether you remember the days of carts and turntables or you’ve only known streaming and smartphones, you’ll love this mix of nostalgia, humor, and heart.
🎧 Wired Together is produced by WinternetWeb Technologies, a family-run web design and tech studio based in Bracey, Virginia.
💻 Visit us at winternetweb.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_05 (00:05):
Alright, welcome again to uh WonderNet Web's uh
uh Wire Together.
SPEAKER_02 (00:11):
Yes, today was uh gonna be a special day.
We uh we kind of gave you all ateaser last week, but we have
Greg Thrift with us as a gueststar.
And um maybe our AI co-host canintroduce him, and then I'm sure
(00:31):
Greg can introduce himself aswell.
But um Alright, uh can youintroduce Greg Thrift?
unknown (00:38):
Absolutely, I'd be happy to.
SPEAKER_00 (00:40):
So everyone, I'm privileged to introduce our
human guest host, uh GregThrift.
Greg's a long time voice inSouth Hill.
He's been a favorite MC at localevents for years.
He's got that great radio energyand plenty of movies we're
doing.
So we're lucky to have him ontoday.
SPEAKER_01 (01:04):
All right, he said that just like I wrote it.
Right, that's right, exactly.
He does that, it's weird.
I love that guy.
So, how is everybody?
SPEAKER_02 (01:16):
Uh it's it's been a it's been a busy week.
We got to start a school, andI'm sure any families and family
businesses can certainlyunderstand that struggle.
SPEAKER_05 (01:24):
Yeah, many prayers to everybody as kids start back.
SPEAKER_01 (01:28):
I'm a little nervous.
This is only my second podcastever.
SPEAKER_05 (01:31):
Oh, wow.
I didn't know you hadn't onebefore that.
That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01 (01:34):
Well, I well, I was a rookie at that.
Hermie Sadler had me do one forhim.
This has been uh a couple ofyears ago.
Oh wow.
All this is all this technologyis very small beans.
All this technology is very youyou have you have microphones in
here that cost more than myfirst car.
SPEAKER_05 (01:57):
So uh you know, you want to get it started?
And what you're talking about,you know, the early days and how
new this has all been.
So um, you know, one thing wetalk about is tech and old and
new.
So um what was it like in thebeginning?
SPEAKER_01 (02:11):
Uh in radio?
When I was a kid, that there wasa there was a gentleman on the
radio in South Hill, his namewas Barry Callis.
And and I really, really lookedup to him.
He has one of those great radiovoices, but I never had or never
will have.
Oh, he did.
Great voice.
And uh he went on to work inRichmond.
But I remember as a as a kid,like in sixth, seventh, eighth
(02:33):
grade, whatever, listening tohim on the radio and thought,
what a cool job that that wouldbe.
Well, uh, I graduated highschool and I was going to be a
uh an elementary school teacher.
And so I was going to college toto be an elementary school
teacher and uh was workingpart-time at a radio station uh
down in Henderson, NorthCarolina, in order to pay for
(02:55):
college.
And a uh uh full-time slotopened up at the station, and
the manager came to me and hesaid, you know, you're not
horrible at this.
You can do one or two things.
Thanks for that vote, right?
You you can you can do one ortwo things.
You can drop out of school andstarve to death in radio, or you
can stay uh in school and starveto death as a teacher.
(03:17):
So uh I I left school and and Ialways regret that.
I always regret that I left.
But uh I got into radio and andkind of over the years on and
off was in it for the next 35,40 years.
Right.
That is really good.
I've never heard that.
SPEAKER_02 (03:30):
No, I haven't heard it part either.
SPEAKER_01 (03:32):
It was it was it was crazy, but the the business is
so different.
When I started my first thatfirst station was a little AM
station down in Henderson, theyhad an FM station too, which was
a big, huge FM station, but itplayed country.
I wasn't in I wasn't interestedin that.
Uh the AM station was uh the Big89, the Rock of Henderson.
(03:54):
It was a rock station, and theyhad really, really great, great
people.
So I had some wonderful,wonderful teachers.
One of them was a guy named BillStainbach.
On the area went by Bill Thomas.
He left there and went toBirmingham, Alabama.
So he went from Henderson, got ajob in in Birmingham, Alabama,
and he was the Billboardmagazine Southeast DJ of the
(04:14):
Year.
Oh wow! He was really, really,really good.
So uh I was I was blessed inthose early days to have been
around some people that reallyknew what they were doing and
knew how to do it, and whatlittle bit of that rubbed off on
me that kept me in the business,but uh uh I'm I'm not enough to
(04:35):
turn on their microphone, butthat they really were but I was
fortunate in that way, but itwas also different, of course.
Back then we were using 45s.
SPEAKER_03 (04:43):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (04:44):
And I mean now it's all it's all digital and
everything is recorded, but uhyou would have to place the the
the 45 on the turntable, takethe needle and put it on the
beginning of the record, andthen you would have to hit it
just right.
You would have to move it backand forth with your finger until
the sound hit the needle, andthen you would stop and you
would back it up a quarter of aturn.
(05:06):
That way, when you started theturntable, it had gotten up
enough speed before the needlehit the hit the actual sound on
the record, right?
Or else it would start likethis.
And so that that but all thosethings are so different.
They had cart machines, whichyou're familiar with, I guess.
But interesting enough, that thethe that first FM station was a
(05:26):
country station, and they hadthe first automation system I'd
ever seen.
It was a huge computer, and itprobably would have taken up the
biggest part of that wall.
SPEAKER_03 (05:37):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (05:38):
Um, and there there were big round reel-to-reel
tapes.
And the uh you they had aservice from a company that
would send these big reels oftapes, and they would have the
different DJs on those tapes andthe different hours you know, on
the tape.
You had to change the tapes.
So my first job was going in onSaturday mornings and changing
(05:59):
the tapes on the automotivemachine, and uh then on Sunday I
took the remote equipment outand uh set up for three
different church services.
We had three different churches,and we did remotes from those.
So my first job was was changingtapes and and uh doing church
services.
But when when the when the jobopened up uh to be on the air,
(06:22):
literally, I had to go in a roomevery day for two weeks off the
air and do a radio show thatnobody ever heard.
You had you had to do the showand they would they would
evaluate and record it and theywould critique critique your
show.
And uh some of it was brutal.
Some of the show was beautiful,brutal, and some of the critique
(06:44):
was really, really brutal.
I thought you were critique,yeah.
But it was it was it was it wasit was fun.
Um I I I don't I don't remembermy my first day on the air.
I I I don't remember that I'mnot even exactly sure what what
the first uh what the first daywas.
I I know it was in the summerand for some reason I'm I was
(07:06):
thinking it was it was lateAugust and I may be able to go
back into it.
But back in the day, you had toactually have a license to be on
the air.
And I went to um while I was incollege trying to get a job at
the station, you had to go toNorfolk to the FAA testing site,
take a test.
I bought a study guide at thecollege bookstore for the FAA
(07:30):
license.
That's so cool.
And uh and looked up and passedthe darn thing.
And and I say that looked upbecause literally I I got a
license to operate a radiostation and had never been
inside one.
SPEAKER_02 (07:42):
There you go.
SPEAKER_01 (07:42):
I had never sat in the board, but I was licensed to
do it.
Now uh you don't even have tohave a license.
Right.
But they changed that rule youknow some time ago.
SPEAKER_05 (07:51):
Just be able to speak.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:53):
Basically, if they like you and they don't think
you're gonna steal stuff fromthem, they'll give you a job.
That's most places though, isn'tit?
Exactly.
But it's uh all all of that ishas changed.
But so many, I've been blessedto work over the years with with
so many fun people and so manytalented people that not only
that at that first station downin Henderson, but uh I worked at
(08:14):
stations in Rocky Mount, NorthCarolina.
I worked at stations obviouslyup here in Henderson.
I worked for a station inBurlington, North Carolina,
several different places.
That business, you you you move,you you go from place to place,
and uh, you know, sometime it'sbecause you want to move, and
sometime it's because managementwants you to move.
Yes, right.
SPEAKER_02 (08:36):
Volunteed.
SPEAKER_01 (08:37):
I've been on the receiving end of both of those.
But uh, you know what?
I mean, anytime I've I've everbeen asked to uh to disassociate
myself, uh let's just say it hasalways led to bigger and better
things.
So anybody out there, if if youif you if you've ever been
fired, you probably know thatsomething better came along.
Oh right.
And so if if anybody out there,if they ever fire you, just look
(08:59):
at it, it's it's it's a betteropportunity coming because for
me it always was.
Right.
Right.
SPEAKER_05 (09:03):
Sometimes that door slammed shut on purpose.
SPEAKER_01 (09:06):
Absolutely, and uh, you know, the Lord upstairs is
is looking out for you, right?
That's right.
We we were we were talking aboutyou know funny things that had
happened in in in broadcastingover the years, and uh one of
the funniest is the greatChristmas Frisbee disaster.
SPEAKER_05 (09:23):
Christmas Frisbee?
I feel like that's a title.
SPEAKER_01 (09:28):
I left W H N C and I had had gone to another station
and I'd come back to Hendersonand I was working at the other
station in Henderson, which wasW I Z.
There were two stations inHenderson, and still are, as a
matter of fact.
But uh but I think well I thinkH N C is actually gone, so
there's only W-I-Z-S now.
I was working at W-I-Z-S and uhI was doing mornings and we came
(09:51):
up with an idea.
It was it was Christmas time,and we went to some of our
advertisers and got prizes.
And we went to the town towncouncil in in Henderson.
You remember the turkey dropfrom WKR?
SPEAKER_05 (10:05):
I can't help but think about the turkey drop.
SPEAKER_01 (10:09):
This is so similar, it's it it's not and and if if
if you don't believe me, you canask Mike Brooks, who works at
98.4.
I know his voice.
He was there.
He he was there.
I gave Mike Brooks his first jobon radio down at WICS.
But anyway, we we went to thetown council and we said, here's
what we want to do.
We want to go to the top ofVance Furniture.
(10:30):
That is that's a five-storybuilding in downtown Henderson,
which was the tallest buildingin Henderson.
Still still is, I guess.
Um but uh we went to the towncouncil and we said, look, we
want to we want to go rightbefore Christmas, we want to you
know promote some of ouradvertising, we're gonna do a
remote from the top of VanceFurniture, and we're gonna throw
frisbees off the roof.
(10:51):
And under the frisbees, we willhave prizes.
And you know, people can catchthese and turn the prizes in.
SPEAKER_05 (10:58):
This is a great idea.
SPEAKER_01 (11:03):
What can happen?
So we go there and we I Iprobably shouldn't say this.
We we we we we had a we had ayoung man that was working there
uh as almost like an intern.
He was a part-time guy.
His last name was Norwood.
I won't give his first name.
Mr.
Uh Mr.
Norwoody.
And they were they were probablyin there, he and his twin
brother uh both worked there.
(11:25):
And and the reason I'm I'mdisguising his his his first
name is because that morning hemay or may not have imbibed some
illicit uh substances when hegot there because he was a great
big kid and red hair and hedressed up as Santa Claus.
Well, this was a big deal.
We uh we we talked the firedepartment into bringing him
(11:47):
down Main Street, he's dressedup as Santa Claus in their
bucket truck, and they raise himto the top of Vance furniture in
this fire truck, and here's thisNorwood kid, and he's dressed up
as an hour of his mind, and hesaid he when when when he clears
(12:08):
that the front of that buildingand I see him, I know we're in
trouble.
We're in big trouble.
So anyway, so Santa Claus getsup there on the roof, and uh
we've got all these you knowboxes, cardboard boxes filled
with frisbees.
Now, granted, one of them Ithink I think it had$250,
certificate for$250 cash on it.
(12:30):
It may have been$500, but wewere so the station was so broke
back then, it probably was too,it might have been$100, I don't
remember.
SPEAKER_02 (12:36):
Couldn't have been money.
SPEAKER_01 (12:37):
But there was some currency attached to one of
these frisbees out of the fourdozen we were gonna throw.
Most of them were for a sausagebiscuit.
Or an oil change.
Right.
And I mean keep in mind backthen, this is probably 1980,
(12:58):
maybe.
So, you know, an old change wasprobably 12 bucks, who knows?
So anyway, but there weresausage biscuits and oil changes
and you know, tire rotations orsomething.
Anyway, um, but one of them hada decent prize under it, and we
started throwing these frisbeesoff the building.
Unbeknownst to us, down thatstreet there's an updraft.
(13:21):
And so the frisbees would wouldwould sail out across the
street.
Now, now we're looking down andthe street, there's a mass of
people.
Huge.
SPEAKER_05 (13:32):
Huge.
SPEAKER_01 (13:32):
Oh, yeah, we promoted this on the airbag.
I mean, you you you couldn'twalk down there.
They had to block off.
That's why we had to get thetown council approval, because
they had to block Main Street,which was Glenn Street, and you
know, there were masses ofpeople, and we're throwing these
frisbees and they're comingright back and hitting Mr.
Norwood in the face, and thensliding down sliding down the
(13:54):
front of Vance FurnitureCompany.
They had just put up a brand newcloth hunting over the front
door.
People were climbing on that andpulling that off the building.
Uh some of them did manage toactually go across the street.
Now, there was a little dineracross the street, and and Tommy
Haithcock's sister-in-law, uh,Tommy Haiticock's a friend of
(14:17):
mine management, hissister-in-law, Norman
Haithcock's wife, ran thatdiner.
And everybody named her BoogerBear.
SPEAKER_03 (14:23):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (14:24):
Well, Booger Bear's diner was across the road.
Well, some landed, and she had alittle low one-story building,
it landed on the roof of thatbuilding.
People were crawling up the sideof the building that broke the
gas line on the side of herbuilding to get to the top.
You know, it was but these whenthese things did make it down to
the street, there were you know17, 18-year-old kids knocking
(14:45):
over 75-year-old old ladies toget a frisbee.
Get a biscuit.
For a biscuit.
Exactly.
Anyway, that uh but that thatthat did not that did not go
over uh quite a bit.
SPEAKER_05 (14:56):
Cool on paper, then it was a great idea.
SPEAKER_02 (15:01):
It read well.
SPEAKER_05 (15:02):
I mean, they talked about it forever.
SPEAKER_01 (15:04):
Oh, yeah.
As a matter of fact, this istrue story.
My wife and I went down toHenderson to buy a new sofa and
and chair for our living room,and we actually went to Vance
Furniture Company and we'retalking to the owner, and he it
he didn't remember it, but heremembered people there talking
about it.
Still, right?
Yes, anyway, so that's it, it'sit shall live in infamy.
(15:29):
But we we we've had we've hadlots of great moments over
these, but that's that's onethat that really, really does
stick out.
SPEAKER_05 (15:37):
That is too funny.
SPEAKER_02 (15:38):
That is crazy.
So yeah, I mean we've talkedabout that, we've talked about
funny moments, and you kind ofwere hinting in on the
technology with the the reelsthat were you know
pre-programmed for differenthours, and you had to put all
them on.
Um I guess go ahead.
SPEAKER_01 (15:55):
But you had to record your commercials on
real-to-reel tape.
Right, right.
And then you would you wouldpiecing together a program.
You you would you would dub themor transfer transfer them,
record them over to what's whatwas called a cart.
And the cart was about the sizeof an A-track tape, a little bit
bigger, and it went into themachine.
In the studio, you would have astack of these.
(16:17):
Most most studios had three,some had six.
But uh you would slide the tapein and pull a handle, and a
little rubber roller would comeup and into the through a hole
in the bottom of the of thatlittle cart and engage that
thing.
And when you push start, itwould it would start that tape,
and you would at the end of it,when you recorded it, you would
(16:39):
put a sub-audible tone,something you couldn't hear with
your ear, but the machine couldhear, and that would tell it
when to stop.
And so it would like if you hada 30-second commercial on there,
you would it would it would playfor 30 seconds and stop and it
would be queued up to play itagain.
Interesting.
And uh, and and so whatbasically what you did, you you
had 45s, and so I mean, you hadsome albums you would play, but
(17:00):
very few, most of them were 45s,and and then when it was time
for a commercial break, youwould load whatever commercials
in these, you know, slots andthese cart machines, and you
would hit it, but then you whenthat one was over, you had to
hit the next one.
You had to hit the next one, andthen when all that was over,
then you you would hit a whatwas called a liner that would
say, you know, uh whateverstation you were on, and write a
(17:23):
call letters and and then youwould you would station intro
your next record.
But uh every every uh discjockey known to man knows a
whiter shade of pale than thegod of the vita.
SPEAKER_02 (17:36):
Yeah, they were your bathroom breaker.
They were your bathroom.
Yeah, exactly.
Yes, right, right.
SPEAKER_01 (17:40):
But uh perfect.
Yeah.
Oh, I I got fired over the phoneone time.
SPEAKER_02 (17:47):
Oh, that's cute.
SPEAKER_01 (17:48):
Yeah, that that was as a matter of fact, that was
that was at WIZS in Henderson,and I'd only worked up by text.
Right, it's something, yeah,right.
I'd only been working there formaybe a month, and I and I
literally uh had a had a amonth-old baby at home, and uh
uh I just started and it was aSaturday morning, and I was
doing a Saturday morning shiftand and the phone rang, and I I
(18:10):
shouldn't say, but the but thegeneral manager called me up and
he was lit to the gills.
Okay.
Are you seeing a trend in videoback in the day?
Yes, yes, I do.
Anyway, he uh he asked me what Iwas playing, and I and I told
him, I said, Sir, it's it's ait's a song.
He said, Well, if that's thekind of stuff you're gonna play
on my radio stage, you just packyour stuff and get out of there.
Okay.
Oh my.
(18:30):
Yes, exactly.
So I didn't know what to do.
SPEAKER_02 (18:32):
You've had a lot of motivational speakers in your
life.
Absolutely.
You have no idea.
SPEAKER_01 (18:36):
Uh it's a brutal business.
But uh so so I called theassistant manager.
Right.
And he goes, That guy doesn'teven know what day it is.
He says, Stay there, finish outthe ship, and I did.
I stay there, finish out theship.
Walked in Monday morning.
Right.
Scared to death, and uh thegeneral manager comes walking in
whistling, how you doing, Greg?
(18:58):
Anyway, so it's great.
So many, so many interestingcharacters that he really hated
that song, apparently.
Yeah, he was it was it was a newcountry song, and this would
have been again about 1980, andthat's when when when country
was going through a transition.
Every once in a while a littlepop star would come in.
(19:18):
Exactly.
Exactly country.
Less less Porter Wagner, moreRonnie Millsap, or even Alabama
and something.
Yeah.
And so you know, some of thesome of the old country music
fans were not big fans of ofwhat was coming along.
But then everything like that,but the rock and roll changes
like that.
Yeah, definitely.
I don't know if you've noticed,but most country songs now sound
like rock and roll songs fromthe late 70s.
SPEAKER_05 (19:41):
Oh, and they've got what uh getting a little bit of
rap into country and stuff likethat.
Different sounds are trying to.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (19:51):
And I think part of it is to get on different
platforms so that you can multi-you know, send out your album
things.
SPEAKER_01 (19:57):
Well, just like everything, they're trying to
reach a broader audience.
Oh, yeah.
It's like NASCAR taking racesdown to Mexico.
They see a whole new fan basethere, so they're gonna do that.
So country music.
SPEAKER_02 (20:09):
I guess it'd be hard in England, wouldn't it?
Would it have to go the otherdirection?
I don't know.
So smaller cars.
I mean, I'm sure the engineersare like, how do we do this?
Sit on the other side of theroom.
Yeah, right, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (20:20):
Yeah, that's gonna throw the pit through off.
SPEAKER_02 (20:22):
Right, exactly.
We're ready.
Where were you?
Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01 (20:25):
But uh no, we uh but uh everything changed in radio
probably in the in the 90s, Iguess it was.
That would make sense.
I mean, with the advent of CDs,of course, sure you didn't have
to play records anymore.
But all all the music startedgoing to uh uh stored on
(20:47):
digitally.
And then they came out with withprograms, and and I'm sure
you're familiar with those,where all of your music and and
and it'll pull up random, youknow, songs and that sort of
thing.
And when when you could storeyour commercials digitally, you
could store your musicdigitally, then they would have
programs that would set up thewhole day.
SPEAKER_02 (21:06):
You could set your platform based on whatever.
SPEAKER_01 (21:08):
Exactly.
And then they they brought inwhat's called voice tracking.
And voice tracking, you'relooking at what's called the
log.
The log used to have to be apaper log, and you had to check
off every commercial everycommercial you were supposed to
play was listed on a sheet ofpaper.
Yeah, like a manifest.
Right, and then you would youwould check that off as as you
played that commercial.
(21:29):
Well, the the log now is isdigitally and it's on a computer
screen, and you'll you'll seewhich song is is coming up, and
then there'll be a voice track,and it's just like a slot.
And you're in the productionroom and you go into that
program and you record what youwant to be in that in that
space.
(21:49):
So let's just say you're comingout of a Bruno Mars song, right?
And you've got um uh for lack ofa better word, uh nickelback
coming.
Right.
Because I don't apparently Idon't care what my music sounds
like.
But uh anyway, it would be in inin between a Bruno Mars and a
Nickelback song, yeah, and uh orif it were coming out of an out
(22:11):
of a Bruno Mars song going on acommercial break, yeah.
You would say you would juststart the recording and say,
that was Bruno Mars with hislatest here on 1077 of the lake.
Coming up after the break, wegot music from Minuto uh and and
this artist and that artist andthat artist, and you list about
three and like a segue.
Right, we'll be back right afterthis, and then you stop
(22:32):
recording, and it will storethat voice track in that slot.
SPEAKER_02 (22:36):
Right.
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01 (22:36):
And you may be recording that uh at nine
o'clock in the morning for it toplay at three in the afternoon.
Well, you could do a radio showthat would run from one o'clock
in the afternoon to fouro'clock, you could record that
in about 30 or 40 minutes.
And then you don't have to beable to get it.
And then nobody nobody wouldhave to be there.
Right.
And so most of the local radiostations, unless it you can tell
(22:59):
if it's live in the morning, butthey've they've gotten very good
at disguising that.
Yeah.
Right.
You know, because rather thangive the exact time, they would
say that you would in that log,you know that this is gonna hit
probably about 20 minutes afteryou know one o'clock.
Yeah.
And so you would say, instead ofsaying it's 20 minutes after
one, because you don't know thatit's gonna hit the you would say
(23:21):
coming up on the bottom of thehour.
Yeah.
Or right.
SPEAKER_02 (23:24):
Right.
That makes sense.
That's a good thing.
Yeah, keep it vague enough to.
SPEAKER_01 (23:28):
If you're getting off work at 1.30 today, you got
just a few more minutes to hangin there.
I mean, there are different waysto say the time without saying
the time.
That's right.
And so that that was that thatwas one of the things that
they've started using as voicetracking.
And so what that allows radiostations to do, you can have
multi radio stations in onebuilding.
And you can have you can havefour or five DJs that will do a
(23:53):
shift on each one of thosestations.
SPEAKER_02 (23:56):
And do a lot of prep and setup and exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (23:58):
And so they can they can run five stations with three
DJs.
Right or with or with five DJs.
And so that has really cut downon the on the number of people
that are actually working in thebusiness.
Right.
Uh, most of the people in theradio now are are salespeople.
If they are on the air, they'realso doubling as salespeople.
So um it's but it's it's it'smuch and and for that reason
(24:21):
it's it's actually a littleharder to get into the business
to get on air now than it waswhen I mean when I was there.
If your station was on 24 hoursa day, you had to live a live
person 24 hours a day.
That's why most of the thing.
Right.
Most of the stations would signon at you know six o'clock in
the morning and would sign offat you know 11 o'clock at night.
(24:42):
Yeah.
In the case of most AM stations,they would be sun up to sundown.
Right.
And that was what they werelicensed to do, and so you only
had to have people in thesummer, you had to have people
longer in the air and that sortof thing.
But all all of that's changed,and you can run a radio station
now with three.
Well, when we had 107 7 the Lakein South Hill, I was there.
I was the only full-timeemployee.
(25:03):
We uh I did I did some sales, Idid a lot of the the recording,
but we could also, you know,email a commercial to Roanoke
Rapids, which is where the thethe center of the of the station
was, and somebody there, youwould have a a different uh
announcer there, cut thecommercial, email it back to
you, and put it in the system.
And so a lot a lot of that'schanged, but it it's just it's
(25:26):
just a fun business.
SPEAKER_02 (25:28):
Yeah, I imagine.
SPEAKER_01 (25:29):
And uh but but when when they when they instituted
voice tracking, it made it somuch easier.
I'm sure.
Because I mean you still hadeverybody, every station almost
has has a live morning show.
There are syndicated talk showslike uh John Boyd and Billy or
Anna, and they're they'resomewhere else, and they they'll
have a local person come in andrecord the weather and they'll
(25:51):
have weather drops in thatprogram.
But uh it it's just it it's madeit it's made it a lot easier,
but it's also made it a littlebit tougher to actually get in
the business if you want to doit, if you want to do it
locally.
SPEAKER_05 (26:03):
And and as we're doing the podcast, uh maybe
that's why podcasting has becomeso big as you get back into
interviews, connecting withpeople, that kind of thing, as
opposed to you know, maybe toomuch automation.
SPEAKER_01 (26:16):
Well, when when I left radio, I had people go, why
don't you open a station?
Right.
Well you can't just, you know,oh yeah, sure.
Here we are.
I mean you have to be licensedby the FCC, and then you have a
transmitter, and then you haveto have a tower, and then you
have to have all this equipment.
Podcast, you need a laptop, amicrophone, and uh access to the
internet.
(26:36):
Is that about it?
Pretty much.
SPEAKER_05 (26:38):
Yeah, a little bit, yeah.
A little bit more know-how asfar as uh I don't know, he does
things and whispers to himself.
SPEAKER_02 (26:44):
He's a technological genius, right?
SPEAKER_05 (26:46):
I just tell him to do things, and and he's like, I
don't know.
And it's like, no, no, no, Iknow you can do this.
And then it just happens, hekind of just hums for a minute,
and then all of a sudden thereit is.
SPEAKER_02 (26:56):
There it is.
There may there may be someother words in there.
SPEAKER_05 (27:00):
Well, you cover it well.
SPEAKER_01 (27:03):
I I am I am amazed by people that can do that
because literally when when whenI started in radio, I put a 45
on a turntable, moved it aroundwith my finger, and pushed
start.
I mean, we we used to laughabout it, but you know what
what's involved in working inradio?
Push a button, get a check.
I mean, it's it's it's it's adelicate dance to it.
SPEAKER_05 (27:22):
Yeah, that's it.
It wasn't rocket science.
It's got to go together, it'sgot a groove.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:27):
Here's how they taught me when I first started
in radio to be on the air.
You have five things that youcan say: time, temperature, call
letters, frequency, and yourname.
You can you can mix those thingsup and do it, do a five-hour
radio.
SPEAKER_02 (27:42):
That's funny.
SPEAKER_01 (27:43):
Well, yeah, I just with Greg Thrift on 107.
SPEAKER_02 (27:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:49):
Or the temperature.
Yeah.
82 degrees outside on yourMonday morning with Greg Thrift
on 107.7.
SPEAKER_02 (27:55):
Just mix it up.
Whatever.
SPEAKER_01 (27:56):
You just have to do that.
And that's all you can, and thenyou throw in the title of a song
and you can do a whole show.
But if you can do those fivethings, time, temperature, call
letters, frequency, and yourname, you mix those up, you can
do an entire show.
It's it it ain't it ain't thathard.
If I if I did it, it wasn'tcertainly wasn't that hard.
SPEAKER_02 (28:15):
You think of sports.
It's like the number four, uh,you know, it's like a basement
up the, you know, and they justthey're just spouting out stuff
to keep things going.
SPEAKER_01 (28:23):
Because I could never know how to pronounce the
name.
Oh, yeah.
Because you never cover yourmouth and just mumbled and
common up.
Exactly.
I like sports, but you you wouldyou would see um you'd see
somebody's name that you unlikethe if you were doing baseball
then C-A-L-D-R-O-N-E.
Is that Calderone?
(28:44):
Right.
Calderone.
Where do we put the X?
Exactly.
Right.
But you knew, however you saidit, somebody listening knew
whether it was right or wrong.
I knew you didn't know.
I knew that you didn't know, Iknew that you were gonna hear
about it.
Right because the phone wasgonna ring.
It's Calderon, you idiot! Right.
SPEAKER_02 (29:01):
So I think Oh, it's one of our uh listeners.
Isn't that great?
Thanks for the feedback.
I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01 (29:06):
Well, listener feedback sometimes tough.
SPEAKER_02 (29:08):
Well, this is easy because uh, you know, nobody can
say anything when we're notalive.
SPEAKER_01 (29:12):
We can edit and nobody knows the phone number
where you are.
Right, exactly.
So they can't go up and yell.
Oh, I I had uh I I I had the thestation owner one time uh uh
call me while I was on the airbecause uh we were doing a
request show and it was atnight.
And these guys that you know hadliterally been you know knee
(29:36):
deep in some Jack Daniels werecalling up like every theme,
yeah.
Like every 45 minutes or every14 minutes with a request.
Make sure you say that's youknow, that's to to Hilda from
Bobo! And so you know you you dothat and then he calls back in
in 10 minutes make sure you saythat's to Hilda from Bobo.
SPEAKER_02 (29:57):
Well, at least I want a different name.
SPEAKER_01 (29:59):
Exactly.
But what was so bad was he keptit and so fine and said, dude,
you know, you you've had enoughtonight.
Let me get you know some otherpeople.
He came, you know, across asmall town.
Right.
He called the owner at home.
SPEAKER_02 (30:11):
Oh, there you go.
SPEAKER_01 (30:11):
And and the owner called me on the air and said,
Why would you play this?
Play the song.
He didn't want to hear about itanyway.
That's right.
That's funny.
It's your pony, I'm just ridingit.
SPEAKER_03 (30:23):
Right, right, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (30:26):
Oh man.
But I loved, I loved working insmall town radio.
SPEAKER_02 (30:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (30:32):
South Hill, and I can honestly say South Hill was
my favorite place to do radioout of all the places that I've
ever done.
Because I came in, I I'd heardhim ever since I was a kid, but
I came in after Frank Malone.
And Frank Malone was thereprobably for the first 10 years
or so that I was there, and hedid mornings and I did middays.
(30:54):
And I learned so much from him.
Because when I I came there, Ihad been working at at stations
in Rocky Mount and stations inBurlington.
And I always had a regionalapproach.
You wanted to reach as manypeople as you could reach.
And so, you know, and andFrank's thing was keep it local.
Yes, he was always the heart ofthe community.
(31:15):
He he absolutely was, and ittook me probably six months, but
in six months of watching him, Isaid, that's the way to do local
media.
And and that's how I did it fromfrom then on, right, wrong, or
indifferent.
Sure.
If you know if you use FrankMalone as as a guide, you were
(31:35):
gonna do okay.
Frank had the quickest mind ofanybody I had ever done in a
couple of years.
He was funny, he was he wasquick, and uh, and and if you
write a line, he would let youknow.
Yeah, he would let you know.
SPEAKER_02 (31:50):
In a very kind way, too.
SPEAKER_01 (31:52):
Sometimes not so kind.
SPEAKER_02 (31:53):
Well, I'm talking about in public, not behind not
behind the door.
SPEAKER_01 (31:57):
Oh, in public, yeah, absolutely.
But you know, sometimes but butbehind the scenes, his criticism
could be sharp, but accurate.
Yeah, I'm his baby.
And at the end of the day,that's that's really what what
you wanted.
I mean, right but to watch him,to watch him work a crowd.
(32:17):
But I mean, who else could geton on the air and talk about the
mayor's wife's pantyhose?
I mean, he he literally couldcould talk about anything and
anybody, and nobody would everget mad because it was Frank.
Yeah, right.
Some of the stations I workedat, if you had done that sort of
thing, I would have run you outof town on rail.
But we we were blessed to haveFrank for so many years because
(32:39):
he really did know how radio wassupposed to work in a small town
radio.
SPEAKER_02 (32:44):
He served his community.
Yeah.
He was the Chris in the morningkind of so um yeah, so I guess
we've talked a little bit aboutuh you know the technology and
of course small town radio andwe mentioned podcasts just
(33:06):
briefly, but do you have anyadvice on how we can stay
connected as technology changes?
And I kind of have something tofollow that up with too.
SPEAKER_01 (33:15):
Stay young.
Yeah, well yeah.
I don't think that's always apossibility.
In that case, let me write thisdown.
Keep a teenager close.
Right, right.
That's my best surprise becauseI I have I have I have a
nine-year-old granddaughter whoknows how to work my phone
better than I do.
Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_05 (33:31):
And uh stare.
SPEAKER_01 (33:34):
I joke about it all the time with my wife.
I think I used to could run aradio station.
Now I I can't operate asmartwatch.
I you know, I I I don't know howany of the technology works.
SPEAKER_02 (33:44):
Well, it's one of those things if you don't use it
all the time, I mean it changesso quickly.
Oh, it does.
And technology makes very fast,accurate mistakes.
SPEAKER_01 (33:51):
Very fast.
Oh, wow, I guess it does, yeah.
Yeah, because I've never heardit put like that.
Very fast, accurate mistakes.
A lot of tech quits.
Oh, yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_02 (33:59):
Um but you're also talking about how when the radio
industry was changing as far asstaffing, because the technology
allowed for a lot of automationand how it's hard to get into
that industry now, what do youthink they're looking for now?
When it when all the resumes aredropped on their desk, you know,
are we getting back to morecharacter?
Getting back to what's what canthe human bring that the
(34:21):
technology isn't?
SPEAKER_01 (34:22):
In radio?
SPEAKER_02 (34:23):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:24):
I honestly think the personality is gonna be the big
thing.
Right.
Um because as as Frank Maloneexplained to me years ago, a
Beatles record on this radiostation is gonna sound the exact
same as that Beatles record onanother radio station.
It's gonna be the same.
That's true.
The only thing that sets yourstation apart is what you can
(34:48):
put in between the records.
That's true.
And how you can connect.
So I've it's personality.
I mean, uh, literally in 40years of radio, the one thing
that I've that I've had to sellthe most of was myself.
Yeah.
Because I mean, let's face it, Idon't know how to weld.
I I'm not a mechanic, I'm not adoctor, I'm not a I don't know
(35:10):
how to do anything, and my wifelaughs about that all the time.
Now, I don't really know how todo anything uh, you know,
productive.
You know, I I can run the vacuumif I can find it, but um it's uh
literally be personable.
That's right.
That's that's gonna that's gonnabe the the best advice if you if
you want to get on the radio, bedifferent, be unique, but be
(35:32):
personable and be relatable towhatever extent you can.
SPEAKER_05 (35:37):
Well yeah, we tell our kids all the time.
I mean, it's it's not alwayswhat you know.
Because you have the Library ofCongress right here at your
fingertips.
SPEAKER_01 (35:44):
Absolutely, yeah, you gotta know.
SPEAKER_05 (35:45):
And so it's not so much what you know, it's it's a
lot of what's gonna change uhinto the future, especially with
technology, because we have somuch, is uh kind of who you are
and how you present it, uh yourcharacter and your integrity.
SPEAKER_01 (36:00):
Absolutely, because uh for everything else you have
YouTube videos.
unknown (36:04):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (36:05):
Yeah, pretty much all I've used it to do that why
something if you were to scrollthrough my phone and all of my
all of my my YouTube searches,they all start with how do I
that's right, there you go.
SPEAKER_02 (36:18):
Oh man.
SPEAKER_05 (36:18):
That's that's fair.
That's true.
Well good and kind of jump intoo, you know.
We've kind of learned that insmall business.
It's you know, maybe just goahead and jump, you know, and
you don't have to know it all,we'll figure it out, but just
jump.
SPEAKER_02 (36:33):
Yeah, and I think it's part of that just creative
just ambition, just go in and doit because like everyone says,
sometimes fake it till you makeit and everything.
You don't know, but and starttalking about it.
Right, we have to push a button,right?
SPEAKER_01 (36:48):
Absolutely.
I walked into a radio stationwith a license and had never
seen the inside of one.
Right.
So that is wild.
I mean that is.
SPEAKER_02 (36:56):
I guess at some point you get a fishing license,
and if you haven't even fished,right?
Exactly.
So, you know, it's but yeah.
Well, look, Greg, we really wantto thank you for being on our
podcast today.
SPEAKER_01 (37:08):
And and and for the two people that are still with
us, thank you for listening.
I have bored you to tears, andfor that I apologize.
SPEAKER_02 (37:17):
No, I'm I muted the droid because of uh um it would
still be thinking we're talkingto it, and it's just a
limitation of technology, butit'll come around.
So but I think we're gonna besigning off our podcast here,
wired together, and um, youknow, if you're listening, you
found us, but you know, we canbe found on many of the apps
(37:37):
like Apple Podcasts,iHeartRadio, YouTube, your smart
TV, your device that might be onyour kitchen counter.
So uh we really appreciateeveryone for you know being
supportive, sharing our posts,and helping the word get out
there.
Um check back for more.
We hope to have anotherinterview in about two weeks.
(37:58):
We'll talk more about that nextweek as we're planning ahead,
but unplugging for now.
Alright, welcome again to uh WonderNet Web's uh
uh Wire Together.
SPEAKER_02 (00:11):
Yes, today was uh gonna be a special day.
We uh we kind of gave you all ateaser last week, but we have
Greg Thrift with us as a gueststar.
And um maybe our AI co-host canintroduce him, and then I'm sure
(00:31):
Greg can introduce himself aswell.
But um Alright, uh can youintroduce Greg Thrift?
unknown (00:38):
Absolutely, I'd be happy to.
SPEAKER_00 (00:40):
So everyone, I'm privileged to introduce our
human guest host, uh GregThrift.
Greg's a long time voice inSouth Hill.
He's been a favorite MC at localevents for years.
He's got that great radio energyand plenty of movies we're
doing.
So we're lucky to have him ontoday.
SPEAKER_01 (01:04):
All right, he said that just like I wrote it.
Right, that's right, exactly.
He does that, it's weird.
I love that guy.
So, how is everybody?
SPEAKER_02 (01:16):
Uh it's it's been a it's been a busy week.
We got to start a school, andI'm sure any families and family
businesses can certainlyunderstand that struggle.
SPEAKER_05 (01:24):
Yeah, many prayers to everybody as kids start back.
SPEAKER_01 (01:28):
I'm a little nervous.
This is only my second podcastever.
SPEAKER_05 (01:31):
Oh, wow.
I didn't know you hadn't onebefore that.
That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01 (01:34):
Well, I well, I was a rookie at that.
Hermie Sadler had me do one forhim.
This has been uh a couple ofyears ago.
Oh wow.
All this is all this technologyis very small beans.
All this technology is very youyou have you have microphones in
here that cost more than myfirst car.
SPEAKER_05 (01:57):
So uh you know, you want to get it started?
And what you're talking about,you know, the early days and how
new this has all been.
So um, you know, one thing wetalk about is tech and old and
new.
So um what was it like in thebeginning?
SPEAKER_01 (02:11):
Uh in radio?
When I was a kid, that there wasa there was a gentleman on the
radio in South Hill, his namewas Barry Callis.
And and I really, really lookedup to him.
He has one of those great radiovoices, but I never had or never
will have.
Oh, he did.
Great voice.
And uh he went on to work inRichmond.
But I remember as a as a kid,like in sixth, seventh, eighth
(02:33):
grade, whatever, listening tohim on the radio and thought,
what a cool job that that wouldbe.
Well, uh, I graduated highschool and I was going to be a
uh an elementary school teacher.
And so I was going to college toto be an elementary school
teacher and uh was workingpart-time at a radio station uh
down in Henderson, NorthCarolina, in order to pay for
(02:55):
college.
And a uh uh full-time slotopened up at the station, and
the manager came to me and hesaid, you know, you're not
horrible at this.
You can do one or two things.
Thanks for that vote, right?
You you can you can do one ortwo things.
You can drop out of school andstarve to death in radio, or you
can stay uh in school and starveto death as a teacher.
(03:17):
So uh I I left school and and Ialways regret that.
I always regret that I left.
But uh I got into radio and andkind of over the years on and
off was in it for the next 35,40 years.
Right.
That is really good.
I've never heard that.
SPEAKER_02 (03:30):
No, I haven't heard it part either.
SPEAKER_01 (03:32):
It was it was it was crazy, but the the business is
so different.
When I started my first thatfirst station was a little AM
station down in Henderson, theyhad an FM station too, which was
a big, huge FM station, but itplayed country.
I wasn't in I wasn't interestedin that.
Uh the AM station was uh the Big89, the Rock of Henderson.
(03:54):
It was a rock station, and theyhad really, really great, great
people.
So I had some wonderful,wonderful teachers.
One of them was a guy named BillStainbach.
On the area went by Bill Thomas.
He left there and went toBirmingham, Alabama.
So he went from Henderson, got ajob in in Birmingham, Alabama,
and he was the Billboardmagazine Southeast DJ of the
(04:14):
Year.
Oh wow! He was really, really,really good.
So uh I was I was blessed inthose early days to have been
around some people that reallyknew what they were doing and
knew how to do it, and whatlittle bit of that rubbed off on
me that kept me in the business,but uh uh I'm I'm not enough to
(04:35):
turn on their microphone, butthat they really were but I was
fortunate in that way, but itwas also different, of course.
Back then we were using 45s.
SPEAKER_03 (04:43):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (04:44):
And I mean now it's all it's all digital and
everything is recorded, but uhyou would have to place the the
the 45 on the turntable, takethe needle and put it on the
beginning of the record, andthen you would have to hit it
just right.
You would have to move it backand forth with your finger until
the sound hit the needle, andthen you would stop and you
would back it up a quarter of aturn.
(05:06):
That way, when you started theturntable, it had gotten up
enough speed before the needlehit the hit the actual sound on
the record, right?
Or else it would start likethis.
And so that that but all thosethings are so different.
They had cart machines, whichyou're familiar with, I guess.
But interesting enough, that thethe that first FM station was a
(05:26):
country station, and they hadthe first automation system I'd
ever seen.
It was a huge computer, and itprobably would have taken up the
biggest part of that wall.
SPEAKER_03 (05:37):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (05:38):
Um, and there there were big round reel-to-reel
tapes.
And the uh you they had aservice from a company that
would send these big reels oftapes, and they would have the
different DJs on those tapes andthe different hours you know, on
the tape.
You had to change the tapes.
So my first job was going in onSaturday mornings and changing
(05:59):
the tapes on the automotivemachine, and uh then on Sunday I
took the remote equipment outand uh set up for three
different church services.
We had three different churches,and we did remotes from those.
So my first job was was changingtapes and and uh doing church
services.
But when when the when the jobopened up uh to be on the air,
(06:22):
literally, I had to go in a roomevery day for two weeks off the
air and do a radio show thatnobody ever heard.
You had you had to do the showand they would they would
evaluate and record it and theywould critique critique your
show.
And uh some of it was brutal.
Some of the show was beautiful,brutal, and some of the critique
(06:44):
was really, really brutal.
I thought you were critique,yeah.
But it was it was it was it wasit was fun.
Um I I I don't I don't remembermy my first day on the air.
I I I don't remember that I'mnot even exactly sure what what
the first uh what the first daywas.
I I know it was in the summerand for some reason I'm I was
(07:06):
thinking it was it was lateAugust and I may be able to go
back into it.
But back in the day, you had toactually have a license to be on
the air.
And I went to um while I was incollege trying to get a job at
the station, you had to go toNorfolk to the FAA testing site,
take a test.
I bought a study guide at thecollege bookstore for the FAA
(07:30):
license.
That's so cool.
And uh and looked up and passedthe darn thing.
And and I say that looked upbecause literally I I got a
license to operate a radiostation and had never been
inside one.
SPEAKER_02 (07:42):
There you go.
SPEAKER_01 (07:42):
I had never sat in the board, but I was licensed to
do it.
Now uh you don't even have tohave a license.
Right.
But they changed that rule youknow some time ago.
SPEAKER_05 (07:51):
Just be able to speak.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:53):
Basically, if they like you and they don't think
you're gonna steal stuff fromthem, they'll give you a job.
That's most places though, isn'tit?
Exactly.
But it's uh all all of that ishas changed.
But so many, I've been blessedto work over the years with with
so many fun people and so manytalented people that not only
that at that first station downin Henderson, but uh I worked at
(08:14):
stations in Rocky Mount, NorthCarolina.
I worked at stations obviouslyup here in Henderson.
I worked for a station inBurlington, North Carolina,
several different places.
That business, you you you move,you you go from place to place,
and uh, you know, sometime it'sbecause you want to move, and
sometime it's because managementwants you to move.
Yes, right.
SPEAKER_02 (08:36):
Volunteed.
SPEAKER_01 (08:37):
I've been on the receiving end of both of those.
But uh, you know what?
I mean, anytime I've I've everbeen asked to uh to disassociate
myself, uh let's just say it hasalways led to bigger and better
things.
So anybody out there, if if youif you if you've ever been
fired, you probably know thatsomething better came along.
Oh right.
And so if if anybody out there,if they ever fire you, just look
(08:59):
at it, it's it's it's a betteropportunity coming because for
me it always was.
Right.
Right.
SPEAKER_05 (09:03):
Sometimes that door slammed shut on purpose.
SPEAKER_01 (09:06):
Absolutely, and uh, you know, the Lord upstairs is
is looking out for you, right?
That's right.
We we were we were talking aboutyou know funny things that had
happened in in in broadcastingover the years, and uh one of
the funniest is the greatChristmas Frisbee disaster.
SPEAKER_05 (09:23):
Christmas Frisbee?
I feel like that's a title.
SPEAKER_01 (09:28):
I left W H N C and I had had gone to another station
and I'd come back to Hendersonand I was working at the other
station in Henderson, which wasW I Z.
There were two stations inHenderson, and still are, as a
matter of fact.
But uh but I think well I thinkH N C is actually gone, so
there's only W-I-Z-S now.
I was working at W-I-Z-S and uhI was doing mornings and we came
(09:51):
up with an idea.
It was it was Christmas time,and we went to some of our
advertisers and got prizes.
And we went to the town towncouncil in in Henderson.
You remember the turkey dropfrom WKR?
SPEAKER_05 (10:05):
I can't help but think about the turkey drop.
SPEAKER_01 (10:09):
This is so similar, it's it it's not and and if if
if you don't believe me, you canask Mike Brooks, who works at
98.4.
I know his voice.
He was there.
He he was there.
I gave Mike Brooks his first jobon radio down at WICS.
But anyway, we we went to thetown council and we said, here's
what we want to do.
We want to go to the top ofVance Furniture.
(10:30):
That is that's a five-storybuilding in downtown Henderson,
which was the tallest buildingin Henderson.
Still still is, I guess.
Um but uh we went to the towncouncil and we said, look, we
want to we want to go rightbefore Christmas, we want to you
know promote some of ouradvertising, we're gonna do a
remote from the top of VanceFurniture, and we're gonna throw
frisbees off the roof.
(10:51):
And under the frisbees, we willhave prizes.
And you know, people can catchthese and turn the prizes in.
SPEAKER_05 (10:58):
This is a great idea.
SPEAKER_01 (11:03):
What can happen?
So we go there and we I Iprobably shouldn't say this.
We we we we we had a we had ayoung man that was working there
uh as almost like an intern.
He was a part-time guy.
His last name was Norwood.
I won't give his first name.
Mr.
Uh Mr.
Norwoody.
And they were they were probablyin there, he and his twin
brother uh both worked there.
(11:25):
And and the reason I'm I'mdisguising his his his first
name is because that morning hemay or may not have imbibed some
illicit uh substances when hegot there because he was a great
big kid and red hair and hedressed up as Santa Claus.
Well, this was a big deal.
We uh we we talked the firedepartment into bringing him
(11:47):
down Main Street, he's dressedup as Santa Claus in their
bucket truck, and they raise himto the top of Vance furniture in
this fire truck, and here's thisNorwood kid, and he's dressed up
as an hour of his mind, and hesaid he when when when he clears
(12:08):
that the front of that buildingand I see him, I know we're in
trouble.
We're in big trouble.
So anyway, so Santa Claus getsup there on the roof, and uh
we've got all these you knowboxes, cardboard boxes filled
with frisbees.
Now, granted, one of them Ithink I think it had$250,
certificate for$250 cash on it.
(12:30):
It may have been$500, but wewere so the station was so broke
back then, it probably was too,it might have been$100, I don't
remember.
SPEAKER_02 (12:36):
Couldn't have been money.
SPEAKER_01 (12:37):
But there was some currency attached to one of
these frisbees out of the fourdozen we were gonna throw.
Most of them were for a sausagebiscuit.
Or an oil change.
Right.
And I mean keep in mind backthen, this is probably 1980,
(12:58):
maybe.
So, you know, an old change wasprobably 12 bucks, who knows?
So anyway, but there weresausage biscuits and oil changes
and you know, tire rotations orsomething.
Anyway, um, but one of them hada decent prize under it, and we
started throwing these frisbeesoff the building.
Unbeknownst to us, down thatstreet there's an updraft.
(13:21):
And so the frisbees would wouldwould sail out across the
street.
Now, now we're looking down andthe street, there's a mass of
people.
Huge.
SPEAKER_05 (13:32):
Huge.
SPEAKER_01 (13:32):
Oh, yeah, we promoted this on the airbag.
I mean, you you you couldn'twalk down there.
They had to block off.
That's why we had to get thetown council approval, because
they had to block Main Street,which was Glenn Street, and you
know, there were masses ofpeople, and we're throwing these
frisbees and they're comingright back and hitting Mr.
Norwood in the face, and thensliding down sliding down the
(13:54):
front of Vance FurnitureCompany.
They had just put up a brand newcloth hunting over the front
door.
People were climbing on that andpulling that off the building.
Uh some of them did manage toactually go across the street.
Now, there was a little dineracross the street, and and Tommy
Haithcock's sister-in-law, uh,Tommy Haiticock's a friend of
(14:17):
mine management, hissister-in-law, Norman
Haithcock's wife, ran thatdiner.
And everybody named her BoogerBear.
SPEAKER_03 (14:23):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (14:24):
Well, Booger Bear's diner was across the road.
Well, some landed, and she had alittle low one-story building,
it landed on the roof of thatbuilding.
People were crawling up the sideof the building that broke the
gas line on the side of herbuilding to get to the top.
You know, it was but these whenthese things did make it down to
the street, there were you know17, 18-year-old kids knocking
(14:45):
over 75-year-old old ladies toget a frisbee.
Get a biscuit.
For a biscuit.
Exactly.
Anyway, that uh but that thatthat did not that did not go
over uh quite a bit.
SPEAKER_05 (14:56):
Cool on paper, then it was a great idea.
SPEAKER_02 (15:01):
It read well.
SPEAKER_05 (15:02):
I mean, they talked about it forever.
SPEAKER_01 (15:04):
Oh, yeah.
As a matter of fact, this istrue story.
My wife and I went down toHenderson to buy a new sofa and
and chair for our living room,and we actually went to Vance
Furniture Company and we'retalking to the owner, and he it
he didn't remember it, but heremembered people there talking
about it.
Still, right?
Yes, anyway, so that's it, it'sit shall live in infamy.
(15:29):
But we we we've had we've hadlots of great moments over
these, but that's that's onethat that really, really does
stick out.
SPEAKER_05 (15:37):
That is too funny.
SPEAKER_02 (15:38):
That is crazy.
So yeah, I mean we've talkedabout that, we've talked about
funny moments, and you kind ofwere hinting in on the
technology with the the reelsthat were you know
pre-programmed for differenthours, and you had to put all
them on.
Um I guess go ahead.
SPEAKER_01 (15:55):
But you had to record your commercials on
real-to-reel tape.
Right, right.
And then you would you wouldpiecing together a program.
You you would you would dub themor transfer transfer them,
record them over to what's whatwas called a cart.
And the cart was about the sizeof an A-track tape, a little bit
bigger, and it went into themachine.
In the studio, you would have astack of these.
(16:17):
Most most studios had three,some had six.
But uh you would slide the tapein and pull a handle, and a
little rubber roller would comeup and into the through a hole
in the bottom of the of thatlittle cart and engage that
thing.
And when you push start, itwould it would start that tape,
and you would at the end of it,when you recorded it, you would
(16:39):
put a sub-audible tone,something you couldn't hear with
your ear, but the machine couldhear, and that would tell it
when to stop.
And so it would like if you hada 30-second commercial on there,
you would it would it would playfor 30 seconds and stop and it
would be queued up to play itagain.
Interesting.
And uh, and and so whatbasically what you did, you you
had 45s, and so I mean, you hadsome albums you would play, but
(17:00):
very few, most of them were 45s,and and then when it was time
for a commercial break, youwould load whatever commercials
in these, you know, slots andthese cart machines, and you
would hit it, but then you whenthat one was over, you had to
hit the next one.
You had to hit the next one, andthen when all that was over,
then you you would hit a whatwas called a liner that would
say, you know, uh whateverstation you were on, and write a
(17:23):
call letters and and then youwould you would station intro
your next record.
But uh every every uh discjockey known to man knows a
whiter shade of pale than thegod of the vita.
SPEAKER_02 (17:36):
Yeah, they were your bathroom breaker.
They were your bathroom.
Yeah, exactly.
Yes, right, right.
SPEAKER_01 (17:40):
But uh perfect.
Yeah.
Oh, I I got fired over the phoneone time.
SPEAKER_02 (17:47):
Oh, that's cute.
SPEAKER_01 (17:48):
Yeah, that that was as a matter of fact, that was
that was at WIZS in Henderson,and I'd only worked up by text.
Right, it's something, yeah,right.
I'd only been working there formaybe a month, and I and I
literally uh had a had a amonth-old baby at home, and uh
uh I just started and it was aSaturday morning, and I was
doing a Saturday morning shiftand and the phone rang, and I I
(18:10):
shouldn't say, but the but thegeneral manager called me up and
he was lit to the gills.
Okay.
Are you seeing a trend in videoback in the day?
Yes, yes, I do.
Anyway, he uh he asked me what Iwas playing, and I and I told
him, I said, Sir, it's it's ait's a song.
He said, Well, if that's thekind of stuff you're gonna play
on my radio stage, you just packyour stuff and get out of there.
Okay.
Oh my.
(18:30):
Yes, exactly.
So I didn't know what to do.
SPEAKER_02 (18:32):
You've had a lot of motivational speakers in your
life.
Absolutely.
You have no idea.
SPEAKER_01 (18:36):
Uh it's a brutal business.
But uh so so I called theassistant manager.
Right.
And he goes, That guy doesn'teven know what day it is.
He says, Stay there, finish outthe ship, and I did.
I stay there, finish out theship.
Walked in Monday morning.
Right.
Scared to death, and uh thegeneral manager comes walking in
whistling, how you doing, Greg?
(18:58):
Anyway, so it's great.
So many, so many interestingcharacters that he really hated
that song, apparently.
Yeah, he was it was it was a newcountry song, and this would
have been again about 1980, andthat's when when when country
was going through a transition.
Every once in a while a littlepop star would come in.
(19:18):
Exactly.
Exactly country.
Less less Porter Wagner, moreRonnie Millsap, or even Alabama
and something.
Yeah.
And so you know, some of thesome of the old country music
fans were not big fans of ofwhat was coming along.
But then everything like that,but the rock and roll changes
like that.
Yeah, definitely.
I don't know if you've noticed,but most country songs now sound
like rock and roll songs fromthe late 70s.
SPEAKER_05 (19:41):
Oh, and they've got what uh getting a little bit of
rap into country and stuff likethat.
Different sounds are trying to.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (19:51):
And I think part of it is to get on different
platforms so that you can multi-you know, send out your album
things.
SPEAKER_01 (19:57):
Well, just like everything, they're trying to
reach a broader audience.
Oh, yeah.
It's like NASCAR taking racesdown to Mexico.
They see a whole new fan basethere, so they're gonna do that.
So country music.
SPEAKER_02 (20:09):
I guess it'd be hard in England, wouldn't it?
Would it have to go the otherdirection?
I don't know.
So smaller cars.
I mean, I'm sure the engineersare like, how do we do this?
Sit on the other side of theroom.
Yeah, right, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (20:20):
Yeah, that's gonna throw the pit through off.
SPEAKER_02 (20:22):
Right, exactly.
We're ready.
Where were you?
Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01 (20:25):
But uh no, we uh but uh everything changed in radio
probably in the in the 90s, Iguess it was.
That would make sense.
I mean, with the advent of CDs,of course, sure you didn't have
to play records anymore.
But all all the music startedgoing to uh uh stored on
(20:47):
digitally.
And then they came out with withprograms, and and I'm sure
you're familiar with those,where all of your music and and
and it'll pull up random, youknow, songs and that sort of
thing.
And when when you could storeyour commercials digitally, you
could store your musicdigitally, then they would have
programs that would set up thewhole day.
SPEAKER_02 (21:06):
You could set your platform based on whatever.
SPEAKER_01 (21:08):
Exactly.
And then they they brought inwhat's called voice tracking.
And voice tracking, you'relooking at what's called the
log.
The log used to have to be apaper log, and you had to check
off every commercial everycommercial you were supposed to
play was listed on a sheet ofpaper.
Yeah, like a manifest.
Right, and then you would youwould check that off as as you
played that commercial.
(21:29):
Well, the the log now is isdigitally and it's on a computer
screen, and you'll you'll seewhich song is is coming up, and
then there'll be a voice track,and it's just like a slot.
And you're in the productionroom and you go into that
program and you record what youwant to be in that in that
space.
(21:49):
So let's just say you're comingout of a Bruno Mars song, right?
And you've got um uh for lack ofa better word, uh nickelback
coming.
Right.
Because I don't apparently Idon't care what my music sounds
like.
But uh anyway, it would be in inin between a Bruno Mars and a
Nickelback song, yeah, and uh orif it were coming out of an out
(22:11):
of a Bruno Mars song going on acommercial break, yeah.
You would say you would juststart the recording and say,
that was Bruno Mars with hislatest here on 1077 of the lake.
Coming up after the break, wegot music from Minuto uh and and
this artist and that artist andthat artist, and you list about
three and like a segue.
Right, we'll be back right afterthis, and then you stop
(22:32):
recording, and it will storethat voice track in that slot.
SPEAKER_02 (22:36):
Right.
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01 (22:36):
And you may be recording that uh at nine
o'clock in the morning for it toplay at three in the afternoon.
Well, you could do a radio showthat would run from one o'clock
in the afternoon to fouro'clock, you could record that
in about 30 or 40 minutes.
And then you don't have to beable to get it.
And then nobody nobody wouldhave to be there.
Right.
And so most of the local radiostations, unless it you can tell
(22:59):
if it's live in the morning, butthey've they've gotten very good
at disguising that.
Yeah.
Right.
You know, because rather thangive the exact time, they would
say that you would in that log,you know that this is gonna hit
probably about 20 minutes afteryou know one o'clock.
Yeah.
And so you would say, instead ofsaying it's 20 minutes after
one, because you don't know thatit's gonna hit the you would say
(23:21):
coming up on the bottom of thehour.
Yeah.
Or right.
SPEAKER_02 (23:24):
Right.
That makes sense.
That's a good thing.
Yeah, keep it vague enough to.
SPEAKER_01 (23:28):
If you're getting off work at 1.30 today, you got
just a few more minutes to hangin there.
I mean, there are different waysto say the time without saying
the time.
That's right.
And so that that was that thatwas one of the things that
they've started using as voicetracking.
And so what that allows radiostations to do, you can have
multi radio stations in onebuilding.
And you can have you can havefour or five DJs that will do a
(23:53):
shift on each one of thosestations.
SPEAKER_02 (23:56):
And do a lot of prep and setup and exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (23:58):
And so they can they can run five stations with three
DJs.
Right or with or with five DJs.
And so that has really cut downon the on the number of people
that are actually working in thebusiness.
Right.
Uh, most of the people in theradio now are are salespeople.
If they are on the air, they'realso doubling as salespeople.
So um it's but it's it's it'smuch and and for that reason
(24:21):
it's it's actually a littleharder to get into the business
to get on air now than it waswhen I mean when I was there.
If your station was on 24 hoursa day, you had to live a live
person 24 hours a day.
That's why most of the thing.
Right.
Most of the stations would signon at you know six o'clock in
the morning and would sign offat you know 11 o'clock at night.
(24:42):
Yeah.
In the case of most AM stations,they would be sun up to sundown.
Right.
And that was what they werelicensed to do, and so you only
had to have people in thesummer, you had to have people
longer in the air and that sortof thing.
But all all of that's changed,and you can run a radio station
now with three.
Well, when we had 107 7 the Lakein South Hill, I was there.
I was the only full-timeemployee.
(25:03):
We uh I did I did some sales, Idid a lot of the the recording,
but we could also, you know,email a commercial to Roanoke
Rapids, which is where the thethe center of the of the station
was, and somebody there, youwould have a a different uh
announcer there, cut thecommercial, email it back to
you, and put it in the system.
And so a lot a lot of that'schanged, but it it's just it's
(25:26):
just a fun business.
SPEAKER_02 (25:28):
Yeah, I imagine.
SPEAKER_01 (25:29):
And uh but but when when they when they instituted
voice tracking, it made it somuch easier.
I'm sure.
Because I mean you still hadeverybody, every station almost
has has a live morning show.
There are syndicated talk showslike uh John Boyd and Billy or
Anna, and they're they'resomewhere else, and they they'll
have a local person come in andrecord the weather and they'll
(25:51):
have weather drops in thatprogram.
But uh it it's just it it's madeit it's made it a lot easier,
but it's also made it a littlebit tougher to actually get in
the business if you want to doit, if you want to do it
locally.
SPEAKER_05 (26:03):
And and as we're doing the podcast, uh maybe
that's why podcasting has becomeso big as you get back into
interviews, connecting withpeople, that kind of thing, as
opposed to you know, maybe toomuch automation.
SPEAKER_01 (26:16):
Well, when when I left radio, I had people go, why
don't you open a station?
Right.
Well you can't just, you know,oh yeah, sure.
Here we are.
I mean you have to be licensedby the FCC, and then you have a
transmitter, and then you haveto have a tower, and then you
have to have all this equipment.
Podcast, you need a laptop, amicrophone, and uh access to the
internet.
(26:36):
Is that about it?
Pretty much.
SPEAKER_05 (26:38):
Yeah, a little bit, yeah.
A little bit more know-how asfar as uh I don't know, he does
things and whispers to himself.
SPEAKER_02 (26:44):
He's a technological genius, right?
SPEAKER_05 (26:46):
I just tell him to do things, and and he's like, I
don't know.
And it's like, no, no, no, Iknow you can do this.
And then it just happens, hekind of just hums for a minute,
and then all of a sudden thereit is.
SPEAKER_02 (26:56):
There it is.
There may there may be someother words in there.
SPEAKER_05 (27:00):
Well, you cover it well.
SPEAKER_01 (27:03):
I I am I am amazed by people that can do that
because literally when when whenI started in radio, I put a 45
on a turntable, moved it aroundwith my finger, and pushed
start.
I mean, we we used to laughabout it, but you know what
what's involved in working inradio?
Push a button, get a check.
I mean, it's it's it's it's adelicate dance to it.
SPEAKER_05 (27:22):
Yeah, that's it.
It wasn't rocket science.
It's got to go together, it'sgot a groove.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:27):
Here's how they taught me when I first started
in radio to be on the air.
You have five things that youcan say: time, temperature, call
letters, frequency, and yourname.
You can you can mix those thingsup and do it, do a five-hour
radio.
SPEAKER_02 (27:42):
That's funny.
SPEAKER_01 (27:43):
Well, yeah, I just with Greg Thrift on 107.
SPEAKER_02 (27:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:49):
Or the temperature.
Yeah.
82 degrees outside on yourMonday morning with Greg Thrift
on 107.7.
SPEAKER_02 (27:55):
Just mix it up.
Whatever.
SPEAKER_01 (27:56):
You just have to do that.
And that's all you can, and thenyou throw in the title of a song
and you can do a whole show.
But if you can do those fivethings, time, temperature, call
letters, frequency, and yourname, you mix those up, you can
do an entire show.
It's it it ain't it ain't thathard.
If I if I did it, it wasn'tcertainly wasn't that hard.
SPEAKER_02 (28:15):
You think of sports.
It's like the number four, uh,you know, it's like a basement
up the, you know, and they justthey're just spouting out stuff
to keep things going.
SPEAKER_01 (28:23):
Because I could never know how to pronounce the
name.
Oh, yeah.
Because you never cover yourmouth and just mumbled and
common up.
Exactly.
I like sports, but you you wouldyou would see um you'd see
somebody's name that you unlikethe if you were doing baseball
then C-A-L-D-R-O-N-E.
Is that Calderone?
(28:44):
Right.
Calderone.
Where do we put the X?
Exactly.
Right.
But you knew, however you saidit, somebody listening knew
whether it was right or wrong.
I knew you didn't know.
I knew that you didn't know, Iknew that you were gonna hear
about it.
Right because the phone wasgonna ring.
It's Calderon, you idiot! Right.
SPEAKER_02 (29:01):
So I think Oh, it's one of our uh listeners.
Isn't that great?
Thanks for the feedback.
I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01 (29:06):
Well, listener feedback sometimes tough.
SPEAKER_02 (29:08):
Well, this is easy because uh, you know, nobody can
say anything when we're notalive.
SPEAKER_01 (29:12):
We can edit and nobody knows the phone number
where you are.
Right, exactly.
So they can't go up and yell.
Oh, I I had uh I I I had the thestation owner one time uh uh
call me while I was on the airbecause uh we were doing a
request show and it was atnight.
And these guys that you know hadliterally been you know knee
(29:36):
deep in some Jack Daniels werecalling up like every theme,
yeah.
Like every 45 minutes or every14 minutes with a request.
Make sure you say that's youknow, that's to to Hilda from
Bobo! And so you know you you dothat and then he calls back in
in 10 minutes make sure you saythat's to Hilda from Bobo.
SPEAKER_02 (29:57):
Well, at least I want a different name.
SPEAKER_01 (29:59):
Exactly.
But what was so bad was he keptit and so fine and said, dude,
you know, you you've had enoughtonight.
Let me get you know some otherpeople.
He came, you know, across asmall town.
Right.
He called the owner at home.
SPEAKER_02 (30:11):
Oh, there you go.
SPEAKER_01 (30:11):
And and the owner called me on the air and said,
Why would you play this?
Play the song.
He didn't want to hear about itanyway.
That's right.
That's funny.
It's your pony, I'm just ridingit.
SPEAKER_03 (30:23):
Right, right, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (30:26):
Oh man.
But I loved, I loved working insmall town radio.
SPEAKER_02 (30:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (30:32):
South Hill, and I can honestly say South Hill was
my favorite place to do radioout of all the places that I've
ever done.
Because I came in, I I'd heardhim ever since I was a kid, but
I came in after Frank Malone.
And Frank Malone was thereprobably for the first 10 years
or so that I was there, and hedid mornings and I did middays.
(30:54):
And I learned so much from him.
Because when I I came there, Ihad been working at at stations
in Rocky Mount and stations inBurlington.
And I always had a regionalapproach.
You wanted to reach as manypeople as you could reach.
And so, you know, and andFrank's thing was keep it local.
Yes, he was always the heart ofthe community.
(31:15):
He he absolutely was, and ittook me probably six months, but
in six months of watching him, Isaid, that's the way to do local
media.
And and that's how I did it fromfrom then on, right, wrong, or
indifferent.
Sure.
If you know if you use FrankMalone as as a guide, you were
(31:35):
gonna do okay.
Frank had the quickest mind ofanybody I had ever done in a
couple of years.
He was funny, he was he wasquick, and uh, and and if you
write a line, he would let youknow.
Yeah, he would let you know.
SPEAKER_02 (31:50):
In a very kind way, too.
SPEAKER_01 (31:52):
Sometimes not so kind.
SPEAKER_02 (31:53):
Well, I'm talking about in public, not behind not
behind the door.
SPEAKER_01 (31:57):
Oh, in public, yeah, absolutely.
But you know, sometimes but butbehind the scenes, his criticism
could be sharp, but accurate.
Yeah, I'm his baby.
And at the end of the day,that's that's really what what
you wanted.
I mean, right but to watch him,to watch him work a crowd.
(32:17):
But I mean, who else could geton on the air and talk about the
mayor's wife's pantyhose?
I mean, he he literally couldcould talk about anything and
anybody, and nobody would everget mad because it was Frank.
Yeah, right.
Some of the stations I workedat, if you had done that sort of
thing, I would have run you outof town on rail.
But we we were blessed to haveFrank for so many years because
(32:39):
he really did know how radio wassupposed to work in a small town
radio.
SPEAKER_02 (32:44):
He served his community.
Yeah.
He was the Chris in the morningkind of so um yeah, so I guess
we've talked a little bit aboutuh you know the technology and
of course small town radio andwe mentioned podcasts just
(33:06):
briefly, but do you have anyadvice on how we can stay
connected as technology changes?
And I kind of have something tofollow that up with too.
SPEAKER_01 (33:15):
Stay young.
Yeah, well yeah.
I don't think that's always apossibility.
In that case, let me write thisdown.
Keep a teenager close.
Right, right.
That's my best surprise becauseI I have I have I have a
nine-year-old granddaughter whoknows how to work my phone
better than I do.
Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_05 (33:31):
And uh stare.
SPEAKER_01 (33:34):
I joke about it all the time with my wife.
I think I used to could run aradio station.
Now I I can't operate asmartwatch.
I you know, I I I don't know howany of the technology works.
SPEAKER_02 (33:44):
Well, it's one of those things if you don't use it
all the time, I mean it changesso quickly.
Oh, it does.
And technology makes very fast,accurate mistakes.
SPEAKER_01 (33:51):
Very fast.
Oh, wow, I guess it does, yeah.
Yeah, because I've never heardit put like that.
Very fast, accurate mistakes.
A lot of tech quits.
Oh, yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_02 (33:59):
Um but you're also talking about how when the radio
industry was changing as far asstaffing, because the technology
allowed for a lot of automationand how it's hard to get into
that industry now, what do youthink they're looking for now?
When it when all the resumes aredropped on their desk, you know,
are we getting back to morecharacter?
Getting back to what's what canthe human bring that the
(34:21):
technology isn't?
SPEAKER_01 (34:22):
In radio?
SPEAKER_02 (34:23):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:24):
I honestly think the personality is gonna be the big
thing.
Right.
Um because as as Frank Maloneexplained to me years ago, a
Beatles record on this radiostation is gonna sound the exact
same as that Beatles record onanother radio station.
It's gonna be the same.
That's true.
The only thing that sets yourstation apart is what you can
(34:48):
put in between the records.
That's true.
And how you can connect.
So I've it's personality.
I mean, uh, literally in 40years of radio, the one thing
that I've that I've had to sellthe most of was myself.
Yeah.
Because I mean, let's face it, Idon't know how to weld.
I I'm not a mechanic, I'm not adoctor, I'm not a I don't know
(35:10):
how to do anything, and my wifelaughs about that all the time.
Now, I don't really know how todo anything uh, you know,
productive.
You know, I I can run the vacuumif I can find it, but um it's uh
literally be personable.
That's right.
That's that's gonna that's gonnabe the the best advice if you if
you want to get on the radio, bedifferent, be unique, but be
(35:32):
personable and be relatable towhatever extent you can.
SPEAKER_05 (35:37):
Well yeah, we tell our kids all the time.
I mean, it's it's not alwayswhat you know.
Because you have the Library ofCongress right here at your
fingertips.
SPEAKER_01 (35:44):
Absolutely, yeah, you gotta know.
SPEAKER_05 (35:45):
And so it's not so much what you know, it's it's a
lot of what's gonna change uhinto the future, especially with
technology, because we have somuch, is uh kind of who you are
and how you present it, uh yourcharacter and your integrity.
SPEAKER_01 (36:00):
Absolutely, because uh for everything else you have
YouTube videos.
unknown (36:04):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (36:05):
Yeah, pretty much all I've used it to do that why
something if you were to scrollthrough my phone and all of my
all of my my YouTube searches,they all start with how do I
that's right, there you go.
SPEAKER_02 (36:18):
Oh man.
SPEAKER_05 (36:18):
That's that's fair.
That's true.
Well good and kind of jump intoo, you know.
We've kind of learned that insmall business.
It's you know, maybe just goahead and jump, you know, and
you don't have to know it all,we'll figure it out, but just
jump.
SPEAKER_02 (36:33):
Yeah, and I think it's part of that just creative
just ambition, just go in and doit because like everyone says,
sometimes fake it till you makeit and everything.
You don't know, but and starttalking about it.
Right, we have to push a button,right?
SPEAKER_01 (36:48):
Absolutely.
I walked into a radio stationwith a license and had never
seen the inside of one.
Right.
So that is wild.
I mean that is.
SPEAKER_02 (36:56):
I guess at some point you get a fishing license,
and if you haven't even fished,right?
Exactly.
So, you know, it's but yeah.
Well, look, Greg, we really wantto thank you for being on our
podcast today.
SPEAKER_01 (37:08):
And and and for the two people that are still with
us, thank you for listening.
I have bored you to tears, andfor that I apologize.
SPEAKER_02 (37:17):
No, I'm I muted the droid because of uh um it would
still be thinking we're talkingto it, and it's just a
limitation of technology, butit'll come around.
So but I think we're gonna besigning off our podcast here,
wired together, and um, youknow, if you're listening, you
found us, but you know, we canbe found on many of the apps
(37:37):
like Apple Podcasts,iHeartRadio, YouTube, your smart
TV, your device that might be onyour kitchen counter.
So uh we really appreciateeveryone for you know being
supportive, sharing our posts,and helping the word get out
there.
Um check back for more.
We hope to have anotherinterview in about two weeks.
(37:58):
We'll talk more about that nextweek as we're planning ahead,
but unplugging for now.
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