March 10, 2025 • 5 mins
I saw something on Facebook the other day talking about the good ole days of radio and it took me back to the 70's and 80's. Here is a peek behind the curtain.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Bob Picking. Welcome to Bob Pikett Radio. Look back
at the past forty eight years. Well, it'd be forty
eight years I think in April. I mean I listened.
I just thought, I've been doing this a long long time. Anyway,
I saw something on Facebook the other day, and let
me tell you, this is how radio was when I
first started in the seventies. This is how we did
(00:20):
our business. Of course, we didn't have a lot of
modern technology back then. We could pre record our shows
and advance or anything. But the person who wrote this
on Facebook, man, he nailed it. So I'm just gonna
paraphrase it kind of let you know how the job
was back in the seventies, mid seventies when I started
in radio. And I think a lot of people, especially
(00:41):
in the business, can relate to this. Okay. I mean,
like I said, I've been on the air close to
fifty years. Back then, the songs were vinyl and you
had to make sure you had the right speed. I mean,
if you had the wrong speed, you had to talk
on the air until you corrected it and stuff like that.
And usually their turntables were off to your side and
you couldn't really move your microphone where the turntables were.
(01:03):
But yes, it was fun back in the old days.
There were no MP three files. I mean, there was
no computer automated playback systems. It was real stuff. It
was vinyl, it was records, and if a record skipped
on the air, my goodness, you were in trouble. Now
we used to put quarters or nickels on the turntable
armed to make sure they wouldn't skip like that. But
and you were also on the air for four to
(01:25):
five hours, and once the airshift began, you did not
stop moving until the next DJ came in to relieve you.
And a lot of times that next disc jockey would
be late. Now, I had a disc jockey that would
always go to a gentleman's club during the noon hour
when I worked Middays, and he was always late, supposed
(01:45):
to be on the air at three o'clock, he would
wander in right around three fifteen. And if you worked
at a station that was on the air for over
twenty four hours and you worked to say six pm
to midnight, and the jock wasn't in at midnight, oh yeah,
you would make the those phone calls where are you?
You're supposed to be up here. Anyway, that was the
good old days back then. I call them good old days.
Back then they weren't a lot of fun. But anyway,
(02:07):
but for the period of time on your airshia four
or five hours, your hands never stopped moving. We were
the ultimate multitaskers back then. I mean we had to
look at the clock. You had to time out songs.
If you had news at the top of the hour.
You had to be good at math, so you could
perfectly hit that. And you have a lot of fun
by what we call hitting the post on the earth.
What's the post? Well, that's that instrumental music that leads
(02:30):
up on a song to where the vocalist starts singing,
and oh yeah, And of course you had contest contest
back then, usually you would take the ninth or the
tenth collar and then you had about twelve roughly four
to five minutes to grab a razor blade and edit
that down and get that back on the air. You
(02:50):
talk about moving pretty fast. You never And another thing
that you learned to do back then, in the old days,
you learned how to go to the bathroom in two minutes.
Now you can imagine if you're in one place for
five or six hours. Either you've got to look for
a long song. We used to look for Bobby Bearry,
Jerry Joeff Walker songs all the time. Or you had
to time it where you could run down the hall,
(03:11):
do your business and come back before the song was over.
And how many jocks would make the mistake of walking
outside to take a smoke. I don't smoke, but a
lot of jocks would walk outside to take a smoke,
try to get back in the building and the door
was locked. True story, true story. But you know what,
it was just a lot of excitement. It was a
(03:33):
lot of excitement back in the old days. And you
had to be the authority on everything from weather patterns
to the name of background singers, to who wrote the song.
It was a lot of fun. And back then it
was vinyl and so you would depend a lot of
your knowledge and this is way before the internet. You
would depend a lot of your knowledge to be right
there written on the album cover or on the back
of the album cover. But let me tell you live
(03:54):
broadcast radio was so much fun back then. Now pay
so you had to work weekends, holidays, many times I
worked Christmas morning especially down in Austin radio. But the
payoff was great because you know who used to call
me every Christmas morning and wish me merry Christmas. Holly Done.
(04:15):
Holly Dunn's father was a preacher in Austin, and Holly
Done would always call me Christmas morning to wish me
merry Christmas. And then again when I worked overnights in radio,
you never knew because some of the concerts that were over,
the artists would call you. I spent about fifteen minutes
one time talking with a very young and relatively unknown
(04:36):
at that time, lady by the name of Reba McIntyre
who had just finished a concert in Austin and called
me to want to know what the crowd thought of
the show, if there's any feedback and stuff. Yeah, that
was broadcast radio back then, in the seventies and the eighties.
And what have we done. Well, We've learned how to
(04:57):
make it bigger and brighter this entry, and we're constantly
reinventing ourselves. Good example is what I'm doing right now
with podcast podcasts. Yes, we can talk longer than twenty
seconds and not get in trouble anyway. Just to look
back exactly what happened, what radio was like back in
the seventies when I first started. And I'm looking forward
(05:18):
to celebrating my fiftieth anniversary in radio in just a
couple of years, and I hope that you'll be here
with me. Okay, Bob Picket Radio. Follow me on Instagram,
Bob Picket Radio. Of course, a YouTube channel, all of
these interviews Bob Pickett Radio on YouTube, and we'll see
you on the air on iHeart Country classic country stations
across this great nation of ours. Bob Picket Radio Podcast,
(05:41):
Thanks again for listening and thanks for letting me reminisce
I'm Bob Picking. Welcome to Bob Pikett Radio. Look back
at the past forty eight years. Well, it'd be forty
eight years I think in April. I mean I listened.
I just thought, I've been doing this a long long time. Anyway,
I saw something on Facebook the other day, and let
me tell you, this is how radio was when I
first started in the seventies. This is how we did
(00:20):
our business. Of course, we didn't have a lot of
modern technology back then. We could pre record our shows
and advance or anything. But the person who wrote this
on Facebook, man, he nailed it. So I'm just gonna
paraphrase it kind of let you know how the job
was back in the seventies, mid seventies when I started
in radio. And I think a lot of people, especially
(00:41):
in the business, can relate to this. Okay. I mean,
like I said, I've been on the air close to
fifty years. Back then, the songs were vinyl and you
had to make sure you had the right speed. I mean,
if you had the wrong speed, you had to talk
on the air until you corrected it and stuff like that.
And usually their turntables were off to your side and
you couldn't really move your microphone where the turntables were.
(01:03):
But yes, it was fun back in the old days.
There were no MP three files. I mean, there was
no computer automated playback systems. It was real stuff. It
was vinyl, it was records, and if a record skipped
on the air, my goodness, you were in trouble. Now
we used to put quarters or nickels on the turntable
armed to make sure they wouldn't skip like that. But
and you were also on the air for four to
(01:25):
five hours, and once the airshift began, you did not
stop moving until the next DJ came in to relieve you.
And a lot of times that next disc jockey would
be late. Now, I had a disc jockey that would
always go to a gentleman's club during the noon hour
when I worked Middays, and he was always late, supposed
(01:45):
to be on the air at three o'clock, he would
wander in right around three fifteen. And if you worked
at a station that was on the air for over
twenty four hours and you worked to say six pm
to midnight, and the jock wasn't in at midnight, oh yeah,
you would make the those phone calls where are you?
You're supposed to be up here. Anyway, that was the
good old days back then. I call them good old days.
Back then they weren't a lot of fun. But anyway,
(02:07):
but for the period of time on your airshia four
or five hours, your hands never stopped moving. We were
the ultimate multitaskers back then. I mean we had to
look at the clock. You had to time out songs.
If you had news at the top of the hour.
You had to be good at math, so you could
perfectly hit that. And you have a lot of fun
by what we call hitting the post on the earth.
What's the post? Well, that's that instrumental music that leads
(02:30):
up on a song to where the vocalist starts singing,
and oh yeah, And of course you had contest contest
back then, usually you would take the ninth or the
tenth collar and then you had about twelve roughly four
to five minutes to grab a razor blade and edit
that down and get that back on the air. You
(02:50):
talk about moving pretty fast. You never And another thing
that you learned to do back then, in the old days,
you learned how to go to the bathroom in two minutes.
Now you can imagine if you're in one place for
five or six hours. Either you've got to look for
a long song. We used to look for Bobby Bearry,
Jerry Joeff Walker songs all the time. Or you had
to time it where you could run down the hall,
(03:11):
do your business and come back before the song was over.
And how many jocks would make the mistake of walking
outside to take a smoke. I don't smoke, but a
lot of jocks would walk outside to take a smoke,
try to get back in the building and the door
was locked. True story, true story. But you know what,
it was just a lot of excitement. It was a
(03:33):
lot of excitement back in the old days. And you
had to be the authority on everything from weather patterns
to the name of background singers, to who wrote the song.
It was a lot of fun. And back then it
was vinyl and so you would depend a lot of
your knowledge and this is way before the internet. You
would depend a lot of your knowledge to be right
there written on the album cover or on the back
of the album cover. But let me tell you live
(03:54):
broadcast radio was so much fun back then. Now pay
so you had to work weekends, holidays, many times I
worked Christmas morning especially down in Austin radio. But the
payoff was great because you know who used to call
me every Christmas morning and wish me merry Christmas. Holly Done.
(04:15):
Holly Dunn's father was a preacher in Austin, and Holly
Done would always call me Christmas morning to wish me
merry Christmas. And then again when I worked overnights in radio,
you never knew because some of the concerts that were over,
the artists would call you. I spent about fifteen minutes
one time talking with a very young and relatively unknown
(04:36):
at that time, lady by the name of Reba McIntyre
who had just finished a concert in Austin and called
me to want to know what the crowd thought of
the show, if there's any feedback and stuff. Yeah, that
was broadcast radio back then, in the seventies and the eighties.
And what have we done. Well, We've learned how to
(04:57):
make it bigger and brighter this entry, and we're constantly
reinventing ourselves. Good example is what I'm doing right now
with podcast podcasts. Yes, we can talk longer than twenty
seconds and not get in trouble anyway. Just to look
back exactly what happened, what radio was like back in
the seventies when I first started. And I'm looking forward
(05:18):
to celebrating my fiftieth anniversary in radio in just a
couple of years, and I hope that you'll be here
with me. Okay, Bob Picket Radio. Follow me on Instagram,
Bob Picket Radio. Of course, a YouTube channel, all of
these interviews Bob Pickett Radio on YouTube, and we'll see
you on the air on iHeart Country classic country stations
across this great nation of ours. Bob Picket Radio Podcast,
(05:41):
Thanks again for listening and thanks for letting me reminisce
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