(I used to write a bi-weekly column, RadioRadio, for Players magazine in the Tampa Bay area. The following story appeared in 1990.)

How to Become a
  Baby Radio DJ

By Bob Andelman

Thom Youngblood of Tampa writes: "How do you get your foot in the door of a radio station? Is there an intern program? What schools are recommended or needed? My goal is to be an on-air personality, but I am willing to start at the bottom."

That, my friend, is the only place to start.

Radio is one of the strangest career choices in America. There is no set pattern, no aptitude tests, no perfect school or path. There is only ambition, luck and timing. But what do I know - I'm not in radio.

So I went into the Tampa Bay radio community and posed Thom's question to a collection of local air personalities. Hope this helps you, Thom - and any other baby DJs interested in a radio career.

Jim Rhinehart, WTMP (1150 AM), 11 a.m.-3 p.m.: "This is a unique market. There's people who have gotten into talk radio here just by being callers.

"With music, it's a stroke of luck or education. I got in through education, but there are many who did not. There are times I've hired radio people in Tampa (just because) they were inexpensive.

"If one is not interested in going to a university, I would suggest they do volunteer work at a community station. If they have talent, it will show there.

"Major markets like Tampa are tough to crack. This is a difficult market to get into. There are people in Lakeland who would love to get into Tampa. The surrounding markets are loaded with people waiting to get into major markets. If you look at the greater Tampa Bay market, you've got 75 stations. You can go to some Mom & Pop station and get experience.

"My bottom line to people is this: Don't go into radio. Get a real job."

Marvelous Marvin Boone, WNLT (95.7 FM), 10 a.m.-3 p.m.: "I get this call three or four times a week. Here's what I suggest.

"Find the smallest station possible, a little AM. Hang around. Offer your services. Take out the trash. Volunteer to drive equipment and employees to station promotions. 'You guys need anything?' It'll be for free, but you're inside. The whole key is to get inside. The rest of it - if you persevere and timing is with you, the rest just falls into place.

"If you're likable, reliable - most DJs are not. They're going to screw up. You've got a foot in the door. They'd rather have someone like you (fill in) than do it themselves.

"I went to broadcasting school in Cleveland - the Ohio School of Broadcasting. I can only recommend that school because here I am. They helped me a lot."

Scott Ledger, WXTB (98 FM), 2-6 p.m.: "My first advice is to stay out of radio.

"I went to one of those broadcast schools. It got my foot in the door. I made minimum wage for a while.

"Every market has a college or community station looking for volunteers. The more you're around it, the more you'll learn. Unless you're someone born with comedic talent or an effervescent personality from the start, radio is going to be something you work at. It's like sex.

"Be willing to work for low pay and start at the bottom.

"And you can't have my job. I like my job."

Charlie Logan, WYNF (95 FM), 2-6 p.m.: "Everybody gets into radio differently. There's no guiding path.

"I worked at the college station. Got out college, couldn't get a job in my field, communications. I was working in a club, spinning records, and I met a program director. He started me part-time and it became full-time.

"It's a lot of luck and meeting the right people along the way. It doesn't have to be big people. Just someone who likes you, sees your talent and is willing to advance you. It's that old time and place thing, generally.

"The best answer is to get involved as early as you can. We (WYNF) offer intern programs for both high school and college students."

Beecher Martin, WQYK (99 FM), Noon-3 p.m.: "There's a certain amount of talent involved but more often than not it's the sheer desire to be in the business. You've gotta wait till there's an opening and be there at the right time.

"Desire and timing - talent comes third on the list."

Bobby Rich, WUSA (101 FM), 3-7 p.m.: "I had a call yesterday - 'I want to get into radio, I'll do anything.' Well, you don't start in Tampa or Atlanta. You start in Bare Butt, Oklahoma and work your way up. Tampa Bay is not the place to learn radio although it sounds like some people are.

"I went to Brown Institute in Ft. Lauderdale. Good school. When you graduate, they place you.

"Another way to go is Podunk, Iowa. Offer to sweep the floors if at 3 a.m. they'll let you on the air."

Alicia Kaye, WRBQ (105 FM), 9 a.m.-2 p.m.: "I was a student at the University of Texas. My program was radio, TV and film. There was an ad in the paper that a radio station needed board operators. I didn't know what that was but I figured I could learn. The position was filled but they put me in research. That's a real good place to start.

"They had me calling people, asking what station they listened to. Then they had me doing commercials, then fill-ins, weekends and before I knew it I was a sidekick on a morning show.

"I got credibility without really having any. Of course, the morning man was making $100,000 and I was making $16,000, which shows you how badly I wanted to be in radio.

"Get an education. That way, with the uncertainty of radio, you at least have a well-rounded education. It helps you be a better-spoken person."

Wheeler Watch! Cleveland Wheeler made the switch to AM radio last week and he's doing exactly what he said he would if it happened.

The un-format.

The former Q-Zoo host is spinning music that fits his own taste, not a computer print-out's. That alone will make him the most envied jock in town - again. (You'd be surprised how many bay area DJs admit privately they can't stand the music they're paid to play.) And Wheeler is being Wheeler again - irreverent, funny, spontaneous. The pressure and downward spiral of the FM is over for him. No telling if anybody is listening, but there's no doubt Wheeler is milking it for all he can.

Here's a sampling of artists he played on his first day between 8 and 9 a.m.: Indigo Girls, Laurie Anderson, Chris Rea, Carly Simon, Jimmy Ryser, Oingo Boingo and Lou Reed.

"You see!" says Wheeler, an outspoken environmental activist, of Reed's mournful, "Last Great American Whale." "I don't have to say it anymore. The music says it!"

No telling how long this will last so all of you who complain radio doesn't play new music artists better enjoy it while you can. Of course, it could catch on ...

Success is the best revenge, as Ron Boyko says.

Bobby, He's a Rich Man! While talking to 101's Bobby Rich, I asked him what he thought of Q105's handling of Cleveland Wheeler. Until Rich was fired in March, he followed Wheeler on the Q.

"I don't understand their letting him go now," says Rich. "They should have let him go when they let go of everyone else. Now, when he's the only attachment to the past, they've let him go.

"Like I said to Cleveland last week, we worked at probably the greatest radio station for its time. We spent a lot of years there - 13 for me, 12 for him. We'll always have that. We were the station for the '80s. People in the business flew in from all over the country to hear what we were doing so they could copy it. We'll always have that."

As for himself, Rich says the transition to WUSA has been smooth and successful.

"I'm real happy here," he says. "Let's face it, I was doing adult radio at 105 for years. Now that they're not playing adult radio, all the listeners are here. It worked out fine."

Send Lawyers, Guns and Radios! The National Association of Broadcasters is soliciting contributions to buy military-approved radios for U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. If you can help, send checks or money orders payable to AIR/LIFT, Rockefeller Center, Box 5493, New York, NY 10185. For more information, call (212) 307-3126.

Hey, Hosehead! Greetings and salutations to our most distant reader, Joe Klich in Toronto, Ontario. Klich, who works at CFRB 1010, picked up Players on one of his quarterly trips to Tampa Bay.

If you're one of those people who always moans about music radio here, Klich says Toronto is much worse.

"Although there are some half-decent sounding FMs, regulation encourages failure," he writes. "For example, FM CHR is illegal as FM licensees can only play 40 percent 'hit music,' coupled with a 30 percent Canadian content rule which prohibits Canadian 'hits.' The CRTC (the Canadian FCC) is telling artists to make music, but don't let it become a hit because then we can't let the stations play it. Subsequently, popular music by Canadian artists gets more airplay on U.S. radio and Canadian radio gets stuck with having to play absolute trash by national artists in order to fulfill this ridiculous requirement. Stations must comply with strict format requirements and promises and cannot change their format without a hearing from the federal regulators. It is quite unreal."

Klich goes on in his letter to dissect the Tampa Bay radio market. He thinks Q105 has better music than Power 93, for starters. And he suggests 95 YNF needs to overhaul its night show.

More: "The award for the world's longest sell line goes to WNLT, 'The station everyone can agree on, at home, in the car or at the office, the best of the old, the best of the new, we're the bay's perfect music mix, not too hard, not too soft, WNLT 95.7.' It must take three T-shirts just to print their full slogan.

"The best radio I heard was Jay Marvin's talk show," he says, wrapping up. "I only heard it one night but it was hilarious - 'trailer bats' and the 'Q-tips' and 'grey panthers' that come down from the north. One fantastic show."

We here at RadioRadio control anxiously await Mr. Klich's next critique.

True Confessions! I must be getting old.

First came the thinning hair. Then the gray hairs and about 10 extra pounds I can't seem to shake. Only a few weeks ago I turned 30.

Now this !

The tuning knob on the portable radio in my office broke a few weeks ago. Every time I change the dial setting it's often difficult to figure out what station I've tuned to. This morning I was looking for 98 Rock and heard the Stones' "Satisfaction." Figured that's it. Pretty soon the song was over and a Jeffrey Osborne tune came on. That's okay, it's not 98, but I like Osborne. Another song comes on, kind of poppy, kind of jazzy. Not bad. What is this?

W101.

No kidding. I spent a whole hour listening to W101 and my only real complaint is the saccharine station jingles. The jock was a mite wooden, but that I can handle. The music selection was refreshing and not as dull as I recalled from previous encounters. But kill those sappy, wussy jingling IDs, okay?

And don't tell any of my younger, hard-rockin' friends about this, either.

More Secrets! While I'm giving away details about my listening habits, I might as well come clean entirely. Since WTKN (570 AM) trashed talk in favor of the Business Radio Network and I quickly tired of Rush Limbaugh and Lionel on WFLA (970 AM), I've been searching for a replacement talk station.

I've finally found one: WFNS, SportsRadio 910 (AM). If you're a sports fan like I am, you've got to give this station a whirl. Nanci Donnellon, Rick Serro, Mark Hagerty, Paul Porter and the rest are sports fans with the experience and dedication to make this hybrid all-sports format work. The endless stream of speculation and hyperbole will bring a gleeful tear to your eye.

Comings and Goings! As you know by now, Cleveland Wheeler's last FM gig at Q105 was Oct. 25. He ended his show with a distinctly anti-Zoo format R.E.M. song about the end of the world. As Bobby Rich put it, what were they going to do, fire him for playing it? ... Wheeler's first day on the AM (1380) was the next day, Fri. Oct. 25, the same day Mike Elliot was supposed to take over the Zoo. But didn't. Maybe he was nervous. Maybe it was a long flight in from Orlando and his arms were tired. ... That same day was also Blake Lawrence's swan song at the Wave (WHVE 102.5 FM). As we hinted last time, Lawrence is headed for bigger and better things. He's the new program director at WCDJ - "CD 96.9, Boston's Smooth Jazz." The station replaced beautiful music WJIB, also on Oct. 25. Lawrence's new employers, Emmis Broadcasting, own a few powerhouse stations, including KPWR in Los Angeles (where Jay Thomas presides over the morning show) and WFAN in New York (home of Don Imus and the all-sports inspiration for our own WFNS in Tampa). ... WHVE hasn't announced a replacement yet for Lawrence. ... Marvin Boone's home was robbed recently. ... Boone, incidentally, says WHBO (1040 AM) is not about to become an Imagination Station kiddie outlet. But as program director, he adds, he'd probably be the last to know. ... WNLT (95.7 FM) began broadcasting from its new studios on Thurs. Oct. 24.

Take a Letter, Maria! So much has happened in radio lately - can we talk? What do you think of the new Q-Zoo? The new Cleveland Wheeler? SportsRadio? How 'bout them Cincinnati Reds? Will those crazy kids, Tad and Dixie, ever get back together again? Drop us a line here at mission headquarters: RadioRadio, c/o Players, P.O. Box 1867, Pinellas Park, FL 34664 or fax it to us, baby, at (813) 578-1400.