Public Radio DJing
I had the opportunity to try my hand at a different type of DJing during high school as well at the local public access radio station. I sent away for my NCE license from the FCC so I could broadcast on the air non-commercially. For several weeks I was given an afternoon slot a few days per week. It was a classic rock format station mostly and despite asking for my own late-night show, I never got so much as a second glance from the production manager. I suspect he didn’t like me very much.
I wasn’t well liked by the other people at the station because I had a lot of fun on the air. My talk times were too long and I BS’d about stuff in every song break I could get. I was told I increased the listenership by 80% during that time slot while I was on, and I later found out that many of my teachers and friends were listening to my show. I was fun to be complimented by people around town I didn’t know and have so many people starting ‘inside jokes’ with me without any prompting on my part.
When I first came up to Portland after high school, I started at U of P and immediately inquired about starting a station with the school, even if it was one of those lower power, over the wire type systems for on campus use only, but never really got anywhere with it. I was thinking of getting involved with a local public access radio station, but then I found the Internet would probably be my next big broadcast opportunity. Perhaps some day it still will be.