Life Changing Presents 2.0

Influential Gifts

Last week I shared about the Christmas present, a transistor radio, that changed my life, as a little boy living deep in the hills of West Virginia in the 1950s. And I told you I’d share another life-changing Christmas present with you this week.

I was 12 years old in 1962 and we had moved from the country into the town that was the county seat, so mom and dad could get to their jobs easier and I could walk to high school in the coming year.

Backing up the bus a little, Sept. 12, 1961 became a historic day in my hometown. Spencer’s first (and only) radio station signed on the air, WSPZ, a thousand watts of power by day and 250 by night. My transistor radio just increased in value exponentially.

I’ll never forget some of the popular songs of that time:

“Does Your Chewing Gum Loose It’s Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?” by Lonnie Donegan

“The Flying Purple People Eater,” by Sheb Wooly

You can look up those lyrics on Google. They are a hoot.

1961, that was a golden year of rock music. Songs you’ll remember, if you are old enough, from that year included:

“Let’s Twist Again” by Chubby Checker

“Hello Mary Lou” by Ricky Nelson

“Michael Row the Boat Ashore” by the Highwaymen

“Crying” by Roy Orbison

“Runaround Sue” by Dion

“Hit the Road Jack,” by Ray Charles

“Crazy” by Patsy Cline, written by Willie Nelson. She also had “I’ll Fall to Pieces” that year.

“Where the Boys Are” by Connie Francis

“Theme from Exodus” by Ferrante & Teicher

“Moody River” by Pat Boone

“Walk On By” by Leroy Van Dyke

I remember one song that year, when I would be listening to a big stand-up radio in our living room at night, I could roll clear through the dial and hear that song being played at the same time on a dozen radio stations.

It was “The Lions Sleep Tonight” by the Tokens. The DJs were wearing that song out.

That was real radio entertainment in those days.

I can’t remember if I begged for it or whether my parents just came up with the idea, but I was given a portable tape recorder for Christmas in 1962.

I set about, with my new prized possession, to practice being a disc jockey. I’d put my 45s on our record player and I’d introduce the songs as I played them. I’d record my own “radio show.”

I’d write newscasts and make up commercials to read. This would occupy me for hours.

Then, lo and behold, WSPZ started a program called “DJ for a Day” where they would take volunteer listeners to come to the station and do a one-hour show, picking the songs they wanted to play, announcing the songs and reading stuff. It was done live on a Saturday afternoon.

Several adults would do it, but I bugged them until they allowed this 13-year old boy to be a “DJ for a Day,”

I practiced and practiced with my tape recorder. Some of the other novice DJs came up with cute station breaks, so I pondered one for my show.

I came up with “This is WSPZ Radio, Spencer, W.Va., home of the only red light in Roane County.” It was kind of making fun of how small town we were, with only one stop light at the main intersection of the county seat.

I asked the engineer at the station that day what I’d have to do to become a real radio announcer. He told me I’d need a third-class radiotelephone license from the FCC. Soon after, I had my dad drive me to the state capital, Charleston, to take a test for the license, and I passed. I got a student work permit and bugged the engineer to get the station’s owner to give me a part-time job.

Just before I was given my chance, a guy named Tom T. Hall was a full time DJ at WSPZ. He left his job thinking he could go to Nashville and make it big. He did.

At age 13 I was running the control board of WSPZ. I was in what I thought was Heaven.

That same year, my mother had a debilitating stroke at age 44. So, I took working seriously. I had started working Sunday mornings at the radio station, playing gospel music and running the control board playing taped radio preacher sermons and helping local preachers who came to the studio to do live segments.

None of the full-time announcers wanted the Sunday shift, so it was mine.

Eventually they asked me to sign the station on each morning at 6 a.m. Like most radio stations in West Virginia, WSPZ was located on the highest hill around. Unless my father would drive me, I’d have to walk up that hill in the dark. I couldn’t get a driver’s license until I was 16.

At one point I was signing on the station at 6 a.m., working until 8, when I would dash down the hill to the high school. At 2 p.m. I’d go over to the G.C. Murphy Co., store and work as a stock boy until 5 p.m., grab supper at a next door restaurant and then make it back to the radio station to work 6 p.m. to sign off at 10 p.m.

It was a great life for me. By the time I was a junior in high school and driving, the engineer friend at WSPZ had moved on to a larger station, WCEF in Parkersburg. He got me a job as a weekend announcer there. I’d drive the 45 miles work Saturday, stay at a boarding house, work Sunday and drive home on weekends. It was great experience at a formatted radio station with 5,000 watts of power.

When I went off to West Virginia University to study journalism, I worked part-time at WCLG in Morgantown and a short while at WBOY Radio in Clarksburg.

But then, I turned to newspapers and left radio behind, but I’ve never lost my love for radio.

So you can see why I say two Christmas presents changed my life and contributed so much to my life-long career path.

Thanks for reading. Your comments would add a lot to this post.

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