Middle of fh
e roa
frustratin
By Ron Wylie
1 1116 is KRNU. We call tills show Kaleidoscope.
It's nine-oh-six and counting . . . For those of you on
the NU campus, we'd like to remind you that the
Peace Corps and Vista people are on campus today."
There is a radio station on the second floor of
Avery Hall. I do time there every Monday morning.
It's not exactly KOMA or WLS, but then, I'm not
exactly Wolfman Jack.
I show up a little early and watch through the
booth window as Russ Schneemeyer puts the
finishing touch on his show. He's playing "No. 9
Dream" and wondering if he really wants to read a
weather forecast that's five hours old. We make a
deal. If he'll cue Neil Diamond's "I've Been This Way
Before" (number 21 on the KRNU "Top 30") I'll go
into the teletype room for the current weather and
forecast.
ABC 'Contemporary Radio' News comes on, then
Russ does his last weather trick, hits the station ID
cartridge, starts the record, and then ... I'm on.
For all who have never heard of KRNU and most
haven't-it is the university radio station,
broadcasting on 10 watts of power at 90.3 on your
FM dial, as we say.
KRNU claims a broadcasting range of 22 miles.
But some poeple say that on a clear day you can get
it in Cather Hall. .
Neil Diamond has given way to Al Martino's
"Door to the Sun," and then I do my "nine-oh-six"
routine before starting this week's number three hit,
"I'm a Woman."
Christmas '67
While I'm settling down to my morning's work and
listening to Maria Muldaur halfheartedly whine
". . .W-O-M-A-N, I'll say it again . . " Gary Wergin,
the station's student assistant music director, comes
into the booth with albums.
I'm not really sure how Gary parcels out the
station's 33s, but I seem to get a lot of "Sing Along
with Mitch" and "Ahmad Jamal Plays Dr. Dolittle"
for my time slot.
This morning I reminisce aloud to Gary about the
first time I heard "I'm a Woman." I was sitting in the
sun, surrounded by about a thousand GI's, watching
Bob Hope and Company do their Christmas '67 show.
Barbara McNair was singing that song. Perhaps it was
the heat, or the combined effects of 1 1 months in a
place that makes Florida seem like a desert, or
perhaps it was a dozen factors all in one, but I've
loved that woman ever since, and I really like that
song.
I cue up "Sad Sweet Dreamer" and then I'm on
the air: "OK . . . now that we've got the blood
running a little faster, and a little adrenalin running
through your bodies . . . it's time to sell you
something . . . ."
It's public service announcement time, known
around KRNU as PSA. This particular PSA is typed
out in a strange pattern and looks like a piece of
metered verse, and I'm almost tempted to read it that
way. I mention that oddity and go on to sell the
Public Health Service's position on the evils of
smoking (cigarettes that is).
I no sooner finish the PSA and hit the cartridge
machine for another PSA about railroad crossings
when my telephone rings. KRNTJs program director
has just caught my remark about "selling something"
and he reminds me that this is a public service radio
station and we don't sell anything. Boy, you could
have fooled me.
Weather reports
"It's 24 and cloudy in Lincoln. There's a 40 per
cent chance of precipitation today, and more snow
forecast for tomorrow. Right now it's 9:20 at
KRNU." And Joe Cocker wails "You Are So
Beautiful."
I'm more careful about weather reports than I
used to be. One day, I was busy in the booth and
couldn't go out for another weather report. So, I just
kept upgrading the one I had, moving the
temperature up a few degrees every hour and
breaking up the early morning cloud cover. After
three hours on the air, I finally walked outside . . ,
into a blinding snowstorm.
Number 23, Carole King's "Nightingale" is
turning, I can't find a tape I'm supposed to play, and
the station engineer comes in and tells me something
about the tape machine and the station's power
which I don't understand and promptly forget. I cue
up B J. Thomas, "Hey, won't you play "
Looking over our collection of survey extras, I
find something called "Sailing Away on the Thin Ice
of a New Day" by Jc thro Tull. The title grabs me.
Often I'll play something I haven't heard before
simply because it has an unusual or freaky title. I'll
bite on something like Buck Owens "Ain't No Milk
and Honey in Baltimore," or "Do You Remember
What I Told You to Forget?"
So far, with that mariner of selection, I've been
perfectly consistent. I get burned every time.
And, it's Sports Tine on KRNU. I switch to the
sports theme and flip the switches so the newsroom
broadcasters can do their thing, and . . . nothing. I've
got ten seconds of dead air. I bring up Frankie Valli's
"My Eyes Adored You" and wait for a visit from the
program director. I usually don't see much of him,
but today's been my day to be closely monitored,
and very little has gone right. Ergo, the program
director and I get acquainted.
Middle of the road
We begin the sports program, find the lost tape,
arrange the cartridges in the PSA pattern he likes, and
solve the nation's energy crisis all in about sixty
seconds, and I cue up number seven, "Can't Get It
Out of My Head."
This hour, between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m., I'm
playing all odd-number selections in the "Top 30."
That's station policy. Next hour, all even-numbered
records.
During the daylight hours we have what is called
an MOR format. That stands for "middle of ie
road" and includes some selections from the "Top
30", show tunes, Frank Sinatra, and some country
and western hits. Not all of the "Top 30" hits qualify
as MOR and we are supposed to be careful to stay
inside the format. The management doesn't want to
startle little old ladies with the "Bertha Butt Boogie"
at 9:45 a.m.
I read an updated weather report, play the Eagle's
"Best of My Love" and start wondering just who is
listening out there?
Gary Wergin tells me the mail comes from older
people in the community who are interested in the
classical music, particularly the station's airing of the
Metropolitan Opera. As far as promotion, he says,
KRNU does none and has no budget for it.
Continued on pg. 14
AJUUULlJUUUULO.gXO-8.gJ.t
Wine & Beer Specials
Oly 12 pak - warm
Chianti 'gallons, mix or match
Rhinegarten c
Vin Rose 2" each 2 for 441
Gary's Bottle Shop
3Afh & A
Do your Piping
( selection that is )
at the
Water Bed Co.
1032 "P" St.
sr.
"Walker, saw my first halter of
Spring today."
"Where Gabe?"
"On a horse."
'Let's have another Falstaff. "
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friday, march 14, 1975
daily nebraskan
page 7
