Alternative Famous Firsts
Lexi Ziccardi
On-Air Afternoons / Promotions Director
WEDG (103.3 The Edge)/Buffalo
Board op for WBEN 930 AM.
NSYNC at "The Ralph", totally epic.
When I was in first grade my mom got me out of school early and took me to the store to buy the Brittney Spears, Oops I did It Again CD. It was the year 2000.
When I first became a talent on Alternative Buffalo in May of 2017, we held our big summer festival Kerfuffle in June. After only being on-air a few weeks, Nik Rivers threw me in to interviewing the Mowglis. The band is from California...and my first question was "how's the weather in California"... They laughed with me but I was as nervous and embarrassed as I ever could be.
Back when I was a middayer on Buffalo's Star 102.5, we had just built a "fishbowl" studio in the front lobby so listeners could see us when we were on-air. I didn't know it worked like a remote access, and went on the air without switching the station over. I had to run to the other side of the building to turn my mic off after 2 full minutes of dead air. At the time I was the youngest in the building on the air, and felt like a total rookie.
Brian "Hammer" Panerali
Afternoons
KXTE (X107.5)/Las Vegas -- (Bonus Stations: KFRR (New Rock 104.1)/Fresno Afternoons & WMTE (Eagle 101.5)/Manistee, MI Weekends)
Promotions Assistant at WXRK (K-ROCK) in NYC
Weird Al @ The Bottom Line in NYC (It'll also be my son's first concert in June here in Vegas)
Well, it was a cassette... Weird Al’s self titled debut, (notice a trend?) which was already four years old at the time but it was brand new to me! I ended up listening to it so many times I had to get a replacement.
By the time I got to Phoenix I had already interviewed a lot of "up-and-coming bands" but my first big "real interview" was easily Kurt Hammond from Metallica... They were doing a show down in Tucson and my PD at the time (the great Steve King) asked me if I wanted to go down there and talk to him... a question to which the answer is always “YES!”... the venue didn’t have a lot of room for us to sit down and talk so we ended up having to go to a supply closet sitting down about a foot away from each other... Ended up talking to him for a good 45 minutes, easily one of the top 5 most down to earth, laid-back coolest, artists I’ve had the pleasure talking to.
WBAB/Long Island, NY... first time cracking the mic during the weekend overnight shift. Talking up the ramp of a Led Zeppelin song and ended up running over the vocals... I was so pissed at myself that I threw together an epic string of curse words, only to realize that I had accidentally left the mic on... 2AM on Monday morning... no phone calls, asking me what I just said, no listener reports to the program director. Talk about the luck, I ended up working there for another two years, thankfully. Dead Air? No, but it could’ve possibly turned into a dead career for me! Sorta the same thing, right?
The Rev
Mornings
KFRR (New Rock 104.1)/Fresno, CA
95.1 KDJK Oakdale, CA.
Club show - 7 Seconds & Operation Ivy. Arena show -Tom Petty & The Replacements.
John Cougar (45) “Crumblin’ Down”
Not sure, maybe Sugar Ray or Smash Mouth. Both bands cussed live on-air. I was not ready for that. The next year we recorded them first. LOL
LOL had a terrible cold/flu was doing overnights on KDJK. Engineer woke me up. I had fallen asleep for about 6 minutes. Luckily he was coming in to do some work. I think I drooled on the board! HAHAHAHAHA
