Alternative Famous Firsts
Randy Slack
PD/Morning Show Host
WRMR (Modern Rock 98.7)/Wilmington-Greenville, NC
Overnights at B-105 in Cincinnati.
Cletus T Judd at the Pike County Fair. I got on stage and sang.
POD, The Fundamental Elements of Southtown
Chad Smith of the Chili Peppers. I don’t have the audio from that anymore, but I was super nervous because I had no idea how to interview artists, but the 15 minutes in the bowels of the PPG Paints arena flew by. Chad told me a story about how Anthony saw Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and was inspired to add Brandy to their set list of their European tour. The fans over in the UK didn’t recognize the song, so they just confusingly watched. Chad said it became a palate cleanser, and that they would make it a game to try to get the crowd back after playing it.
I fell asleep at the board during a Cincinnati Reds game. Woke up to just ambient stadium noise. Shoutout to Marty and the Cowboy for staying quiet til they heard spots.
Alan Cross
All-round radio, podcasting, and alt-rock guy
About a dozen Corus Radio stations (The Edge/Toronto, Q107/Toronto, Y108 Hamilton, Power 97/Winnipeg, The Edge/Calgary, CFOX/Vancouver, The Wolf/Peterborough, Dave/Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge, CHED/Edmonton, CJOB/Winnipeg, and more)
Not counting the campus closed-circuit radio gig that had me broadcasting for an hour a week to an often-empty hallway, it was CFQX-FM/Selkirk, Manitoba. It was a 5000-watt elevator music station broadcasting from the middle of a wheat field and across the street from a mental health facility.
KISS! Winnipeg Arena on July 21, 1977, with openers Cheap Trick.
Elton John’s Greatest Hits Vol.1 for $4.99 using funds from my paper route. My mother was FURIOUS that I would waste my money this way.
Harlequin (a very popular Canadian band who played my high school) in 1979. Bass player Ralph James later went on to become one of Canada’s most powerful agents. We see each other a lot.
Out in the wheat field radio station, I misjudged the length of a bible tape. I stepped out to get a Big Mac while it ran. But the station was so poorly rated, I doubt if anyone even noticed.
Lynn Barstow
Program Director
KROX (101X)/Austin
Callout research/programming grunt at KTKS Dallas-Ft Worth.
Springsteen 12/8/78 (E-Street Radio on SXM was playing it just last night!). My big sis took me. She hated it, but she hung in there.
I dabbled in both Country and shitty 8-Tracks as a kid, but the first vinyl rock record was Utopia’s Adventures In Utopia (first purchased CD was Queensryche’s Empires, but you didn’t ask that LOL).
Book Of Love, Rio Grande Valley, TX.
It may not have been the first, but the most memorable early one: Night #1, overnights at KKYS Bryan-College Station, TX. The radio station was in a mall, and during a song, I ran outside through a set of unlocked double doors to grab something from the car. I came back to “the doors” immediately & found them locked. Completely distraught, I started thinking about what I’d do for my next career, before realizing that I’d come out a different set of double-doors. Got back to the studio to a turntable thumping along at the end of a 45 record. No one ever knew.
