A little bit of radio in my life!
By George Johns
When your a runner there is a saying that goes, just run the mile your in.
In radio that translates to … The only on air break that counts is the one your doing right now!
When President Obama is talking about all the hard working Americans, he’s not talking about government employees is he ?
I’ve always been a promo freak because I guess it is true you are where you came from. I’ve always felt there are two mixes, the group mixes, that’s where the singer(s) is no louder than the band or the one I prefer the ”
Elvis Mix ” You use the Elvis Mix only if the words are important and need to be heard.
No band ever drowned out The King.
Mel Karmazin told me on the phone that he didn’t want to meet me unless I wanted to sell him my radio stations.
A couple of years ago on Memorial Day my brother Reg and I were standing out side a store in an out door mall in San Diego waiting for his wife Savvy and their daughter Christina to finish up shopping when we were approached by a young woman who asked us if we wanted to try this special lotion she was selling from a nearby kiosk.
We noticed she had a slight accent and asked her where she was from. Turns out she was form Israel and was kinda just working and touring her way across America before she headed back home to Israel.
When we asked her how she liked America so far, she said she found it to be a strange place.
In her country she claimed, on Memorial day people went to the grave sights of fallen soldiers and it was a very very sad day.
In America she said, Memorial Day just seems to be an excuse to have another sale was her sad comment on us.
I wonder who the “they” are in … They say …
As my Daughter Candis told an attentive group the other day at her Son Nathaniel’s school … You are who you are, not who you marry.
Is it the singer or the song ?
Is it the welfare of the troops or the accomplishment of the mission, do we finally have that answer ready yet?
When I took ski lessons years ago the instructor had me on the bunny hill the first day, scary stuff. The next day he dragged me up to the middle of the mountain. Real scary stuff all I did all day was fall down.
Next day he takes me kicking and screaming all the way to the top of the mountain for the last day of my lessons.
Are you kidding me, I don’t know why I even bothered to try and stand up because soon as I did I was back down again. I couldn’t believe I was paying big money just to look this stupid and be this frightened.
But for the rest of the week I skied the middle of the mountain with no problem and I even ventured up to the top again and made it back down with only a couple of small problems.
This experience taught me a huge radio lesson, if you don’t try something new on the radio that scares the hell out of you the chances of you becoming a great radio person are as they say … Slim to none.
Jimmy Darin’s prediction made years ago at one of my first jock meetings turned out to be oh so true. The Beatles had just changed the world on the Ed Sullivan Show the night before.
At the meeting the next day he said, this will end top forty radio as we know it. In fact he went on to predict that there would only be one in each market and maybe none in some because even though the British Bands all sound very different to the kids, they all sounded like The Beatles to all the adults.
Adults need variety he said and they are not going to get any for a long time now.
I learned a long time ago that people watch television they don’t listen to it. That knowledge sure helped me select what kind of TV spot I was going to use for my radio station.
People listen to the radio they don’t look at it, but occasionally you need them to look at it or you just fade away.
Being the artist type and I say that very loosely I have been in a few business deals where I guess I had no idea what was going on.
All I know is at the very beginning of each deal the money guys always claimed that there was no deal without me and in fact they were taking out key man insurance on me.
But at the end of each deal when it was time to split up the profit, somehow they could never remember what I did.
Does anybody know what the hell those people are saying over the out side speaker in the drive through lane of McDonald’s
It is very possible to reinvent yourself, I know I’ve done it several times.
You can get over love, I know I’ve done it several times.
I’ve always loved doing radio from the outside looking back in.
It looks and sounds totally different out there, and a lot less politics.
I’ve always been a student of radio but lately it hasn’t been teaching me much.
If you do every show only for people who don’t know who you are or what the hell your talking about you will soon be a STAR.
I did another check and I still hate the word no, but I’m sure I’ll come around soon, it’s a very popular word these days.
Walt Disney was smart enough to get someone better then him to continue the drawing of Mickey Mouse.
Now that Cumulus is installing cameras in their radio stations, I wonder if any of what they capture will show up on the porn channels?
Good product produces a lot more revenue than good sales does.
Angels and Demons are always talking to gifted people trying to get them to do things. Unfortunately for the gifted, they use the same voice.
Mr. Fairbanks once told me that what America needed was stronger rats.
Francine Reed once sang to me … “Wild Women Don’t Get The Blues” and she meant it.
Would someone tell the oil barons that the long weekend is long over and they forgot to lower the prices again.
More at www.georgejohns.com
