KKOR Gallup, New Mexico Summer of 2001

Ever try to do everything yourself?

Listening to this aircheck really makes me think "be careful what you wish for...you just might get it"

This is some really early audio from my career.  KKOR was only my second full time radio job.

My good friend Dave North gave me a chance and moved me out to Gallup and I started as mid days and music director.

Dave wised up about the mess we were in faster than I did...well because I thought I knew everything.  It turns out the day he quit was also the day our morning guy put in his two week notice.

So this gig now turned into my first time as Program Director.  I found myself not only doing the music for the station, I was also doing imaging for the first time, and also doing the morning show.  On top of this I was given a career part timer who hitch hiked to work, a writer from the newspaper, and a former air traffic controller to pull all of this off.  So here I am trying to teach everyone good radio and I couldn't even pull it off myself.

This was also the first station that I did voice tracking on.  The process used at the time was very complicated and hard to master.  You will for sure tell by how "un natural" that it sounds.  I also had a lot to learn and thankfully did sound better later in my career.

I was hesitant to post this audio, but after listening to it you could really hear my programming style start to develop. I was very aggressive when it came to music.  I played lots of new stuff and kept the gold to a minimum.  Some more of this will be evident in further audio posts from KKOR.

It was all a learning experience for me and it showed in my later Hot AC stations KDAO in Marshalltown, Iowa and WZVN in Lowell, Indiana.  You could even hear elements of it in my classic rock stations.

I hope you enjoy this peek into radio in Gallup, New Mexico 2001.  Some of the edits are a bit rough...but I think overall its worth a listen!

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