This is the 3rd posting in a series of installments this month.
Today marks the 6th anniversary of the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks. A very reflective kind of day. The weather in Chicago is much the same as it was on Tuesday 9/11/01. It also has that back-to-school crispness in the air which puts me back to an earlier time, 9/11/82 to be exact.
It was a Saturday – the first night of the brand new Chris and Dave Smorgasbord radio show. The pressure was high. We had been promoting the show for a couple of weeks and we knew we were going to have many listeners on opening night. Outside of doing a few promos together, Dave and I had never really been on opposite sides of “the glass” before – the divider between the two studios. We certainly did not have the rhythm or timing down in our back-and-forth banter. Looking back from 25 years later, I think we did alright on opening night. It was the start of something big – not only would we go on to produce more than 50+ shows together, but we would also go on to form a pretty solid friendship that lasts to this day.
A couple of standout moments from the first show – The HPs’ (abbreviated for “Hop On Pop”) performance of Dr. Seuss’ “Mr. Brown Can Moo” and the debut of ‘Homework Hotline’ (where we received a gameshow bell later in the week from the first contestant, who ended up becoming my girlfriend for 3 years after that).
At this point, I felt Dave had more control over the show, both in terms of execution but strategic direction. Not only did he work the controls, and answer the phones, but he chose essentially all the music. This is why lots of Frank Zappa, rare Zeppelin tunes, and Al DiMiola ruled the airwaves (of course, at this time I was still very much into Styx, Queen, ELO and REO, so I am not sure what would have been better).
I close for now wishing all a Happy Anniversary, especially to those who supported us on our first day! I will make one more posting later this month where I will discuss the fallout/aftermath of our first couple of shows, including our first run-in with management which almost ended our show for good after week #2.
Cheers.
– Webmaster Chris
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