How long have you been a RadioDJ or just a DJ?

[South Amboy TV]

I've been in and out of radio in various forms since 1969. First job was at KLTR in Blackwell, OK. (Last I heard it was KBWL, an ESPN robo-relay.) Had a moment at WAEB in Allentown, PA; loved it as kid, always wanted to work there. Did a few other local daytimers but liked paying the bills so set aside chasing radio.

Had a few Big Boy jobs before getting sucked into 'Spectrum' on short-wave WWCR with some friends, then fell into the Internet radio rabbit hole on Live365 with the award-winning "Lovin' An Elevator." (No brag, just fact.)

A few years back, the local cable station needed some volunteers, provided the background noise with SAM until that machine died and now running RadioDJ on the new box.

And here we are.

[mygeneration]

Started in 1976 when a friend and I hired a hall and disco equipment and invited all our friends to come and at the end tell us if we were so bad we were wasting our time!

They said we weren't, so off we went

Early 1990s hospital radio then online with My Generation which was the first online 60s show in the UK. (www.my-generation.org.uk)

Then community FM radio and now starting my own online station

[shawncochran]

I think my voice changed at 12! When I was 16, I called a local radio station as asked the receptionist "what does it take to be a DJ?" - after being transferred first to the Program Manager and then to the station General Manager, I was scheduled for an interview the next afternoon. I was hired and started a Saturday morning 6am - 10am shift. My senior year of High School, I wound up being the morning drive time on a 100Kw FM in the 98th largest radio market. A foolish mistake. I stayed in radio through school and eventually had to get a real job. My 7 year run in broadcast left a deep scar. That's the whole reason I set up RadioDJ four years ago. While originally it was to give me a way to not pay for mediocre sounding satellite broadcasts, it has become a passion to return to doing what I loved as a kid.... while keeping my day job!

[Chip Douglas Mosley]

I completely appreciate what you are saying, Shawn. I was in radio for almost 40 years when I got out and bought a small weekly newspaper because radio had become too "corporate" for me. When I retired on disability four years ago, I started looking into internet radio and thought it would be too costly to do. Then I found Radio DJ and I found a use for all those mp3 files I had on my computer. My station started out as a Part 15 FM then, at the suggestion of my ex-wife, I looked into getting on the internet, which I did three years ago last July 3rd. I'm loving every minute of it. I put together the oldies station I've always wanted to do, and I get to do it with no corporate supervision. I'm the owner, general manger, program director, music director, sometimes air talent, Chief Engineer and custodian.

www.jukebox927.com. I wouldn't have it any other way.

P.S. I'm still working on the website and I haven't figured out how to the get signal onto the cell phone app. You can listen on computers. The station is also on Simple Radio and Radio Box.

[mebo870]

In 1977 thuis enkele weken een piraat radio op FM begonnen en het radio virus opgelopen.
In 1981 bij een radiostation in de buurt gaan draaien.
1982 zelf een radio station uit de grond gestampt.
1984 overgestapt naar een ander radiostation, een paar jaar gedraaid, muziek moe gestopt in 88.
1989 mij weer laten overhalen om te komen draaien op een radiostation, 6 maand later een radiostation overgenomen tot 2004 en finaal gestopt, dacht ik....
ik hoop in de toekomst nog een nieuw radiostation op FM station te kunnen opstarten, voorlopig dus internet radio.

In 1977 I started a small pirate radio on FM at home for a few weeks and contracted the radio virus.
Turned to a nearby radio station in 1981.
1982 started our own radio station.
1984 switched to another radio station, played for a few years, stopped in 88 (music tired).
1989 persuaded me to come and play on a radio station, 6 months later a radio station taken over until 2004 and finally stopped, I thought....but Radio virus says NO
Now I hope to be able to start a new radio station on FM station in the future, so for the time being it's internet radio.

[131WebRadio]

Greetings all.

A new member on the site, so I'll use this thread as an intro.

I began a long stint as a DJ in discos/nightclubs in 1978/79, and worked consistently until around 1993/94, when I had just simply had enough of the lifestyle, and the music had changed to a point I was beginning to lose interest in playing it. In 2004 I discovered internet radio, and kicked off my first station, 'Cruize Radio'. By then I was working in the IT industry, so it gave me a chance to combine both of my passions, music and computers. I was also missing my old DJ days, so it was a perfect fit.

There has been some ups and downs with unreliable stream hosts, technology issues, and family commitments, through the years, and at one one I had three stations running, but then circumstances saw me give up internet radio for a while, but a while back I fired up Cruize Radio and Cruize Rock, through hosting with Spacial's SAM Cloud and after a period of that I got sick of what comes with it.

I made the decision to run both stations from a home studio, set up in a spare bedroom, and now have them running on RadioDJ.

Pretty happy about it too. Sound quality is great, being able to adjust the audio gain is a big plus side (now running DJ GaryBaldy's audio processing settings), and I find the crossovers are just the way I want them.....then there are all the other aspects of RadioDJ that make it a quality program, and a really good fit for my stations.

This forum has been a help with setup and config, so my hat comes off to all those who contribute here.

[DJ Garybaldy]

Pretty happy about it too. Sound quality is great, being able to adjust the audio gain is a big plus side (now running DJ GaryBaldy's audio processing settings), and I find the crossovers are just the way I want them.....then there are all the other aspects of RadioDJ that make it a quality program, and a really good fit for my stations.

Glad my sound settings are working for you... Took me a while to nail them down.

I know exactly what you mean about music changing beyond all recognition in the 1990s... I all but gave up DJ work around then to move away from my hometown and never got the chance to do any DJ work where I had moved to.

[wrm]

Probably not exatcly appropriate But I've never been a DJ. Actually no desire to be one either <lol> However in the early 70's I got a US Govt 2nd Class Radio Telephone License, then upgraded that to a First Class Ticket. Started in the Industry Installing and maintaining Radio Broadcast Lines and Studio->Transmitter Links. Then was Chief Engineer at a few different FM Stations mid 70's. At the time every station was required to have a First Class License holder available.

Developed a taste for programming languages in College and self taught SQL DBA. And contacted to a few LPFM stations to set up their studios. Only AM work ever done was completely on the transmitters.

Due to my adavnced age <LOL> I have a rather excessive collection of vintage vinyl pretty much everything Rock from 1965 through 1985 and a smattering of Classical and Jazz. So it was a natural fit to use RadioDJ to use to develop airchan processing systems to try and ovoid the over processed crap that plagued the industry in the 1980's.

[DJ Garybaldy]

But you still have a passion for Radio I guess that qualifies around here...

A great vinyl collection can be a thing of beauty!

[charlieobrien]

45 years of medium and large market radio in US and Canada. Three after retiring I started my RDJ station - that was 3 years ago. Still chugging along on version 2.0.0.6. Waiting for a NEW stable one. Please! Soon!

[Lotus]

I remember as a kid always wanting to be a radio DJ. I would stack 45's up to make a play list...make mix tapes for everyone. I would call and bug radio DJ with questions.

When I was in high school I got hired on to help setup/tear down equipment for a mobile DJ company and would get to spin records a tiny bit early before things picked up.

After high school I saw a cover band playing at a bar and they would play for 40 minute and the DJ would play for 20 minutes. The band was great but the DJ was horrible. I told the band I could do better. They said show up next Thursday and they would see how I did. I worked with them for a couple years. Then I started DJing a lot of other clubs on my own. The goal was still radio and in the late 80s I got hired on as a board op. They said show up at midnight. I showed up as did one other person. The DJ was like here is the board, here is the CDs. and these are carts. I will be in the next room for a while if you have any problems (nah. he left). About an hour in the other new guy said this is boring and left. I ran the board from midnight till 10AM (6am DJ didn't show up).

I ended up working in radio from the late 80s to 2000. I hosted/programed two alternative shows, I was a promotion director and production director and radio personality. I worked in Bakersfield, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara. I was the last generation of DJ to learn how to cut tape doing production and first generation to use digital editing. Back when it was so slow that when you went to mix in a audio track to a music bed it was 30 minutes to mix together and if you didn't like the level it was just as long to undo. lol.

I left radio seeing as how the industry was heading towards less DJ/more work/less pay. I still have some friends that have made the cut and are still working...they are troopers.
I am now putting together an online radio station and also putting together a 2 hour show to shop out to some friends still in radio to see about getting the show picked up by some stations.

[FlorestaFM]

Webradio 6 months, RadioDJ 2 months, music for life.
For me, my business (hobby) has been music, since I was a child.
But I never had the money to buy records and CDs.
I think I would have regretted spending so much money these days, so the internet was a revolution in my musical life.
I started about 10-15 years ago with music and records on the internet.
I ended up becoming a "hacker" in the search for disks mostly.
Jazz aficionado that I am, I downloaded thousands of records during this time, building a large library of mp3/flac files on external hard drives, somewhere around 5,000 records, prioritizing music reviews from magazines and books of the genre.
Now, the opportunity has arrived to set up a webradio using the Zeno platform, which is free of charge, because I still haven't managed to monetize my business, which for me serves me perfectly and I'm grateful for that.
I started with Winamp Shoutcast Source, where after several headaches and several sleepless nights (God only knows how much I insisted), I discovered RadioDJ by chance on the internet, which revolutionized my webradio.
The best webradio player in the world for sure.
Transmitted by version 1.8.2.0.
Very happy this time.

[DJ Garybaldy]

Sat here Chuckling away to myself like David Bowie's Laughing Gnome. 

March 1987 when I first got the chance to DJ using real decks and vinyl... 35 years I've been a DJ now how time flies.


I wouldn't say its all been plain sailing but I've had lots of fun over the years.

[DJ Garybaldy]

35 years ago TODAY I walked into a youth centre to be handed the keys to DJ booth

The previous DJ had got barred after a nasty fight the Friday before I became a DJ by accident.

35 years later my love for music is still strong its crazy to think its been that long.

Being a DJ used to a PIA with having to lump Vinyl everywhere (Where was RadioDJ in 1987 LOL)

[Doug Infinity]

10 years of pirate radio (40 watts @ 50ft above terrain) Got found by accident by the FCC.
20 years as a private events DJ. This was my day job.
Various experiments with online radio before there was such a thing. (Yahoo Messenger)

Now a pal and I are gettin' the band back together  - reviving our pirate station online.