As graduate assistant/station manager, I was the one to lead but not be as hands-on as I had been just a semester before. I think I adjusted to this role fairly well, though I still liked to have a little fun from time to time. Case in point: promotions. My undergraduate radio station never had a strong operations section – promotions, traffic, and so – as those tasks would be divvyed up among student management and seldom carried out to their fullest potential. The other station, where I was in graduate school, was the opposite, where regular meetings were held about the subject organized by a group of interested students and led by the station manager: me.
The year I was there it was decided that we would make some 8½ x 11 flyers to advertise some of the music formats and news and sports broadcasts; students were to come up with drawings or designs during the next two-to-three weeks and then come together to share, pick their favorites and then get my approval. After that I had to walk them across the street to the student center and get them permitted by the Department of Student Activities. All they did was date-stamp an approval on the paper, which meant we could make copies on fluorescent-colored paper and hang them on designated kiosks on campus without danger of them being removed until the end of the semester.
Long story short: I forget the flyers other people came up with. I, on the other hand, wanted in on the fun and found, with my creative juices flowing, a stack of ancient Broadcasting magazines stuffed into a corner of the basement. Deep in the bowels of the building was a maze of doors, some leading to generators and power supplies, while others led to offices for graduate assistants and the easily-forgettable adjunct faculty. Here is where I raided the dusty periodicals and cut out random pictures to go with some strange concepts:
- Joe Isuzu noting the best two things that ever happened in his life were Whitesnake's David Coverdale and the rock music played on our station.
- The top half of a bald man's head, with the phrase "Ad-libbing is talking off the top of our head," for a flyer promoting our live sports talk show.
- A full-page advertisement for something about Daniel Boone. I replaced the actual ad copy with the phrase, "If there was radio when he was around, he'd listen, too."
Without a doubt, the oddest flyer I made was of the aforementioned Sevareid, in his later years and seated at a desk; I added a speech balloon that said something like, "I digs the jazz. I like being able to listen to it wherever I go. From what I hear, you can too."
And what jazz was this station playing? A better selection than my undergraduate station had, that's for sure. This station didn't sign-on until 10am and featured six hours of music, much of which I wasn't too familiar with. Michael Brecker however was a familiar name and sound to me and I remember seeing his album, Now You See It...Now You Don't, in the studio on various occasion, memorable for its M.C. Escher cover and associated title track.
As expected, everybody found the Leisure flyer funny; also expected was that none of the students of this communication department would recognize Sevareid. And why would they? David Coverdale jokes are funnier. Jazzier, even.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Escher Sketch (A Tale of Two Rhythms)
(Brecker)
Michael Brecker
From the album Now You See It...Now You Don't
1990
(Instrumental)