![\"Kerry\"](\"https:\/\/widbnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Kerry.jpg\")
\n<\/a>The author in his natural habitat.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/i>Friends, I had some memorable experiences in my WIDB days, triumphs and tragedies alike.\u00a0 The day Slaga handed over the keys to the Program Directorship embodies the former, while the night John Lennon was killed is over-qualified for the latter.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s the silly things I remember best. They just seemed to be in the air at WIDB, ready to ignite at a moment\u2019s notice. \u00a0Some return in a flash as indelible images (\u201cJOEY RAMONE ATE THIS BREAD!!!\u201d) and some inspire a more substantial reminiscence.\u00a0 Below is one of a handful of my favorite silly WIDB episodes. \u00a0Fair warning: I don’t swear to recalling events exactly as they happened, etc, disclaimer, fog of war, blah-blah, woof-woof\u2026<\/p>\n
SILLY THING #1: MESSIN\u2019 WIT\u2019 YO\u2019 MIND<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>Its summer semester 1980 and Wright One is having air conditioning installed, so the studio has taken up temporary residence in the Student Center. Just the on-air studio, mind you; sales, administration, engineering and, most importantly for this story, production, remain In Da Basement.<\/p>\n Around eight o\u2019clock at night, a small gaggle of \u2018IDBers are hanging out at Wright One.\u00a0 Memory doesn\u2019t serve everyone who was there, but Chief Engineer Kent Lewin was definitely among them.\u00a0 Kent was a rock of seriousness and smarts at WIDB; all business, all the time and the absolute foundation upon which the rest of us merrily went about our station business.<\/p>\n I\u2019m also thinking Production Director Tim Cawley was present, for two reasons: Firstly, the man is natural born silly. When first I met Timmo, at a WIDB recruiting event in 1979, he wore a plastic helmet adorned with WIDB sticker and rotating red light, and a t-shirt that said \u201cRADIO WHORE.\u201d Secondly, he was perhaps the only other person at the station besides Kent familiar with the fundamentals of electronic mischief that were about to unfold.\u00a0 The more I think about it, because Kent = seriousness and Timmo = silliness, the latter almost had to have instigated the proceedings.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/strong>Seriously Kent Lewin \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/i><\/strong>Tim Cawley, Radio\u00a0<\/i><\/strong>Whore \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n Anyhoo\u2026Kent was there actually working while the rest of us milled about, talking and listening to \u2018IDB DJ Roy Millonzi do an airshift from the Student Center. Suddenly, for no other reason than we could, a decision was made to mess with young Roy\u2019s head.<\/p>\n Because the on-air studio headphone mix fed over to Wright One, then back to the Student Center, before reaching the DJ\u2019s ears, it was ripe for manipulation.\u00a0 Kent had a mischievous gleam in his eyes as he routed the studio\u2019s headphone mix through one of our state-of-the-art TEAC tape decks before sending it back to the studio (no doubt patching it into B).\u00a0 The decks were handily equipped with the ability to adjust speed and pitch on the fly and the next time Roy cracked open the mic, Kent began twirling the pitch-control knob hither and yon, causing the sounds fed into the studio headphones, and only the sounds fed into the studio headphones, to alternately speeduprealfast or s-l-o-w, w-a-y, d-o-w-n.<\/p>\n <\/i><\/strong>Despite being one of the station\u2019s ace DJs, Roy was no match for what was coming out of the headphones.\u00a0 Halfway through his first sentence, he paused for a moment, the last syllable reverberating into an Alvin The Chipmunk register. \u00a0He started up again, but fell silent for several seconds as his voice dissolved in muddy frequencies spilling down a drain.\u00a0 At last he made a tentative attempt to say just one word and Kent sent it spiraling crazily back to his ears. Roy dumped out of the stop-set and went back to music.<\/p>\n Seconds later, the engineering phone line lit up, Kent answering calmly on speaker.\u00a0 Roy was apoplectic. \u201cKent\u2026I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on\u2026the sound\u2026the headphones\u2026speeding up and slowing down!\u201d\u00a0 While we doubled over in stifled laughter, Kent replied with the verbal equivalent of a poker face, conveying concern, but telling Roy he had no clue as to what could possibly be causing such a thing. When the call was finished, we exploded in howls and tears.<\/p>\n Maybe it was because we felt bad for taking delight in a fellow DJ\u2019s confusion, or maybe the silly just dissipated, but by the time he attempted his next stop-set, the pitch-control was left untouched. I don\u2019t know that the trick was ever tried on anyone else that summer or if Roy was ever let in on the joke, but it was hands-down some Class A Silly from the annals of WIDB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mirth on Memory Lane by Kerry Peace (PD, DJ 1979-1981) The author in his natural habitat. Friends, I had some memorable experiences in my WIDB days, triumphs and tragedies alike.\u00a0 The day Slaga handed over the keys to the Program … Continue reading <\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/a>\u00a0<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Roy Millonzi: not prepared for the silly<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n