Radio

I’ve was heavily involved in radio, primarily as an avocation, from 1983 to 2001.  I’ve held just about every role “studio side” you can fill at a radio station, from DJ to program director.

As I am typically driven to do, I have combined my computer science technology, experience as a professor, and background in radio broadcast and production to create (…drumroll…) radio programs that educate about computers.

The program “Computers with Dr. Craig” was a daily “strip feature” that aired on about 10 radio stations across the state of Mississippi Monday through Friday.  Each week focused on a different theme, and each day a different topic in that theme.  Here are some example programs – keep in mind they are from the years 1997-2000, so some of the commentary will be necessarily dated:

I also guest-hosted on talk shows.  Here’s a recording from when I hosted the Paul Gallo show on WFMN in Jackson, Mississippi around 1999, I think.

In 2001, I pitched a technology show to KLBJ-AM and actually did two pilots in November of that year.  The show didn’t gel because there was no way for me to make money on it other than selling bartered advertising time.  Here’s a sample.

Of course, I had radio gigs where I was just a DJ, and they spanned many musical styles.  Here’s a few “airchecks” to give you an idea of how I sound on the air.  (These are “telescoped” meaning that the recorder was only active when my mic was opened.)

Finally, my production skills were always put to good use.  Here are some example commercials:

And, as program director of WHJT in the mid-1990’s, I was also the person who composed, sequenced, and created the overall musical logo image for the station.  An archive of that body of work can be found in this archive.

My radio skills have recently come back into service at Gartner as a host for podcasts and other audio/video content production.

Here’s a complete (I think) list of stations I’ve worked for over the years:

  • WHJT-FM, Clinton, Mississippi.  Sort of “brackets” my radio experience.  This commercial station is owned by Mississippi College. I learned radio there as a student in the mid 1980’s when it was “FM 93”, and later became the program director of “Alive 93-5” when I returned as a professor in the 1990’s. Here’s a link to some of the image production I did during the later stage.
  • WMSI-FM, Jackson, Mississippi. “Continuous Country, MISS 103!”  This 100KW FM blasted over 2/3 of the state, and I typically took weekend airshifts, although I also sub’d for other DJ’s during the week in the mid-to-late 1980’s, as well as did a fair number of commercial productions.  Even when I was living in Nashville, I would come home for the holidays and be asked to work shifts at MISS 103 – and I always enjoyed it!
  • WJDX-AM, Jackson, Mississippi. “62-JDX” was my favorite station growing up. I got to work many weekend and some weekday shifts, primarily because it was a sister station of WMSI-FM.
  • WTYX-FM, Jackon, Mississippi. “94-TYX” hot FM, typically only on the weekends in 1984 and 1985 originally under my real name, but later forced to take on an alternate name of “Bob Underwood” because the new PD didn’t like me being on WHJT at the same time.
  • WRLT-FM, Brentwood, Tennessee. “Lite 100 FM” and later “Radio Lightning” was a small 3,000W FM broadcasting into Nashville from a small town in the south burbs. I hired was hired in 1989 as a weekend jock during the “Lite 100” days, and was there when we made the switch to “Radio Lightning” in 1990.  I created many of the original Radio Lightning logo sounds, like a lightning strike followed by thunder.  What a cool gig!
  • WRMX-FM, Nashville, Tennessee. “Oldies 96.3” was on the 16th floor of the United Artist Tower on Music Row – we had to do our shifts standing up, and all music was still on cart.  I don’t remember much about my Ph.D. dissertation (like, writing it) but I do remember those air shifts high above the city 1990-1991.  Originally hired in as overnight jock, and became main weekend jock and main fill during the weekdays. A fun gig, too!
  • WJDX-FM, Jackson, Mississippi. “Mix 96” – After I returned to Mississippi in 1992 following graduate school, I once again worked at WJDX, but the call letters had been re-assigned to an FM signal, and the format revamped as straight Adult Contemporary.  Only weekend work, as my “regular” job at the college kept me busy during the week.
  • WFMN-FM, Jackson, Mississippi. “SuperTalk 97.3” was our flagship station for both “Weekend Magazine with Jill McClure” and “Computers with Dr. Craig”.  I also appeared numerous times on the Mary Weiden show talking about computers and technology.
  • KLBJ-AM, Austin, Texas. I pitched a weekend technology show to KLBJ back in 2000 and actually did two on-air pilots that November. However, they couldn’t pay me, and I had no time to sell bartered air time, so it didn’t become permanent. That, and Kim Kommando came onto the scene about that same time.  This pretty much marked the end of my radio career.