Radio Daze

I joined the college radio station as a freshman: WRVU, the student-run Voice of Vanderbilt, Nashville's Music Station. Album rock, special jazz, folk, and classical, news-of-the-hour. I'd originally joined to be a board operator, fascinated with all the buttons and lights (the studios of a Paris FM station, left, was my vision), but the station had their on-air talent operate the controls, so I became a DJ. As "Dashing" Dave Roberts, I lit up the late night airwaves with teeny-pop and oldies, migrating to the late afternoon drive-time slot. It was a wonderful experience: I made a lot of close friends and had a ton of fun.

Facebook started a WRVU Staff Alum group, and its been amazing to reconnect with all of the folks I knew. Some stayed in radio and enjoyed good ratings and careers, others went into related work in audio engineering or voice entertainment. Fred Buc, for example, hosts an oldies show on Lightning 100 that I can stream into the Netherlands on Saturday evenings (highly recommended while cooking dinner). It made me dig out the olde yearbooks from that forgotten era, and I was able to get some decent scans of the staff and facilities for the group photo page. We've all been trying to pin names on the players, swapping stories about who did what.

Of course, my daughter couldn't help but notice the activity. I was around 20 when this all happened, her age now, and she thinks it's a hoot to see what I looked like then. Even more so, the blonde woman next to Nick, Ben and I in the picture above was my girlfriend at the time.

"You had a girlfriend ?!?!" "But … she's cute ?!?" Yes, dear, yes: Dad was once a hot property…

'funny how we come full circle from not believing our parents were ever young. I still don't always understand how many years have passed, I don't feel that much different.