The HEA Cafe

Hi all, and welcome to the exciting world of radio!  When I set out to write my first romance, I decided to stick with the old advice, “Write what you know.”  The most interesting setting I could think of was a radio station.  I worked at one for seven years, and my husband has been a disc jockey for (gulp!) over twenty years, so I was in familiar territory.  The result was LOVE ON THE AIR, which became my first sale to Avalon Books.

One disclaimer:  Neither my husband nor I have ever worked for a major-market radio station on the scale of, say, Los Angeles or New York.  By the time a disc jockey gets there, they may actually live in a world where they make a ton of money, work (or pre-record) their four-hour air shifts and go home, and have plenty of minions at their elbow to press the buttons and make their coffee.  I say, what fun is that?!

In the world I know, of medium-to-small-market radio stations, SO many more story ideas present themselves!  And that’s because most of the preconceptions we have about radio stations don’t hold true.  Maybe they do in those big major markets, but I wouldn’t guarantee it.  So I’ll start off by laying some of the common misconceptions to rest:

MISCONCEPTION #1:  Disc jockeys make big bucks.  Not usually, unless they break into one of the aforementioned big markets.  So, a lot of disc jockeys spend their careers moving to various parts of the country in search of better opportunities.  It’s also a very unstable business, in that radio stations are bought and sold, and formats change – today’s rock station could turn into tomorrow’s easy listening station, and management may feel that the guy who’s playing Metallica now won’t sound right back-announcing Neil Diamond.

MISCONCEPTION #2:  Disc jockeys choose the songs they play.  Oh, no.  The days of Alan Freed, boldly introducing the new music called rock ‘n’ roll by playing whatever he saw fit, are long over.  Radio stations use consultants to tell them which songs are likely to do well, and when to stop playing them if they don’t do well or have run their course.  The day’s songs are printed out each day on a computer-generated log, broken down by the hour and listed in order.  There may be a noon hour request show or evening requests and dedications, but even here, the jock must stay within the station’s music library.  And if there’s something lying around in there from 1963 that doesn’t sound right with the station’s format today, a jock who got caught playing it would get yelled at.  At the very least.

MISCONCEPTION #3:  If a band slips a tape to a DJ, it might get played on the air and lead to fame and fortune.  This would be rarer than hen’s teeth!  (See above.)  Plus, that jock would be in more trouble than one who played “Sunshine and Lollipops” on a death metal station.

MISCONCEPTION #4:  Disc jockeys do their air shifts and go home.  Even at a medium-market radio station, on-air staffers usually wear more than one hat.  The midday person might double as the music director – hey, someone has to follow that consultant’s instructions and enter those songs into the computer for tomorrow’s log.  Then there are those commercials to record.  And oh, those live appearances!

So, radio probably isn’t quite the way you’ve imagined it to be … but it IS an exciting world, easy to populate with great characters and conflicts.  Tomorrow we’ll talk about those fascinating folks who are probably the first people you think of when you picture a radio station:  the disc jockeys.

Any questions so far?  If there’s anything about radio you’ve always wondered about — “Is it true that…” — post your questions here and I’ll give them a shot!

Sierra Donovan
LOVE ON THE AIR, Avalon Books
http://www.sierradonovan.com