Bulk The Tape

We had just put our new FM on the air. Before we had had the only station in town, an AM. It was election night. Reagan was running for re-election. It was a new control room. I came in at 6pm to run the board. (I was being punished for telling the Owner where to go, so I was on the night shift). We only had one cart machine and a reel to reel.

There was a reel of tape on the R-R. The GM told me to put half of the commercials on reel and play half on the cart. I ASKED HIM IF THE TAPE HAD BEEN BULKED. He said "it's alright". Duh. I recorded half of the commercials onto the reel and left a few minutes of dead air at the end of the commercials. (safety margin). We were well into the broadcast. We would take UPI news at the top of the hour, followed by me reading the state results and then we would go to the remote at the courthouse for the local results. Everyone must have had their ears glued to the NEW RADIO STATION.

I had played the last commercial on the tape and then a cart. "And now live from the G....County Courthouse, here's soandso." I turned up the pot to the courthouse and soandso starting talking. I checked off the commercials on the log and then started listening to soandso and realized he wasn't saying ANYTHING about the election. WEIRD? All of a sudden he says "OH F**K". The only thing I could see was the VU meter going into the red on the f-word. He proceeded to cuss and gripe and I turned of the pot to the courthouse but he just kept on talking!

Finally I took the whole board off the air. You probably have guessed what had happened. The reel had reached the end of the blank space and was playing the new news director (soandso) trying to finish a newscast without making a mistake.

There was about 3 minutes of dead air before we figured out what was going on. If soandso had said even a single word from the courthouse I would have known immediately what was going on. BUT NO!!.

The look on the GM's face at the door was a combination of horror and humor. When I got home that night I laughed for a half an hour imagining what the listeners must have thought.

OOPS!

Paul