"The Spy" to return to Oklahoma radio
Five years ago, 105.3 FM "The Spy" left the airwaves, replaced by a Spanish language station, and a great experiment in ultra-alternative rock radio was consigned to history. Now O'Brien, the morning disc jockey on The Spy, has bought the station from Citadel Broadcasting
and the long dormant Spy returns to the airwaves Monday."I've been working on this at least since March — actually physically working on this deal," said O'Brien. "But in all actuality, this has been something I've been thinking about doing, wanting to be doing, for the last 10 years."
O'Brien, whose career in radio began with KDGE-FM in Dallas
, eventually moved to Stillwater, where he was a key player on KSPI-FM, the stylistic precursor to KSYY. KSPI-FM changed formats in 2000, and O'Brien joined 105.3 FM when that station adopted a deep alternative format in December 2002, playing a diverse selection of underground British and domestic rock.After KSYY changed formats in June 2004, O'Brien continued to work with Citadel, hosting a "Spy Radio" program on KATT-FM. But O'Brien said his dream has always been to run his own station, and he reached an agreement earlier this year to purchase the station from Citadel with his own money and investment from family members.
Since embarking on the process of buying the station, O'Brien has been collecting and programming the necessary equipment and reaching out to past colleagues such as former Chainsaw Kittens
singer Tyson Meade, one of the regular deejays on the station. Meade, who now lives and teaches in Shanghai, China, is expected to return to The Spy with a regular show recorded half a world away.In the meantime, O'Brien is filling his equipment with digital song files, ranging from classics by The Smiths and Talking Heads to local bands such as Pretty Black Chains.
"I've had the automation system for about two months, and I am still working on it today," he said. "I lock myself in my basement, and my wife refers to it as "mad scientist syndrome."
While he acknowledged that there are big risks involved in this undertaking, O'Brien said he thinks he can operate a profitable business while bringing a radio legend back to life.
"You know, I'm not in this specifically to get filthy, stinking rich, where I fill up a bedroom with 100-dollar bills and roll around naked. If that happens, that's great, too. But if I break even and make a good living and can pay the bills and keep it on the air, I know I can do that."
The radio business made a lasting impression on me early on. I remember as a child visiting a local Terre Haute radio station (Hi 99) on a field trip. A DJ was recording commercials and was explaining to us that the job wasn't as easy as it sounds. As an example of this he played his unedited tape of a commercial he was having problems with... one flub after another... finally, after the last flub on the recording he spouted, "Goddammutherfuckingsunofabitch!!!! He turned WHITE! The kids were rolling on the floor laughing...Our Teacher, who was a prim and proper Church Lady was unimpressed...she stormed to the front office to see the management. I have no idea the fallout over THAT blooper...
ReplyDeleteEarly in my days of radio, probably around 1998, the station I was working for was running an all sports format. Nothing to hard for us, mostly satellite programming and we would do three local sports updates an hour as well as some commercial production. Some of the work we did was on reel to reel and we would record the on the tape then go back and set the reel to where the audio began for it to be played. One of my co workers was putting together an interview or something, I can't remember exactly what it was, but he was on tape and screwed up, proceeded to swear then when and started over. When he took the reel into the studio and cued it up to be replayed he set it from the beginning and not when he restarted, so he goes to play the reel and all is fine and next thing you know he blurts out motherfucker right on the air. . Needless to say he was fired within the day.
ReplyDeleteMy experience was in the mid-70s... We went to a Rock station too that day. The DJ was complaining about the Program Director making him play top 40... lol. It was live back then. He used to slip in some alternative programming in... If I remember right I believe he was actually spinning records. I remember listening late night and hearing a record skip for an hour...Who knows where HE was....probably had a groupie and a doobie.
ReplyDeleteI started in 96, but the station I worked for was using incredibly outdated equipment, the board in the air studio was 25 years old when I started and the one in the production room was the original board from when the station went on the air, making it almost 50.
ReplyDeleteLOL...Today one relatively small stack of computers takes the place of what used to occupy 2 rooms. My biggest gripe with it all is the predictability of it all. I hate when a music station plays the same play list every day in the same order so you can set your clock by what song is playing. i got so sick of it while I had my business open, I set the dial to the College rock station...far less mechanized and predictable.... I hate Musak...
ReplyDeleteHow do they keep track of royalties and the payment there of ? It used to be like pennies per play. Is it one set rate per play for all songs not in the public domain? Who collects the money?
ReplyDeleteSince I worked in talk I may have a few of the bells and whistles wrong but usually you pay a standard royalty fee to ACSAP/BMI and submit logs as to what you played. As an interesting side note, some stations dropped their webstream when the court ruled on ASCAP/BMI's behalf that a webstream of a station constituted a completely different broadcast, even if it was a simulcast of teh station and therefore stations that did so saw their royalty fees doubled.
ReplyDeleteI pretty much can't stand music radio and am tiring quickly of talk as well because of the same repitition, whether it be music selection or talking poinmts. I became a fan of KSPI back in the day when I heard them online looking for anything that resembled a different sound. they played a lot of what I would call classic alternative (Sniths, Depeche Mode, etc.) as well as what I would call newer stuff (at least newer at that time) like Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Ryan Adams.
The station switched to Spanish language stuff, I think they dabbled in some of the ESPN Desportes programming before changing back. I don't know if it will succeed, , looking at some inside info they have some signal issues to deal with and the format isn't the most condusive to advertisers but I commend an iondependent owner for taking a chance like this rather than plying out the same old , same old that is far to common on the dial.
Just checked the new website, they are supposed to launch today but are having problems, at least on their webpage, don't know about the actual signal, I can't pick up Oklahoma radio here in Pittsburgh.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thespyfm.com/
Well they were a day late in getting launched, but went live last night at midnight, complete with streaming. I caught a little bit before work this morning, which I am sure my neighbors didn't appreciated at 6am.
ReplyDelete