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Friday, August 16, 2024

Revisiting Theo

Vinyl was on its last legs when I began my long, mostly obscure radio career in 1990.  You would come in fifteen minutes before shift and "pull" your first hour of music.  This involved flipping through shelves of LPs and 45's which lined three walls of the studio.  

Working with two turntables, you'd have to select and backcue the next song while the current one was playing.  Everything was live.  Dead air was a sin.  So it was imperative to be prepared.

Record companies began sending us compact discs.  Some along with the vinyl album, and then eventually only CDs.  When the FM studio was built, there were two CD players and only one turntable.  Theo ultimately disconnected the turntable (possibly because I was going rogue and getting off format by playing too much old Charley Pride off vinyl late at night).

A few years later, everything began to be computerized and the art of the backcue was never fully appreciated again.

In the years since leaving radio, I've had a recurring dream about not being able to find the song I wanted to play next, panicking and having dead air. Commercials would be missing, or the ones in the racks would be outdated.  More recently, the situations within these dreams had become progressively worse.

At first, some of the discs were not in their usual location, but I was able to find them in another spot, a large filing cabinet in another room.  In subsequent dreams, more and more seemed to be missing, and I was no longer able to find them at all.  It was like someone (Theo?) was hiding them from me.

It got to where there were only a few songs available to play and I had never heard of any of them.

And then...

Two nights after I had written about Theo, I had another in this series of dreams.  Perhaps the finale.  

Again, I am at the station.  Except this time, there is no music.  Not a single song.  At least none that I can find.  There are fifteen minutes of dead air.  (Other than someone going off on a curse-filled tirade during the call-in request show, this is a DJ's worst nightmare.)  I just want to lie down in the floor and sob.

Then Theo appears.

He shows me a box full of carts and says the music has been transferred over to these tapes.  They are sort of like 8-tracks.  All the music is there.  Indexed.  Easily accessible.  

There is relief.  At long last, some resolution to this frustrating, anxiety-ridden series of dreams!

When I awoke and recalled the dream, I smiled.  Two nights after I had written about Theo, he had appeared.  But why?

Had Theo come to make peace?  Maybe he just wanted to let me know he was finally at peace.  Or perhaps I was holding onto something -- some conflict, some disharmony, something that just didn't sit right - and telling Theo's story had allowed me to let that go.

Or maybe it was just another dream, dreamt by an idiot, signifying not much of anything.

Either way, I thought it worthy of sharing.

Next, I think I shall write about my unresolved issues with Kristen Wiig.  See if she shows up!

6 comments:

  1. I used to listen to a radio station from a town 40 miles away all the time in our tractors. Once, at a summer camp, one of our councilors had a familiar voice and it was only after he said his name did I put two and two together and realize he was THE radio DJ I liked the most. I was caught though between idolism and seeing that he looked like a total dweeb in real life.

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    1. Ah, yes. In the industry, that was known as having a face for radio.

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  2. Regarding Kristen Wiig, hey, it's worth a try! I have long had a vivid dream life and those who have gone before me -- my parents and my brother -- often make appearances in my dreams. I don't know if they have involvement in that from the afterlife (way above my pay grade), but I know their presence in my dreams gives me comfort and peace. Seems Theo coming to your assistance gave you the same. Great story.

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    1. Interesting. I used to have dreams about my late uncle, but not for a long while now.

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  3. Dreaming about work (even jobs of long ago) seems normal for me. I was never into DJ-ing, but in high school I was really into electronics and amateur radio and a friend who was a DJ. had an idea of me getting my Class 1 FCC license and us starting a station. I'm afraid there'd be no Charlie Pride, but a lot of good Rock 'n Roll

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    1. I had to have an FCC license when I started, but by the time I got out I don't even think that was required anymore. Probably be pretty easy to start a station these days, at least an online one.

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