Recovering From The Disastrous Rock '80s. In a big way. The DJ that made it through.

How do you recover as a rock station when the popular music at the time was Culture Club? Thompson Twins? Mr. Mister? The Bangles? It takes a musical upsurge and it came in 1986 with Permanent Vacation from Aerosmith. And another upstart in 1987...who shouldn't have been an upstart. WRDU-The Rolling Stone Magazine Rock Station of the year gets it in gear.

Relive the legendary 1984 station launch—complete with Ferrari fiascos and curb calamities—and get an insider's look at the shenanigans that defined our off-air antics. And while the early 80s tunes might’ve hit a few sour notes, by '87, rock music was soaring to new heights, and we were riding that wave, night after electrifying night. Prepare for a nostalgia-infused episode that's all about laughter, legendary tunes, and the undying spirit of the 80s.

Transcript

Blade: 0:27

I Was just watching a Sam Kinison, remember him. He died, you know, at the age of 38. A few years back in a car accident, some guy hit him head on when he was, you know, in Needles, california, you know, in the middle of nowhere just driving. And I was just watching one of his videos and it's the one I always go back to on my, on my, you know, tablet from the 90s, which somebody gave to me, which is great, and and it's on safari. Uh, you know, browser, safari, browser, but it's an apple product. I don't do apple products, that's the thing I just do. Uh, you know, I'd rather have an Android.

Blade: 1:11

And so that's what I do. But Sam Kinison was terrific and he always had this one bit that I laugh at and it might be my favorite comedian's bit of all time, and it's the food in the desert bit. You know what I mean? That particular one. Take a look at it here.

Sam Kinison: 1:22

Boom.

Speaker 2: 1:27

I'm not trying to make fun of world hunger. Matter of fact, I think I have the answer, because I spend a lot of time working it out. And, uh, if you want to stop world hunger, stop sending them food. Don't send these people another buying phones. You want to send them something, you want to help? Send them u-hauls, send them u-hauls, some luggage, and send them a guy out there that goes hey, you know, we've been driving out here every day with your food for like the last I don't know 34 years. And we were driving out here a day across the desert and it occurred to us there wouldn't be world hunger if you people would live where the food is. You live in a desert.

Sam Kinison: 2:04

Understand that you live in a fucking desert. Nothing grows out here. Nothing's gonna grow out here. Come here, you see this. Huh, see this. This is sand.

Speaker 2: 2:15

Yeah, it's sand. You know it's gonna be a hundred years from now. Huh, it's gonna be sand.

Sam Kinison: 2:22

You live in a fucking desert. Get your kids, get your shit. We'll make one trip.

Blade: 2:27

We'll take you to where the food is I just, I just think that might be his classic bit, the one that he's known for yelling and basically making fun at people that are starving with flies on their face, and that was a particular bit that he did at Dangerfield's Comedy Club. I just love comedians, I really do. I saw Sam Kinison in Durham at a club there and no, it was a theater Sam Kinison at a theater, which I thought is really really strange. It takes a very brave comedian to do a comedy show at a theater where they don't sell alcohol and no food. You want to do as a comedian, you want to go where people are drinking right, because it always helps and sometimes it makes it a whole lot worse. Ask any comedian and they'll tell you but the food in the desert from Sam Kinison.

Blade: 3:25

And I think of the 80s when I think of Sam Kinison because it takes you back there and that was what I call the very bad decade musically. I mean, think about it. It was all and it was really. Let's narrow it down from 1980 to say about 1986 or so, and I think it took a step up and it came into its own the 80s, when Aerosmith came out with Permanent Vacation. Then I was reinvigorated for rock music honestly, because think about it in the 80s it was stuff like the Culture Club and and Dan Hartman and Tears for Fears, which they're great, but you know what I mean and the Fix, and they're great too, but and Kaja gugu and the bangles and and uh, you know who's the go-go's, and that I mean it was that kind of pop music which was all great for its time. But as a radio station that we started up, started up wrdu 106.1 only the finest rock and roll, that's all there was to play. So we had to play that stuff. You know shaw dayade was another one. You know there was a time there where we played, you know, madonna. You know I mean no choice, I mean that's all that was out at the time and I always claim this. If it weren't for ZZ Top and Rush and yes, you know and Van Halen in the 1980s, I don't know what I would have done. I would have just if it had kept going and they were great then.

Blade: 4:49

But I was working the midday shift at WRDU I think it was 10 to two or something like that and one day the program director and Michael Hughes and Phil Zachary brought me into their office and said what do you think about working in the midday? And I was like, well, it's okay, it's fine, you know. Fine, what would you think about working at night, you know? And I said I would love working at night because the music's better. Which it is is the thing we had called day partying, and you play like nicer music during the daytime, but at night you could rock out a little bit. I mean, you could play the Rolling Stones, like harder stuff, and you could play like maybe a deeper Jethro Tull and you could play like the Rush songs and all the Van Halen songs and all that. It's a better feel. I've always said that about night. They only come out at night. That is my theme to this day.

Blade: 5:39

And so when I told them, yeah, I'd like to work at night because I like the music, you know, and they said, oh, that's great. And they were so happy. So they put me on the night shift and every time I talked to somebody about that, they'd look at me and go what. You know, like a girl I was dating at the time went into tears when I told her. I was into tears when I told her I was getting the night shift, you know, which I was so happy about, you know, and I had a buddy. His name was Rick Dorsey and I knew him for years and years and years. He worked with me at the college radio station, at UNCW, and he said look, I don't care what you say, blade, that is a demotion. They moved you to Knights because you're not good. And I didn't care what he said because I didn't care, you know, and I wasn't good, you know, and never thought that I was that great period, but anyway, you know, but I loved it, you know. I could work at night and play the better songs. I was happy as crap. Think about it, you know, I could sleep till noon every day. I could get up and play 18 holes of golf Chevy Hot Hills, you know and right down from the station, and I could go in and not five or six or something like that produce a couple of commercials, go in and rock out at night from seven to midnight, meet all my buddies at the bars, hang out for a couple hours, catch up to them tequila shots and Budweiser's, you know and then go to the after party. Afterwards, you know, come home four or five or something like that to my shredded apartment with two other roommates. You know, smoking pot, you know. And then I'd fall asleep and wake up at noon and repeat, did it for years, loved it To me. That is the life, my friends. That is the life.

Blade: 7:13

But when we signed on with WRDU in 1984, it's a terrific story. I'll tell you next episode about the official moment that we signed on. But we had these pre-parties and we drive around town in this brand new Ferrari that Voyager Communications had bought a brand new Ferrari and it was a beaut, I'm here to say, and we'd drive it from places to places and we'd, you know, promote the fact that WRDU was signing on in August of 1984. And it was great, brilliant, signing on in August of 1984 and it was great, brilliant.

Blade: 7:49

And we she's going to kill me for this, but Kitty Cannon, who I completely love, always have dearest, sweetest soul and I call her Brunchy because she did the jazz brunch and there's nobody that could do something like that except her. I mean, she's the king of all music, she knows everything and we would drive it, the disc jockeys would drive it around and we always guys loved it. Kitty drove it up on a curb. I'm sorry, brunch, I had to. You know, those things are six inches off the ground, those Ferraris. So we gave away this Ferrari and it was terrific. I mean it really was. It was great. But you see what I mean about the 80s musically it was just aha and that kind of stuff and the Thompson twins. I was so happy to do the night shift. But it was just a lousy decade for rock music and it got better in 1987. Right from then on, wrdu was able to turn into a really great rock station because well, frankly, the music got better.