In high school, I had this bright idea I was going to be a rock radio DJ. So, at Western Illinois University, I majored in Mass Communications. In 1987, I started doing a weekly “radio” show on a campus station, WHEN-AM57. “Rock 57” was not actually broadcast over the air. Instead, it was transmitted through the electrical wiring of the residence halls and, later, through the TV cable. To hear WHEN you either plugged in your AM radio into the wall outlet and tuned to 5700khz or you tuned to a channel on your cable connected TV. I think it may even have been an FM station in one residence hall too. WHEN was run by volunteer students and it was all pretty loose. The station used a Pop-Rock format, but every DJ pretty much did their own thing. We called our show “The Rock Machine,” inspired by the Triumph song “Rock and Roll Machine,” an emphasized current and classic rock, but over the year the song selections varied widely.
WHEN’s music library was on records, LP and 45s, stacked floor to ceiling and the studio was small so I could not get the music myself. The only way I could do the show was to get physical help. Fortunately, I had friends at WIU who were my show partners for those almost four years and they pulled and cued up the music. I handled most of the on-air talk although, to varying degrees, my partners would get on the mic some, too. The picture at top is of me, in my Risky Business glasses, and Jon “Stix” Monroe, one of my partners and dear friend.
My beautiful wife recently found a cache of cassette tapes we recorded way back then of some Rock Machine shows. What follows are MP3 transfers of some of those show tapes from 1987 to 1990. Most are incomplete and the sound quality varies. They sound like AM radio recorded on a cheap cassette recorder. I’m not sure of the licensing issues with putting these shows on the internet including the music, but the sound quality is such that I can’t imagine anyone listening to these and going, “well, I don’t need to buy that album now!” I left all the mistakes intact: record skips, wrong record player speeds, bad jokes, the occasional swear word…. they’re all there. How I got actual jobs in radio later, I have no idea. I just know I never had more fun on air than the four years I spent doing these shows with my college friends.
We weren’t paid, we were idiot 20-somethings, the FCC wasn’t listening and we had a good time.
Welcome to the WHEN Rock Machine!
Chris with Jon “Stix” Monroe and Dave Compton, Spring 1989.
This is one of my favorites. It was the last show with Jon “Stix” Monroe before we graduated three weeks later. (I ended up returning for one year of grad school.) We, also, had a bunch of people in the studio including my partner the following year, Dave Compton, and others.
Bonus: This one includes phone calls we put on the air from some of our campus friends. Listening to this one brought lots of memories back!
On Air Calls:
- Jim Murray at 10:30
- Tim Scarbeary at 19:00
- Long chat fest, inappropriate jokes, and calls from Tim again followed by Lety Lopez and Mary Garvey at 1:19:30
Note: the inappropriate joke was stolen by me from the movie Good Morning, Vietnam. You’ll figure it out.
The music kicks ass.: The Doors, Don Henley, Night Ranger, Axe, Def Leppard, REO Speedwagon, AC/DC, Bob and Doug Mackenzie, KISS, Sammy Hagar, Motley Crue, Scorpions, Pink Floyd, Tesla, Bon Jovi, Nazareth,
Chris and Jon 11/30/88
An earlier show with Stix on board. He even did a dedication and the weather a few times. Me?….I just screwed up…a lot. We played tunes by: Kingdom Come, GNR, AC/DC, Hagar, The Beatles, 38 Special, Def Leppard, Van Halen, Ace Frehley, KISS, Ratt, and….Steve Winwood??
Chris and Dave – 10-25-1989
Dave Compton, now a PhD and chemist, was my final partner the one year I was in grad school, 1989-1990. This show is a fairly typical one for us with a mix of hair bands, messing around on air, and some songs by Quad City area favorite Lynn Allen.
For some reason, the sound levels were all over the place on this recording. I fixed as much as I could in Audacity, but some parts are rough.
WHEN Rock Machine Spring 1988 Chris and John “Gork” Johnson
John “Gork” Johnson had been a classmate of mine going back to high school and junior college. We both transferred to WIU and was my roommate the first semester. John was a big help to me in that transition to university life and on the fledgling Rock Machine show. John infsed my usual hard rock and metal with more classic and ’60s rock as well as one of his favorites, “Henry the Eighth I Am” by Herman’s Hermits.
I did not have a date labeled on this tape but going by the mention of just returning from Spring Break and playing “Foreigner’s latest ‘Heart Turns To Stone” indicates it was recorded Spring of 1988, probably March. Lots of music on this one with very little talk in the last 50 minutes.
Chris and Jim April 14, 1987
John’s next roommate was an engineering student, Jim Murray. Jim is a wicked smart dude and filled in sometimes as my partner. With Jim onboard the music list would get a little broader. This show includes songs by Robert Plant, Loverboy, CCR, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Elton John, Judas Priest, Nazareth, Def Leppard, Jerry Jeff Walker, Genesis and…Terrence Trent d’Arby?
Apparently, the news of tuition hikes at WIU had just been announced and we were not shy giving our opinion of that… Lots of gabbing breaks on this one…not necessarily intelligent gabbing.