“TUNE IN WEDNESDAYS” and the My Radio Fashion project is about celebrating radio, celebrating YOU – the radio people who shape it! Dan O’Day  is one of them! As our friend Peter Waak would say: “THANK YOU FOR MAKING THE WORLD SOUND BETTER!” Dan, thank you!

He is the man who gave me a wedding present even before I actually got married. One month before Saso and I got married we hosted Dan O’Day as the main speaker the 1st international 2-day radio conference in Maribor, Slovenia for  Slovene, Croatian and Austrian radio stations. In those days two people managed to pull off a 2 day conference with 150 radio people – we were young and crazy then and we had guts to do it! It was amazing!

What was the present? A 2 day seminar/workshop called the International radio creative/production summit which Dan hosts in LA in August. So in 2002 we went there and well, I fell in love with radio advertising even more. Truly. Madly. Deeply.

Dan, you are the second man that made me fall in love with radio, so I owe you a big thank you. Truly!

Now is the time to get ON AIR with Dan!

When and how did you fall in love with radio? When did your heart get trapped?
I didn’t fall in love with radio until I’d been doing it for a couple of years. I heard an aircheck of Gary Burbank’s last day at WAKY/Louisville. For radio stations around the world, when a disc jockey leaves the station acts as though he never existed. No farewell, just another jock in his place on Monday. But for Gary’s last day at WAKY, the audience heard an angry listener burst into the studio and shoot Gary dead.

That’s when the light bulb went on for me: Radio can do so much more than play records and say clever things.

Who was your inspiration – a radio DJ, consultant, copywriter, PD, GM etc.?
When I moved to L.A. at the age of 18, I heard a few jocks who not only were playing a faster game than everyone else; they were playing a better game.

One was Gary Owens, who has a remarkably fast wit and the broadest range of knowledge of anyone I know.Another was Geoff Edwards, who worked at the same station (KMPC) as Owens. It’s not that I wanted to be like Geoff Edwards. But clearly he was being himself on the air.
I also recall listening to Lee Baby Sims and thinking, “THIS is different from anything else on the radio dial.” Even as an outsider, I could sense that what he was doing (following his own mental whims) was dangerous — that every time he cracked the mic he put his job on the line.

Why RADIO?
I won a contest on KRLA/Pasadena (that’s really Los Angeles, for you out-of-towners). I drove to the station to pick up my prize, and I met the program director, Johnny Darin.He was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. And I thought, “That’s the kind of job I want.”

Your TOP 3 radio songs of all times.
Radio songs, right? Not necessarily my favorite songs, but my favorite songs to play on the radio….

Love Will Keep Us Together — The first time I heard it, I knew it was a hit.

Crocodile Rock — Elton John still was freshly hot and enthusiastic, hadn’t yet descended to tuneless dirge ballads, and I knew when I play this song my listeners had fun.

Hey Jude – Because sooner or later, a jock has to go to the bathroom.

Which My Radio Fashion T-shirt are you?
No PD In The Studio Today

What are your first memories of radio?
Listening to a very large transistor radio, in bed.

Tell us your favorite radio story.
I’m sorry, but I don’t think there’s a statute of limitations to protect me on that one.

Dan O’Day about himself: “I’m a German-born theoretical physicist best known for my special theory of relativity and my general theory of relativity.” Get to know me at: www.DanOday.com/blog

Never forget!

Radio is beautiful.

Your radio girl.

Lenja