DESCRIPTION: As I have mentioned elsewhere on the site, I started my "career" in radio at KROQ in 1990. I was a high school graduate. I never went to college. I never "interned". I was just a dude who was recovering from an injury in 1986, and taught himself how to cut and paste tape on an old open reel.

During that time, I was hustling record labels for promotional records. One of those labels was Mute. Thanks to being convincing (and having a "radio voice"), I got on their promo mailing list (Clubnet).

So how did I get my work played on KROQ? Essentially, I bribed Richard Blade. "Do you want to play this advance UK promo of 'Enjoy The Silence'? Then play one of my remixes."

When I received the UK advance remixes of Depeche Mode's "World In My Eyes", the package arrived on a Friday afternoon, just after Richard had signed off. I used this as an opportunity to make friends with "Swedish Egil" Aalvik. That night, I called the station, and explained how I let Richard play Depeche exclusives in exchange for playing my mixes. After Egil said "yes" to this, he sent his intern Spinn (now known as Simply Jeff) to come pick me up at my apartment nine blocks away from the station, in his Volkswagen. When we got to the station, Spinn recorded the "Mayhem Mode" mix to a broadcast cart (think 8-track tape), and the mix was aired.

I'd spend hours chatting with Egil while he was on air. Occasionally Spinn would come by and pick me up, and I'd hang out at the station. It was fun seeing the after midnight mood at the station. Anyway...

In May of 1991, Egil left KROQ to go to be the music director at the new MARS FM 103.1. While I was still getting mixes and station imaging (IDs) played at KROQ by Richard Blade and Doug The Slug, I also started "working" at MARS. Now, like with KROQ, I never got paid for working at the station (boo!), but I still did production work for the station. Along with mixes and edits, I also worked on IDs.

This is a dump of one of my MARS FM work DATs. It starts with a number of personality IDs from various artists (all listed below), then moves into station jingles, and then some IDs I did for Egil and Holly Adams. I did a lot more IDs for Holly, but that was because she'd come and give me rides to the station often. Waiting on rides was a theme in my 20s, but I digress.

Here is the list of the IDs:
Carter, The Unstoppable Sex Machine
Loudhouse
The Orb
Right Said Fred
Moby
OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark)
Cause & Effect
Curve
Eon
Siouxsie & The Banshees
Anything Box
Nathalie Archangel
The Buzzcocks
MARS FM ID (The fear you can hear)
MARS FM ID (sweeping tone)
MARS FM ID (The beast of the beach)
MARS FM ID (MARS FM - The all new 103.1)
MARS FM ID (Memory pain)
Nitzer Ebb
Erasure
 
(IDs I made):
Holly Adams MARS ID ("I'm your jock. Let's rock!")
Holly Adams MARS ID ("We're just like a family")
Holly Adams MARS ID ("Ren & Stimpy")
Holly Adams MARS ID ("The greatest name in radio")
Swedish Egil MARS ID ("Making poor, hard working announcers get up early")

The song I put under all the IDs is "Spice" (Original Mix With Notes) by Eon. A fucking classic!

File uploaded: August 4th, 2022