Never Say Never, "The Class Reunion" rides again

If I have learned one thing in over four decades associated with broadcasting, is nothing is permanent, definite, or that you should never say never!

I was on vacation in late August of 2009, when I received an E mail from KRIM President and General Manager Steve Bigham telling me that Suzanne Michales had left. I won't go into any details, as I can only guess what might, or might not have happened that caused her departure. Anyway, I sent Steve a note and told him I might be interested in doing part time radio again, especially if it was OLDIES!

When I got back Steve and I corresponded and spent quite some time on the phone and it was decided that "The Class Reunion" would return to the airwaves in late October. When I did the show before it was 3 hours once a week on Friday, but Steve and I thought that a daily two hour show might be the way to go. Initially I felt that I might do a mix of a particular year each day along with the stations normal play list. As further discussions went on it was decided that I would use the same format that had been successful on the previous edition of the show. That format being each day would highlight and play ONLY music from a specific year. One feature that I, of course, wanted to do was "The Legendary Artist Series Interviews." The change for them would be that the interview would now air on Wednesday, and I would try and keep them in the range of 20 minutes or so, and add more music from the artist to the interview. I also had the brilliant idea that each Friday would be a special show day like Names In Songs, One Hit Wonders, Destinations In Songs, Songs From A to Z, and so on.

I must admit I found myself to be a little bit rusty going back on the air as a D.J. after over two years off, BUT it was not long before I settled back into a routine and the show was off and running yet again.

One thing I had not counted on was the total amount of work it takes to keep the show fresh and not burn out my music library. I found I could not trust the station library as it had many songs in it that were not the original version or certain songs were just not there at all. In fairness to the station, Joanne, who was appointed Program Manager, is doing her best to clean up the library. Anyway since I have been back on the air I have added over 200 cuts to the library from the years 1953 to 1970. I am still feeling out exactly where the top end year for a complete highlight day will be, I do know that it will be in the mid to late 70's as the average age of Payson is around 56. Unlike when I was working at some other stations, where there was a pre programmed rotation or format, I create a play list of my own for each show. This is somewhat time consuming and I usually reserve that for a quiet time on the weekend as each show takes from 15 to 30 minutes to create, with the special shows taking longer. one of the harder things I have found to do is getting artist interviews. To be sure many of the people I had interviewed before are willing to come back on the show, and this can be very positive since so many of them have new product out and of course it is interesting to catch up with them on their careers.

"The Class Reunion" is a labor of love, some shows are better than others, but the mission remains the same, 'the preservation of the greatest music of all time by the original artists." Join me if you get the chance you will hear some music that you may not have heard in 40 years, as well as notes about the artists and more. You can listen on the web linking through my website at www.kellywattsclassreunion.com.