Signs & Wonders Blog

Yesterday I learned from a friend’s Facebook post that it was National Radio Day. This man shared a photo of himself at the first radio station he worked at over 40 years ago. I responded by posting the meme above featuring Wolfman Jack and cast members from the old sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati.” That brought back memories of my disc jockey work. As a boy, I pretended to be a DJ using my Panasonic tape recorder and playing records on my parents’ stereo system. Listening to Casey Kasem ’s “American Top 40” was an inspiration. It wasn’t until my first year in college I became a DJ for real. I volunteered as an announcer for the radio station at Moorhead State University in Moorhead, Minnesota. That same year, the roller rink I worked at promoted me to floor guard. Part of that job was playing the records. I had a blast doing that but resigned after eight months due to disagreements with the managers. Less than a year later, I landed my only paying announcer job on terrestrial radio. I c...

This past Friday, a well-known radio announcer turned 80 years old. I emailed him a birthday greeting that day but then felt inspired to write this tribute since he helped get my music heard by a wider audience. Barret “Barry” Hansen was born on April 2, 1941, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After graduating from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, Barry moved to California and earned a master's degree at UCLA plus worked a variety of jobs in the music industry. Eventually, he created a radio show featuring novelty songs and other unusual recordings. A colleague who called Barry “demented” for playing stuff like that inspired a new nickname. The Dr. Demento Show was soon heard throughout the United States and abroad on Armed Forces Radio. It’s probably best known for launching the career of parodist “Weird Al” Yankovic. The first time I heard of Dr. Demento was in 1982. I became an announcer for KMSC, the radio station at Moorhead State University in Moorhead, Minnesota. During my shif...

At the beginning of 1990, I became dissatisfied with life. At 26 I had mounting debts from pursuing a music career and lost my enthusiasm working as a nightclub disc jockey. Around this time, a radio program I listened to called “Musical Starstreams” started running ads about a business opportunity. Forest (the show’s host) talked about a way one could earn a large income and have the time to enjoy it. Soon I received a video in the mail about a network marketing company called Nu Skin. After watching the video, I was intrigued enough to call Forest and find out why he was involved with a company that manufactured personal care products. Forest explained he wanted to make enough money to buy radio stations and air new age music full-time. Since Nu Skin was experiencing exponential growth, I decided to take advantage of this “opportunity of a lifetime.” I sold all my recording equipment to have extra money for purchasing product and sales aids. My goal was to build a residual inc...

At the time of this writing, a well-known radio personality who had a big influence on my life is in poor health and may pass away soon. 82-year-old Casey Kasem is best known for hosting “A merican Top 40” plus voicing various cartoon characters. In recent years, Kasem has suffered from a form of dementia similar to Parkinson's Disease that has left him barely able to talk. Casey’s radio show was one of the things that inspired me to become a DJ. It also got me through difficult times during my childhood. Growing up in Moorhead, Minnesota, I first listened to “American Top 40” with my family on our way home from spending weekends at the lake. In January 1978, I started writing down the Top 40 every Sunday plus recording snippets of Casey’s show with my Panasonic tape recorder. My mother got annoyed because I listened to Casey’s commentaries more than the actual songs. Eventually, I made weekly trips to music stores that subscribed to Billboard magazine whose record charts AT...