For several years I had this  "thing" I did closing my show in the evenings.     Coming out of my last break for the shift I always played the same song - The Supremes -Someday We'll Be Together.  I said my goodbyes for the day over the intro and faded into the dark each night with Dianna & the Girls belting out their hopeful message. This song was never on our play list and for 5 years - nobody ever noticed.   I kept the CART as my souvenir on my last shift knowing I was leaving the business.   I suppose nobody was ever listening nor paying any attention to me.   So much for my ego, but I always felt pretty good I had pulled this off that long in major market Alberta.

I'm just curious if anyone else has ever had a similar routine or rebel streak?  Love to hear your stories.

Hey Brushy:

Great things about evenings (at least when I was in the biz) is that management very seldom listened.  They were either in a bar or, heaven forbid, a few would actually go home and be with the wifey and little ones.  Only one that ever listened was Bob Robertson when he was PD at CKXL in Calgary - he'd have his air check tape machine in his office and he would pass comments on what he thought we were doing wrong.

I wouldn't pretend to be anywhere near as "rebellious" as you, but I do remember hoodwinking Calgary on the evening of the station's Christmas party back in 1974.  I relieved the regular evening guy so he could attend.  Since it was a Friday and I knew that no one from the station (CFCN) would be listening, I took my brother in with me.  He did a great Aussie accent and for the evening was my guest - DJ Nigel "Nightime" Patrick from Radio Perth.  We actually got a few phone calls with people enjoying the "guest" and not a soul from CFCN ever commented.  Made the evening fly faster and we had a blast.

The problem with little stunts like that is, unless you had been marking down what you played...the logger tapes and the reconciled logs would not match up.  That's not a fun thing for any PD to discover when the tapes are called by the CRTC... especially if that extra tune put you out of compliance.  Then again, if it was after midnight...it's funny.  

Once shook a Mars bar loose from the vending machine in the staff lounge.  Never got caught  

So my very first job in Radio in 1980 was in Wetaskiwin (Just outside Edmonton) at CJOI Casual Country.  Working an evening on a Saturday night, I had put the religious tapes away and turned off the transmitter at midnight.  The guy who had trained me showed up drunk with a couple of his buddies with a case of beer.  After having a couple more he decided that he would fire it up again at 2am.  For the next 2 hours CJOI Wetaskiwin was WPPQ from Seattle Washington playing rock music...Damn that was fun...the PD and GM never did find out about it...

I remember that the guy who worked the graveyard shift at the little store across the street from the radio station where I cut my teeth in was a big fan of Herb Alpert (Trumpet player who did these catchy up-beat tunes in the 60's). He (my friend) was disgusted when our station switched from a mix format to all country. I would get off at midnight and flip the switches to a satalite program called Cryin Lovin or Leavin and proceed to the local bar for a few coctails. Then when the bar closed, I'd walk home which involved walking past the station. To please my friend, I would pop back into the control room, fade out whatever crappy song was being played and crash into one of Herb's many hits. I can't remember the names of the songs but it was kind of fun to get away with something (even if almost nobody heard it). My friend at the store loved it!!!

Quoted Text

WPPQ from Seattle

Shoulda started with a K....KPPQ.  I know. Nit picking.

When I worked at CFQC Radio last century we'd grab a case of beer and go up to the TV side well past sign-off, grab a cannister of an old movie from Telecine and use the sales office to watch it on the projector they used for sales meetings.  (Talkin' reel to reel movie film here.) Nice big couches, no commissionaire watchman in those days. In hindsight I guess we coulda hired hookers but dang the movies were too good! Not sure if we pulled anything off but nobody said anything the next day.

If you played the same damn song at the end of every shift, and said the usual goodbyes overtop, you probalby didn't have any listeners hearing it either!

I took the decorated News Cruiser out one night. I was told I could not borrow the vehicle. When the boss left I grabbed the keys and returned in the wee hours of the morning. I had a date that night.  

Hey Gotobreak....your story reminded me of the days I was a junior newsman at CFAC in Calgary back in the late sixties.  Couldn't afford great wheels and the station news car was a fancy powered up Dodge - 2 door hardtop and a huge motor with CFAC painted in huge letters.  Sure beat my little od beater so I took that sucker out for a spin a few times with friends - never a date 'cause I didn't want to be out too long and caught at it.  In this day and age, they probably have vehicle logs and if they did back then, I'm surprised I never got busted.

I ran the Sunday log on Saturday. But I got caught when a client called in wondering where there garden feature was. I was fired 4 hours into the shift.


But I'm doing better now.

While working in rural Sask. we used to role religious programming in the evenings. Quite often I would slow down the tape speed just to see if anyone was listening. They weren't. But G-d probably was and I've been paying for it ever since.

Venus:

How could you forget such Herb Alpert classics as:
Spanish Flea - Taste of Honey - Tijuana Taxi - Zorba The Greek ?

We had a REALLY, REALLY hokey BGM cart to go with our "Pet Patrol" feature on CHWK.  It consisted of PD Bryan Laver's voice saying: "And NOWWWWW, Pet Patrol" followed by two woofs of a dog, then a Looney Tunes sounding BGM that ran behind the announcer.  Well, when the PD went on holidays, I seized the moment and that BGM cart went missing.  Laver was fit to be tied when he came back and couldn't find it.

Another time at CKQR Castlegar, I did a quick one on the Birthday Show BGM cart.  What the morning host normally heard was the chorus of Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday", followed by a repeating loop of the instrumental intro to the song.  Well, when the morning host hit the intro cart he got some rocker going "YEAHHHH" followed by a quick guitar riff....then it went to the usual sappy Stevie Wonder music....then about 10-15 seconds later the rocker let out another shriek...back to music.

Fun times...Tommy D, what kind of silliness happened in Hope?  Don't be hiding behind that halo neither...I'm sure you pulled a few quick ones.

Thanks "Dead Air". It was Tijuana Taxi!!! I remember the horn honking. I used to laugh my arse off as I faded out of some inbread hillbilly into the comical up beat sound of Herb.
Great stories folks. Keep them coming!!! Did any of you ever host a trading post. Without the 6 second delay, they can be hilarious. That is, if you can stand to listen to all those boring calls while you wait for the wing nuts!!!