AMJOCK.COM Confessions of Brian Pierce, a morning radio disc jockey.

I first met Jim Palmer in 1971 during a broadcast at a Goodyear store not 200 yards from my house.  My favorite station - WCVS - was there, and I wanted to see Jim.  He was about 45 years old, tall & handsome - with a deep barotone voice.  Back then during remote broadcasts - they actually played records on the air from the location.  This looked like a blast.  This is the moment I decided to pursue broadcasting.  My school day at SHS then was Noon-5pm because of overcrowding at the school.  This allowed me to listen to Jim’s mid-day program before school.  Jim had a segment called, "Quickie Quiz."  It was a simple trivia question with no prize.  The only prize was if you answered it correctly - Jim read your name on the air.   My mother, being the scholar she is, found the questions quite easy and always immediately provided me the answer.  I’d call Jim, and he’d ask how I knew the answer.  I always told him my mom told me the answer, so Jim would announce my name and follow it with, "with help from mom."  I did this literally hundreds of times until Jim knew my voice.  I loved hearing my name on the radio.  I auditioned for Jim when I was 15 years old at the station.  He appreciated my enthusiasm, and told me to come back later after school.  I chronicle this story on my webpage: www.pierceshow.com.  I landed a job working with Jim just after my 18th birthday.  Jim had literally watched me grow up and took me under his wing.  He considered me a project of his, as were most young broadcasters in the building.   Jims gift was channeling unbridled enthusiasm into something productive.  He looked over me and my progress from the get go.  He offered sound advice, and protected me.  He was a mentor in every sense of the word.  All the young people at WCVS felt "adopted" by Jim - as he had no children.  He taught us to love the business as much as he did.  We worked long and hard for Jim, for little pay - gladly.  In later years Jim told me I had made him proud.  I attended Jims funeral in November 2005 and was asked to say a few words.  That day I spoke for over 100 young broadcasters influenced by Jim the way I was.

WNNS was off the air.  It was a Saturday night about 7pm - 0 degrees, 20 below windchill - and blizzard conditions.  We weren’t sure why - likely a disruption of power at the transmitter.  The equipment that allows up to operate the transmitter remotely - wasn’t responding.  Obviously the back up generator power wasn’t running either. Here’s where the story gets good.  The engineer who handles this stuff - is 3 states away.  A decision to trek to the transmitter site is made.

To access the transmitter building, we need the door key.  We’re told (Kellie & I) - it’s "in a box" - in an office at the station.  We head out.  Arriving at the station, our master key doesn’t open the office door.  The only key we discover is 3 states away with the engineer.  The decision is made to "call a lock-smith."  We call, and wait.  He arrives and quickly opens the door.  We find the "box."  In it - we discover not a key - but about 50 keys - loose, and none of them labeled in any way.  The transmitter site has been there since 1980 - and likely the key is that old, so we select about 10 of the oldest looking keys, and head to the transmitter.  It occurs to both of us at this moment that neither of us has EVER BEEN TO THE TRANSMITTER SITE - and we’re now sure how to get there.  Remember, there’s a blizzard, it’s now 8:30pm - roads are dangerous and visibility is virtually zero.  Luck shows it’s face, when Dustin Hapley presents himself.  Dustin is a kid doin’ part-time at the stations and he’s about to leave for home.  He says, he knows how to get to the transmitter!  The three of us pile into my 4 wheel drive Suburban and head out.  It’s quite a drive into the country, down farm roads, with giant snow drifts by this time.  Normally spotting a 600 foot radio tower is easy - you zero in on the lights - but remember, there is no power so the lights are off.  At 5 miles per hour we creep down narrow snow covered roads and Dustin says, "it’s right up here I think."  We don’t spot the tower, but we spot the fence around the property.  We’ve made it!  Dustin & I set out for the door with our 10 keys.  Neither of us is dressed for this.  The snow leading up to the site is thigh high.  We wade through and make the door.  We try the keys one by one.  NONE OF THEM WORK.  AAAAAAHHHH.  I decide that possibly the door lock is frozen.  One by one we heat each key with a lighter held under my jacket (remember it’s blowing mike mad) - and try the key in the lock.  We’re up to about #8 when miraculously - the door opens.  We tumble inside and now two lay broadcasters are staring down 2 giant 50,000 FM transmitters and a generator unit.  Luckily the generator had a simple START button, so we pushed it to see what would happen.  It started all right.  Immediately the transmitter began to roar.  I couldn’t believe the sound it made.  Kinda like a truck.  The lights in the room and tower came on - and Kellie back at the road in the truck began to honk the horn.  This was her signal to us that the station was back on the air - she could hear it!!!  

Regular power was restored late the next day - and we were credited with saving about 48 hours of billing.  We literally risked our own butts to get WNNS back on the air.  This is the difference between a disc-jockey and a broadcaster.