Me the DJ!
Five years ago (October, 2004) I attended my college radio station (KCR at San Diego State University) reunion. Yes that's me in the picture, sitting in front of the control board in the "palatial" KCR studios..haha. I wrote my thoughts about the weekend on Live Journal (just skip down a ways and you'll find them) and I've included my 10/10/2004 post here too.
There's another reunion scheduled for 2009.
| Me the DJ! |
Sunday, October 10th, 2004
Just got home from my reunion about an hour and a half ago. OMG, what an amazing, emotional, magical, awesome time it was! Imagine getting to see folk you hadn't seen in over 20 years! And yeah, some of the old cliques seemed to form quickly but still you had the sense it was good to see all these people again. And I got to do an on air shift at my old college station (KCR). Of course I just listened to the tape of my shift yesterday and realized I didn't sound nearly as good as I thought I had. Still, the opportunity to do a radio show after over 20 years was an awesome one and afterwards I almost felt like crying because I'd gotten to do it again. Except I was too busy grimacing over the job I'd done on air. *s* Even if the current station DJ who had "volunteered" (or was volunteered) to babysit we alumni told me I'd done a great job, I still felt I hadn't. Oh well. Apparently some of the other alumns had trouble running the control board and he wound up running it for them. My thought was "Hey I used to do this for a living, I should have at least half a clue about operating a control board!" And I did. :)
When I got there Friday afternoon, I spent 45 minutes waiting in line for my blasted rental car. Now I know why the car rental place was so cheap, the service unequivocally sucked! As I drove onto the freeway, I got stuck in a traffic jam due to an accident. I got past that and thought "Oh hell I HAVE to get over to the San Diego State campus and look around. And so I did. And yes things had greatly changed in 20 plus years. And yet at the same time, there still were a few places remaining from my college years. The rathole apartment that I lived in during my junior year was still around and looked just as crappy as it had in the 70s. I never ever thought I'd actually be glad to see it still standing. I saw my old dorm building and it looked faded and tired. And that saddened me, I remembered it as being new and vibrant when I lived there and I thought "hey this old gal deserves much better." I walked around campus and noticed that most of the old dilapidated houses were gone and been replaced with new on campus apartments and frat houses. And I got on campus and saw the new addition to the library, a domed building..very cool. Lots of new buildings, but again it was all done with the Spanish motif San Diego State is known for and most of those buildings looked as though they'd been there forever, even if it had only been five years since they were built!
I smiled as I looked around and thought "they've done a great job maintaining the campus." I went into the bookstore and heard Los Lonely Boys on an in store stereo system. "Wow, they're playing a band I've actually heard of! Maybe I'm not so old after all." *s* I saw the Aztec Center which hadn't changed at all. And I saw my old station which is now in that center. It previously had been in a different building on campus and a number of the alums like me made a "pilgrimage" over to that building, temporarily "hijacking" a couple of current SDSU students who had volunteered to take us on a tour of the campus. We found a way to get in the hallway and walked through it. Even though the station was gone, we all still felt the need to reconnect. It was in some ways, like entering a "sacred space." Well for those of us, it truly was and we needed to reconnect with that space. Several of us put our hands on the door to the room where KCR had been, just as a way somehow of "going back" for an instant to that past. The station had been our "home" and I know at the banquet that evening, one alum commented on how he didn't remember anything from his classes, but he did remember his time at the station. I think all of us could relate.
A personal note. There were numerous awards given out, including an award for DJ with the best musical taste. Several people including myself got votes. And hearing my name mentioned as having received votes made me feel so good, because I worked damn hard to put together great music on my shows. I loved doing that and I thought "why not do the best damn job putting together great music that I could?" while I was there. The fact that a few people remembered that and acknowledged that was a wonderful thing. Yes someone else did get the award, but he deserved it.
I was on the committee for the reunion, but yet I really didn't do much. I was almost embarrassed to stand up with the others on the committee when we were announced. There were others who did so much to ensure this thing would come off. The station founder got up to speak a little later and we gave him a standing ovation. It just felt like the right thing to do. Yes he was joined by a couple of fellow co-founders and we all applauded them. And we did the same thing for my old pal Joe Shrin, who has been on the air at my college station for 28 years. Again, it clearly was the right thing to do. As I sat there last night watching everything, it almost seemed surreal. I thought to myself "I can't believe I actually got to be a part of this once upon a time."
There were three or four seminars going on yesterday during the reunion on getting into broadcasting and the media, that numerous alums participated in. I didn't get to any of those, my "professional DJ days" ended long ago and while I heard they were phenomenal, I had too many other things that I wanted to do. Like getting the chance to see a couple apartment buildings I used to live in, along with a couple stores I worked in so long ago. One of the stores looked very run down (which was sad to see) and the other one was the opposite. It turns out the latter store is still run by the same folk who ran it when I worked there. Clearly that family cares about keeping it updated. It was neat to be able to see all those places again and get some closure on that time of my life. The Kinks said it once long ago, "no more looking back.." Well, I guess I'm a person who needs to occasionally look back in order to move forward. I've lived in L.A., San Diego, Oregon and the SF Bay. I've gone back and visited and come to terms with my time in L.A. and Oregon but until this weekend, I hadn't with San Diego. Hell, I've probably mentioned that in past posts here.
The banquet and awards show was followed by three different bands each playing a set. And then the party went over to a private suite. We all talked on and on into the night. I think we all hated to see the night end. It did finally of course..apparently around 6 am this morning. *s*
What I really realized today as I waited for my plane to take me back home to Northern Cal was that San Diego and my college station were and always will be a part of my life. I love living in the Bay Area. However San Diego is a GREAT city and clearly I stayed away from there way too long.
Even though I thanked him profusely the last couple days, I'll do it again. Bruce THANK YOU for coming up with this idea and having the strength and the motivation to follow it through. Gayle, THANK YOU for all the work you did. To my other fellow committee members, THANK YOU for everything you did to pull this off. I'll never forget this weekend.
I'll end this now. I got four hours sleep last night like a lot of others I suspect and I'm very tired. But it's a good tired. *G*
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