{"id":392,"date":"2015-12-09T22:14:07","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T22:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=392"},"modified":"2015-12-09T22:34:16","modified_gmt":"2015-12-09T22:34:16","slug":"ftv-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=392","title":{"rendered":"FTV: Characters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What qualifies as a \u2018character\u2019? \u00a0We all have character, so technically, the term applies to anybody. \u00a0For the purposes of this article, we will define a \u2018character\u2019 as someone with some unique trait or traits that make them, for lack of a more appropriate description, memorable. \u00a0Naturally, this could open the door to a list long enough that it might rival <\/span>War and Peace<\/span><\/i>, so the focus will need be narrowed to an example or two at a time rather than an exhaustive list. \u00a0By the nature of this column, there will have to be some musical connection because that is what we tend to talk about the most at WOAS-FM.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Former WOAS-FM DJ Tommy BoDean stopped by with his lovely wife Melissa during the All-School Reunion (July 2015). \u00a0Tommy wanted to show his new bride where he got his start in the radio biz (and when he sends me some notes on his career highlights, I assure you we will revisit his storied career that started right here). \u00a0We were discussing some of the folks that have influenced us, specifically radio people, and I instantly thought back to Mike Burr.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mike was actually a classmate of my older brother but I didn\u2019t know that when I met him. \u00a0Mike was the DJ voice on the local Marquette AM radio station that played the Top 40 stuff. \u00a0We would call him periodically and make requests and one day he must have been bored because we had requested something from Jimi Hendrix\u2019s <\/span>Are You Experienced?<\/span><\/i> album and Mike said, \u201cYou know, I don\u2019t have any of his stuff here. \u00a0Why don\u2019t you guys bring over a copy of the album and I will play it.\u201d \u00a0The WDMJ studio was on the top floor of the Marquette Daily Mining Journal building on Washington Street (which makes sense as they owned the station). \u00a0We were calling from my buddy Jim\u2019s house that was only about four blocks away from the downtown studio, so we legged it over there (or more correctly \u2018down there\u2019 as it was mostly downhill from Jim\u2019s house. \u00a0This was in our pre-driving high school years when we went everywhere on foot).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I had never seen the inside of a radio station before and my first impression of the studio was, \u201cthis is it?\u201d \u00a0With Mike manning the board, there were a couple of chairs and just enough room for us to perch and watch him do his thing. \u00a0\u00a0Mike was playing mostly 45\u2019s (Google 45 RPM if this is a foreign cultural point for the youngsters out there) and I marveled how he could scratch cue them by putting the turntable needle down and find the start of the song without hearing it. \u00a0This was done while reading ad copy or discussing the fact that he had guests in the studio while changing out the 45 record spacer to accommodate the smaller spindle hole for the 33 RPM album we had brought in for him to play. \u00a0As the late Arthur C. Clarke said, \u2018<\/span>Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic\u2019, and to us, this was magic and Mike was the magician. \u00a0\u00a0One visit lead to two and when he said, \u201cdrop by again sometime,\u201d we thought we had just found the golden ticket to Wonka Land.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We didn\u2019t want to be pests so we never tried to overstay our welcome. \u00a0If we did, Mike would put on a song and say \u201cWell, I better let you guys out,\u201d and usher us downstairs. \u00a0He would always say \u201cHey, thanks for coming, drop by again,\u201d and we would promise to bring some other album with us. \u00a0We stopped by off and on during that one particular summer but only after calling and asking him to play something we figured he didn\u2019t have a copy of. \u00a0He would sometimes startle us by asking us questions when he was on the air, but we never talked – he always made up something funny to make it sound like we were having a party on his dime. \u00a0He also would occasionally surprise us by rattling of a string of blue words that would surely have put the station off the air, but Mike had a quick trigger finger on the button that keyed the mic. \u00a0When we asked him, \u201cwhat happens if you miss the button and do that live,\u201d \u00a0he laughed and said quite honestly, \u201cWell, I would be looking for a new job!\u201d \u00a0Mike is still one of my favorite radio characters even though that was many years before I got to start working at WOAS-FM on manager Mike Bennett\u2019s watch.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Barry Seymour also had an influence on me, but the radio connection came many years after Barry and I played together in our band Sledgehammer. \u00a0When I moved to Ontonagon, I did a couple of fill in drummer gigs with Barry during my first couple of years here, but then we kind of lost touch with each other. \u00a0We reconnected when I randomly Googled his name and found the web page for a voiceover artist bearing his name. \u00a0What convinced me that this was the right Barry Seymour was the list of dialects he posted under \u2018fluent in\u2019 – the one that jumped out was \u2018Yooper\u2019. \u00a0A quick email later and we have been in contact ever since. \u00a0Barry\u2019s main occupation these days is in computer programming. \u00a0He pointed out that, \u201cRadio and voiceover are incredibly competitive now. \u00a0Just about anyone with a computer, microphone and internet connection can create high quality digital audio and deliver it anywhere. It’s been hard to get work. \u00a0If I put some time and money into it, took some classes, did some networking and brown-nosing, etc. I might make a splash, but at this point I have to think of the children… and keep my day job<\/span>\u201d. \u00a0Barry\u2019s \u00a0resume and voiceover samples can be viewed \u00a0and heard at www.barryseymour.com.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In our band days, Barry was always a mimic and could pop in and out of character voices at the drop of a hat. \u00a0Between the voices and the quicktime banter he could dish out, we spent a lot of time laughing too hard to play music (\u201cplease shut up and play, Barry\u201d was uttered from time to time). \u00a0Think \u2018Bill Hader\u2019 from SNL and you will get a pretty good mental image of what I mean (and ironically, Bill and Barry bear an uncanny physical resemblance). \u00a0What I didn\u2019t know until we reconnected was that Barry had started in radio in 1977 at NMU’s student station WBKX and then DJed at WDMJ just like Mike Burr. \u00a0Barry mentioned that the job spinning 45s got old real fast (and it showed in his performance) so they let him go after 3 months. \u00a0He landed up the road at WJPD in Ishpeming for a while, but then \u00a0embarked on a better career opportunity at <\/span>WLST-FM and WMAM-AM<\/span> in Marinette, WI. \u00a0\u00a0As the \u2018production manager\u2019, he was able to put his mimicking skills to work doing ad campaigns. \u00a0He said it was the \u201cBEST JOB EVER. \u00a0I was paid to be crazy; \u00a0my eccentricities were tolerated and even encouraged at times. \u00a0It was a small town with few legal limitations that anyone cared about, which is why you can hear me using Mork, The Muppets and other characters and concepts that I really should <\/span>not <\/span><\/i>have used! \u00a0My fellow radio actors were fellow announcers, salespeople, even the engineer. \u00a0\u00a0Rank amateurs all, which contributed to the charm and lunacy of the whole thing.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0I said, \u201cboy, I wish I could have heard some of the ads you did,\u201d and was pleasantly surprised when he emailed me a link to an archive of his radio work <\/span>(<\/span>https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/barry-seymour\/sets<\/span><\/a>m95<\/a>).\/f<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On the first listen, I kept getting the giggles – if any of these places are still around, the ads would still work 30 plus years later. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Imagine, if you will, having a character like a young Bill Hader or Robin Williams writing, producing and starring in your local business spots. \u00a0Barry has said multiple times that he really enjoyed the creativity of that period of his life very much but life intervened and he enlisted for a stint in the Navy. \u00a0He was deposited \u00a0in San Francisco at the end of his hitch and now resides in Los Angeles where we managed to \u2018do lunch\u2019 a couple of times when the WOAS western bureau was still located there. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Barry admits that he sometimes wonders what the road not taken would have been like. \u00a0What if he had forgone the Navy and pursued the radio gig? \u00a0I think this is a little mind game we all play from time to time and the answer is moot: \u00a0we get to where we are because we make decisions and choose which path(s) to follow. \u00a0If one could go back, \u00a0look into a crystal ball, and see the twisted path that they would follow to get to the present, \u00a0one would never believe that life\u2019s path could be such a crooked road. \u00a0No, you can\u2019t go back, but as delving into Barry\u2019s archives proves, you can enjoy what you did in the past. \u00a0Maybe I unconsciously translate Barry\u2019s e-mails into his voice in my head, but I find that Barry is STILL one of the funniest guys I know – he is just that kind of unforgettable character!<\/span><\/p>\n

The video clip is a tune that we used to do in Sledgehammer – Barry and I founded the band when we discovered we both had a love of The Doobie Brothers, but Steely Dan cemented the relationship. \u00a0I can’t think of another band in the Marquette area that was doing Steely Dan songs in that time period. \u00a0Our version of\u00a0Pretzel Logic<\/em> was a bit closer to the original album version than this Dukes of September version.