In August of 1982 I was a sophomore at the University of Missouri-Rolla. I received my work-study assignment letter. I was assigned to work at KUMR, the public radio affiliate at the university. I initially just pulled and filed albums. Over the next three years, I gradually assumed more duties, eventually promoted to a student announcer spinning tapes and LPs and giving the station ID, time, weather, and even the news at the top of the hour. By my senior year, I actually had a Saturday morning classical music program. The program was foisted on me unexpectedly one Saturday morning when the host of the show abruptly quit leaving me with a stack of albums and two hours to fill. I was terrible at it. How do you pronounce Saint-Saëns anyways? And Wagner—I knew the Midwestern pronunciation but that obviously wasn’t good enough. Listeners, including my then girlfriend (now wife), Diana, regularly called in to correct my pronunciations. The classical music show was a short gig. Mercifully for me and my audience, they soon found a replacement.
One of my standard shifts was the Saturday AM shift. I would arrive at 5:30 AM, power up the station, and sign on, 6 AM sharp. One Saturday in the spring of 1984 was a little different. I awakened that morning with the morning sunshine in my eyes (that should not be!). In a panic I turned to the alarm clock. Flashing 12:00. Power failure!! Checking my wristwatch, it was 7:25.
“Crap! I’m late!”
I rushed off to the station. By 7:55, I signed on, nearly 2 hours late.
I opened the broadcast day with the following disclaimer:
“This is KUMR, Rolla, 88.5 FM, public radio in south-central Missouri. Due to technical difficulties, our broadcast has been delayed. We at KUMR apologize for any inconvenience.”
No one called into complain. Nobody appeared to know or even care. I told my boss that next Monday. Even he did not know (or care apparently) . . .
He laughed, “Oh, that’s OK. Nobody listens to you that time of morning anyways. But your disclaimer . . . technical difficulties? Really?”
“Well sir, it was due to technical (alarm clock) difficulties . . . technically speaking.”
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