The Top 5 Questions I Am Asked About Being a Radio DJ

I've been on the radio for 33 years, ever since I was a 19-year-old kid opening the mic for the very first time on the student run radio station WHSN at Husson University in Bangor in 1990. What a wild trip it's been.

In all that time there are questions that I have been asked over and over again. I'm happy to answer these questions, but to save you some time so you can ask me something I haven't heard before, here are the top 5 questions I am asked about being a radio DJ.

1. Will You DJ My Wedding?

While a lot of my colleagues in the radio biz do this sort of thing, I don't. I've got no equipment, no music, no time. I tried it once and was a miserable failure at it when the equipment I had rented failed on me. I don't want to be the one responsible for ruining someone's special day. Thanks for thinking of me though.

2. Can You Get Me Tickets to (Insert artist here)?

I'm going to have to say no to that. I don't even get tickets to concerts. Your best bet is to try to win your tickets when we give them away on the air, which leads me to question number 3...

3. Why Can't I Ever Get Through on the Phone to Win Anything?

This is the equivalent of asking why you never win the lottery. There is no secret to getting through to win anything. You have to be lucky. Don't be fooled by this photo. It may look like we have lots of lines into the studio, but only two are active. If both of those lines are ringing, you'll get a busy signal when you call. Remeber busy signals?

You have to hope that your call is at the exact moment when someone hangs up and you get it to ring and are the correct caller. And yes, we really do count all the calls we get when you have to be caller number 9. 8 people become very disappointed.

4. Do Your Radio Voice!

I have a radio voice? I guess I do, but it's not on purpose or anything I can do on cue like a trick. I just speak in a much more excited and upbeat manner when I'm on the radio than I do in person. If you just want me to pretend I'm introducing a song, I suppose I could but it's going to be anti-climactic. It makes me wonder though. Did anyone ever walk up to the legendary Pat Callaghan and ask him to do his news voice?

5. Do You Get to Pick the Music You Play?

Nope. The music is selected for us by our music director. He schedules every song for us, and we get the list when we start our show. This of course doesn't account for any requests, but most of those are usually already on the list and will be heard very soon.