I've been privileged to correspond with and even work with up close and personally many of the greats of the radio generation that preceded mine, those who inspired me. And, of course, I was able to reach out and touch many of the folks who were my contemporaries and successfully reached the loftier goals to which I once aspired.
I sit back and look at my email list and, well, I am just in awe of the names there. And, for no good reason I can think of, I've discovered that many of them are readers of this little puddle of online nonsense.
A couple nights back, I approached a mutual friend and asked if he could send me the email addy of a guy who has for many years stood tall to me as a professional hero. Scott St. James, whom some of you may know from his tenure in STL at KTRS, KMOX and KXOK, was kind enough to send it along.
I sent a humble thank you for all his inspiration to Bill Mouzis, formerly the production engineer at KHJ/Los Angeles. Bill is the guy who, with the inspired scripting of PD Ron Jacobs (you should read his book) and the amazing voicework of the late Robert W. Morgan, created most of the promos for that amazing radio station, creating sounds and production techniques that many of us copied for our stations. He was also the man who put together, in an unbelievable seven weeks, the legendary KHJ 48 Hour History of Rock and Roll.
And he did it all on quarter-inch magnetic tape with a Joel Tall editing block, a few single-edge razor blades, a yellow grease pencil and some rolls of 1/4" Scotch splicing tape. You've probably got no idea what any of that means.
Amazingly, Bill responded, just a few hours later. And guess what? He reads STLMedia.net!
May I suggest that you take a minute to drop Mr. Mouzis a line and thank him for what he did for your profession?
