I’ve never come out and directly said this but the only job I’ve ever really wanted was to be a radio D.J. I have talked about it a little bit but even before I was on WORT that’s all I wanted. I was so into radio that I would listen all the time even when I was supposed to be sleeping. I remember there was a guy doing overnights on WIBA FM. His name was Sean The Man Of Steel. I know you’re thinking this story is supposed to be about his last day on WJJO.
Trust me it is, in 1991 WJJO change call letters from WTFX they were classic rock. In 1997 they changed formats and started the format that we all know today called active rock. They would go on to become one of the biggest rock stations in the country. They brought over a bunch of people from other stations including Sean, who did afternoons what they would call drive time. He had probably one of the best and most unique voices on the airwaves in Madtown. He was even on the commercial for Madison media Institute, you may remember it it went something kind of like this. ” Madison media institute helped me develop my passion for radio and gave me the skills to get a job”
Being that I was so in love with the radio I would do what most kids would do and call and request songs a lot, I also got to know a lot of the DJs from all the radio stations talking to them about their career and different things in music. He was there for quite a while. One thing you should probably know is an average the shelf life of a commercial radio DJ is about six months if you are not performing they find somebody else that may be able to do a better job. Madison was kind of unique once you got in the door a lot of people stuck around. Every once in a while they would change things at the top and bring in new people to put new blood into the station. This is what happened to Sean.
I have been scratching my head trying to figure out what date this happened but I’m at a loss I think it was after 2000.
I’m sitting in my little production studio over on flower Lane on the west side of town, where I was listening to WJJO, he was giving away tickets to Rob Zombie. He also mentioned that it was going to be his last day on the air so I was a little bummed out. He said the first person to bring him the largest pair of underwear or the smallest pair of underwear got a pair of tickets. Here’s where things get a little fuzzy I don’t remember if I called my buddy or he called me but we decided we had to go see Sean. We figured we probably wouldn’t be let in the door unless we had at least one pair of underwear. My buddies wife was kind of a bigger girl so we went and robbed her underwear drawer and headed to the studio. We showed up and unfortunately the person that got the pair of tickets got them because she brought in a pair of underwear off a Barbie doll that were real underwear so they were the smallest. No big deal I was hanging out in the WJJO Studio I was in heaven talk to Sean for a little bit. He said hang on a minute I’ve got to go on the air. He opened up the mic and said well since this is my last day I wanted to let you all know that Lucas the prince of darkness is here and he does one of the most bad ass overnight shows in Madison Mondays on WORT. Thanks for the props brother. miss you.