WOBR_The Wave_1997_1

New ownership came into town on the Outer Banks. I first heard one of his stations on my way off the Banks, bound for Ohio, up the highway of coastal North Carolina: some Elizabeth City flamethrower that was experimenting with shock radio.

Reel forward 3 years, and Rick Loesch asked me to come back to program one of his newest acquisitions, my beloved WOBR (see my airchecks from earlier when I originally worked at WOBR). He wanted to make it the most progressive rock radio that would grab the surfer crowd that dominated the Outer Banks.

So that's how it started, of course on a shoestring budget, but I was blessed with a staff of creative professionals who are still working artists to this day: Doug Dino, who is a very talented musician and full time FM jock on the Banks, and EJ Troudt, who manages an art magazine, currently, and continues his love of music with his various side bands.

This kind of radio expression was special to me, not just because I was the PD, but because of its rarity. Radio personalities are a mix, of course, like any other profession: some are into being a DJ for different reasons. The ones I gravitated to at the stations I chose were people with a lot of artistic sensibilities. They were either musicians themselves, or were very in touch with learning about their favorite artists. With EJ, Doug, and Kenzie, they were all of those.