Adam R Jacobson, using the name “Jake Adams,” was the voice behind the mic for the 10am-3pm air shift on Lincoln Financial Media’s WLYF “101.5 Lite FM” in Miami on Sunday, January 17, 2010.
Adam was one of several candidates being considered for this highly desired air shift, which includes Saturdays. WLYF is interviewing and auditioning other worthy candidates over the next several weeks.
It appears that while Adam did a great job after not being on the air for more than a decade and never having been on the air at a No. 1-rated radio station in a top 15 Arbitron market, the station is looking for someone with a bit more experience – and less nerves!
How was the experience? Here’s Jake in his own words:
Being a radio personality on a station that has never appeared in the Arbitron ratings, or pretending to be a disc jockey as a seven-year-old destroying my mom’s cassette of “Take Me Home” by Cher, is NOTHING like actually getting behind the mic and putting on headphones in a radio station that’s the dominant No. 1 in the ratings.
My experience was everything I hoped it could be – even with the three big faux pas witnessed during my five-hour shift on 101.5 Lite FM.
The first hour went somewhat smoothly, even as I got used to the foreign equipment and “modern” technology – no cart machines or CD players or records to cue up anymore!
Then, at 11am, things started to get bad. I went long on the weather, and the music bed ran out. I panicked, and hit the top-of-the-hour sounder early. I nearly stepped on the promo that leads in to the first song of the hour.
Then, at 11:08 or so, an unexpected pause of eight seconds occurred. Oh, crap! This was my cue on the computer software to come in and talk up a record with one of three revolving liners – but I was supposed to manually delete the pause from the automated playlist system. So after the dead air, Selena’s “I Could Fall In Love” began, I did my liner, and I steamed off some hot air for a few minutes as the head of programming and operations, Rob Sidney, came in to the studio to find out what had happened.
I was mad at myself, but like in a marathon one must solider on, refocus, and think of the finish line. I was at mile 6 of 26.2 and stumbled. Time for a Gatorade and positive thoughts.
From 11:30AM to about 2:30PM I thought I did pretty well. I was a bit unhappy with some of my wraps – breathing issues, running out of air on a lengthy promo read and other nit-picky, Virgo-like self-criticisms.
But I had hit my stride. Talking up Naked Eyes’ “Always Something There To Remind Me” was pure joy. I was in my bedroom – talking up records to my imaginary listeners. But I wasn’t – I was on the station with more than a 9 share in a top 20 market, with thousands of people listening to me.
Then, a problem. I had a 35-second liner to read, but it was between a cold fade for “As Long As You Love Me” by Backstreet Boys and a seven-second intro for Phil Collins’ “You Can’t Hurry Love.” Instead of talking over dead air and then cueing Phil with seven seconds to go in my wrap, I talked over the final 15 seconds of the BSB song. Because I cued the mic early and DELETED the break. I knew my mistake and had to eat it. Yuck.
Rob came in and wanted to know what the hell had happened. I was pissed off at myself, and again recovered strong enough to finish my first-ever five hour shift since 1994.
When Denny relieved me, my head was throbbing. I felt nauseated, knowing that I had seriously flubbed a couple of key things in my on-air audition.
But I was strong for three hours or so. It was an audition; mistakes happen. At least my headphones weren’t taken from me and I wasn’t shown the exit until the end of my shift.
My friends and family think I was the best air personality they’ve heard in a while. I give myself a B-.
Will I be the next “Radio Idol” in South Florida? Who knows. I’m just happy to have gotten the chance to do something I enjoy and share five hours of my weekend with thousands of people actually paying attention to what I have to say.
If I get the gig, it’ll be a dream come true. If I don’t, no big deal.
I had fun. I just hope other air talents have fun behind the mic too.
Editor’s Note: Unscoped one-hour airchecks of Adam’s live on-air audition at 101.5 Lite FM are 8MB each and cannot be uploaded to JakeAdamsDotNet. If you’re interested in Adam for your radio station, send us a note at adam@jakeadams.net and we’ll be happy to talk to you about getting a file to your FTP server.
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