9:56 a.m. “You’re listening to WCFA-LP 101.5 FM now on the air from Cape May Point to Cape May Court House and beyond with an Eclectic Blend of Jazz. I’m Peg Long. I’ll be with you until noon and remember today is Valentine’s Day. You still have time to run out and find something but keep an eye on the weather. The temperature is 38° and falling. And now I am going to play….”
My assignment? Spend a session with disc jockey Peg Long at the new F.M. radio station launched by the Center for Community Arts (CCA) November 28th. Peg starts at 9 a.m. on the dot but wanted an hour to warm up before I came to sit with her. I arrive at the station, which currently is located at CCA’s offices on Lafayette Street, a little early and Peg is already talking to her audience as I walk in. The door is shut tight and a red light above it says – “On Air.”
Now, how’s Peg going to know I’m out here? It’s a few minutes past 10 o’clock when I see the red light go out. Should I knock on the door? Should I just open the door? What if I knock and you can hear the knock out there in radio land? I gingerly approach the door and stand in front of it like Susan in The Chronicles of Narnia. And then, I look up and see the message: “Stop. Please just announce that you are here and then wait in the meeting room until you are called.” Well, o.k. then. That’s easy enough. I do as I am told and then wait. While I’m waiting, I go over my notes on how 101.5 came to be.
The idea of a community radio station started five years ago when radio enthusiast Drew Butkocy came to CCA with the idea. The FCC was offering community-based, nonprofit organizations the chance to apply for licenses to operate low power (83 watts) FM community radio stations. FCC approval came in mid-2005 but by that time the antenna location originally proposed for the station was no longer available. It took one year to find a new antenna location which would meet FCC requirements and serve Cape May, the Wildwoods and Lower Township, the communities where CCA’s other programming is based. Help came from Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano and Wildwood Water Utility Director Gary Ziegler. They were able to place a 100-watt antenna on the Utility’s tower in Wildwood Crest, all that was needed was a variance from the Borough of Wildwood Crest, which the commissioners granted by unanimous vote.
10:04 a.m. Peg opens the door. Butkocy has created a temporary studio at CCA’s Cape May offices using donated and recently purchased equipment. When the Franklin Street School Community Cultural Center opens in 2008, the studio will move across the street.
With three months under her belt, Peg is a virtual veteran one of only three women (one of whom is still in training) out of a total of 19 DJ volunteers. 101.5 airs 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week.
“I can pick anything I care to listen to,” she says looking over the impressive array of electronic equipment to her left – the catalog of music, tracks, times and mini notes regarding the artists just in front of her – and the board which magically (well to me it’s magic) takes us live at her fingertips. “I have to cue up for the next album,” she says looking at the time and computer listings.
She especially leans toward the female vocalists but tries to mix it up as per the instructions on the wall ahead of her and above me. “It’s all about the music.” “The Music Mix is what makes this format work…so Please Mix it up.” To ensure this, Butkocy has divided 50-minutes of the hour into three parts – Straight jazz, like Billy Taylor and Bobby Hutcherson; Latin Jazz like Paquito D’ Riveira and Herbie Mann; Pop Jazz like George Benson. Leaving ten minutes for new artist play and underwriting announcements.
True enough – it is all about the music, but it’s also all about the minutes. Although we have a little time to chat, Peg spends most of her off-air time planning out the rest of the program. She scans the computer looking for artists who interest her, or whose album title sounds interesting. Then – and this is the tricky part – she figures out how many tracks she should play from that album to get the mix in and bring her audience up to the hour.
“I try to end on the hour but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. I stopped too soon earlier. It was only 9:52 so I had to fill the time until 10 a.m. It takes me the first hour to get into a rhythm,” she says, “where I feel comfortable that I won’t screw anything up. Some of the DJs are very intense about jazz and come prepared knowing what they want to play. Not me. I’m very much a learner.”
And, as you may have noticed, at WCFA-LP 101.5 FM, it’s always an album during the intro and back-announce (after the selection has played). It is never called a CD. Never a cassette and never, ever an eight-track. Do you think there are any of those (8-tracks) still around?
10:17 a.m. She presses the red button and we’re on the air. “You were listening to the sounds of Paquito D’Rivera from his album Havana Café.” There are a series of community announcements and sponsors’ messages and then: “I’m going to send a Valentine out to all you ladies. This is Kenia on her latest album Initial Thrill.”
I’m wondering how Peg chooses the artists she does. Well, she went to Cuba some years ago on a church mission trip and that’s why she played Havana Café. She likes the piano and leans that way. She likes to play female artists and tries to search the archives for different names. “I really like Kenia,” Peg says of the Brazilian-born singer and tries to give her as much airtime as she can.
10:30 a.m. Peg’s head phones are back on as she gets ready for a track change. Her fingers are perched on the red button on the control board. I stop talking. I stop breathing. My biggest fear? I’ll start coughing, drop something or otherwise screw up. I do not cough. I do hear a pencil drop and I do stop breathing, gingerly looking about me to see where the errant pencil has gone. Thankfully, the pencil is no where near me and the sound didn’t go out into the airwaves. I’m thinkin’ poltergeist.
She fills the moments with promotions for the upcoming Jazz Festival at Somers Point, CCA’s March 9th Aquamarine Madness gala and, as always, the station’s sponsors and underwriters. By 10:35 a.m. we’re listening to the piano virtuoso of Monty Alexander from his album Caribbean Circle.
Before becoming a high-power jazz DJ, Peg was a clinical psychologist back in Pennsylvania. Actually she and her husband retired to Cape May about 13 years ago and little did she know she would be starting a new, would it be too presumptuous to say, career? “I don’t expect it to be a career but I really wanted to help get this (radio station) started.
But does she like it, I ask. “Yes,” she says without hesitation, “I have a sense of accomplishment when I’m done.” She also has a sense of the nerves when she wakes up on Wednesday morning but each week gets a little easier. “I’ve always liked radio especially talk radio,” she says. And would she consider doing a little talk radio-counseling? “No way.” All righty then back to the station that servers our community – 101.5 FM on your dial. Hey. I bet I could do this the DJing.
At 10:52 Peg informs her listeners that the temperature has dropped to 35°. The winds have shifted to North-North-West. We are about the listen to the Rippingtons, she tells us. Once the headphones come off, she carefully pencils in her log of announcements. Keeping the log, she says, helps her stay on track, time wise. “It’s amazing,” she says, “how your brain goes dead if you don’t plan what you’re going to say. If I can catch my brain, then I try and say something off the cuff,” Something snappy, she says, like the barometer pressure’s going up.
11:05 a.m. “Oh this is one of my favorites,” Peg says to her listeners. Debbie Spring playing viola on her album Ocean Drive. By now, when Peg looks at the computer archives, I look at them too and I find myself checking the clock and the track times and trying to do the math. Can we have the cut end at exactly the noon hour. Hey listen to me – “we” who’s we? Me?
Peg figures out that the cut from guitarist Lee Ritenour’s album Color Rit brings us up to 11:41. A couple of brief announcements and she takes us to a selection from Peter Moffitt’s album Riverdance which has four tracks, totaling 21 minutes. That brings us to the top of the hour and she fade away early and hit the airwaves right at noon.
“I think this is going to work out just right,” she says, deep in thought. Me? I got lost back at Color Rit and trying to add 17 minutes to 21 minutes but allowing for two to four minutes of announcements and whew! I think I better leave this to the professionals.
And indeed, Riverdance winds up at 12 on the dot. It is now 30° and Peg advises us to be careful out there because the roads are expected to be icy.
“Happy Valentines Day and this is Peggy Long signing off.”
WFNF goes on auto-pilot. Peg takes her headset off and leans back in the chair.
“At first, it was just my husband listening. Now people say they listen to my show – and that’s scary.” But it’s good news for the Center for Community Arts and radio station WCFA-LP 101.5 FM. This is Susan Tischler signing off.
Volunteers interested in learning more about radio broadcasting on WCFA can call 609-884-7525 and speak with Drew. Local businesses that would be interested in becoming founding underwriters should call the same number and speak with Judy Austermiller, Development Director. CCA can also be contacted at info@centerforcommunityarts.org
