The little razor blade played a big part in radio broadcasting. DJ’s, Production and News people, pretty well everybody at the radio station, had a use for this tiny sharpie. During the 20’s and right up to the 50’s it wasn’t used much but through the 60’s through to the 90’s it was a mainstay in radio studios everywhere. One of the main uses of the razor blade was editing taped interviews, songs, commercials and oh, so much more.
Working with just the ear and a grease pencil one could become very adept at almost seeing sound on the audio tape.
In the hippy era DJ’s had long hair, very unshaven proving we were cool, but we still had to go out and do live broadcasts from an advertisers location (doing a “remote”). Management and or the radio salesman would hand you a hint, before you went out saying “Clean up your act!”
Then there was the all important “Show Prep” for announcers in the 60’s and on. “Show Prep happened before a shift or sometimes during, usually during an album cut like “Inna-A-Godda-Davida.”
Being an announcer back in the day meant that you had to exist on Mac & Cheese and if you wanted to splurge…wieners. When you brought leftovers to work the next day, to spice things up a bit, the razor blade came in handy.
There were those special days at the radio station when record reps would drop by. They’d want you to play their latest act. The reps always had goodies like key chains, tee-shirts, free albums to hand out to the staff and management. Announcers loved all these incentives. It was always amazing that an act could become a mega group, just for a keychain or a something where a razor blade was needed.
Announcers thought they knew what the listener wanted and management thought they knew what the listener wanted, thus there were some disagreements. Like when the Top 40 Station Manager or Program Director heard an announcer play something that wasn’t on the playlist or just didn’t like a song…the razor blade came into use one more time.
Some might not know how the lowly razor blade helped personality radio from the 50’s through the 90’s but as you can see it did. For those that worked in radio during that time you know it was a lot of FUN. It was the best job you could have with a Grade 12 education.
Radio has lost a lot of face but we now see that “Personality Radio” is alive and well with its shift to the internet. Good on ya, keep up the great work. As for the “Razor Blade” well it’s gone back to saving faces. Gonna miss ya little buddy!
Bryan Cox ( Radio Host, Speaker, Comic and Author)
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