Request Line

The mid-seventies, I worked the evening shift spinning records on the radio in Portland. For many years, the request line was a big part of my dysfunctional social life.

Let me explain:

There were several record suggestion lines coming into the radio station. "Working" them became high art -- of a type. A few were foxes, most - not so much. Volume got the numbers up.

The length of a song to make one's off-air pitch. Yes, the prime directive - different time, earlier technology - but same as it ever was.

© 2015 Buzz Hill