The five-plus years I spent as PD/OM at WRNL in Richmond VA was a wonderful experience. I had, for the first time, the opportunity to work with GM's who understood programming and, eventually, an owner who "got it" and allowed me to fully develop the station.
After we took the station country, it became an immediate sucess and I decided to try and resurrect the concept of live shows, spotlighting local bands. The idea was to bring a few extra dollars into the station (the shows were set for Saturday night, an otherwise dead time for income) and to promote the impact of the radio station to what would now be called our P-1's.
I figured out how to use a tiny Shure mixer plugged into the output of the band's PA, a ceiling-mounted ambience mic and a dedicated 5k(!) phone line to air an amazingly good-sounding show. The band gave us a good mix for the radio, we eq'd a touch on the board to punch up the audio and it became a popular weekly event, both for those who were in attendance and those who listened.
The first thirteen weeks were sold to a place in the far-west end of Richmond, called Saddles. We got most of the way through the deal, even ran a huge co-promotion with the original Gilley's in Houston, when Saddles suddenly want dark (bars are like that) and I moved the show to a place a little closer in to the city, but in Chesterfield County. It was smaller than Saddles, but the food was better and the owner was a lot more motivated. Things were going great, we were airing new, local bands every Saturday night, the place was packed, and the business spilled over into the rest of the week, just as our salesperson promised (whew!).
Then the unbelievable happened. A church maybe a hundred yards away from the the strip center where the club was located invoked an old, old Chesterfield County law that prohibited live music along with dancing anywhere alcohol was served, if that establishment was within a few hundred yards of a church.
We went a couple weeks with no dancing, thus skirting the regs, and observation by members of the church. The County police were on our side but their hands were tied by the law and the crowd tipped off quickly. We obviously had to do something. Then one of the bands we used regularly, Graham Bland & The Shades of Blu, came up with an idea. We all took a meeting and realized that Graham was a wizard. It took a few days to put it all together.
The next Saturday, Graham and his band took the stage at 9PM. Drinks were flowing, Graham and the band were hotter than ever, and the dance floor was filled. Then we got raided. The church observers tipped off the County police that we were in violation of the law and they wanted us shut down right-freakin'-now. Except they didn't say "freakin'".
The police walked in and told the band to stop playing. This was high drama, being played out live on WRNL.
The band stopped playing as ordered and stepped off the stage. But the music never stopped!
Graham and his band had pre-recorded the entire evening and had been lip-synching and air-guitaring-drumming-keyboarding their way through their playlist, entirely within the limits of that old Chesterfield County law. Dancing and drinking to recorded music was okay.
As Meatloaf has explained to us, two out of three ain't bad.
The cops laughed, threw up their hands and left; the church reps slunk out, presumably to pray for our degenerate, drunken, country music lovin' souls the next morning.
Never heard from the church again, and the owner moved his place further west on Midlothian a month or so later.
That's the kinda stuff I miss about being in radio.
