That New WKRS Show with Jason Dickey, Luai Hodi, and Mike Fontaine
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Lets see, where do I start...
I like to think that I didn't choose radio, but rather that radio chose me. I've been honing my skills in broadcast from the womb. It all started when I was merely 3 months old when Mom and Dad decided to record me "goooing and gaahing."
As a youngin' my best friend had a microphone and speaker which became the coolest thing in his house besides Nintendo. Eventually we learned how to press record which opened up an entire new world to me. By third grade we were using the grade school student directory to prank call our fellow peers. It goes without saying that our hi-jinks didn’t go without its share of consequence. We were both grounded from radio for a week which is tough time when you're an 8 year old. |
In fourth grade my Nana (she's 100% Sicilian which means I'd get yelled at calling her "Grandma") bought me a small radio with a built in microphone for Christmas. I enjoyed recording random conversations of family members without them knowing and capturing sounds from video games, cars, animals, and friends.
Eventually my pre-teen years arrived and with it came an obsession to host my own mock radio show using a "hi-tech" boom box my Dad bought. My art teacher from junior high school was nice enough to give me a microphone which I used to plug into the back of it. For it's time that boom box had everything I needed. I could record using the dual cassette tape player all while playing compact discs in the background. If I heard anything on the radio tuner that I thought I could use for a show it was immediately put onto tape.
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My basement shows had all of the bells and whistles you hear on radio today such as music, commercials, sound effects, guests, and co-hosts which oftentimes were my cousins and brother. Those basement recordings are long gone and to this day, I still resent that I lost those old tapes. I am happy to report however, that I still have that boom box, and YES it still works!
Music has always been my refuge. I sold my soul to rock n roll due to my Dad's huge cd collection. The countless hours of hanging out with him while he lifted weights to Motley Crue, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, Pink Floyd, and Ozzy passed onto me as today I work at an upscale gym as a manager. I learned early in life not to limit myself to one particular music genre. I enjoy everything from rock, to metal, to hip-hop and I fell in love with electronic music and techno in college after going to a rave in Florida.
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Circa 1996: The infamous boom box |
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Speaking of college, I went to College of Lake County followed by Marquette University. While at CLC, I became involved with the college radio station on a whim as the result of my speech teacher. She convinced me to walk into the station and ask to get on the air. In return she promised to give me extra credit. Little did I know that this small instance of time would end up giving me the direction I sought for. As a result, I fell in love with radio and decided to peruse a degree in broadcast.
A couple years, a many parties, and a ton of studying later, I successfully obtained a degree in radio broadcast from the Marquette University College of Communication. After graduating in 2005, I floated around for a couple of years working many random odd ball jobs while trying to find a job in radio. Eventually I landed a job in radio promotions which led to doing radio personality work. A production job opened up for the Libby Collins show on 1220 WKRS so I jumped at the opportunity. In all honesty, I had no idea what the job entailed. Regardless, I had a lot of fun, and learned alot. I worked with Libby for 7 months before Jake Fine took over. Since then, I've been working around the station doing random stuff for the 1220WKRS website, and trying to take what I've learned from Libby to apply it to my own show.... So tune in, and hopefully we get MIke and Luai's bio up soon!
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