Stories From Sam – “Holidaze”

 Stories From Sam 

 By Sam Van Zandt BARHOF Class Of 2014 

“Holidaze”

Christmas!! Like Andy Williams used to sing, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year”. Unless of course you’re working on Christmas. So, a tip of the Santa hat to those who work – the Chinese waiters, gas station attendants, military personnel and yes, all the DJs. We love our holidays – it’s a special time to celebrate, relax and enjoy the company of the ones we love. But for DJs, our job is to play music for others who are celebrating. Before “Otto” – Otto Mation, we live DJs provided the background music for MLK Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays. Most of us radio elves have had to toil during the holidays at some point during our careers, and that’s both a chore and a blessing. The chore involves entertaining people who are doing what you wish you were doing – partying with family and friends. The blessing involves spending time doing what WE love for a few hours, then being with the ones we love afterwards. That’s the job, and for much of my career I’ve spent many holidays in a radio station studio. When I started out, my one rule was to never say no, and that led to great experiences and stories. For the years that I spent at KNEW, I got the major holidays off, but when I began there, my job was to fill in for the regular staff while they celebrated the day.

We all have our memories – when I did PM Drive at KIOI, Thanksgiving and Christmas were workdays, but we did what we could to make it fun. I recall Steve Jordan, Jack Friday and Hoyt Smith bringing good cheer – at KIOI we had holiday potlucks – and we would celebrate while the music played. At KFRC in the late 90’s I was a fill-in guy, so on those holidays I subbed for Sue Hall, Sylvia Chacon or Bobby Ocean. After years of being a union jock at KCBS, KNEW and KBGG, fate put me on the beach. That first summer, I would ask for weekends off to go water skiing. One day the boss gave me a reality check. My job was to do radio while the regular talent went water skiing. Got it! But it was fun doing radio on KFRC, baby!

The Holidays stand out as a very special time for many of us who have worked in radio and television. People you worked with became your friends, and we swapped stories about past holidays and stations we’d worked at, and family we were missing. Recently I asked about others’ holiday experiences on Facebook and several radio-TV talents replied with their stories.

Don Bleu, who probably has many great holiday stories to share, recalled this: “Walking out of a mall in Minnesota after a 24 hour holiday charity fundraising broadcast. The quiet of the snowfall was deafening compared to the nonstop echoing sounds of the mall for the past day.” What a beautiful recollection!

Jackie Selby said a listener once built a snowman outside the station window while she did her show!

Joe Salvatore told of working Christmas Eve at KOIT in 1992, when new reel-to-reel players shaved off the “30 hours of Christmas” reels and they had to scramble to find Christmas CDs to fill those hours!

Carolyn McArdle tells of the time early in her career, when she worked as an overnight board-op from Midnight to Six on Christmas Morning at KIOI. Her PD let her crack the mic just to say KIOI, and as she grew bolder, by dawn she was saying “Happy Holidays to you and yours from all of us here at KIOI!”

Bob Gowa said he once worked nearly continuously from Christmas Eve through Christmas Day on KGO “babysitting the board” to give others the day off. Now that’s a Christmas gift!

Miranda Wilson says at KKSF she took calls from lots of lonely folks who appreciated her and her cohorts for “being there – so many phone calls – so many stories”. Thanks, Miranda! So true for all of us.

Sheri Nelson recounted happy KNEW-KSAN Thanksgiving potlucks for the whole station staff and crew.

Dave Padilla said Narsai David would bring turkey and all the fixin’s to the Thanksgiving crew at KCBS.

Tim Anthony wrote about how the Thanksgiving turkey was mostly gone by the time he showed up for PM Drive at KSAN, but he would take the carcass home and make turkey soup for his family!

Clark Reid remembers doing a weekend marathon remote in Union Square for “One Warm Coat”. They took in 28,000 coats that weekend! I remember doing the same for “Salvation Army” in San Jose.

George Sampson recalls a part timer who volunteered for Christmas Day to avoid her boyfriend’s family.

Ann Autumn worked with her partner one entire Christmas weekend at KSRO, changing tapes. Afterward, she swore she never again wanted to hear another Christmas Song. Ever!

Shawn Kelly (Rosvold) recalled when someone at BIG 98 thought bringing live turkeys into the studio would be fun. “They crapped everywhere and refused to gobble!” Stinky promotion!

Carmen Torres recalls delicious Christmas tamales and lots of cake when she worked for Spanish Radio, and the time she was stuck in the station for three days in Denver because of a terrible blizzard.

Carolyn Tyler remembers Christmas 2007 when she was heading home from work and was diverted to the San Francisco Zoo, where a tiger had escaped! It was still on the loose! She was scared and pissed! She recounts that Vic Lee eventually showed up to take over, and she went home to her family.

My memories through the years are happy and plentiful. Ringing the bell for Salvation Army, putting together warm clothing backpacks for Warm Wishes and handing them out at Glide Memorial Church. Taking my sons and grandkids with me to donate toys. Gathering toys at the annual KBAY Stuff the Bus event in downtown San Jose, where car clubs and bike clubs and hundreds of people warmed the day.

But my favorite memory happened in the late 1970’s, when I recounted on the air at KIOI the story of my father and one of his unforgettable holidays spent working. Dad had told me the story years before, so I was going from memory. It went like this: in the 1930’s, when the Great Depression was in full force, My father had a young son, James Ray (Dad was James Andrew) Van Zandt. His wife had left him with Ray to raise, and he was doing the best he could on his own. After working for awhile for FDR’s Work Projects Administration for $1.25 a DAY, Dad took a job on a farm. He had grown up with nine siblings on a Texas farm. At this time he was a foreman, tending to orchards in Cupertino. But on that Thanksgiving Day at KIOI I got the story wrong – I told listeners that Dad had been picking fruit with my brother Ray when the boss came to tell him he didn’t need to work on Thanksgiving. And Dad replied to the farmer “Well, I have two things to be thankful for- this job and that boy, and I am working to keep them both.”

 

James Van Zandt And Son Ray

 

After I’d finished my story and started a song, the phone rang. It was my dad. He said “I was listening, son, and heard your nice story, but it’s inaccurate. You don’t pick fruit in November. You prune the trees”.

Having set the record straight, my father wished me a happy Thanksgiving and left me to finish the show. But the most important thing he said to me wasn’t that I was mistaken. No. The gift, the words that gave me such comfort on that Thanksgiving day were the words, “I was listening, son.”

So when and if you ever work another holiday shift, no matter how challenging, take comfort in the fact that you may be fortunate to hear these words someday – “I was listening”. Happy Holidays, everyone!