During my senior year, the first week of the new school year was a bit of a free-for-all at KCOU. Ostensibly, there was a clear dividing line between the Summer and first semester DJ schedules, but it wasn't followed completely. As a result, even though I wasn't scheduled yet, I went in twice during the first week to turn on the transmitter and do two impromptu editions of "Jazz Odyssey." Before going on the air the first day, another DJ, Randy, and I were perplexed that music couldn't be heard in cue through the station's sound board. In retrospect, we should have called the chief engineer. I put on some music to play in cue, and both of us started punching buttons and adjusting levers until an ear-splitting blast of sound rivaling this one came barreling out of the speakers. Somehow, one or both of us stumbled onto the solution.
The next day, however, I was faced with the same problem. Neither Randy nor I could remember how we'd inadvertently gotten sound in cue the day before, so we tried our same semi-random procedure--and were nearly knocked backwards once again by a blaring cacophony of notes.
"We're going to go deaf if we keep doing this," Randy remarked to me.
Fortunately, I never encountered that situation again. It was worth the momentarily piercing sound, though, to actually hear the music I was going to play before it aired.
