Great stories and audio from the team that started it all.
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Gator McClusky
 
weekends/overnights

(Florida law no longer allows gators to be treated this way
What was he doing? Don't ask-we didn't )
- from Gator McClusky -
        **E-Mail**  (from May 2004) Wow Brian, This is an amazing site. The content is unbelievable. Thank you for capturing a wonderful, insane time in all our lives. Thanks for the memories.
- Paul Cartellone - Directory Guru - All Access Music Group (aka former Pig jock Gator McClusky)

    Big Woody - Production Director/weekends
  - from Big Woody (aka Brad James) -    
        Here are my thoughts of the Power Pig....We started with 80 songs....I dubbed them on to cart! The excitement among all of us was so intense...none of us wanted to sleep! Finally a company with the guts and means to go after the GIANT legend....Q-105. Gabe was already here...in comes Marc Chase...pretty cool guy....think he just got married..... I remember our name changes from those who were staying from Z-93 (which was the best oldies station ever!) Randy Michaels said something about a Big Woody so he looked at me and said...there you go! I remember Jeff Laurence not liking the "Fat Man" idea too much....but boy did it fit his pipes...BJ eventually came in and took that name. Dave "the bat" Mann ...fit him well...he can hit a baseball.
I think our in-house had us #1 the 3rd day into the format.... Mike Albl from corporate going on as Marilyn Monroe...deep pipes and all. Passing out "pig bucks" in the malls to get people to listen. The Feds showed up and said stop writing on U.S. currency....so we did. "Pig Bucks"  man...I miss those days....
        I too was in the parking lot the night we painted our Z-93 Van--- pink and wrote...POWER PIG  on it. Gabe was in the building so we did the same to his leased company car....think it was a Z....man that was fun. We were truly the "Bad Boys" of radio. Started out with 4 talk breaks an hour...I remember Chase saying...keep it to :15 or less!!  We capitalized on all the stuff people hated about Q-105....too much talk, talk, talk and too many commercials.....Jacor- Marc, Gabe, Randy...everyone involved knew what the market wanted in a top-40 station and we delivered!
        We were in the middle of moving to this building on Gandy Blvd. from downtown...I was producing music sweepers with a triple deck cart machine and a reel to reel machine that was 30 years old....the main production studio was being moved. But hey! it was fun!!
        Randy Michaels coming in the studio and looking over your shoulder and encouraging you by asking if you wanna go eat some food and then go to a nightclub for a couple pops.....man, you talk about having fun? One of our first promotions was at a club up on Fletcher Ave. in N. Tampa...Randy mooned everyone on I-275 all the way there...I had a stomach ache for days from laughing at him.
        We all knew what we were a part of and we knew exactly what was taking place...we were slaying the dragon...and we did just that. We were getting in their heads by actually making fun of them on the air and getting some inside scoop on some of their staff meetings and man it had them going! Those promos were so much fun....I was the voice of Mason...Brian James produced them....they were great! They ignored us for a while until it became obvious their audience was coming to us and in big numbers...then the panic set in over there and they just fell apart. I think if they would have stayed the course....the 25-54's would have gone back to them and we would dominate the 18-34's ...but they didn't and pushed the panic button.
        I remember Jack talking up an intro.....Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice.....imagine that in your head....I still laugh.
I'll never forget some of our staff meetings.....we'd laugh about something for hours...we had some funny characters in this building...guys that you'd laugh at or would make you laugh for hours....
        I'll never forget the Power Pig and the Promotions we did and the creativity of some very talented people.... ..
We laughed so much....we learned a lot...Marc and BJ knew CHR like no others...man they had great ideas....
I'll never forget it all as long as I live....I've applied much of what I learned from them as P.D. of the Sports Animal today...Would love to hear from you all!!!!! 
- Brad James

    Stretch Marx - weekends
- from Stretch Marx (aka Scott Chase) -

**   There was one bit... crude in the production aspect, but the subject matter was around a local TV newscaster's receiving child prostitution charges... don't know if you remember that story... the newscaster had been arrested for soliciting sex with an underage hooker (not sure those details are exact after all these years, but you get the idea)... I did a little bit about it... later in the show I had callers requesting the bit and asking me to play "Me So Horny" and dedicate it to the newscaster... The PIG was so much fun...  here is a quick promotional story... 

I remember working one weekend when we were giving away New Kids on the Block tickets... at the time the New Kids were considered over and un-cool, and in reality the Power Pig was not playing them... Q105 was still playing them however... So the brilliant minds of the Power Pig (not sure who thought it up) came up with the idea that we would give the New Kids tickets away on the air, but that we had to coach every winner to say that they did not want the tickets... so off air, we would tell the correct caller that the only way they could get the tickets would be to say on the air that they did not want them... then they had to answer one other question... I always told the callers that if they were convincing enough, I would let them have the tickets... the following is a re-enactment of a winner I had... (if I can find the tape, I will send it)...
 

Stretch:  Power Pig, who's this?
Caller:  Tina

Stretch:  Tina, your the 9th caller you just won New Kids on the Block tickets...
Caller:  Oh, well I don't want them...

Stretch:  What?
Caller:  I don't want them.

Stretch:  But you have to take them, I was told I had to give them away or they won't let me work here anymore...
Caller:  No I already told you, I don't want them.  You can't make me take them, I don't want them!

Stretch:  Ok, I guess... well tell me one thing... what station plays the New Kids on the Block?
Caller:  Q105!
 

That is as close to the actual call as I can remember... It was brilliant... the Power Pig was cool and there was no way we wanted to associate ourselves with playing New Kids on the Block at that time... even though we all knew that the tickets were a hot item... the best part of the promotion is that it further pigeon-holed Q105 as a "behind the curve, un-cool radio station"... That was definitely one of my favorite promotions, and so much fun to execute on the air! 

I hope I remembered that correctly... anyway, I will see what else I can dig up for you... - Scott Chase aka Stretch Marx

                    **STORY 2** (from Nov. 2003)  Brian, I just saw the Power Pig site for the first time... great job! It made me remember a time when radio was truly fun!
I was fortunate to hear the flip!  I heard the early ransom teases, the flip, and all the "we now take you to a Q105 staff meeting" promos that made me laugh out loud.
When "the Pig" first went on, I was doing nights in Sarasota at Z106. What a lot of people don't know is that the flip not only killed Q105, but it also killed our top 40 in
Sarasota... the Pig took Z106 from a 7.5 to 3.7 in one book.  Management in Sarasota then decided to flip from Z106 to Oldies 106.  I stayed at Oldies 106 and immediately
joined The Power Pig...BJ hired me!  I remember my first shift... a Saturday night from 6p - 10p. I followed Dave Mann!  I will never forget the advice I got from Dave...the conversation went like this...

Dave - Have you ever been on the air here before?  
Stretch - No this is my first shift.  
Dave - OK, well there are a couple of rules you need to be aware of...
Stretch - (nervously) Ok...
Dave - Rule one... you can drink while you're on the air.

             Rule two... you can have sex while you're on the air.
             Rule three... you can basically do whatever you want to do, as long as you sound good... if you have any problems, just call me... have a good show.

Stretch - Thanks!

I truly loved my time at the Pig... It's one of my favorite times in radio. I am now searching my collection... I know I have some audio...some promos,
some sweepers, & some of my airchecks... I will send them along! PS-I know everybody remembers the vending machine with our favorite beverage!
-Scott Chase aka Stretch Marx (an original weekend Pigger...also former Program Director Star 95.7)

Jacor COO/Exec. Vice President Randy Michaels -
Pulse Interview - July 30, 1990
"We went on the air with more produced elements than songs.
The attempt was to use attitude drops to create a sense of theatre,
a larger than life presence, a compelling reason to tune in beyond the music."

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