(Edited and updated June 2020) I started in the entertainment business as a piano player for weddings and such at age 8 and also got involved with electronic kits as a hobby. By the time I was 10 I had built a mixer cause back then you couldn't buy them over the counter already made and a small 10 watt AM transmitter kit with a longwire antenna that could reach about 5 miles. I was raised in a rural area where there were more cows than people but pirate radio and the whole radio bug had bit me and life would never be the same.
The only "DJ" mixers back then were old broadcast remote mixers which were heavy, bulky and...(Edited and updated June 2020) I started in the entertainment business as a piano player for weddings and such at age 8 and also got involved with electronic kits as a hobby. By the time I was 10 I had built a mixer cause back then you couldn't buy them over the counter already made and a small 10 watt AM transmitter kit with a longwire antenna that could reach about 5 miles. I was raised in a rural area where there were more cows than people but pirate radio and the whole radio bug had bit me and life would never be the same.
The only "DJ" mixers back then were old broadcast remote mixers which were heavy, bulky and extremely expensive. My first attempt at building a mixer had a balance control that I wired wrong and actually wound up being a crossfader, so i am known in this area for being one of the godfathers of the crossfader and one of the first mobile DJ's in the area before the real club DJ and Disco craze got started. I sold that prototype to a firm in 1975 for the price of a used car and it became one of the first production mixers you could buy over the counter. Had I known then what I know today I would have charged them more for it. A local company used my schematics and circuitry, the case, knobs and switches was their own design and it hit the market late that fall. Right away all the electronic chains were doing their own, I could mention some companies but the first ready-available, over the counter mainstream DJ mixer in the states was sold by (rhymes with rack) and could run on wall power or battery. Most of the audio chain was nearly identical to my design. It was an amazing time to be working clubs and bars and radio broadcasting.
In 1974 i picked up a 2 nite a week gig at a local roller rink and I was off and rolling, but had conflicts cause of a band I was in. In 1976 I got my first class FCC licence and became a broadcast engineer and started working stations and clubs in the suburban Chicago area. I eventually worked 150+ radio stations in 36 states and designed and built 7 of them from the ground up. In 1992 I became a broadcast consultant and a staff writer for 2 different broadcast magazines and thought I "retired" from the business in 1995 when I got tired of people, pagers and ulcers but eventually came back in the late 90's and am still active now.
Today I build high power computer systems for lighting and sound control for theaters and live bands and DJ's and still do local clubs, weddings and other events and streaming radio shows several days a week. I have run or tried every product PCDJ and Atomix ever made at one time or another and still use a mixture of broadcast software and other apps in my main rig. I still do some broadcast consultant work on transmitters and audio processors and studio gear, but for the most part it's mostly computers these days that I spend my time battling. After 45 + years in this business I am not done yet. In fact, considering how fast technology changes, I probably never will be. Today with new audio interfaces and the newer generation of wireless and control devices and software, every day brings new technology to the arena of entertainment and gives us new ways of doing things. I also hold a MSDN tech licence and have consulted for several broadcast and computer chains and am still a FCC licensed technician and have been a music collector since 1965 when I bought my first 45's.
I am in my 60's now and still a broadcast engineer, and still active in the Chicago/Milwaukee club and broadcast scene and still doing everything live cause automation and playlist driven systems still suck, and no matter how well it's done, cannot replace the feel of a live skilled DJ mixing from the heart. The passion and energy is just not the same and it never will be and that's one of the biggest problems with professional overly researched and marketed terrestrial radio today and also one of the reasons hobby streaming thrives and I am not going away any time soon. The bottom line for me, it all started as a kid with some records and a pair of turntables.......
There are people in this world that dream of new ideas, some that make them happen, and some that wonder what the f^(k just happened and I still refuse to be part of that last bunch and I see no end in sight anytime soon.
It has always been about the people, and the music, and it always will be. Please support the artists that create it.
