It was fun getting behind the microphone for the past three days. Since Nov. 3, 2008, when I signed off “IN Your Head Radio,” I have been interviewed on the air by stations from all over the country, but I didn’t realize how much I missed being the person conducting the interviews on the air. There is a certain adrenaline rush in interviewing a person on the air–the spontaneity, trying to probe deeper and asking the questions the listeners want to have answered. Don Parker was gracious to let me handle the interviews of Sheriff David Morgan, Maren DeWeese, Ed Spears, Grover Robinson and Ashton Hayward.
WCOA has a such a storied history. It is Pensacola’s first radio station and premiered just six years after the birth of radio. WCOA was founded by the City of Pensacola under Mayor J. Harvey Bayliss. City Clerk John E. Frenkel, Sr. served as the manager of operations and came up with the call letters of WCOA, which stand for Wonderful City of Advantages. Read more about station history.
Parker has been with the station since 1993 and he co-hosts “Good Morning, Pensacola” with Jim Sanborn. It was Jim who let me sub for him.
The pace of the show is surprisingly fast, filled with ads (something we didn’t have too much of at 1620 back in 2008) and commentaries from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Dr. Phil and Mike Huckabee.
What I missed was having callers, but that is what WCOA’s “Pensacola Speaks” offered in the afternoons. The callers are a big part of IN Your Head Radio—you never knew who might call in. Who knows maybe one day we could convince WCOA to bring back the afternoon call-in show and let me host it. Stranger things have happened.