A lot has changed over the 40 years I have worked in radio but one thing that remains the same is that school kids love to hear these two words: snow day.

Of course times and technology have changed quite a bit in terms of how the news about school closings is delivered.  In the 80s & 90s when I co-hosted the morning show on 92.7 WOBM I knew that we were the source that just about everyone counted on in Ocean County.  I can’t tell you how many times I met people later who told me something like “oh you’re the one who told me when it was okay to go back to sleep.”

You have to realize that in those days there was no internet, no robocalls, and no ticker across a local TV station.  Teachers might have had a phone chain but families usually had to get up early in the morning and listen to the radio for the often long, and I do mean long, alphabetical list of closing and cancellations.

What it also meant was if you worked on-air, especially in the morning you found a way to get to the radio station.  We had snow storms in which local police departments helped some of us get to work because they knew we had to deliver vital information. I remember one morning when we were still in Bayville driving through a blizzard and falling victim to white-out conditions in which I had to stop my car in the middle of Route 9 and get out to try and find out where I was.

The good news was that there were no other cars on the road and I was able to navigate my way to the radio station.

It became a source of pride to know that you had to get to work because everything that took place at a radio station was done in the studio and offices.  Today many of our own people will work from the comfort of their own homes. They took their laptops home last night and can do their work from a remote location.

They’ll put on their sweatpants (or stay in their pajamas), sip on a cup of coffee and not have to worry about ice and snow and get their work done.

I guess you would call that progress but I’m old school.  So last night before going to sleep and I took out the snow gear, packed a bag with some extra stuff and set the alarm a few minutes earlier.

Turned out the morning commute was rather easy but of course the day will get worse before it gets better and I will head home early but when I do I won’t be working. Probably taking a nap.

 

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