WTAW was my first radio station job, if you don’t count the couple of weeks I spent on an FM radio station in Pensacola between my high school graduation and heading off to A&M.  I started out at WTAW as a rock-n-roll disk jockey under the name of Randy Neal. The format changed to country, and so did I.  Well … right up until the point that they fired me.  Here’s the story ….

At that time (1966-1967) we used to have some rather spectacular tarantula migrations through the College Station area.  Some roads would be covered with those furry critters.  For some reason that I still don’t understand I got a nice box and went out and collected about 50 or so tarantulas.  This particular variety wasn’t poisonous, though they could bite … so I’m not claiming any bravery here.

I hosted the final show of the day on WTAW.  When the sun went down we had to turn off the transmitter and head home.  So I figured out it might be fun to turn the tarantulas loose in the control room as I left for the night.  Now .. here’s an oddity.  To turn power on for the transmitter and the control room you had to sit down at the controls and kick a big circuit breaker with your foot.  So here comes the morning guy to turn things on the next morning.  He enters the dark control room and sits down in the chair.  He kicks the switch – the lights go on – and the poor morning guy is looking at tarantulas everywhere.  They’re in the cart machines, on the turntables, on the control panel … everywhere.  Morning Jock  lets out a shriek … and runs for his life.  The station was several hours late signing on while the exterminators did their job.  No doubt … I deserved to be fired, and I was. 

So that’s how great careers begin!  All you need is 50 tarantulas … preferably of the non-poisonous variety.

NOW … LET’S GET SERIOUS