Oh No…another remote???

My blog on remotes got a lot of reaction from my fellow broadcast engineers.  Mike Maimone from the Rush Limbaugh show reminisced about some of the stupid things he did on remotes, including the years that he did Yankee and Jets games at WABC.  His list included, "risking broken fingers by putting in my own patches in the phone room at Giants Stadium, breaking into my booth every weekend by walking outside the press box on the ledge, punching a hole through the wall in a brand spanking new stadium (I believe it was Joe Robbie in Miami...) to get my broadcast line,....and that dopey bus." Jack Maldonado, Operations Director at WABC Radio, and I were talking about remotes the other day, and agreed that the one thing all remotes have in common is that you come home from them with at least one story!  One of his favorites was the NBA Finals game he worked when the Lakers matched up with the New Jersey Nets, and that "during every timeout, Shaquille O Neal would sit right in front of my equipment, and his sweat would drip all over." Former WABC Radio Engineer Laurie Kline remembered the year she "got assigned to the Pace Car for the NY City Marathon, since I was the shortest engineer available and wouldn't take up that much room!"  Laurie also commented, "What a trip down memory lane! Loved Bob Deitch's Pina Coladas…"  So, since Laurie brought up the subject, here's the story of the WPLJ Dr. Pepper Concert Series remotes, including Bob's Pina Coladas! In 1977, Dr. Pepper took over sponsorship of the Central Park Wollman Skating Rink concert series from Schaffer Beer, and that lasted till the series moved from Central Park after the 1980 season.  Each year, WPLJ Broadcast a number of these concerts live on the radio.  In fact, if you search the web for the Dr. Pepper Concert Series, you will find many "bootleg" copies of these concerts that were recorded from the WPLJ broadcasts.  There was an incredible array of singers and groups that participated, but this isn't really about what happened on stage.  No, if you want to know about the performers at the series, then I'd suggest a Google search, however, if you are interested in knowing what happened backstage during those broadcasts, read on… For every concert that they broadcast, WPLJ would rent a bus from a Boston company.  The front of the bus contained a lounge and bathroom, and the back of the bus was basically a mobile recording studio with a 32 channel mixing board.  Every concert was under the direction of WPLJ Chief Engineer Bob Deitch, and while the Boston company would supply a couple of people with the bus, the WPLJ crew was made up of WPLJ's production engineer Jon Black (who would mix the concert), WABC/WPLJ's maintenance supervisor George Berger, and 5 other NABET engineers from the WABC/WPLJ Engineering Department.  This was a choice assignment, and a group that most of us on the 8th floor wanted to be a part of, for several reasons. This was in the day of tight union control, not only at ABC, but also all around NYC and the stage at the Wollman Rink was IATSE jurisdiction (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees).  That meant that only their union people could do work on that stage.  This caused a problem for WPLJ, because under the terms of the NABET/ABC Master Agreement, we had to do all work associated with a WPLJ broadcast.  One would think that this might preclude the broadcast from happening, but this was also the era when cost was no object and a deal was worked out.  In compensation for not being able to set up the stage, each NABET engineer who worked on the remote was given an additional six hours of overtime.  The days were by nature, long, so this six hours was often on top of a real five or six hours of OT, so this made for a very profitable work assignment! Our equipment had to be set up before the usual early afternoon sound check, so we'd roll in with the bus early in the morning.  There were some Saturday mornings when we found some interesting things waiting for us…like the day the obviously chemically impaired gentleman was busy rolling the biggest joint we'd ever seen (looked more like a burrito), or the day when our arrival woke up a group of cross dressers who were sleeping in the park, and who looked like they'd had a hell of a Friday night!  Once the bus was in position, we'd start pulling out microphone snakes, microphones, stands and the like.  We'd deliver them to our IATSE brothers for set up on stage.  Then we'd make sure all the cables were buttoned down and plugged into the bus, do our own mic check, and be ready for the band's sound check.   One of the provisions of WPLJ having permission to work these concerts, was that our presence had to be transparent.  To live up to this, we had to be set up and out of the way before anyone from the band or their sound folks were even on scene.  So by early most afternoons, we were done with all the work we'd have to do till after the concert.  This meant we had 8-10 hours of nothing to do before we had to work again.  So what does a group of radio engineers do for 8-10 hours in Central Park? Well, one thing we'd do was eat.  ABC would buy us lunch, so on a rotating basis a couple of us would trek to a deli outside the park, place a huge lunch order and schlep it back.  We'd also drink!  I know…shocking!  While Jimmy McGuire might have a cooler of beer to share, the real afternoon attraction was Bob Deitch's Pina Coladas!   As I said before, this was an era of tight union control at ABC, and as management, Bob couldn't handle any of the equipment.  But, as a former NABET member, Bob needed a task, and so it was decided that since it wasn't ABC equipment, Bob could run the blender! You might say that Bob's Pina Coladas were the fuel that ran the WPLJ Dr. Pepper Concerts! Needless to say, it was a happy group as the afternoon wore on, and the concert goers started to show up.  We'd be happily (some of us more so than others) sitting on the grass by the bus as the concert started, and spend a lovely night under the stars listening, talking, and yes, sometimes snoozing!  Once the concert was over, it was time for us to break down the stage - the IATSE folks' tight control seemed to weaken after the concert when they just wanted to get home.  To be honest, many of us were somewhat drunk at this time, so it was always an adventure!  I remember that after my first concert I decided that as good as Bob's drinks tasted, I needed to practice some control because I just couldn't go through the whole night snookered!  But we were not the only ones! In an era of peace, love and drugs, there were always a bunch of folks from the audience who were stoned, drunk or otherwise chemically altered, and most seemed to show up after the concert!  One night, while Kiki Hooper and I climbed the scafolding of the stage to get down a crowd mic, we also had to dodge beer bottles.  Seems that someone had taken up a position outside the rink where they could see the stage, and spent the night enjoying the acts with a large stash of Heineken beer.  I guess that they decided that Kiki and I looked like good targets, and green bottle after green bottle smashed just feet away from us on the stage.  Thankfully, they were all empties, and I think the fact that they'd consumed the contents, made for their bad aim! Every night as the bus drove away from the rink, a large group of us would have to walk in front of it almost in a police line to make sure some passed out concert goer wasn't killed as we drove over of their comatose body.   Then there were the young ladies who wanted to hitch a ride with us on the bus, or who thought that the bus was that night's group leaving, and thought they might be looking for some groupies.  They were quite a crowd at those outdoor concerts, and they were a great remote…even if now I have no idea who's show we were broadcasting! So thanks Laurie…there you have the story of Bob Deitch's World Famous Pina Coladas, and the WPLJ Dr. Pepper Concert remotes!