Does KZZO know it's Christmas?

1984 was the first Christmas we had at KZZO-FM in Clovis, NM. We marked the occasion with a "12 Days of Christmas" contest and a lot of advertisers had Christmas-related themes in their commercials. We even did a Christmas promo in which all the employees, including air staff, salespeople and reception, spoke their names. (Yes, I got to be a part of that, but for some reason, my voice was the only one that didn't get played in both stereo outputs AND NO ONE EVEN ATTEMPTED TO FIX THAT OR ASK ME TO DO IT AGAIN!)

The one thing we didn't have was Christmas music. We didn't play any standards or songs by well-known artists or even "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer." As I found out later when I was Music Director, getting Jid to agree to play Christmas music was a lot like pulling teeth. Crad the Program Director was probably too afraid to even bring up the subject.

This was the year that Bob Geldof got some British music artists together to form Band Aid and record the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" It was receiving a lot of play on MTV and even though it was making headway on the "Radio and Records" chart, Jid still refused to play it.

The Saturday night before Christmas, I had started my usual midnight shift when I received a phone call. It was some girl requesting "Do They Know It's Christmas?" I told her I wasn't going to be able to play it. She said we should play it because it was for a good cause. I told her I agreed, but I couldn't play it. A few minutes later, I got another call. It was some person with a Hispanic accent. He also requested "Do They Know It's Christmas?" I told him I couldn't play the song, but I had gotten a previous request for it. A few minutes later, another person called. This one had a drawl. He also requested the same song. I told him I couldn't play the record, but had gotten other phone calls about it.

As expected, I got another call about five minutes later. The person started, "I'd like to request that song 'Do They Know..." and I interrupted him. "THAT'S IT! QUIT USING THESE PRESSURE GROUP TACTICS BECAUSE I'M NOT GOING TO PLAY THAT SONG! I WORK THE WEEKEND OVERNIGHT SHIFT! I AM THE LOWEST MAN ON THE TOTEM POLE AROUND HERE AND I CANNOT GET THAT ON THE AIR! QUIT CALLING!" The person who called hung up and I never got a call the rest of the night.

The next day (which was December 23rd), I saw Crad. I told him we had gotten some requests for the song. He said, "Yeah, I guess we should start playing some Christmas music around here." It was one of the few times he took me seriously about something.

I guess they played some Christmas music the next day, including "Do They Know It's Christmas?" A couple of weeks later, I saw a letter from a listener on Crad's desk. It was from some girl and she chastised the station for not giving the song more airplay. She said it was for a good cause and KZZO should have done more to promote the song and its efforts to feed hungry children. I remember one line in the letter saying something like, "Rock and roll is going to save the world." I assumed this letter was written by the same girl who had spearheaded the pressure group tactic before Christmas.

A couple of years later, Tod received a letter from the same girl during the period that he was the Program Director. I don't remember what that letter said, but the two of them began a friendship. I don't think it ever turned into boyfriend/girlfriend, but he did go with her on a road trip to see a well-known comedian one weekend. He did this after he had started living with Daz. I know Daz didn't like it.

Even though I'd gotten to meet that girl, I never told her about the hassle she caused me in December of 1984. She probably doesn't even realize that I was the person she pulled that stunt on.

That's just how life goes sometimes.