Post
by kkiddkkidd » Thu Nov 09, 2017 2:15 am
Although not broadcast, my BFF and long time roommate was a dispatcher (and later dispatch supervisor) for the TN Highway Patrol whose low band radio system had better coverage than a Class C FM.
My old friend, who has recently passed on, had a cool trick where he would stand in the hall outside the old radio room window and talk to visitors until a trooper called on their multi site low band radio system. He would sprint down the hall, make a flying leap into the military surplus chair, whiz across several feet of carpet, hit the PTT switch on the Motorola Centracom console and start talking/typing at the same time.
One particularly cold, low humidity day he was visiting with a grade school class in the hallway when on cue, a trooper called for a tag check. The group of 10 year olds watched in awe as he ran down the carpeted hallway, launched into the old green office chair, slid across several more feet of low bid carpet, hit the PTT button, zoomed up to the big metal Shure 55 mic and drew a 2 inch static arc to his upper lip.
The resulting F-bomb was epic on air as well as a real hit with the visitors. He got to spend several quality minutes with the district Captain and received a letter of reprimand from the THP Colonel in Nashville. But somehow the unedited, top secret logging recorder tape made the state wide Christmas party reel.
RIP Mikey,