Post 3673 - Real Names

So, I got into a Facebook discussion today with someone who shall remain nameless. Not because what he wrote was bad or anything, but just that he didn't give me permission to throw his name around.

He told me that one of the women I wrote about last night uses an on air name different from her actual name. I told him that I didn't really care, that while he told me her real name because she let it slip on the air once and he caught the mistake, I wasn't going to mention it here or anywhere else. She has a right to her privacy, in the same way that you and I do.

Lots of radio folks work under... well, I guess you can call them assumed names. I have heard that, back in the day, a jock would show up at a station and be presented with a list of "acceptable" names to use, because the imaging the station used was already in place for the names on that list, and it would cost too much to produce new imaging under the jock's real name. I don't know if that is true, but it is a neat story.

Some names, I suppose, are considered boring, and the "assumed" names are perceived to be more compelling. Different strokes, there.

Also, in the days before websites, "DJ's" would be nearly anonymous, unless they were doing a remote somewhere or something, or happened to open their mouth in the presence of an avid listener who was astute enough to put two and two together.

It still happens. In addition to this woman, there is a person working a Halifax morning show, very well known, who has worked under a variation of his actual name for many years. I know that name, and will not divulge it, because I like him and see no need to "out" him here.  When I see him, I always greet him by his nom du radio. He always greets me and immediately asks how Patricia is doing.

I remember seeing radio folks on tv, or out somewhere; and because I had never seen them before, and had developed a pre-conceived notion of what they looked like, I would wonder who that person was who sounded just like so-and-so. By times I'd be disappointed to learn that the female jock was less vivacious than I imagined her to be. Other times, she would be breathtakingly beautiful and I would feel too flustered to say anything, so I'd slink away and feel creepy if I kept listening to her show. My hang up, not hers.

It was an interesting back-and-forth that my friend and I had last night. It got me to thinking about the above, and what right jocks have to their privacy, to their actual names, in these days of social media, and station websites, and the increased real life presence radio stations seem to expect of their on air talent these days, compared with when I was a little kid listening to the radio and wondering what the hell these people looked like.

How about you? Ever been "disappointed" to realize how a radio personality looked? Or surprised, at the very least?

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy