Creem Cheese Of The Month

Creem Cheese Of The Month

THE AIRWAVES AROUND US An Ecological Interview With Dan Carlisle

AMORY BLAINE

For those of us who still call Detroit home, Dan Carlisle is as familiar on the air-waves as Mr. Whipple squeezing the Charmin. Home to Dan is presently the two to six slot on W4, which seems a sedate spot for someone so intrinsic to Detroit's early underground or "progressive" radio sound. As one of the original "Air Aces" on the once earth-shaking WABX, Dan's career has taken as many strange turns as the stations he's played on. If believing strongly in what you do is an earmark of talent, Dan has that quality almost by divine right. Starting out early by winning a dance contest at a Moose Hall in Royal Oak, Dan made the decision in his junior high days to be a disc jockey. Armed with a passion for music, (and Detroit disc-spinners Tom Clay, Dale Young and Frantic Ernie Durham) and a friend whose father worked at WXYZ, Dan began working at XYZ out of high school. His stint as a copywriter and wire cleaner at XYZ was short-lived because of his habit of listening to loud rock 'n' roll in the newsroom. He moved on to Michigan State and college radio, which left him with a desire for radio, but out of a college setting. He joined a country/western station in Springfield, Mass., moved later to WDUZ in Green Bay, Wisconsin. All roads from Green Bay lead to Lansing and Dan found himself back in Michigan, short of funds and unhappy about the gimmicky sounds of the Top Forty jocks. He lasted one week at WSAM in Saginaw as Sam King, on the Sam King Show (what else), then left radio and went to work in a construction field office. It was at this point that he happened to hear Dick Crockett on WABX and "it" all began. Starting with fill-ins. he progressed to the Day Tripper slot and finally, his all-night show, the Night Tripper.

Extra: Did you feel lost when you left ABX?

Carlisle: I don't feel lost not working at ABX. I don't feel lost that it's not here anymore because I still have it in me. Everybody that worked there has a part of it in them. I took it with me and Dixon took it with him and Greiner took it with him and blah blah blah. It was within the people of the station and John Detz, who managed ABX at the time, didn't believe it existed.

Extra: Why did you originally leave ABX?

Carlisle: I wanted to get paid. I was making about $85.00 a week and everything was fucked up. Detz would call me into his office and say, "You're the worst disc jockey I've ever heard in my life. You're lucky to have this job." After that, I'd have to go on the air. So Keener offered me $200.00 a week on FM. That was big bucks, plus competent mechanics. Plus they wanted me to "come on." They were rock 'n' roll. So I left ABX and said it was because they fired Rudnick and Frawley and other reasons: It was partly because they fired Rudnick. Paul Sullivan was an office boy at KNR at the time. He told me that he based the programming at W4 on what we did at KNR at the time. Anyway, anytime you turned us on, we were there with the tunes. Rocking,, rocking 24 hours a day because we all actually liked what we did. It was a wonderful time for Detroit radio — ABX was on, KNR was on, RIF was WXYZ-FM with the "love" format. It was a good radio listening time. We did a good job.

When I resigned from ABX it was really historic. I pinned the notice on the board in a manila envelope for Detz and I forgot to sign it. He had to call every disc jockey the next morning to find out who had resigned. I was the last one he called.

Extra: What happened with KNR? Carlisle: Actually, Paul Greiner's what happened. This was in 1970 and Greiner turned me onto my first LSD. I was at Paul's house — we went shopping at the supermarket and he said 'Do you want to take some LSD?' I said OK. It started coming on at the supermarket so we got out of there real quick. We drove to Paul's house and for the first time I saw the true character of Paul Greiner. It was a wonderful revelation. The next day I woke up, went to the radio station and quit. Two weeks before that happened I had been in New York with Greiner and we'd busted into ABC and wouldn't leave until we saw — I can't remember his name, but he ran the chain. For some mysterious reason he saw us! These two wild creeps from Detroit, wild people. We talked. He said he was interested, that ABC was going to start live stations around the country. So as I'm quitting KNR two weeks later and walking out the door, the secretary gives me a message. It was from WLS in Chicago. I called and they offered me a job. I guess I was still pretty high from the acid; I found myself sitting in my Corvette sliding past the State Street exit in Ann Arbor with all the stuff I wanted to bring, my stereo and clothes and stuff. I heard Dave Dixon on ABX's rock 'n' roll news telling me goodbye. I got into Chicago and the nightmare began.

Extra: What happened in Chicago? Carlisle: I heard the station I was going to. It was playing this milksop FM stuff and the guys on it were from Denver. When I got there they told me they didn't want to hear any Stooges. They warned me that if I played MC5 or Stooges, I'd be in trouble. I said OK. They put me on an all-night show — because I had been hired out of New York, that pissed them off. They cut my salary by $75.00, and I just started rocking and rolling. During the day, I'd be home listening to WLS-FM and the other jocks would be saying stuff like, "Our intelligent programming stops tonight at midnight with the Dan Carlisle Show". The station finally ended up doing so poorly that they brought in this guy named Boy Wood to run the station. We had this meeting and I remember everyone was sitting there feeling smug and he pointed to this creep — I can't remember his name — and said, "You're on the all-night show and Dan's doing your time." Then he pointed to another guy and said, "You're fired". They all flipped out. As we walked out of the meeting one of those schmucks said to me, "Who would think that a person from Detroit would have a world perspective?"

That's just it, there's nothing to be interested in here, so you have to be interested in anything. You might be interested in dope, or better yet, you might be interested in the world community and get into it. Start watching, listening and seeing. Another thing I think Townshend said this a couple of years ago and I couldn't agree more: The next things are coming from America. They have to come from America and the reason I believe they will conic from America is that the kids here have access to all this information and all this brain-whipping from the media 24 hours a day. They can turn on the radio and there it is.

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Extra: What about W4, any plans? Carlisle: I think W4 is the best rock station in this town. Maybe the best rock station in the whole country. I think that W4 could go, into LA or Chicago or New York. I'm looking for thrills now in radio. If I can't get thrills in radio, and I'm not getting them, I'd tike to go back to Chicago, which is radio hell. I'd like to go back into Chicago or LA or some other place and whip some ass. I want to do some whip ass radio. I would hire people like Paul Greiner. I wouldn't hire people like Dave Dixon, he belongs on TV. He doesn't deserve anything but a custard pie but he should be on TV. The problem is that people feel more comfortable duplicating than making it. Like Howard Cosell trying to be the Ed Sullivan of his time.

Extra: Side tracking for a minute, what do you think of Patti Smith? Carlisle: I think Patti Smith is excellent. I hear something in Patti Smith that is very exciting to me. I think we should thank the Stooges for Patti Smith. The drive of the music, the way the sound is disjointed, but not the intensity of it. Patti Smith has real filth in her music. Too bad her band isn't filthier. She needs a filth band and you can't get a filth band out of New York. Even though New Yorkers wear leather coats and dirty jeans, there's something about their shag haircuts that throws you off. It's too clean.

Extra: Do you have any interests in TV?

Carlisle: I want to do TV so bad. I want off the radio tomorrow. It isn't because I don't like it, I really love it. The one thing that I want to mention is what FM radio did for my career and what the musicians who cut records did for my career. It's like feeding a chain; producers, musicians, disc jockeys—I owe a lot to all of them. I want off the radio because I like to do it my way. I feel I know how to do it a lot better than the way I'm told. That's no put down of the way I'm told to do it because I don't think that there are two really good staffs of disc jockeys in this country. You've got to tell most disc jockeys what to play. I've had more than my number of thrills in radio. I was allowed to do it for seven years on my own, anyway—I'm ready to move over and let that wildeyed, young disc jockey take over. I want to work in TV news. The roving reporter. I'm interested in that kind of presentation , it's the hot seat of television and where you'll learn TV. After that, I want to do what I can get—a more personal presentation. Its time for people who aren't good-looking to be on TV. I count myself right in there with Dave Dixon who has character rather than being handsome.

Extra: In summing it all up, and without being corny, what's Dan Carlisle really like?

Carlisle: I can't second guess what anyone thinks about me. I've tried it. Whatever people expect of me, I'll listen to. When I have a hint of what their expectation is. I'll try to live up to that. But after a while you become 300 people. The best you can do is be yourself. Apart from my friends I'm a sort of quiet, observant person. I like classical music, I like jazz, I like rock 'n' roll. I like to read, I like Michigan State football. The thing that bothers me is what my brothers and sisters and parents are going through. I live in the same town that I was brought up in. I think it has caused problems especially at one time in my life. My parents related to me as a disc jockey. I had to beg them not to tell people I was their son. I have fantasies. My goal is trying to upgrade my job. I want to get involved in serious communication. I like to play guitar. I want to learn to be a musician. I would like to go to Egypt on an archaelogical dig. I'd

like to learn to speak a foreign language. I don't think that my personality on W4 is really revealing me. I'm mouthing, it's not being asked of me. I like money, I really think that money frees you up and lets you travel.

I'd love to do radio in other places than America. I guess that this is only part of the story, part of what I feel. There is one thing that is very depressing in the media of Detroit that's always affected me and that is the racism. When I play Harold Melvin's "Love I Lost," I can count on getting a call from some hapless black kid saying, "You honky!" That is so entrenched in the music in this city I can't believe it. As if their sensibility had been hurt. The same type of people will say they want the nigger music off the air and then will request a J. Geils song. As far as I'm concerned, J. Geils is playing the same thing. The racism is pretty bad.

We are the generation of electronics. We understand TV in a way that Bill Bonds and Marilyn Turner will never understand TV.

You know who I think is the best DJ in Detroit? Dick Purtan. I think he's a real nice guy and he's not even trying. Detroit appreciates quality when you give it to them. I guess cause there's so damn little given.