Wqsn page

RJ the DJ

Owner & President
Barry Winton

"If you have anything you would like to buy, sell, trade or give-a-way, give us a call at the WQSN Bargin Counter Line." I got some real winners during the Bargin Counter Show. Anything from cats and dogs, to old cars. Even a few ladies wanted to "give-a-way" their husbands - no takers though.

From January to November 1968, radio, just like the rest of the U.S., was getting ready for the upcoming election. Nixon or Humphrey, which way would it go? One of WQSN's colorful DJ's, was a gentleman named Ron Thompson. (we'll call him a gentleman because this is a family web site). Ron liked to "go his own way" so-to-speak. So management had to occassionally "look with a blind eye". But on November the 5th, that look, almost blinded everybody. Ron's reputation with regards to alcoholic beverages was well deserved, especially that evening. I remember that day because I woke up with the "mother-of-all-toothaches". Aspirin can go just so far so I made a dental appointment for the next day. But in the mean time, my air-shift awaited me. That particular evening I was to work until midnight, where at that time, Ron would come in for his shift. Ron had either volunteered or was assigned the task for getting news information from both of the local Republican and Democratic Headquarters for Election Day returns. And to make matters worse, they were serving "free drinks". Ron had his share, my share, and the rest of the station's share. In the mean time, my toothache wasn't getting any better. The minutes were going by, one hour at a time. And when midnight arrived, Ron didn't. All I could do was to hold down the fort until Ron arrived. Finally around 12:30am, Ron floated in. And I mean, floated. By then, I wasn't in any mood to hear any excuses from him. I was in pain, I was tired, and a little angry. Ron flopped his butt in the control room chair and I left. The next day, the tooth was fixed, and I went back to my normal self.

As with most radio stations, WQSN too, had a certain way that it's DJ's were to sound on the air and play all of the right recordings in the right order. Somehow along the way that night, the recordings started playing in the wrong sequence. They would say one thing and Ron would respond differently. And his "slurring" didn't help either. Some of the DJs used a portable radio that was positioned a few feet behind them, to listen, to what was going on the air, because when the microphone is turned on, the studio speakers are turned off, and wearing headphones wasn't always comfortable. You just had to make certain that you were speaking LOUD enough into the microphone to avoid feedback from the radio. Ron's state was unable to deal with this and continued to battle the feedback until someone else was able to come in and give him a chance to straighten up.

In 1968, I began working at WQSN, the first country music station in Charleston SC owned by a Concert Violinist - named Barry Winton. As a lot of people imagine, I too, had a chance to meet my share of celebrities. Two of the biggest names were added to that list on January 23 - Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins.

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