My Radio Experience Led To Me Becoming A Top Wedding DJ

For those of you who are landing on my blog looking for the best wedding DJ for their most special day, you are in for a treat today. It's funny. If you talk to my web designer, he'll tell you that the "About" page might be one of the lesser travelled pages on anyone's website. Imagine this. You are looking for the person who is going to make or break your wedding day and you don't want to know about them? You are getting ready to invest your own hard-earned money into your wedding and still don't want to learn who it is you are going to be working with?  I don't think I've updated my "About" page in several years, but the reason I have decided to talk about my radio experience leading me into becoming a successful wedding DJ is because those experiences shaped a lot of how I see music today. Also, in the coming months, I will be taking down my audio production website and moving some of that portfolio and blog over to my main wedding DJ blog. Since I am a one-man shop, I no longer have time to dedicate to "trying" to maintain a presence and content-creation on two blogs. Since my wedding DJ blog is one of the most travelled by brides and grooms and music lovers, I felt it was a good fit to put some of this content up for you. 

For those of you who still want to hit my About page <---Click HERE. You know it blows my mind to see the thousands of people who are totally interested in what I have to say. I've lost count in the amount of people from as many different countries have enjoyed this blog. Over the coming months, there will be two NEW categories to the blog; "Radio" and "Audio Production".  Something you may not know about me is an outgrowth of my radio career got me to morph into one of the top wedding DJs in one of the most visited wedding markets in the country. So when I discuss with you the roots of my DJ experience, they don't begin in a bar or a birthday party, they begin on the radio talking to thousands of people.  The path we take in life has a tendency to be one of the most unlikely. I don't have one of those typical cliche stories like a lot of DJs do where they were standing in front of a mirror at 10 years of age pretending their hair brush was a microphone and thinking they were Dick Clark or Casey Kasem. No, for me I got into radio being a very curious person and also being in the right place at the right time. I never went to school for radio, but was able to capture the attention of DJ here in Charleston. And the rest they say was history. 

A Voice That Cuts Through

While being a radio DJ and a wedding DJ are two completely different avenues, there is one thing that they must have to be successful.  The DJ needs to have the best vocal quality possible. It's not just about having a pleasant sounding voice, it's about using that voice in the most professional way possible. So many brides and grooms believe the music is the most important thing that a wedding DJ will provide. While music ia one of the most important decisions as you plan your wedding, you'll need to hire a professional wedding DJ with a proven track record as being a top notch MC.  I was happy to be born with a quality voice who has had the opportunity to entertain so many people on the radio and at hundreds of weddings and parties. 

Radio Programming Skills To Program Your Wedding Music

Being on the radio is not for the faint of heart. You have to be seriously on your toes and approach your performance with an extreme level of attention to detail. When I transitioned from being on the radio to DJing weddings, I felt it was the best interest for my success to think about their wedding as I would my past radio shows. There is a TON of preparation that goes into putting together the music for your wedding. Any wedding DJ who thinks it's appropriate to just "show up" and throw on a bunch of cheesy, overplayed songs that have ruined so many weddings over the years. When I say that those radio programming skills should apply to programming your wedding music, I'm not talking about making your wedding sound like a radio station. I am talking about the organizational skill and attention to detail required to be a successful radio announcer.  When I open the microphone at your wedding, I am speaking in a happy go lucky tone, but I have an idea of what I am going to be talking about. I'm not cracking jokes and sounding like I just played in a club.  Be very careful and speak with your wedding DJ to get a feel of how they will be conducting themselves as an MC. The last thing you want is a wedding DJ getting on the microphone who sounds hideous, like an auctioneer or paly by play announcer at a football game. That's what they call a "wanna-be" wedding DJ.  Click the link below for what will be the beginning of many vintage radio airchecks. What is an aircheck? An aircheck is a recording of a radio DJ's show. It may be a snapshot or clip but it's usually recorded for demo purposes, to send out to prospective radio stations.