Skywalker

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”¦ ”

 

OK, OK it was the 1990s and Long Island. It was there that a young man was christened Skywalker by a boss, who acted, frankly, in spite.

 

The young man had been using his birth name when on the air playing tunes for WBLI. There had been another DJ by the name of Skywalker who left the station for a job in Florida. When the boss got wind that old Skywalker was returning to Long Island to work for a competing radio station, he was not pleased. So he created a new Skywalker. “It was a little contentious,” says the younger Skywalker who now is the assistant program director and has been the afternoon on-air personality with WSPK, better known as K104 in Westchester and across the region, since December 2000.

 

But there”™s more to this story. Imagine not being a “Star Wars” fan, or even liking science fiction, and yet be named Skywalker? Well, the Skywalker of our story says it”™s all true.

 

To maintain an aura of mystery ”“ and prevent phone calls to his home from fans of his radio show ”“ Skywalker asked that his real name not be used.

 

Skywalker was a radio junkie growing up in Brookhaven, and of course, WBLI was locked onto his radio. While a senior at C.W. Post College studying broadcasting, he did his internship at his favorite radio station. “I was so happy. It was a dream come true.” He worked overnights, weekends, whatever the station management wanted. But it wasn”™t enough to pay the bills, so he kept his job as a clerk at a public library near his home. He got his first full-time gig at WQGN, a New London, Conn., station that played Top 40. He also did some weekend work at K104. After 15 months doing the 6 to 10 p.m. shift at the Connecticut station, he got a call from Scotty Mac, the program director at K104, and whom he knew from WBLI. There was an opening in the afternoon drive time slot. Long story short, Skywalker has held the slot since and added assistant program director to his resume.

 

He says he has learned a lot working at the different stations. College gave him a foundation, but other aspects were lacking. From actual production to sales and marketing and the branding of a station were subjects not covered in depth or at all at school.

 

At K104, Skywalker teaches his life experiences to the new part-time staffers who are looking for their big break in the radio industry.

 

Lynn Kelly, who had worked on air at the station for several years, left in 2005 to teach at Orange County Community College. Going on maternity leave earlier this year, she asked Skywalker if he would be interested in teaching her Digital Radio Production course. She didn”™t have to ask twice.

 

Skywalker became his alter ego, Jarrett Galeno, in his teaching role. He said he felt he brought to his classroom everything that he felt was missing from his days as a student. He taught how to produce a show, how to talk up a song, how to prepare a newscast and the art of voice tracking; recording a show so it sounds live when it”™s played. Many radio broadcasts are not live, Skywalker says. Many use robojocks, aka voice tracking, to make it appear that someone is talking live from a radio station. He said K104 only uses “live talent,” real, breathing men and women who are in the studio during any given time, even overnight weekends.

 

He also taught the students that it”™s not just fun and games ”“ although it might appear that way. He dispelled that myth and taught them that their shows are a product.

 

“Your show is a product. You need to create a great product in order for the sales team to sell.”

 

As part of the final exams at OCCC, Skywalker had the students produce a show as well as a PSA, public service announcement.

 

He did such a great job that he”™s being asked to teach another course in the fall; this one will cover the same basics, but will be a bit more visual. He will be teaching Introduction to TV Production.

 

Back at the studio, Skywalker offers a couple tips to would-be radio jocks: diction and grammar. “You don”™t need pipes; no radio tonality,” he says, impersonating the DJs of years past.

 

If you have an accent, lose it. “I started with a Long Island accent. You have to have a lack of regionalism.”

 

But you still need a good stage name. And when you”™re named Skywalker, well ”¦

 

Being live, being local and having a heroic name came to play recently when a listener called with a dilemma: her child was in need of an ice cream fix, but not just any ice cream, the kind that comes from an ice cream truck. “Can you tell the ice cream man to come to Innis Avenue?”

 

It was a call to action and Skywalker responded using his on-air powers.

 

An ice cream man appeared shortly on the Poughkeepsie street.

 

Child happy, mom happy.

 

Just another day for Skywalker.