From DJWiki

As being part of Start.ProDJ.Com the DJWiki is related to the forums of this site. This portion of the DJWiki is related to [1] and [2].

General Information

Paid To Party - original text excerpted from Spinnin 2000 - 1997 Edition

Disco To Go - original text excerpted from Spinnin 2000 - 1997 Edition

Preparing For Your First Gig - original text excerpted from Spinnin 2000 - 1997 Edition

Spinnin 2000 - original text excerpted from Spinnin 2000 - 1997 Edition

History Of Mobile DJs - original text excerpted from Spinnin 2000 - 1997 Edition

Roots in Radio

It was 1952, when radio personality Alan Freed, broadcasting from Cleveland, Ohio, changed the name of his daily radio show from “Record Rendezvous” to “The Moondog Rock-N’-Roll House Party”1. It was the birth of pop/rock radio as we know it. More importantly, Freed’s action gave a positive ring to a term that had been coined with derogatory implications several years earlier. That term was “Disc Jockey,” and it originated as a sarcastic tag for a new breed of radio personalities who began taking over the air waves in the late 1940s.

Radio’s golden age of live programming was fading. Radio stations which had employed large staffs of announcers, actors, musicians and sound effects engineers were forced to reduce their staffs in an effort to trim operating expenses. Subsequently, this meant substituting recorded music for live. Disc Jockeys (DJs), armed with stacks of records and congenial, witty personalities, began filling the void.

Freed’s timing was perfect. As Rock N’ Roll grew in popularity, radio DJs in all parts of North America and Europe enjoyed star status as they brought this highly energetic music form to young adults. Sock hops were born. Bands practiced in garages in preparation for their chance to perform in a local high school gym or union hall.

Radio DJs were in tremendous demand. On the air, they were busy with contests, requests and dedications. Off the air, they entertained at sock hops, introducing the bands and spinnin’ tunes on a makeshift, portable sound system.

Music, specifically prerecorded music, is the product of the DJ profession. It’s the DJ who brings the music to life. It’s his (or her) enthusiasm that sells the music to the audience and gets the people involved in it. It’s the DJ who encourages each member of the audience to put aside their day-to-day cares and have a little fun. It’s the DJ who gives us the music and gets us up to dance! Branching Out

Today, DJs are not just found on radio. It’s now commonplace to find DJs providing music at everything from bars, nightclubs, roller rinks, bowling alleys and carnivals to wedding receptions, birthdays, bar and bat mitzvahs, anniversary parties, retirement roasts and a variety of other functions.

Mobile Disc Jockeys make up the fastest growing segment of the DJ “industry.” These professional entertainers, equipped with their own sound and lighting systems and racks of CDs, tapes and records, travel from place to place doing what they love to do and do best: bringing the party to the people! That means being wherever the party is. A Mobile DJ (MDJ) may perform in a local pub one night and at a wedding reception or anniversary the next. Running a Mobile DJ service for profit began, for many, as a hobby. In the mid 1960s, Mobile DJs played mostly for postgame sock hops at the high schools and an occasional “sweet sixteen” party. How Do You Get Started? If you have never actually watched a MDJ in action, do so soon. As wedding receptions are now the predominant type of event Mobiles do, a good place to observe a performance would be in a hotel ballroom or other party facility on a Saturday night. Many DJs invite interested clients to a live audition of their style. Call a few of the DJs in your area and ask where you could come see them perform. Look in the yellow pages of your phone book for the DJ services in your area (they may be listed under “Disc Jockeys,” “Entertainers” or “Entertainment Bureaus”).

Another good way to get some insight into the DJ business is to tour a local radio station. While there, talk to the program director (PD) and music director (MD). These people can provide you with a wealth of information. Specifically ask the PD to explain the functions of the mixing console. The equipment used in broadcasting is more sophisticated and expensive than what you will use in your Mobile DJ business, but many of the functions are identical.

If the station’s chief engineer is available, he will be able to answer most of your equipment questions. Ask him to explain, in layman’s terms, how the sound gets from the microphone, record, tape or CD player to the transmitter. Understanding how radio works can be nothing but beneficial to anyone in the Mobile DJ industry. After all, its roots are in radio.

1 Although credited with coining the phrase “Rock-N-Roll,” it’s thought by some that Freed may have been inspired by the Bill Haley lyric, “We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, we’re gonna roll, roll, roll.”

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