Radio Ink Magazine – August 12, 2019

38 RADIOINK•COM AUGUST 12, 2019

This ain’t your father’s WKRP in Cincinnati.

The story Turi Ryder tells in her new book,

She Said What? (A Life on the Air), has all

the personalities from the late-’70s sitcom,

but magnified, in a no-nonsense, glaring,

warts-and-all reveal of this radio journey-

woman’s rock and talk radio career.

Cleverly using a technique known as

roman à clef (French for “novel with a

key”), Ryder portrays the real people and

real places that have been part of her life

on and off the air. The reader is drawn

into the blur between nonfiction and fic-

tion, and will be trying to recognize these

people and these places.

The TV-friendly composite characters

of Dr. Johnny Fever, Herb Tarlek, Arthur

Carlson, and Andy Travis are replaced by

very real people sporting the noms de

guerre of Hash Henderson, Scorch Brooks,

Blaze, White Cake, The Wart, Dale Tinker,

Zeke Sada, Mr. Reverso, STP, and a host of

others — all players in Ryder’s painting of

her nomadic radio life.

A resume that includes stops in Chicago,

Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Francisco,

Portland, and other markets in between

provides a 500-plus-page book of experi-

ences that will have readers, particularly

those who have played in the ether in

one way or another, nodding their heads

and laughing at the satirical (and at times

serious) portrayal of radio over the past

20-plus years.

The book is divided into three parts, and

Ryder’s vignette style of writing gives us

an intimate look at her life in the business,

her life at home, and how the two mesh

at times and crash at others. Throughout,

Ryder blends her desire to be the best she

can be at home and the creative spark that

drives her to be the best in the business

— a business that she makes clear doesn’t

always treat people, especially women,

very well.

There are plenty tales of sexism in her

story.

A PD vilifies her during an aircheck for,

she writes, “not sounding likable. Likable

was defined as having a pleasing vocal

tone of the sort that might put listeners in

the mood for sex.”

Or getting fired by another PD who says,

“We are tired of your BS. Every woman

I’ve ever hired has been a great employee

because she was willing to work twice as

hard as the men to prove herself. You,

Ryder, don’t want to work any harder than

anybody else.”

Or the incident with the top evening

rock jock in L.A. While in the studio pre-

paring to go on her overnight shift, she

teased him about the white shoes he was

wearing. He slammed her into the slow-

moving logger tape machine and her hair

started rolling up in it as he berated her

with racial epithets.

Ryder says there was no apology, and

management was obviously backing their

male star. She writes, “The next day began

my education in the big dog/little dog

approach to station management ... it’s

still a fact that if you’re a feisty Chihuahua,

almost any pit bull with an appetite can

have you for lunch.”

With a book filled with insight and writ-

ten with a passion for the radio craft,

Ryder has shown she is a wordsmith as

well as a radio pro.

She Said What? (A Life on the Air) is pub-

lished by Tortoise Books, Chicago. You

can learn more about Turi Ryder at http://www.

shebopsproductions.com.

ROCK AND TALK VET

WRITES ABOUT HER

ADVENTURES IN RADIO

BY ROB

DUMKE