KSLQ was an amazing radio station. Located on Bemiston in downtown Clayton, it was a hotbed of 1970's radio activity. The station was managed by the infamous Englishman Ted Smith, and famous Program Directors who passed through its doors included Bill Bailey, Charlie Lake, and many more. Assistant chief engineer was Brad Hildebrand, On-air talent included: Sam Weaver, "Young" Bobby Day, Chuck "Chucker" Geiger, Overnight jock Otis Thomas, the "Boogieman",  Bob Stout, Bo Jagger, Marc (need last name), Mike Walker (Waterman), Mason also met and befriended Capitol Records promotion rep David Burd, the man responsible (along with Wayne Meisenholder) for the explosive careers of Sammy Hagar and April Wine, among others. 

Other names from that era include Anna Smith, General Manager Ted Smith's attractive daughter, and Mac, P.D. Baker's bespectacled, geeky photo-snapping girlfriend. According to Mason, KSLQ was the wildest station he ever worked for, with regular sessions of weekday pot-smoking by even on-air office staff (although the sales staff would bang on the locked door), cavorting after hours with instant on-air studio access to females and anyone who would bring liquor, drugs or food to the station (with the exception of Bobby Day and Mike Walker), regular suspicious gifts/drugs/payoffs to those in charge by record executives of dubious character (payola, plugola), wholesale concert ticket scalping of promotional seats (Mason freely admits supporting himself by this lucrative task), and thousands of record albums that would flow from the music director's office to the Q employees, both with and without his knowledge. And let's not forget the complaints called into the radio station when the Q Money machine (customized van) that was supposed to drive around handing out $50 bills to people sporting "I Q in my Car" bumper stickers, was spotted parked for long periods of time in the parking lots of several massage parlors. We're assuming that some of the Q jox didn't just "Q" in their cars . . . .

Other fond memories include hearing the debut of Boston's "More than a Feeling" in the air studio on a pair of JBL 4312 Studio Monitors. Between the high fidelity of the speakers and the never-before-heard sound of late 70's lushly-produced rock, a young Joe Mason was captivated and hooked on FM radio.