It Was 30 Years Ago Today! Darren DeVivo's 30th Anniversary On WFUV.

It was on this day in 1984 that I stepped up to the microphone at WFUV for the very first time. February 26, 1984 was a Sunday, and at 6:00 that morning, I was not only about to begin my first radio broadcast but I was about to embark on one of the most significant journeys that I would take in my life. My career as a radio announcer and disc jockey began on that morning. I never imagined that being a disc jockey would become my life’s work. What makes this day a little extra special is the fact that this wonderful adventure would take place at a radio station where careers were not supposed to happen. My marriage to WFUV began 30 years ago today.

On February 26, 1984, I was less than a month away from my 19^th birthday. I was in my second semester of my freshman year at Fordham University. Despite the fact that music was my passion, I never gave any thought to making it my career. Music was a hobby. Or, so I thought. I chose to attend Fordham University, not only because it was a great institution, but because it had a radio station. Fordham University’s Voice was not just any college radio station. It was a mammoth college radio station in the major league of college radio stations! I first heard WFUV while in high school. It was probably in 1981. One early morning, I was scanning the FM band on my clock radio to try to find something interesting. I stumbled on this station located on the far left of the radio dial. The disc jockey was waxing poetic about the reunion of the progressive rock band, King Crimson. Upon completing his discussion, he began to play the entire first side of their new album, Discipline. I had never heard of rock radio like this! Since then, I had Fordham University and WFUV in my sights. Heck, I couldn’t play an instrument, why not play records on the radio? I bet girls would like that as much as they liked musicians! (They didn’t.)

To keep a long story short, and to save the details for another time, I strolled into the unremarkable hallway of WFUV within days of starting my college experience in September 1983. I found out how I could become part of the station and what needed to be done to join the music and engineering departments and get on the air as a DJ. On Sunday morning at 6:00 on February 26, 1984, I sat behind the microphone, and as I uttered my first words to be broadcast to the world, I began my career in radio. But, even more unreal and inconceivable, I was beginning my life journey at WFUV; a journey that continues to this day.

A lot had to happen a certain way, many things needed to fall into place and the planets needed to align in a once in a lifetime configuration for me to survive and thrive at WFUV. It all took place, and then some. Before I became a college graduate, before I became a man, before I became a husband and a father, I became a radio disc jockey. I became part of WFUV.

Here’s to the next 30 years! (I wonder how much hair I’ll have left in 2044?)

That first playlist on Sunday, February 26, 1984, from 6AM to 8AM was: Wings “Venus And Mars”, Wings “Rock Show”, Nick Lowe “Stick It Where The Sun Don’t Shine”, Little Feat “Down On The Farm”, Grand Funk Railroad “We’re An American Band”, Fleetwood Mac “For Your Love”, the Guess Who “American Woman”, Santana “Canto De Los Flores”, Santana “Life Is Anew”, Santana “Give And Take”, U2 “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, Chicago “Happy Man”, Chicago “Hold On”, Traffic “Empty Pages”, Todd Rundgren “Hello, It’s Me”, Pink Floyd “Cymbaline”, King Crimson “21^st Century Schizoid Man (including Mirrors)”, the Alan Parsons Project “I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You”, Van Morrison “Moondance”, Paul Simon “Still Crazy After All These Years”, David Gilmour “All Lovers Are Deranged”, Steely Dan “Doctor Wu”, the Allman Brothers Band “Midnight Rider”, the Band “Up On Cripple Creek”, Heart “Barracuda”, the Beatles “Golden Slumbers”, the Beatles “Carry That Weight”, the Beatles “The End”.