What Is ScragLand?

According to the Oxford Dictionary: Scrag is defined as an unattractively thin person or animal. Land is defined as the part of the earth's surface that is not covered by water. All I know is my younger sister and I used to call each other Scrag when we were kids. And there was a girl whose nickname was Scrag and whose mother gave her permission to streak (which was big in the 70s). So she showed up to school naked one day. I don't know... I just liked the name Scrag.

Me doing college radio Circa 1983
Photo by Marcia Pereira

Scragland is an ongoing recount of my days as a rock & roll radio disc jockey throughout most of the '80s. A diary of sorts. The blog covers my start in college radio in 1980 at WUSM (91.1 FM), at Southeastern Massachusetts University, Dartmouth (now UMass Dartmouth). I try as best as I can to memorialize my almost four years on the air at WUSM. Then a brief stint at RI 104, which I barely remember (summer 1983). "Rockin' the Shore at RI 104!"

And then I started working at WHJY (94.1 FM) in Providence, RI in 1984. My stint at WHJY was just as wild as my college radio days, but this time I got paid to have fun. Unlike my days at WUSM where we played progressive music and basically anything we wanted, at WHJY we played rock - heavy on the hard rock. We're talking Led Zeppelin, Ratt, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, but also Brian Adams, John Mellencamp, U2, etc.

I will feature stories of the bands I met and partied with, and all of the crazy fun I had in the music business until I hung up my headphones. Although I eventually left radio, I feel like my career in the music industry didn't end there.

In fact... I sometimes wonder if it really did end.

I will add new stories and photos on an ongoing basis. Thanks for stopping by!