LOVELLS – Randy “Roadrunner” Long is also a disc jockey (DJ) who hosts the Weekend Request Fest with Roadrunner live on the FM radio station Q100.3 based in Grayling. “As a child I spent summers with my grandparents in Texas where there were a lot of roadrunner birds,” Long said. “That is where my on-air name came from,” he added.
Long started working in radio over 50 years ago downstate where he had an extensive career in radio and cable television in and around the Waterford and West Bloomfield areas.
“My dad drove me in the early years to the radio station job. Back in the day in 1968-69 when I started in radio there was everything from writing your own scripts, logs to reading the meters on the transmitters and monitoring and filling in logs for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)as required. Over the many years a lot of things and the technology have changed so that usually the monitoring and logging is done electronically now,” Long continued.
“My favorite thing about being a DJ is being able to play the music people want to listen to and talking to them live via the radio station,” he added.
Long enjoys collecting 45 vinyl records and playing Euchre in his spare time. He has been involved in running the Lovells Euchre Club for the past 10 years. The club also travels to and plays the popular card game in Frederic and Lewiston as well.
Long and his wife Terri, whose nickname is “Tweety Bird,” have been married 46 years. They have three children, four grandchildren, and two rescue animals.
