Page 4 - The Michigan Daily - Summer, 1986
LSA junior plays the hits on WHYT

By DOUGLAS WOLFE
Thesmooth, confident voice coming
over the local radio ariwaves in the
early morning may be heard in a
University Biology class the same af-
Profile
ternoon. The voice, familiar to
listeners of Detroit's WHYT, belongs
'to LSA junior Angie Kraus: the
"Rocking Angel."
At age 20,' Kraus has already
achieved what many broadcasters
spend decades dreaming about-a
regular shift at a major market
station. Every Thursday and Friday,
from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m., Kraus spins the
top 40 records of "power 96." Her
Saturday morning ahift runs to 8a.m.
"When I got the job, I couldn't
believe it," Kraus said. "To be in
Detroit radio, at this point, is
amazing."
Although she is the station's
youngest on-air member, Kraus
makes no apologies for her lack of ex-
perience.
"People at the station are always
joking that I haven't paid my dues
yet. But I worked hard to get here. I
had to make audition tares and go
through interviews. And I didn't know
anybody (in Detroit radio), Nobody
handed me the job. I did it myself.

And that feels good!"
Kraus's quick rise exemplifies her
calculated approach toward
achieving goals. "When I want
something, I figure out what I need to
do, and I do it," she said. "When I
want to meet someone, I'm not afraid
to approach them."
She has approached and met such
celebrities as George Burns, Phil
Donahue, and Prince.
"I met Prince outside his hotel, and
my knees were shaking. Later on, I
realized that he did not even care
about meeting me. Now I'm not as
impressed by celebrities as I used to
be."
Her self confidence is also revealed
by her smooth radio voice, which
helped her earn her current job.
"I try to sound cool and relaxed on
the air," she said. "I like to sound
sexy but not like the sweet-sounding
women you hear on some stations. I
want to sound like I'm having fun.
And I dohavefun."
Kraus originally discovered radio
as a teenager in St. Louis, Mo. during
a contest at a shopping mall. Over 100
people competed hy dreaming up
slogans for the Britania jeans com-
pany and uttering them into a
microphone.
Kraus, then 16, cannot remember
exactly what she said, but the-judges
liked it enough to make her one of the
eight winners. Her prize included a
free pair of jeans and a speaking part

in a Britania radio advertisement.
The experience of taping a com-
mercial in a professional recording
studio intensified Kraus's desire to.
become a broadcast journalist. And
that pursuit lead her to the Univer-
sity.
"I heard.that Michigan had an ex-
cellent journalism program. When I
got here, I found out it wasn't true,"
she said. basing her evaluation on
comments by friends.
Though she never took a University
course in braodcasting or news
writing, Kraus pursued her career
goal by volunteering to work at the
Campus Broadcasting Network. For
two terms, she read newscasts on
WCBN-FM and worked as a disc
jockey on WJJX-AM. During that
time, Kraus's cousin dubbed her "The
Rocking Angel,' an on-air nickname
she still uses.
The following fall, 1985, after a
summer internship at a St. Louis
station, Kraus decided to turn
professional. She walked into the of-
fice of Ann Arbor's WIQB, and asked
about a job. But the program director
was not impressed.
"I wanted tob e a DJ," Kraus said,
"and they offered me a joh doing
phone research. So I gave them my
audience tape and left."
The tape, a compilation of Kraus'
work at WJJX, instantly swayed the
program director. The next day, he
hired the Rocking Angel to work
Friday nights from midnight to 6 a.m.

at $4 per hour.
Kraus received a positive response
from listeners. During her shift, the
phones constantly rang, she said.
"The calls were not requests for
songs," they were always guys
saying, 'You sound so sexy. Who are
you?' It was great! It made me
realize that people were really
listening to me."
Kraus's listeners included a group
of friends at Mosher-Jordan where

back. But WHYT hired her as their
only female DJ, paying her $10 per
hour.
Angie's enthusiasm and deter-
mination quickly impressed WHYT
staff members, including "The Elec-
trifying Mojo." The veteran disc
jockey said Kraus showed great
confidence, despite her youth.
"She just got in here and started
jamming," Mojo said. "She came in
like she already knew the ropes."
Angie cannot recall committing any

'Nobody handed me the job. I did it
myself. And that feels good.
-Angie Kraus
LSA junior and DJ

she lived. They often critiqued
Angie's show.
"We told her when she was talking
too fast and when she messed up,"
said National Resources junior
Christy Rose, one of Kraus's dor-
inmates. "It made her nervous to
hear sbout her mistakes, but she wan-
ted us to tell her about them anyway.
And she got a lot better."
By the end of fall term, Angie felt
she had improved enough to take a
shot at Detroit, America's seventh-
largest radio market. She applied to
three stations, two of which called

major on-air goofs since she arrived
at WHYT. "At first I was nervous,
and you could hear it in my voice,"
she said. "But I loosened up pretty
fast. And the technical stuff is really
easy. Sometimes the hardest part of
my show is just staying awake over-
night."
As tiring as she finds the overnight
shift, 'Angie never gets lonely. The
station's 15 request lines ring all
night. "A lot of people stay up to listen
after Mojo's show is over. And some
people listen while they work. I get a
lot of calls from gas station attendan-
ts,"she said.

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