WDN was created, totally by accident, in 1988. That fall we (me, Roger F., and my uncle Terry M) started prank calling people on a daily basis. We would sit back and "make" my sister (Debra) call every phone number we made up. She had to ask them stupid questions, such as "Is your refrigerator running?" This provided hours of entertainment for us, because we knew WE could never get into any trouble for it. Debra was the one calling them, so SHE would have to pay the consequences. My mom caught on to our scheme, after continuously seeing us take the cordless phone in my room, and filling the house with laughter within a few minutes. She bought a telephone recorder so she'd be able to find out what was really going on. She must have recorded several tapes full of our fun, and always recorded over them so we could never foil her plan. She recorded over all of them, EXCEPT FOR ONE. We didn't know it at the time, but that one tape would become our first WDN tape.
Since we didn't have a clue that our phone calls were being recorded, WDN was OFFICIALLY created in 1989, when we recorded our "famous" info-mercial for Debra's "Barbie and The Rockers" tape. This tape featured the very first "character" created for WDN purposes, Evander (played by myself). Evander quickly got stomped in the ground, and became very stale, very fast. We recorded a few tapes featuring Evander, but recorded over almost all of them, because they were just so horrible. Debra and Nathan R. were a part of WDN, until they left (at separate times) in 1990.
In 1991 Terry turned our sketch-comedy-wannabe pass-time, WDN, into a "radio show." This was a very dull period for us. We were, basically, a radio show, only we were not really broadcasting on the radio. We would sit around and record songs, and talk between songs. We even "took phone calls" for song requests and our talk show segments. Several new characters were created during these few months.
Finally, in 1992, we starting using our WDN name for what it should have been all along. We started reading The Williamson Daily News (Williamson Daily News = WDN. Brilliant, eh?) on tape, using the characters we created for our wide variety of "reporters."
We found our 1988 phone call tape sometime in 1993, and remembered how much fun we had in our prank-calling days. "On the Phone" became WDN's "new" segment.
Terry left WDN early in 1994. When he left, WDN almost died. It took us a while to re-group. He brought so many characters to WDN, we were lost without him. We eventually came up with new segments ("WDN Rocks," "Trade 'N Sell,"and a few others), and brought back our old friend, WDN.
In 1995 WDN died again, when Roger moved away. This death appeared to be for an eternity... Until 1997. I recorded "WDN's Greatest Hits," and realized just how much I missed WDN. I was determined to bring it back one more time. In April 1998, WDN had its re-birth. My cousin, and next-door neighbor, Ryan M. helped me to revive the founding force of CRUEL MUSIC. Ryan breathed new life into WDN.
Today, WDN is not as sketch-comedy oriented as it was in its earlier days. We still have "On The Phone," "WDN Rocks," and several variations of our newspaper readings. Although WDN was not technically created in 1988, we like to say it was. We also like to say that during that three-year absence, WDN was alive and well. In doing so, Cruel Music has a nearly twelve-year old monster on its hands. And this monster does not show any signs of going away any time soon.
Coming Soon: The WDN Catalog. It will feature a list of all our tapes and other notable events. Stay tuned...