RADIO BOOKSHELF: Heavy Rotation

HEAVY ROTATION, Buxton Manning
In 1967, shy, overweight 16-year-old Chuck Moorman lands a chance to host a weekend Top-40 radio show, but hides his identity behind the on-air persona "Gary Arizona" to escape the ridicule he's faced in the past. When he becomes a hit, Chuck's secret is put to the test when the girl he likes falls for the popular DJ. Will revealing the truth risk everything?

Lisa's Review: This novel took me back to my early days in radio! The great music Gary plays is still in my head. Manning cleverly and deftly mixes the personal life of young Chuck/Gary with his pursuit of a radio career. It's a page turner--lots of secrets and suspense. I'd highly recommend this story for young people, as it carries a great lesson about hard work and passion when it comes to career success, but it's also for anyone who ever worked in radio. So many situations in this story happened to all of us! There was one page in this book that was so similar to RADIO STARR (re: the real names of DJs on the FCC license posting board), I thought I accidentally plagiarized it! And the ending to me by surprise.Buxton Manning, why did you write HEAVY ROTATION?
When I retired, I wanted to get back into writing but didn’t want to be tied down with research or interviews and stuff like that—I wanted to make it up! But, they always say “Write what you know,” and who better to write a story about a nerdy, fat, shy kid who wanted to get into radio back in the days of AM TOP 40 dominance than a guy who was a nerdy, fat, shy kid who wanted to get into radio back in the day…well, you get the idea.