Fictional Smoking
and the reality of the '80s, unfortunately
Readers say they’re enjoying my novel—yay! Well, except for the cigarette smoking.
I did worry about triggering people like my friend who went “cold turkey” for a New Year resolution. But even in fiction, there should be truth in every sentence and the sad truth is if you worked in radio in the 1980s, you basically were a chimney. Everyone smoked—that’s why we wore so much perfume!
About 30% of adults smoked in 1985, but it felt like 300%. We smoked at our desks, in movie theaters, on airplanes. Kinda makes my stomach sick—I can’t imagine having to sit in a closed room with people smoking now. The odor clung to hair and clothing and I’ll bet you a pack of Virginia Slims I went to job interviews and probably the dentist after having a cigarette. The ‘80s were wild.
So yes, two of my main characters smoke. In college, Eva (who goes by Billie Soul on the air) starts up because a cute fellow announcer (Dusty Miles) tells her it’ll make her voice sound sexy. Don’t worry—she quits by the end. Dusty takes a little longer; he’s saving his big moment for the novel’s sequel, Radio Storm.
“Smokers voice,” like the gravelly voice of chain-smoking Dottie, the B93 office manager with her snap-shut cigarette case and mauve nails, is the voice smokers develop due to inflammation of the delicate structures within the throat—think vocal chord nodules. Smoking reduces lung capacity—I can always tell if an announcer is a smoker just by the increased number of breaths they take while reading the news or a commercial script. It’s certainly apparent on my old airchecks.
So, if the smoking in Radio Starr makes you feel icky, I get it. Just be grateful the novel isn’t scratch‑and‑sniff.
A snippet from RADIO STARR:
Cigarettes and radio go hand in hand. Everyone knows smoking makes the voice sound deeper. The best compliment a man can get is to have “monster pipes,” and for women, to be told they sound sexy. Smoking gives DJs something to do while waiting for a song or commercial to end. The small adrenaline rush from nicotine helps announcers stay awake. But film from the smoke and tar damages sensitive electronics, thus the engineer’s posted No Smoking signs—that everyone ignores!
Smokers...everywhere I went in radio. Our station gave out to clients one year as a Christmas gift glass ashtrays with their call letters etched in the bottom. I still have 2 of them stuck up on a shelf in our pantry. I quit when the price skyrocketed way past a dollar fifty.
I was the ONLY non (cigarette) smoker at the AM rocker I worked at in 1985*. When I moved to a public radio station the following year, I was part of the majority (I think we only had two of the Full-timers).
* and more everyone had that gravelly voice you speak of (though our PD referred to it as being "3-balls deep" which always put off our overnight (female) jock, though to be honest, I was never sure about her...😉