A lot happened in the two plus years I was in Baton Rouge. I broke up with another girlfriend, made two of my all time best friends and learned that no matter how good your ratings are that loyalty isnt something that lives strong in the radio business.

This is the story of how I landed on the beach!

I woke up early one Sunday morning in Baton Rouge because I had an "appearance" to go to. An appearance is when we, the dj, goes out to a location and helps promote whatever store we are at. So when you hear the DJ call in from a certain location and say,"Hey this is so and so and we are going to be out here at X location till 2pm. Come get your free stuff and see what they have going on here... blah blah blah.." That is an appearance.

Well, this particular day, I knew that I was to go to the Mall of Louisiana but I didnt know the exact location. The station didnt have a full sized promotions staff like the stations that we have in DFW because of course, its a smaller market. So I got up and made my way to the station to get the station van, the prize box and the information as to where I am to set up at the mall. I get all the stuff needed and I head out!

Upon arrival at the Mall of Louisiana, I grab the info sheet to find out exactly where I need to set up. Well, the info sheet only says, Mall of Lousiana. The Mall of Louisiana??? Thats all I get?? Its a mall! That would be like me telling you,"Hey meet me in Dallas!" Your first response would be, "Where?" Luckily I am an overacheiver sometimes and I got there at least an hour and a half early.

I called my best friend Super Steve back at the station to ask if he knew any additional details about where in the mall I am supposed to set up. He didnt know. So I called the sales lady whose name was on the paper. She didnt answer. I called my boss, he didnt know. I called the lady again. She didnt answer. I parked the van in the parking lot and jumped out. Oh did I mention that this was right in the middle of Tropical Storm Allison? So it was raining buckets.

I ran inside and looked on the mall map to find out where I was and then to find the service desk. As I am walking towards the service desk I try to call the sales lady again. No answer. I find the service desk and I ask if they knew of any radio promotions going on that day. The girl looks through some papers and then makes a call. She doesnt know. I say thank you and head back to my van.

I get outside again and run through the rain back to the van. I call the sales lady again and she doesnt answer. Now I am starting to get worried because we are slowly approaching the start time of the evetn and I am by myself. So set up wiill take a few minutes. I call Super Steve again and he still hastn heard anything. I call my boss again and ask him what do I do? He tells me to just get all of my stuff out of the van and hold steady at the front door of the mall. So I do.

I unloaded my prize box, the banners, the radio, a table and table cloth. Hauled it all inside and then took the van back out to the parking lot, hoping no one would steal all of my stuff. I get the van parked and I run like the wind back to the front door. I am soaked and I have no idea where I am supposed to take all this stuff. I call the sales lady again. No answer. I leave a very disgruntled message this time unlike the last 4 that were very polite asking her to call me back ASAP! I look at the clock. It is start time for my appearance.

I am soaking wet from the storm, I dont know where I am supposed to be, I havent heard from the sales lady and its now 10 minutes past the start time of my event. The most important thing about these appearances is to get the "Call In" on the air. So I called back to the station and had Super Steve record my call in. These are important because they are what the client is paying for. So with that out of the way, I decide to leave all of my stuff in the doorway and walk around to see if I could find anyone that would know where I was supposed to be.

I randomly walked toward the escalator and casually took it up. I got to the top, took a left and started to walk towards a lady that looks inviting. As I was approaching her guess who pops out from behind a blue jeans rack? THE SALES LADY!!!! She confronts with the rage of the Devil. She is yelling at me and telling me that I am late and costing her money and the I am going to do this appearnace without getting paid. The lady that I was approacing was the client. I was being insulted and yelled at by a sales lady in front of a client!!

If I could have seen myself, I know I would have looked like one of those cartoon characters when they begin to get mad. The steam started to rise from my stomach, it reached my neck and I know I was starting to turn red, I bit my lip, thats when steam started coming out of my ears, my eyes turned red and then I blew my top. BOOM!!!

She yells, "Where have you been??? This was to have started 30 minutes ago!!"

I reached in my pocket and I pulled out the info sheet that I had. I held it right up to her face and said, "Tell me where I am supposed to be based on this?!?!?!"

She grabs the paper and then realizes that she had made a mistake by not specifying where I was supposed to be. Then you could see a light go off in her head. She smirks and says,"Why didnt you just call me? My number is on the sheet." She thought she had just won and I was gonna get in trouble.

I say,"Have you looked in that ridiculoously huge bag that you have strewn over your should and checked your phone?" She replied with,"I havent missed any calls." OH REALLY!!! "Check your phone!" I demanded. She reached her whole arm into that stupidly huge bag and finally found her phone. She pulls it out, hits the button and notices that she had missed at least 8 calls. All from me and my boss. The look on her face was priceless. She was bewildered. I looked up at the client and I said,"I'm sorry about all of this, we'll get this underway right after I get my stuff from downstairs."

Our sales lady looked at the client with a blank look and then looked at me, cocked her head to the side. You could tell that she was absolutley furious. I turned to go get my stuff and she started following me. She grabbed my arm and spun me around. She laid into me about how I should never EVER rasie my voice infront of a client and that if I were to ever make her look foolish in front of a client again she'd have my job.

For some reason I took great pleasure in seeing this lady completely freaking out. I calmly looked at her before getting on the escalator and I said, "We wouldnt have these problems if you had your stuff together." I turned and got on the escalator and rode down in to the storm! It was like the great ending to a movie. She stood there and watched as I rode off into the mens shoes section.

However, it wasnt over. I had to go back up there with all of my stuff, set it up and do the appearance. We moved the start time to 3pm and I was there from 3 to 5 that day. I did my call ins and people stopped by and I gave away whatever it was that I had to give away. The day ended with a get together at my house with some buddies and beer. All things were good, until the next morning.

I was woken up by a phone call from my boss at about 8am. He says,"Can you meet me here at 10am please?" It didnt make sense to get a call from him at that time and I was very suspicious. I asked him what this was about and he says,"Just be here, man!" Great.....

I show up about a quarter to 10 and I go in his office. He asks me what happened at the mall. I went through all the details and he knew most of them because I had been in contact with him about what was happening at the mall the day before. I went over all the details of the conversation that I had with the sales lady and he was understanding about how I could be frustrated. About 5 minutes into our meeting there is a knock on the door. It is the GM, the sales lady, the Operations Manager, the client and our promotions director. Oh My!!!

The GM was new, kind of. He had been at the station a few years before I got there and had just come back. So I didnt know him but everyone else in the office did. He walks over and introduces himself to me and I satnd up, shake his hand and say hello. He then tells me to have a seat. "GREAT! I am getting fired. This sales lady won!" thats what I was thinking in my head.

The operations manager begins to speak. He starts in on me with a lecture about how he expected more from an employee of WFMF and how could I disrespect another one of our employees in the manner that I did. The GM says something along the lines of,"This is one of our most beloved and hardest working members of the sales staff." The promotions director chimes in with,"Why didnt you call me? I knew exactly where you were supposed to set up."

I was being bombarded by these people and I didnt call the promotions director because, A) I didnt have her number and B) Why should I call her when I have the number of the actual sales lady who owns the account?!

I look at the client and I didnt want her to pick sides and I jsut said, "I'm sorry for any ill will I may have caused at the store between you and our station. I was frustrated because there was absolutely no communication between the people that I needed to communicate with and things fell apart quickly." She smiled and said, "No ill will here."

Good.

The sales lady looks at me like she is "Gonna Get Me!" I was waiting for her to shake her fist at me but she didnt. She just stood there with a blank look on her face. They all left the office and it was me and my boss again.

I turned and looked at him and said,"What is this all about? Nothing came out of that except I got a lecture from some people."

He replies with,"Youre suspended for 2 weeks without pay and youre taken off appearances indefinately."

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!

I dont make enough money to not be paid for two weeks and then to not be able to do appearances?? I'll starve to death!

I looked at him  and said,"Why? What did I do to get all of this? She's not getting any punishment for yelling at me and then grabbing me and yelling some more? She's the one that made all the mistakes! Why am I getting punished?!"

He rplied with,"She's been here a long time and has her allies. I cant change what the GM and the OM decide to do." I said,"Did you even have my back?" He said that he did. He tried to explain to them what had happened and they refused to believe him. I told him I needed a minute to clear my head and I'd be back.

I went down stairs, paced around for about 10 minutes and then made my way back up to the station. I sat down in my bosses office and said,"I want to thank you for all of your help over the years. You've helped mold me into a pretty good broadcaster and I quit."

His mouth hit the floor, his eyes got wide and then he realized that he didnt need to be shocked by my decision. I was royally screwed over by these people and he knew it. I walked down the hall and offered up my resignation to the GM and the OM and they just kind of sat there looking at me like," Who is this guy anyway?" What a bunch of jerks. I walked the halls of the office telling people that I was resigning my spot as the night show host to the dismay of all of the people I talked to. I filled out some paper work. Handed in my keys. Cleaned out my cubicle and rolled out! Never to return.

I got home and told my roommate what I just did and he laughed. He knew the sales lady that had caused all this and he wasnt surprised at all. I think his words were, "Thats what she does."

So my time in Baton Rouge had come and gone. I was out of work and on the beach when I got a call from the beach. Pensacola, here I come!

After making a trip and attending the company Christmas party in order to meet all of my new colleagues, it was time to actually move to Baton Rouge. Again, I am packing up and leaving another town behind and living the dream of the radio super star.

I had an apartment picked out and all the paper work was signed, I just needed to move in. We drove most of the night from Tyler to Baton Rouge and arrived around 8ish. I ran inside and turned on the AC and set a few things down on the bar. I unlocked the back door to let my parents and girlfriend in and I was just looking around when I heard a shreek from the bathroom. It was my mom. I ran over there and she was standing there looking at the toilet. I thought, "Dead rat? Bugs? The Kool-Aid Man?" I had no idea. Well, it was just what you think, should be in a toilet.

Why it was there, we had no idea. I will save you all the speculation that was thrown around between the 4 of us that night, just know that it will come back into play a little later in this article.

So the "Dirty" was flushed and we proceeded to move things in. That whole process didn't take long and we were glad that it didn't because it was pretty hot for a December in Louisiana.

I'm not sure why I didn't stay at my new apartment that night because I had a bed and everything.... Oh yeah, because my girlfriend was with us and of course a mother will always be a mother. So we were forced to stay in a hotel with my mom and dad. Talk about weird. However, that's not even the weird part. They got a room with 2 beds. One for them and one for my girlfriend! Me??? They ordered up one of those wire-frame roller/folding beds that the housekeeping people bring up. Let me tell ya, it was a delight to sleep on that heap of industrial strength garbage. I remember setting it up next to my girlfriends bed and holding her hand from my piece of junk roll-away folding bed while she slept peacefully in her comfy hotel bed. Awful.

So the girlfriend and parents leave the next day after doing a few things at my apartment and its me and nothing but freedom and dreams ahead. I went to the radio station the next day to officially get things underway, meetings with the boss, meetings with the sales staff, yada yada yada... As the day progressed, my boss told me, "I want you to come in tonight at midnight, just so you can get acclimated with the computer system and the control board."

Sure thing! I had used this system before. It couldn't be any different than before, right? Wrong.

I'll spare you all the inside talk and jargon that you wont understand but just imagine, sitting down at the computer that you use everyday and think of how easy it is for you. You know where everything is, you know how to turn it on, you know all the ins and outs, okay? Well, at first, everything looked the same on this computer at the radio station, so why should I sweat the small stuff? I show up at midnight and the first thing I do is take the radio station off the air, with the press of one button.... PFFT.... GONE!

I start to panic. I start punching buttons. The more you punch the more congested the computer gets. There is nothing! I am losing it! Finally, I look to my right and there was an auxiliary button that I pushed and everything came back on. I was safe... at least for now.

I put my headphones and get prepped to do my first live break for my new station and I turn the mic on and begin to talk over the song, however, I cant hear myself or the song. So I think nothing is on the air. What do I do? I start punching buttons again. I freeze up the computer again but I didn't realize I had done that because when I hit the auxiliary button the first time, I had taken the computer system out of the "On Air Mode".......

I know you are lost, but in radio, taking the station off the air is a big no no. Dead air is a big no no! I had successfully done both within the first 20 minutes I was in that studio.

Finally I get it all figured out and I leave the station around 5am. I am beat. It was an airshift from Hell and I wanted to sleep. Luckily my apartment was about 300 yards from the radio station, so I was there in an instant and I was passed out by 520am.

As I wallered around in my slumber, dreaming of greatness, I noticed that the blinds of my window in the front bedroom were rustling around. But why? Maybe I got up in the middle of the night to open the window to get some fresh air but that doesn't make any sense. It wasn't in my room. Then it stopped. I sat there for about 5 minutes wondering.

Maybe I was dreaming. Maybe I was just hearing things. Maybe I am going crazy. OR MAYBE SOMEONE BROKE INTO MY APARTMENT!

I sat up in my bed. I looked down the hall with bleary eyes and tried to focus on what I thought was a person. Was it? YOU BET IT WAS. There was dude at the end of my hall. I'm not sure what got into me because I jumped straight out of bed, in my boxers by the way, ran into the hall and did a crazy Rambo roll over my washer and dryer that hadn't been installed yet and began the chase.

The guy stood frozen for what seemed like an eternity but I'm sure it was about 3.8 seconds and as soon as he saw me spring from my bed and get to the hallway that was when he took off towards the front door. I had 3 locks on that door and a screen door. He broke the doorknob off, unlocked the deadbolt and yanked the door open so violently that the chain lock broke off the wall as well. This was happening while I was Rambo Rolling over my washer and dryer. I turned the corner in a full sprint, to see him bust through the screen door and make a break for it. He was fully clothed and wearing shoes. I was wearing boxers and was barefoot. I gave a chase across the parking lot and he jumped a fence. I wasn't about to do that.

I stood there in my underwear in broad daylight for about 5 minutes in complete shock wondering if that really just happened... Well, it did and I mosied on back to my place and inspected the damage. The door was a complete loss. The guitars in the front room were okay. Nothing was stolen. I was okay and my toilet....... It had itself another surprise in it courtesy of the intruder. Nice.

Its really weird how life works itself out sometimes, which is the case of how I ended up in Baton Rouge.

In the radio business, we put together things called "air checks", which are basically audio calling cards. Its a short sample of what we sound like on the radio and they are made all the time by the jocks of radio stations. They are usually about 3 minutes long even though the program director is only going to listen to the first minnute of it and form their opinion of you immediately before it is tossed out.

Well, I had my first real aircheck put together from my time in Tyler and I saw a job posting in Nashville. I HAD to get that job! I would have been making the leap from radio market #140 to market #40 or something mind blowing like that. I carefully put together a resume that didnt take me very long to put together because, who really has a good resume at 21??

All the while my friend and afternoon guy at the station, Stevie B, was going through the same process as he wanted to move up in the business as well..

I sent my air check and resume to Nashville. Stevie sent his to Baton Rouge and a few other places. Two weeks later Stevie says, "Hey buddy! I got a call from the people in Nashville!"

The range of emotions that I felt at that exact time were of unthinkable proportions. "Did he send his air check to the same place I wanted to go?! HOW COULD HE! I wanted that job! Am I not worthy of a courtesy call?!?! Maybe a,' Thanks but youre terrible and we like your friend better!'?" NOPE! Nothing from the Nashville station.

Stevie assured me that he had not sent his resume and aircheck to Nashville and that he is a little uncertain how or why he got called for the job. Regardless, he was called and was invited to go there to interview. FLIGHT PAID FOR!

He goes up there and returns all giddy and happy! He was offered the job in Nashville! How could this happen to me! In my mind I thought I was the greatest DJ on the face of the planet and my buddy got the job? I felt like I was going to be stuck in Tyler forever when my phone rang nearly 3 weeks to the date that Stevie yanked my poor little young radio heart out and stabbed it repeatedly with a spork. It was a guy named Flash Philips from WFMF in Baton Rouge.

He tells me that he recieved my air check from a friend of his in Nashville! There is hope after all! We chit chatted for a little while on the phone and I tried to sound as "radio smart" as possible. I am sure that I failed miserably at that because, I knew nothing about doing real radio and talking the lingo.

He told me that he could'nt fly me there for an interview but he would like to meet with me face to face. You betcha, I hauled it down there with the quickness. Obviously, he liked me for some reason and decided to take a chance on a kid that ultimately had no real structure to my radio talent and was kind of a loose cannon.

It wasnt where I originally wanted to go but it was where my good sweet clean Lord and savior wanted me to go because it was in Baton Rouge that I met Super Steve and Kenny. My two best friends to the date.

The guy that originally sent his air check to Baton Rouge, Stevie B, eventually got out of radio and got married to a girl that he met in Nashville. He told me later that he ended up getting the gig in Nashville because some guy named Flash Philips in Baton Rouge sent his air check to HIS friend in Nashville!

Life is funny sometimes, aint it.

My short but exciting stay in Tyler, Texas began with a bang. Or was it a gunshot... Either way. I moved into a CHEAP little apartment on the south side of town and it wasnt until I was watching the news that I realized that I lived on the south side of town. What was on the news that would make me realize that I lived on the south side, you might be asking? Well, seven tornadoes. SEVEN!

I remember that afternoon like it was yesterday. It was about 430pm and I heard a whistling coming from my sliding glass door that lead to my porch. I walked out and noticed the sky was black as space, the air was cool and the wind was revved up! I stood out there and observed the sky and how fast the clouds were moving. To my right were trees, in front of me, more apartments and to the left....More apartments. The trees to my right were really taking a beating by the wind and I thought, "Dang!"

The rain started, followed by thunder. The rain went from vertical to horizontal. Branches went from tree's to parking lot. Cars went from parking lot to outer space.... I made that last part up. I ran inside and turned on my 13 inch TV with 20 inch cable box and found the local news. There was one of the reporters standing outside in a rain coat clinging to dear life as mother nature beat her silly with wind and rain. She looked right at the camera and said, "I think we need to go! Back to you Anchor Guy!" The feed was cut and the scene shifted to Anchor Guy sitting at the desk. He looked spooked. He then says,"Over to you Weather Guy!" Weather Guy then says, "This is a very dangerous storm. As of now there have been a report of 5 tornad.... Make that seven. Seven Tornadoes have been spotted primarily on the southern side of town."

I am really confused at the point because I lived off of Loop 323 and its not like Beltline or 635 when you know you are heading north or east. It always seemed like a straight road to me and I would get on to it from the north side of town and take a right. To me it couldn't have been more than 5 miles to the west. Not the case! I would travel ALL the way to the south-side of the loop!

I digress. I called the radio station and got our assistant program director, Lucky Larry on the phone and I said, "Larry. this is going to sound really stupid but what side of town do I live on?" He responded with, "The south side... Kind of south east side." At this EXACT MOMENT the weather guy says, "If you are on the south east side of town, take shelter immediately! We have 2 or 3 reports of 3 or more twisters on the ground!"

I very sarcastically said, "Larry. There is a trailer park behind the trees to the right of my apartment complex. Its been nice working with you." He didn't get the joke. So as tornadoes are ripping trees out of the ground, destroying house and causing havoc on the south east side of Tyler, I was on the phone explaining to Larry what I meant by the trailer park. It became such a big deal that we stayed on the phone and I walked out onto my patio as if it were sunny and 72 outside, not even thinking that there were tornadoes 4 feet from where I live. The conversation carried on and on. I leaned on the patio railing as if to say, "Hey. Can I get a margarita? Maybe some watermelon?" All the while on the phone.

Finally after about 10 minutes on the phone with Larry explaining myself, it dawned on me, that I am about to die and I hung up the phone and ran to my bathroom. Well, maybe I didnt run to my bathroom. I took about 6 steps from the patio to the bathroom. I think I sat on the toilet, lid down or course and called my mom. I'm pretty sure I told her that I was about to die in a horrific freak of nature mega tornado while sitting on my toilet in Tyler, Texas. I think she responded with, "Well, that's how Elvis died honey."

(Break for Research)

This is all that I could find in the archives of that day and I promise you, I didn't make any of the above up. However, I think the people that archived this bit of information forgot to include the weather on the south side of Tyler, Texas that day because it was WAY worse that severe. There were tornadoes man!

From the KDOK.Com website I found this-

A particularly powerful storm crossed on the 3rd. This caused widespread severe weather in the area on the afternoons of the 3rd with the passage of a cold front, and on the afternoon of the 4th as the front returned northward as a warm front.

The area was under various watches from the morning of the 3rd through the evening of the 4th. In Tyler, some street-flooding occurred the afternoon the 3rd. 1.06 inches of rain fell in the 20 minutes between 2:00 p.m. and 2:20 p.m.

I survived the "powerful storm that caused widespread severe weather" that day and thats a good thing because I dont think the world was ready to worship me like they do Elvis.

April 1999 

My time at KISS FM had come and gone and it was time to venture off into "THE REAL WORLD"! Tyler, Texas was the next destination on my journey to "Radio Awesomeness!" Little did I know that things were not going to go as planned!

My initial move to Tyler got off to a real late start. I had to spend some time with my friends and my girlfriend before hitting the road. As the sun set and my goodbyes were out of the way, I jumped in my car and set off to East Texas.

Tyler, The Rose City is just a short 90 miles away from the Metroplex, so comin and going wasnt that big of a deal to me as the price of gas couldnt have been more than two bucks at the time. I jump on Highway 80 and head East. I passed through Mesquite and waved at the Wal-Mart on Beltline. I drove through Forney and thought about the real hot girl that I had the chance to date from Forney and I arrived in the sleepy little town of Terrell. I was greeted by a great big pile of traffic upon arrival. Traffic at 930pm on a Sunday night???? Well, what do you do?

I put the radio station on 94.5 The Edge and turned it up. I rolled my window down and said, "Who cares! I'm headed off to a new life! I have a full time job. Things are great!" I crept along in the traffic reaching speeds of about 10 mph and then it would stop. This went on for at least 45 minutes to an hour before I had travelled a mile. Finally, traffic lets up and I'm off! New life here I come...

Wait... More traffic.

Dead stop.

10 minutes passes. 25 minutes pass. 40.... I had moved about 100 feet.

No worries! I have the radio and the windows rolled down!

As I am jamming out to a song, I notice that the sound comin from my speakers all of a sudden started to get distorted. Now it was starting to sound like alien transmissions. Its getting very weird. I press the gas to move along and it would stop. As I stopped, it would start again. Now I am kind of worried. I am in the middle of nowhere, traffic is at a standstill on a Sunday night and I am getting alien transmissions on my radio.

Could it be? Was there a downed alien spacecraft on the highway up ahead? Is there an intergalactic E.T. hunt going on?

No.

My car was in fact dying on me.

In front of me all I can see are red brake lights. Behind me nothing but headlights as far as I could see. The car starts to sputter a little and I am getting the very nervous feeling in my stomach. I hit the gas and the car lurches forward and then nothing. It completely died.

Now I am really freaking out because I have just become another reason for traffic to be stopping. I turn the key. Nothing. I try it again. Nothing. Now there is no power to the car. I am stuck. I cant leave it on the highway. I have to get it off. I am on the inside shoulder of the road, so my only option was to jump out amidst the people behind me honking, grab the steering wheel and yank on it with all of my my might to get it off the road. After about 10 minutes of pulling and yelling and pushing the car exits the highway into some very tall brush in the median.

Did I mention that I didnt have a cell phone yet as these werent the cool thing to have at the time.

So I grab my wallet and my keys, some change and a hat I think and I lock it up, slam the door, kcik the tire and curse at the car for a minute and start to walk.

It was a very surreal walk because I was walking in between cars that were still stuck in the traffic that had plagued us much of the night and to be walking along the side of the highway moving faster than the people in their cars on foot was something else.

About a mile back was a huge truck stop. A Flying J, I think. I'm headed there.

I probably could have asked someone stuck in traffic for help but I kept thinking, "I'm the creep on the side of the road that people shun. Keep walking". About 5 minutes into my journey to the truck stop, I hear something. That couldnt be what I thought it was could it?

Thunder.

Rain. Lots of it.

Soaked.

Not only had my car died on me on my way to my new life as an adult, I was walking along the highway by myself with car headlights all in my face and it is pouring down rain. I'm off to a good start.

Finally about an hour or so later I arrive at the truck stop, soaked, mad and hungry.

I go inside and grab a candy bar and head to the counter to pay for it. I sat it down on the counter and begin to tell the lady my story. She was a sweet little lady. I pulled out my wallet to get my cash and lo and behold, guess who doesnt have any cash in his wallet? You guessed it! ME!

Remember that sweet little lady that I just mentioned? Not so sweet! You would think that she would be willing to fork over a stupid candy bar to the kid that is soaking wet who just walked a mile or so in the rain becasue his car was transmitting alien signals and died! NOPE! My .89 cent candy bar was confiscated and I was left standing there thinking, "This might possibly be the first day of the rest of my life."

I did have .50 in my pocket but that was to call my parents to come get me. I sneer at the NOT SO sweet little lady and I make my way over to the pay phones. I grab a quarter, stick it in the phone and start to dial. "Please deposit 25 cents to make this phone call." What?!?! I just did! I hang up and look at the phone. The price of pay phones had gone up to 50 cents! I didnt know that because, I never used a pay phone! So now I am stuck. I get one shot at catching someone at home to come rescue me. I plop the 50 cents in and dial my parents trusty number. They came to the rescue! Thank God for parents!

My whole family came to the rescue. Mom, Dad, Sister and her new boyfriend Randy. They brought me my moms car and I we all jumped in the cars and headed over to my car. We transfer most of my junk into my moms car and I am finally off to Tyler, to begin my new life on my journey to "Radio Awesomeness!"

That was until I got up the next day and my moms car didnt start.

After finally making it through the internship and becoming a paid employee of the station, all kinds of craziness ensued. I'll try to keep these stories short and sweet and I know that I will be coming back to this one to add new stories on to it.

Kidd Kraddick
As a kid, I used to listen to him do a bit called "The Boogie Check", which was basically a "shout out" type of bit, if my memory serves me correctly. I never got on the air but I am pretty sure that I tried on more than on occasion. Anyway, it was kind of a dream come true to be working at the same station with this guy. He had only been back on the air for a couple of years in the market and he had reestablished himself with the listeners as a morning show host. As some of you that listen to him know, he is very impromptu and scatter brained but good at what he does. Well, there was a rumor that got started around the station that I was dating another one of the part time girls that I worked with, Meredith. That wasnt the case.

We were really good friends and we were always assigned to work events together. However, I can see why people would think that. So Meredith was working with Kidd on his show answering phones and helping with the production and what not and I get a call from Kidd asking me to come to the studio the next morning. I had no idea why because he wouldnt tell me. So I show up bright and early around 7ish, I believe. I go in the studio and I was sooooooo nervous. I'm about to make a big time radio debut. I have dry mouth, shakey voice and weird posture.

The microphones go live, Kidd starts talking and then he starts grilling me about dating a coworker. I didnt know what to say. I wasnt dating a coworker! He then summons Meredith in and then put me right on the spot about Meredith. I was freaking out. It was one of those awkward situations that a big brother would put you in or a friend that says the most embarrassing things in front of someone you really like. Plus I was dating someone at the time and she was listening so it made it even more awkward because, while I loved Meredith to death, I didnt want to date her.

Kidd then says,"Ask her on a date." The uncomfortable factor was REAL thick now and doing the only thing I know how to do, I busted off into goofy mode. I said in this weird deep creepy voice,"Hey baby. You wanna go out or something?" Kidd stopped and said something to the effect of," She's like our kid on this show and I will beat you silly if you talk to her like that!" He was joking but it made me think,"Okay. Thats what a real father would have said but then again, when would this ever pop up in a real life sitaution?"

I was scared but I made it through. He then handed us a sign that said,"Need Money For First Date. Please Help. God Bless." I looked at Meredith and she looked at me and then at Kidd and said, "What are you making us do?"

We found ourselves standing on the corner of Preston Road and 635, panhandling for money to go on a date. Kidd didnt say where we were and we werent allowed to say where we were either. Kidd instructed people to give us 1 dollars bills only. We ran around from car to car as they honked at us and threw money out the window into our huge coffee can. My sister even stopped by and threw us a 20 or something like that. We were there for I think an hour or 2 and we raised over 200 dollars for our fake date.

Now, as a 21 year old idiot, I didnt know where to go on a date. I had yet discovered the greatness of Bob's Steak and Chop House, Trulucks and Al Biernets. This is when, you are going to lean back in your chair and sigh and say, "What is wrong with you?" Not that the place we went was bad but with the money we had, we could have gone somewhere a little hipper! We fine dined at Landry's and we sat there and ordered the most expensive things on the menu. We left with about 180 dollars.

Where to now? We decided to head over to Speed Zone. Raced some cars, played some games and then did the Sky Coaster. Once we stopped swinging over I-35 on the Sky Coaster, it was time to go.

Where to now? Well, why waste the rest of the money that we had. Lets split it! So we split right down the middle and we each ended up with about 80 or so bucks. With all the fresh moolah that we both had, we decided to go over to a club where the radio station was doing a live club gig with Domino and his overalls. We didnt have to pay to get in. We didnt have to pay for drinks. The only thing we had to pay was, attention, to all of the awesomeness that was going on in our lives that night!

We parted ways and reconvened on Monday morning with Kidd and friends. We went over all the details of our date and they made fun of us for going to Landry's.... Well, me, for taking her to Landry's and then to a radio sponsored event. When asked about the Sky Coaster, all I could respond with was, "It was the bomb! Straight up!" Which became a catchphrase for the morning show for a small time frame. I had made my impact. HAAA

After a good summer in Nacogdoches cleaning 18 wheelers with my buddies and playing a lot of Play Station, I decided I wanted to head back home. I enrolled in "Harvard on the Hill" or Eastfield if you will. While I was there, I again set my mind on getting into radio. My mom, the Piece De Resistance of High School Secretarying.......(is that a word?), gave me a contact number for a lady that worked for 1061 KISS FM. She knew this lady because her son went to Poteet High School as well. I called her up and set up an interview.

I showed up with stars in my eyes because this was a real radio station. It had a parking garage, an elevator, clean halls and famous DJ's. I was walked down the hall to Mrs. Marks office, which had a door and a desk with leg room and a big window that looked out over the Toll Road or NW Highway... I cant remember but it was great. We chatted for a minute and then she took me down the hall, past the main KISS FM studio, which I wanted soooo bad to go in but I kept up with her instead. I was introduced to a guy named Jordan, I think.

I sat there next to his desk as he interviewed me. He wore glasses and the light in the office reflected off of his glasses making it so that I couldnt see his eyes while he was talking to me. It was a very awkward interview for me because I couldnt see his eyes. So I felt as if I wasnt really talking to a person. Once it was all over, he said, "Well, I cant hire you but I can give you an internship." JACKPOT! I was in!

As an intern for a major station such as any of the stations in this market, I knew that I was the lowest of the low on the Totem Pole. However, I decided that I was going to put in more effort to this than I had at anything else in my life. I never left the station. I was the guy that would work for any of the hired part timers that went out the night before and were to hung over to show up on time. I was the guy that would sit in the news room and answer phones for Domino and Mister Ed. I would just show up and staple papers or cut banners. I was just an intern that was hungry to make it in this business.

At the end of my internship, the marketting director, Melissa pulled all of the interns into the conference room to thank us for all of our hard work and to give us our final paper work to take back to our professors at school. It was kind of a sad day for all of us, as this was it. Time to go back to trying to get a real job in radio. Melissa, in her thick Boston accent said, "Id like to thank all of you for doing such a great job. You'll all go on to do great things and I want to extend an offer to one of you to become a part of our promotions department and street team." I was like,"Who is she going to hire?!!?!?" Then she went on to say," This person has gone above and beyond the call of duty for any intern that has been through this program and I would like you all to congratulate, Jake."

It was as if I had just won a Grammy! I felt the spotlights all start to shine on me as the crowd cheered and I kissed my imaginary girlfriend on the cheek and then hugged my mom and started down the isle to accept my award! However, I was just sitting in a conference room with a look of amazement on my face! I had made it! I was now a paid employee of a radio station!

Watch out world! Here I come!

After graduation, I went to a radio job fair, to meet certain individuals from various radio stations around the Metroplex. I walked around and filled out applications and talked to promotions people. There werent any DJ's there which I found to be disappointing. I mean, who really wants to go to a radio job fair with none of the personalities there? I wanted to meet Kidd Kraddick and Chris Ryan. Russ Parr and Alex Valentine. Lex and Terry and Redbeard! Nope. Just underpaid promotions people and sales execs. But it turned into something.

As I was packing up the mini van with the family to make the short drive from Mesquite to Orlando, Florida the phone inside the house rang. I think it was my dad that answered and then I heard my name being yelled. I ran inside and I found out that on the other end of the line was a rep from, ironically enough, 96.3 KSCS. I'm not sure what they wanted me to do but whatever it was, probably some promotions gig, they wanted me to do it that day. unfortunately, I was destined to sit in a van with my then girlfriend, Brook, my sister and parents, stuff Puffy Cheeto's in my mouth and sing ridiculous songs on the way to Florida.

That summer was weird as the aforementioned girlfriend and I went Splitsville and I decided that I wasnt going to just go to Easfield. I needed to pursue this dream of mine to become a radio DJ. I needed to pick a good school to teach me all I needed to know about radio. Stephen F Austin here I come! Everyone knows that a school known for its forrestry classes is a great place to learn about all things radio! Anywhooo, I was off to deep East Texas, Nacogdoches to be exact.

Things got underway and I was making friends and taking classes. All of a sudden the plans I had already mapped out in my head for my life started to take a left turn. I was no longer on the track team. I was failing classes because I never went and I was sleeping in all day. I found myself having to get a job and I had previously had an encounter with a consultant and a new morning DJ at the local rock station. They were older gentlemen and I cant remember their names. I do recal that the consultant guy was kinda slimy and the morning guy was named "Wolfman" or "Mad Dog" or something. I digress. They told me to come in for an interview and I did!

The radio station was located in a building that I do believe was an old fast food restaraunt. I opened the front door, there was a cow bell attached and it made such a racket! I found myself in a waiting room with green carpet and cafeteria chairs lined up against the wall to my right and left. Directly in front of me was a lady sitting behind a pane of glass, like at the bank. I thought that was weird. She greeted me with a very East Texas,"How may I help you?" I just told here I was there to see the Mad Wolfman or whatever his name is. She says,"Well. he's not here right now is there anyone else you'd like to see?" I thought that was weird too. I said I was there to apply for a job and she handed me an application.

While I was sitting there filling it out, the consultant guy came in and was all chummy and gung ho when he saw me! He said, "You dont need that application! Come with me!" We were off! He gave me some commercial copy and said get in here and read this for me. Read it a few times and then come see me when youre done." Sweeeeet! I was doing real radio! Once I was done I went down the hall, peeked in to his office and said, "You wanna listen?" He replied with, "There's no need for that!" I thought that was weird. He told me that I was hired and I needed to come back on Monday to get all the paper work started. It was time to celebrate! I was 19 and awesome! My career is about to take off!

I walked in on Monday and told the nice lady behind the glass that I was there to see "Mister Consultant Guy" and she said, "Well, he's no longer with the company. We've been bought out by a new company, Clear....(she paused) Clear Channel, thats the name of the new company." I was shocked! I asked about "The Old Grey Mad Wolf Dog" and she said,"He's no longer with us either" I was SHOCKED! I asked" What am I supposed to do? I was told to come back today to get the paperwork started. Do I not have a job now?" She calmly handed me an application and said,"Well, I'm sorry about that. Fill this out and someone will contact you when we get our new people into place."

I was fired before I was hired. This radio career was off to a great start.

I washed 18 wheelers that summer.

This is a very abbreviated version of the last blog that I wrote about KEOM that didnt show up because it took me to long to write and post.

1. I was a sophmore and I auditioned.
2. I was accepted.
3. The Studio was real small.
4. It was at West Mesquite.
5. Being a Poteet student made it hard to go over the West Mesquite.
6. I got into a scuffle with some kids there on a Friday.
7. I learned to be a radio person.
8. The hot blonde in my class hated me.

Sorry if this is so short but I just spent a good 2 hours thinking and writing and when I posted it, I had been logged off the site. I'm not happy about that. So just know, that I had written up a nice little gem of a blog for ya to read, but instead, you get the rundown.

It all started when I was around the age of 7. I would spend hours upon hours listening to the radio and talking to it. Yes. I would talk back to the radio. What can I say? I was a weird kid.

I had one of those old blue plastic record players that you could fold up with a handle to look like you were carrying, well, a portable record player. I also had a black cassette player that was pretty much my best friend out side of my E.T. doll. My records consisted of Ray Parker Jr.'s Ghostbusters Theme Song with instrumental, The Karate Kid Sountrack, a Beach Boys record and a compilation of hits of the day. Man, my parents must have been playing some kind of sick joke on me, to let me have such award winning records! Sheeesh, Mom!

Well, I sat in my room one day, tucked away between my bed and the shelves that held all of my toys and junk with my tape recorder and record player and some killer tunes. My station was KAFM 92.5, which might actually have been a station at the time. I cant recollect. My catch phrase was "All you wild and crazy fans!" and I sang my own jingles.

I have a tape that lives on in infamy with my family that is dubbed the "Ghostbusters Tape". It starts with the Ghostbusters Theme song playing and as it progresses, you can hear me coughing in the back ground and making scary high pitched ghost noises. As the song would end I would jump on and say, "That was Ghostbusterrrrrrrrs! All you wild and crazy fans! Yall be loving that song sooooo much!" Then I would act like the request line was ringing and proceed to carry on a one sided conversation because, at the age of 7 and alone in my room, I didnt have access to a Vox Pro, phone recording system. Off the microphone of the tape recorder, you could hear me say,"Yall wanna hear Ghostbusters AGAIN?!?! Oh! With no singing? WHEW  WEEE!! You people really are wild and crazy about that song!"

I would hurry back over to the tape recorder and reassume my position as the dj. I went on and said," Welp, we're gonna hear Ghostbusters again! Not because, I want to play it again. Its just that you people are wild and crazy about it! Here it is Ghostbuster! Without any singing!" I would later learn that "without any singing" is called an instrumental track.

So thats how it started. It was something that always stuck in my head as something that I wanted to do and when I was a sophmore in high school, I got the chance.