It's The Chocolate Chunk That'll Get You!!!

Typical Friday night snack!!!

Beating The Inland Empire Heat, Just 30 Minutes Away!!

So I woke up on Saturday morning dreading the weekend heat! Mrs. Bullfrog just ended her job and is startinga new one this Tuesday. I thought to myself.... "Now's the time to get away! Where do we go??" Lake Arrowhead!!!
We spent the weekend kickin' it in the beautiful mountain communities just north of us!

Summer's Coming: Night On The Town!

Hey, thanks to everyone who's been coming by! Please visit often, I'll be sharing more memories of working with Legendary Boss Jock and Morning Man Robert W. Morgan!

But for now........

The Hometown Handshake Tour is winding down and preparations are now going on for our Hometown Handshake Tour Finale broadcast at “Corona Yamaha”. During the past couple of months we’ve been driving all over the Inland Empire, shaking hands and kissing babies! Unlike our last Handshake, this one was different. We’ve been towing this cool “Waverunner” with us to all our locations. While there, listeners signed up for a chance to win it! The winner will be drawn at our finale broadcast that will be held on the first official day of Summer, June 21st!

Let’s see what else is going on….. We’ll Mrs. Bullfrog and I went out on the town this past weekend. My wife’s cousin has a friend that graduated over the weekend and was hosting a party at one of Hollywood big night spots, “The Standard”. If you’ve ever seen it, either the one in Hollywood, or the one in Downtown L.A., the first thing you notice is the upside-down sign out front. Good attention getter. Our evening began earlier that afternoon when we were invited to lunch by my Radio Genius boss, Gary Bryan, at “Mel’s Drive In” on Sunset. Driving from the I.E. we had an hour and a half drive ahead of us. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it. Cool 50’s/60’s style diner, juke box, and good burgers. After that we went to the famous “Tower Records” location on Sunset and Holloway. This is where some of the biggest musicians have done midnight record release parties. Now it was about 3:30pm. We had to meet for dinner at the House Of Blues on Sunset at 8pm. Well instead of driving all the way back home and all the back to Hollywood, we had planned ahead and packed our evening clothes with us and headed over to my parents house in the San Gabriel Valley.

We spent a couple of hours catching up on family gossip at my parents and before we knew it we were headed back to Hollywood…… ahem…. West Hollywood! We were joined by my wife’s sister at The Standard and we went down to the hotel’s diner to wait for their cousin and friend to arrive. While there we ordered a round of drinks and appetizers. Just a round!!! Total tab: $76!!!! WOW! Later her cousin and friend arrived and we headed over to the House Of Blues. It was only 2 blocks away but the ladies were wearing heels, so we drove. At the H.O.B. we were seated right away (I made reservations). The food was great. Not too pricey, no drinks… saving $$$$ for later in the evening.

We headed back over to the Standard where we then met up with my wife’s cousins friends. About 20 total. Her cousin knew one of the managers at the hotel and he had reserved an area at the night club just for us. No waiting in line!!! Once in the club we socialized, had some drinks, danced, and more socializing! We later went up to one of the rooms and hung out before heading back home. We ended up back at our place and in bed at about 4am!! ZZZZZZZ!!!!

Now the hard part was that the very next day we had been invited to Frogman Tommy’s son’s 4th birthday party at noon. That was rough….. We showed up, barley awake!

Bye for now.....

J.B.

"Good Morgan", Now Get Back To Work!

Ok, here's the deal. The gentleman to the left is Robert W. Morgan. Who is he and why do I have him on my blog?? Let me tell you!

In the Spring of 1994 I was working at Pasadena's KPCC 89.3fm and attending Pasadena City College, taking a bunch of radio / communications courses. I had been at the KPCC for about 2 years and was getting the itch to move on to bigger things.

One day I noticed that one of my classmates had a "Intern Wanted" flyer on his desk. I peaked over and wrote down the phone number. I put the number in my pocket where it stayed for about 2 weeks (yeah, that's how long before I washed my pants!). I was afraid to call the number because it had been so long since I saw the flyer, plus I was turned down a year before to intern for Rick Dees at KIIS-FM. (He wanted pretty girls working for him!) I called and Mitch Lewis answered, he was the producer at the time. "I'm intrested in the intern possition, is there still an opening?" I asked. "Yes," says Mitch.... "When can you come in?" I told him "tomorrow"! "OK, I'll see you tomorrow, be here at 4:30am!" he said.

4:30AM!!!!!!!! My god! I'm a college student, plus I worked 6 to midnight at the college station! How was I going to get up for this??? Well I managed to drag my butt out of bed and before I knew it, I was pulling into the K-Earth 101 studios at 5901 Venice Blvd. Mitch came out and greeted me, he was huffing and puffin' walkin' real fast, all he said was "keep up with me, we walk fast around here!"

I was impressed by what I saw... this was really the first big time radio station I'd ever been in! After about 15 minutes of shadowing Mitch, he looked over at me and said... "Ok, you're going to meet Robert, be prepared, if he doesn't talk to you don't take it personally." Now I had NEVER seen this man, I knew nothing about Boss Radio, KHJ, Solid Gold, Magic 106, KMPC, and so on.... All I knew is that I came across him a few times while scanning radio on my way to college. I remembered who he was because he made all the callers say "Good Morgan".

I pictured him lookin' like a guy in his mid-40's dark hair, skinny and friendly. Oh no!! Was I in for a BIG surprise!!!! I walked into the smoke-filled morning show office (it was the only place in the building you could still smoke in!), and at this desk was a man, I couldn't see his face because he had the L.A. Times blocking it. Mitch says: "Robert, this is Brandon (yes my real name!), he's our new intern." The paper lowers, he looks up at me and says: "How old are you?" I said: "I'm twent...." He interupted me with a big "WHAT?" "I CAN'T HEAR YOU, SPEAK UP GOD DAMMIT!" I yelled: "I'm 21!" He yelled back: "I'm not deaf! Don't yell at me, I just hate it when young kids don't speak up! My daughter's 21, she'll be going to school!" The newspaper goes back up. Mitch looks at me and says: "that's it... let's go..."

I'll continue this story through time on this blog, please check back!

Long Time Listener, First Time "Donor"!!

This week was the 7th Annual K-Frog Blood Drive for the Blood Banks of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. We did a live broadcast from a hospital in Upland. I decided to donate blood live on the air! Oh did I mention, this was my first time??? Yes, after all these years, i've never donated blood. Why? I don't know. I guess I just never gave it much thought... the cause is great don't get me wrong, but I never made the effort to actualy go to a donor location and give! I know there's many out there that were like me. It's really not a bad experience at all.

First of all you fill out an application, answer about 50 medical questions about yourself, just so they're sure you're a safe donor. Afterwards you take an Iron test, this is the part that freaked my out more than anything. They "prick" the tip of your middle finger (ouch!!!, but only for 2 seconds does it hurt!) they squeeze a little drop out and drop it in a liquid. If it sinks you're good to go....

Now you lay down on a bed, a nurse cleans your arm, puts a blood pressure cuff on you and now you're ready to donate! They insert a needle... no worries you don't feel anything but a slight pinch and before you know it, the pain is gone! After about a minute of hooking up the hoses... you're ready to pump!!! Pump??? Yes, they give you a soft ball-like toy to squeeze. The squeezing helps the blood flow out quicker. Now the average donor takes about 7 to 8 minutes to fill up a donor bag... me..... 4 minutes!!!!!

When your done the take the tube out and bandage you up, and tah dah!!! You're done!!! Now for the coolest part, for the next 10 minutes you sit at the recovery table that's loaded with every snack and cookies known to man!!! Chow Down!!! I felt soooo good afterwards knowing that someone will be using my blood to save a life!

ACM's In Vegas BABY!

Well last week I went to Sin City to work the Academy Of Country Music Awards. The trip was paid for by Westwood One, but since we live nearby, they made us drive to Vegas in our own cars! Oh Well! I guess if you consider the time it takes to go to the airport, check in, fly, land, deplane, wait for luggage, wait for taxi, check in to room, it easier just to drive!!

While there we were required to interview a ton of country stars! Here's how it works. We get up early to do our regular 5 to 9am show to the Inland Empire, then at 10am the stars begin to arrive. Now, we're in this conference room with about 35 other radio stations from across the country. Each artist gets escorted around the room to various stations. When they stop at our table, we get exactly 5 minutes with them.... that includes the interview, picture taking, and autographs. They get escorted away and before you know it, another artists is brought in! This goes on for 4 hours!!

Scott and Tommy left on Tuesday after a second round of interviews. That left me to attend the actual awards show on my own. I had a blast! It's amazing how they put on a live national broadcast for the East Coast. They treat it just like you're watching TV. You're get to watch a video feed while the show is going on... even the commercials!!!!

It was the coolest! Afterwards I was invited to attend an after party thrown by Capitol Records. It was an amazing experience! There was a lot of record star power in this room. I couldn't believe I was there! I finally turned in at about 4:30am!! I set a wake up call at 6:30am so I would be able to call in to K-Frog to give a recap of the show. I don't even remember making that call. Later when I returned to the radio station I listened to my mummbling self back on tape!! WOW I was out of it!!!