Remembering Back A Little

I came across one of those "blast from the past" photos in my collection. This photo was taken in June, 1998. Just after Charlie Van Dyke was hired to take the baton from the late great Robert W. Morgan, most of the K-Earth staff grew the "Van Dyke" beard and took this photo which appeared in the "Radio and Records" trade magazine. I'm number "15"!!

Sadly all but 2 people in this photo no longer work at there anymore.... it's radio, things change!

#9 - Keith Smith is still the Production Director
#14 - Lynn Duke is now the Chief Engineer. (#1 - Bob Kanner passed a couple of years ago)

Raising Money For The Firestorm!

Here we are on Los Angeles' CBS 2 News raising money for the recent Southern California wildfires!

Are You Opened.... Or Closed???

I found this on Broadway Ave. in Nashville the other week while we were there for the CMA Awards! Just thought I'd share!

Is This Thing On????

So as most of you my know.... I've been producing morning shows for the past 15 years. What's a producer??? A producer is the guy/ gal behind the action of a morning show that acts as a support staff and or ring leader.... often we are the ones that deal with all the behind the scenes junk like scheduling guests, research news stories, help with the shows planning... you get the picture.

Generally the producer is rarely heard on the air and is usually only mentioned when something goes horribly wrong!! Since coming to K-Frog over 2 years ago it was quite apparent that my role as a producer came with a few more perks that my previous gig at K-Earth... For example...

At K-Earth I did get airtime, but it was very minimal and it usually involved explaining something. I always felt blessed and knew that I was doing a job that is wanted by 100's of others across the country. When Gary Bryan came to K-Earth in 2002 he opened up more opportunities for me by giving me more mic time doing stunts and on the street interviews. Lot's of fun!!

When I first came to K-Frog, I knew things were gonna be different. First of all, K-Frog is not a "union" shop, meaning that at K-Earth I was legally not able to be on mic for long periods of time. At the Frog, that doesn't apply. The guys at K-Frog invite me on, allowing me to say funny and silly things and all that good stuff.

The Dream.......

My life long goal since I first walked through the halls of a radio station was to someday get the chance to do a morning show somewhere in this country! Well that dream was finally realized today when I basically was given the keys and the go ahead to host the show.....

Here's how it happened......

Scott and Tommy (The Frogmen), never take vacation at the same time… this is to make sure that one is always on the air if one is away. Scott took his scheduled vacation this week with his family to Arizona. So Tommy has been holding down the show, but his wife is 9 months pregnant, and has been having early contractions for the past week. We all sat and drew up a scenario of what to do if Tommy’s wife went into labor this week. Our emergency “fill-in” guy is also on vacation! So our PD Lee Douglas gave the go ahead for me to wing it if I have to….. (worst case scenario). I figured I’d just put together some sort of “best of” show. Well this morning I woke up with a text message from Tommy indicating that his wife was indeed in labor! I suddenly realized that I was going to have to step in.

It was the strangest feeling in the world to be in the control room by myself. Dona Dower, our traffic reporter, was with me from her studio. She made me feel real relaxed when I should’ve been a nervous wreck! Although we kept the show simple, I did take the time to reflect back at my days back at K-Earth and how the ghost of Robert W. Morgan was yelling at me to “shut up…you’re only on til nine!!!!”

My Dream Has Come True..........

Nashville Day 4 On To Memphis!!!!!!

Right now I'm writing from the 5th floor hotel room right smack dab in the middle of Memphis Tennessee! It's about 8:30pm local time. We left Nashville around noon today... More about that later.... but first and update from last night.......

So my last post ended with me talking about going to one of the nightly concerts at LP Field. This was going to be my wife's test.... I wanted to see her reaction to being at a REAL country concert. Now remember, every attending the concert paid really good money to be there, lots of people came from all over the country to be there! So you know for sure that the crowd is going to be filled with some serious country fans!

We show up at the stadium with Frogman Scott, Tommy was already there. You could hear Trace Adkins singing "Honky Tonk Badonadonk" while we were in the parking lot.... by the time we reached our seats in the nose bleed section, we could barley make out the bands!!! Tommy sent us a text message to let us know that our "media passes" would let us go on the field.... So we hustled down there as quick as we could.

When we got down there "The Wreckers" were performing, we staked our claim near the sound booth. After their set it was time to get some brews and food.... just in time for Deirks Bentley to perform... I like Deirks song "Lot A Leavin' Left To Do" so when he opened up his set with it, I caught myself holding two beers and yelling for Dierks!! My wife thought I was nuts. Scott and Tommy just laughed and took pics..... oh boy!

After Dierks.... Brooks and Dunn took the stage and rocked it hard!!! They're amazing on stage. Ronnie Dunn's voice reverberated from every corner of the arena! It was then that I began to notice my wife dancing and singing along.... Every time a they started another song, I would lean over to tell her the title... she looked back and would say.. "I know... I like it!"

Now the act that I really wanted her to see was Alan Jackson. Why... Because Alan is as country as it gets. If she enjoyed his set, then I think she can be a real fan. She has a blast during his set. I caught her singing "Where I Come From", you know, the "Corn Bread and Chicken" song!!! We left after his set and she was ecstatic!

We walked back to our hotel afterwards and found this bar next door called the "Flying Saucer"... over 100 beers on tap! There we found some great music by a cover band playing everything from Aerosmith to Blondie.

Later it was time to pack, because today.. (Friday) was going to be our last show from Nashville. The show went by fast this morning.. not as many artists stopped by, we did see Emerson Drive who's song "Moments" just hit number one on the charts! Afterwards we had to pack our remote gear up and get out of Dodge!!!

Tennessee Storm!

My wife and I rented a car and began our journey to Memphis about noon local time... It was nice and sunny, hot and humid. About 93 degrees! We headed west on I-40 and after about 10 miles out we could see dark clouds and lightning!!! It kept getting closer and closer and closer!!! Before you knew it we were in the middle of one of the worst downpours I've ever driven in!! My fingers were gripping wheel so hard they started to hurt! After about an hour of that we finally passed the storm.

About 80 miles west of Nashville is the Loretta Lynne Dude Ranch. She runs the place. What a beautiful piece of property...think of the place where "Dirty Dancing" was filmed and Country it up a bit... that's what this place is like. I've read that it's haunted by old civil war soldiers or something... (have to research it more). Before stopping there we ate at her local food joint. Real Southern Cooking!!!! We enjoyed some sweet tea, fried chicken, pork, meat and potatoes and lots of grease!!!!

Mississippi River

Now we're in Memphis... resting right now... later we'll head out have some fun... And then tomorrow we go to Graceland!!!!

Until then.....

JB

Nashville Day 3

TIME FOR HAPPY HOUR!

Ok, so when I last left you hangin' we were just gonna get some rest before happy hour. So let me tell you about that..... Radio people will show up to anything if you just offer free booze and food. That was the case early yesterday evening when we ended up at this joint called "Baileys" on Broadway. For 2 solid hours it was an endless supply of free drinks and bar food. Have you ever been at that party where when they bring out all the food and tell you to go ahead and start eating, NO ONE GETS UP??? That's what happened. My wife and I didn't want to be the first ones up to eat. So we waited.... and waited... and waited! Finally I looked at her and said, "screw this, I'm hungry!" So we got up and before you knew it, half the room followed us to the buffet. One guy leaned over and said, "someone had to crack the seal!!"

So we drank, ate and drank some more and before you knew it, it was indeed "Happy Hour".

Angela and Mike take us out to dinner!

Afterwards, Mrs. Bullfrog and I met up with our friend Angela and her boyfriend for dinner. Angela works at CMT Radio here in Nashville, they supply country music programming and prep services for stations all across the country. They picked us up at our hotel... told us this place was haunted, then drove us out of town for some "real" Tennessee BBQ. We ended up at this place about a mile from downtown, the name escapes me, and ate more food... and drank more booze!! While there we ran into Kellie Pickler's drummer who remembered us from hanging out at the second fiddle the night before...... later we ended up at this place near Vanderbilt University called "Rumba's". We had the best mojitos!!!

This morning was a little rough getting out of bed, but I managed to drag my butt out at 4:45am!!! The cab dropped me off at 5:30 and I swear the line coming out of the convention hall went all the way around the block!! It was a good line up of artists today. We saw the likes of LeAnn Rimes (PICTURED), Troy Gentry, Big and Rich, Jamie Oneal, Rodney Atkins, and Billy Currington. Speaking of Billy, my wife has the biggest crush on him!! I told Scott and Tommy about it and they decided to surprise her on the air and Billy about it! She turned beet red!! He got up and gave her a big ol' country hug!

So later tonight we're heading off to "LP Field", where the Tennessee Titans play, for a nightly concert with Deirks Bentley, Brooks and Dunn, Alan Jackson and a bunch of other acts. I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow!!!

Until then....

Ya'll Come Back!

Billy Currington and Mrs. Bullfrog

Nashville Day 2

OK... The last thing I remember from yesterday was ending up at the Second Fiddle with the boys, and our good friend Megan. She used to work with K-Frog, and now lives out here in Nashville. Good Times!!! Scott, Tommy, my wife and I had a blast at dinner last night. We noticed that Emerson Drive was sitting in the next booth over from us. We decided to crash their party and before you knew it, a lot of fans took noticed and the poor guys had to sign autographs all night.


Oh yeah, at yesterday's orientation we got a one on one with Blake Shelton. He's a very funny guy who likes to joke around. My wife got to take a pic with him and I stood up and represented the station by asking him a question.

Mrs. Bullfrog and Blake Shelton

This morning I had to drag my butt out of bed about 5am. Our broadcast went pretty good, we got to see lots of up coming artists as well as established ones. Sara Evans stopped by and the guys could hardly contain themselves. Later that morning my wife woke up and joined us at the broadcast where she sat and watch a press conference with Reba McEntire.


After a loooonnnngggg morning, we're getting a little rest before we head back out in the hot humid sun. Later this afternoon is a Premiere Radio hosted "Happy Hour" at one of the local bars, can't wait. Afterwards we're gonna meet up with a friend from CMT Radio out here for dinner, drinks, and whatever else comes our way!!


Keep you posted!!!

JB

Nashville Day 1

I’m blogging to you from 35,000 feet above the great state of Texas…

Yes for a moment I put on Pat Green’s “Wave On Wave” and gazed out the window. How cool. This Southwest flight we’re on is booked full, lots of interesting characters on this flight. Mrs. Bullfrog pointed out a guy in a salmon colored coat!!! I mentioned to her that it was just a colored blind Elvis!!

Shortly we’ll be coming up on the Mississippi River and will be crossing over Memphis about an hour away from Nashville. Memphis is where our trip will conclude with a visit to Graceland. It’ll be my second time, but I’m excited because now I can share it with someone special.

Once we land in Nashville, life is gonna move kinda fast. We’ll have to get to our hotel, check in… relax for about 30 minutes, then head on over to the Hotel where we’ll need to pick up our badges and credentials. Then from there we head over to the broadcast center to set up and attend an orientation.

Afterwards, the rest of the team, Scott and Tommy, will arrive. We’ll probably head out for a few drinks and dinner. Along the way of course we’ll meet up with some old and new friends in the business. Tomorrow’s blog will have all the details.

I'm Still Here!!!! Heading To Music City USA!!!!

Boy it's been busy here at the Frog!!! The last couple of month's have been filled with concerts, Vegas and lots of sleepless nights!!!!!

Next week we head to Nashville for the CMA Music Fest (formerly Fan Fair). Can't wait!!! Mrs. Bullfrog will be coming, because at the end of the week we're gonna rent a car and drive to Memphis to visit Graceland!!!

I'll try to post updates while we're there... Until then see all the fun we've been having by checking out: THE FROGMEN PAGE or My MYSPACE PAGE!!!

I Met An Oscar Winner!!!

Happy Birthday to one of the nicest people in showbiz!! Earnest Borgnine!! He just turned 90 and he's still great!!

About 10 years ago, my wife and I attended the taping of "The Single Guy", a sitcom starring Johnathon Silverman on CBS. We were guests of one of the co-stars of that show, the doorman, played by the one and only.... Earnest Borgnine!

He and Robert W. Morgan were buddies and he was a frequent guest of the show. I can't remember the exact details... but from what I can recall, Robert read a TV review about "The Single Guy", then a new sitcom, and the review said something like: "if the show fails it'll be because of Earnest Borgnine!" Robert was livid, he spent the entire show ripping apart this guys review.... got him on the phone and tore him a new one live on the air. He called Borgnine and told him about he review. It was great radio!!!

Shortly after that I wanted to attend a taping of the show. Ernest's assistant Jackie set us up to attend and we had a blast! After the taping of the show I introduced myself to him and told him I worked with Robert. He was pleased to hear about Robert defending him and called him a true friend.

One moment I recall during the taping of the show was during the filming of one scene, Ernie had a punchline that didn't grab the audiences laughter the way he wanted it... they wrote and re-wrote that line until it got the laugh it deserved! A true pro!

Now fast forward a few years later. About 3 years ago, I was in the midst of producing the USO Radiothon for K-Earth 101 and KNX 1070. I was lining up interviews with celebrities who were giving testimonials on why you should donate money to the USO. I decided to call Ernie's assistant to see if he would like to stop by the studio and lay something down for us. After going back and fourth, it was decided that the best thing to do was go to Ernie's house and record the interview!!! Wow!!

Gary Bryan a I drove down to this beautiful humble home south of the Blvd. in the Valley, where we set up shop in his living room. Ernest showed up, sat down and got to business. We only wanted to get a couple of lines from him but we ended up interviewing him for over a 1/2 an hour!! At one point we got to talk about him winning an Academy Award for his role in Marty! He pointed to his entertainment center and said, "there it is... what to hold it??"

It was heavy!!!! I was stoked and will never forget that day!

I was great to see him on TV the other day celebrating his 90th b-day.... he still looks and sounds the way he did ... still full of energy, and still a really nice man!

The Super Bowl Is Coming!!!

Well since my Denver Broncos are not in the Super Bowl this year... Like we reallllllyyyyy had a chance!!! I could really care less about this years game!!

Who will I root for?? Well Indy has in the past ruined some key games for me and I've never really been a fan of them. Also, who wants to root for a team with a quarterback that's posing like this?? (Above Photo) JK!!

This year I took a trip to Chicago on business in August, just as football pre-season was getting started. I saw a lot of Bears stuff all over town. It was obvious that this town loves football. I like a city like that! So I guess I'll root for the Bears!! (see now they'll lose!!)

Now just for kicks... I had a little fun with photoshop today and wondered how Peyton Manning would look in the movie "Brokeback Mountain".

Here you go.......

Peyton's Holding Jake's Gun!!!

Merry Freakin' Christmas!!!

HERE'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU AGREE TO DO A RADIO STUNT AROUND XMAS TIME.

Listeners were asked to stop by and decorate me as a Human Christmas Tree!! It was all for a good cause. You only got to decorate me if you brought by a new unwrapped toy for the Spark of Love Toy Drive!!!

See the lighting ceremony here!!!

Also, find out what happens when a fruitcake meets a 57' Chevy!!! HERE!

Happy Holidays!!!!

JB

Now MySpacing!!!!

I can't believe I cracked to the peer pressure!!! My wife is into it and decided to set me up with an account!! Check it out!!!
www.myspace.com/bullfrogradio

This And That

Well quiet a bit has happened since my last entry. So I'll be brief.......

Thanks to everyone that have been checking out my blog! You never know who's gonna read this stuff until you get feedback. Recently I recieved an e-mail from an old friend in high school who came across my blog while doing a random search for something totally different! Amazing. If there's anyone else out there, don't be afraid to drop me a line..... you can reach me at jeremiahbullfrog@kfrog.net or recplayer@earthlink.net. You know who you are!!

We had a really cool experience the other weekend. Our show was invited to do stage introductions at the "Country Bash" concert at the Verizon Wireless Amplitheater in Irvine. It was a lot of fun, the country fans are great and Phil Vassar rocked! He invited us up on stage with him durning his rendetition of Billy Joel's "Piano Man". That was cool! "Country Bash" was put on anually by our Los Angeles competitor KZLA, who recently changed formats about 2 months ago.

Here's a Video of us being introduced: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6KDSe4aKg8

Remembering September 11th

On the morning of September 11^th 2001, I was producing the “Jim and Joni” show at K-Earth 101 in Los Angeles. I showed up to work that morning one person and went home that day another. Here’s my story:

It was a very routine morning, I woke up, left my house in City Terrace (near East Los Angeles) around 3:30am to arrive at work in Culver City around 4am. We had a very typical show planned for the day, we had a scheduled phone call with Family Feud host Louie Anderson in the 7am hour and the rest of the show was already laid out. Our morning show office had a system of VCR’s that we set to record various TV programs that we can pull audio from. We changed out the tapes from the night before, and loaded the new ones for the morning news programs. My assistant producer Tim arrived at work and later Jim and Joni arrived at the station about 4:30 and we were ready to go at 5! The way the studios were laid out at K-Earth was simple. We had 4 main studios…. A-B-C and D. Studio A was the main broadcast studio, Studio B was a mirrored layout of A and used as a backup / commercial production studio, Studio C was an interview only studio… it only had microphones. Studio D was dedicated to production only. We ran our morning show out of Studio B and C because our PD wanted Jim and Joni in the room together. Tim ran the board out of Studio B and I was in Studio D doing production throughout the morning. All of these studios were side-by-side with windows looking into each one. At about 5:35am we did a segment called “The Joke Of The Day”. It ran as planned, and the rest of that day would change forever.

I was in Studio D, I’m not sure what I was working on at the time but I always made a habit of putting CNN on the TV in the studio. Jim and Joni usually had Channel 2 (CBS) on in their studio because at that time of the morning there was local news. I remember glancing up at the TV and seeing a stationary camera shot of the World Trade Center. I saw smoke coming out of it and the caption below said something like: “Small plane is reported to have hit the World Trade Center”. The first thought that went through my head was the story I read in history about a plane hitting the Empire State Building a long time ago and how it survived. I clicked the intercom and alerted Jim and Joni to look up at my TV. Honestly we really didn’t think anything of it at that moment. I told them I would keep my eye on it to see how big the plane was that hit it, because at the time CNN didn’t know. After about 5 to 10 minutes footage of the crash was starting to appear on all the network channels. We started to read wire reports that this was no small plane, but instead quite possibly a jumbo jet. I told Joni, our news person, that I’d help her track down the facts of the story, so no I was completely focused on the news. I was running back and fourth from the morning show office to the studio with new reports, some suggesting that a hijacked plane may be involved. It was starting to get a little exciting until…………

6:03am I walked into the morning show office… by now all of the channels were covering the burning tower. I, for some reason, decided to look up at the TV just when the 2^nd plane hit the other tower. I saw this huge explosion of fire and could hear the TV anchors speak out in horror of what they’ve just witnessed. “What the heck was that?” I remember one anchor saying. My jaw dropped and I went running full speed to the studio. I opened the door and said something like: “Another plane just hit the towers and I think this is a terrorist attack!! They both looked at me with a stunned expression. What do we do?? The wire services were going crazy. Next thing you know reports were coming in from all over. Lots of unconfirmed reports, I remember one saying something about the Capitol Building being hit. One report came in that mentioned that there was fire at the Pentagon. All this was happening real fast. I made the decision to call Mike Phillips, our PD and ask him for advice. I phoned him and he answered the phone like he had just woken up. “Mike, what do we do??” I asked. “About what?” he said. Oh my god, he had no idea what’s going on! I told him to turn on his TV. He was speechless! Let’s keep and eye on this and tell Jim and Joni to just keep the show simple until we could figure out what’s happening. I ran in and informed the guys what Mike had said.

I don’t know how much time went by but here’s what I can remember about what happened next.

I remember walking into the morning show office, my eyes were fixed to the TV. Jim was watching with me. The next thing I knew I saw what I first thought was another explosion. What the hell is that?? I remember not really thinking anything drastic at first…. The smoke grew larger and larger and the next thing I could make out is that one of the towers was gone!!! I jumped back on the phone with Mike and was direct when I told him that we needed to do something NOW!!! Get me KNX!! (our sister station) I needed to get some reliable sources on our air. One of our Engineers was there and was able to dial into KNX’s ISDN lines and we preceded to put KNX on our air. Mike instructed us to break in with station identifications and time checks. I was hanging out in Studio B with our board op Tim when I began to notice a crowd forming in Studio A. They were in the back of the studio watching news coverage on the TV. Before I knew it, there were more and more sale persons and staff crowing into that studio. We had other TVs in the building and I found it real strange that they all wanted to see the one in the studio.

I casually asked our engineer Lynn why everyone was still in there and he asked me out of the room and in to the hallway. He told me that I was not to tell anyone, but there was a bomb threat across the street at the Department Of Water and Power Sub-Station. He wanted the staff in that studio because it was furthest from the street and built like a bomb shelter. He told us to stay in the studios until they can figure out what to do. By then Mike our PD had arrived. Before I knew it we were being asked to evacuate the building. We put KNX up on the air and walked out of the rear exit of the building. We were taken to the grassy field out back where the KHJ-AM towers and transmitter building were located. Was this safe??? Confused co-workers were arriving to the station and were parking in the grassy field.

Our PD came up to Jim and I and asked us if we wanted to volunteer to go back in the building to continue broadcasting station id’s and updates. We went back in and stayed there for about 15 minutes. How strange, here we were, Jim and I sitting here and wondering what would happen if we heard an explosion. I joked with Jim that I wasn’t going to die listening to KNX. So I loaded “Sleepwalk” by Santo and Johnny and told Jim that the moment I hear a boom I’m pushing this button!!! The next thing that happened is the door opening and our chief engineer gave the order that Jim was to leave the building and that I could stay if I wanted to. I agreed to stay, but did ask for a hard hat and walkie talkie to communicate if anything was to happen. I called my wife and mom and told them what was going on. My wife was angry at me for staying behind but I told her that I needed to do this. My mom was crying on the phone and yelling at me to get out of there, but I reassured her that I was safe……. ( I didn’t really know if I was). After about 20 minutes being left by myself in the studio, I was given the order to evacuate the building. I joined the rest of the staff out back and before I knew it we were given the all clear to return to the building.

I remember wandering around the hall, I wanted to get out of there and get home. By then all air traffic was grounded and the Los Angeles skies were very quiet. I think it was about 2pm that I finally realized that I had nothing else to contribute, so I decided to go home. My trip home was eerie. The freeway was wide open and you couldn’t help but look up at the skyscrapers in downtown L.A. I was gripping my steering wheel the whole way home.

I learned a lot that day, I matured as a producer and matured as a human.

Rattlesnake In My Backyard!

This Rattlesnake was lurking in my patio the other day!

Hangin’ With A Chicago Radio Legend!

So last week I took a business trip to Chicago for this thing called “Morning Show Boot Camp”. For those of you that have never heard of this, here’s what it’s all about. Every year a bunch of Morning Show people from all over the country get together for a few days to share ideas, attend seminars, and do lots of “networking”.

What most of you don’t know is that for the last 8 months I’ve been on a new business venture with my past radio boss, Gary Bryan. Gary does mornings on a “Local” Los Angeles Radio station. I’ve been working with him on this new prep service called “Radio Genius”. What is this you ask?? A prep service is a company that provides daily content to radio stations across the country. For example, it’s kind of like a daily newsletter that contains everything you need to know for that day. Celebrity birthday’s, this day in history, the latest news and gossip and other hot topical stories of the day. Gary and I attended this event to do what we refer to in the biz as “networking”.

One of our partners in this new business venture is a friend of mine David Gilbert. David supplies audio content for our service and I used to work with him in Los Angeles. David is also a former resident and radio employee of the city of Chicago! He came with us. Dave used to work this radio guy named “Fred Winston.” Who is he?? Fred is to the city of Chicago what “Robert W. Morgan” was to the city of Los Angeles. He’s been on the air in Chi-Town for over 30 years! If you’ve seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, then you’ve heard his voice. He’s the opening DJ in the beginning of the movie when Ferris’s alarm clock goes off! Dave told Gary and I that he was trying to get Fred to join us for lunch one day while we were out there. Finally, he was able to make that happen.

It was Friday afternoon; we had just sponsored a tribute to another Chicago radio icon, Steve Dahl. He was the dude that blew up all those disco records at a White Sox game between a double-header. It went down in history as “Disco Demolition”. Afterwards the three of us hailed a cab to the Mother Goose Bar in Wrigleyville. That’s about one block away from Wrigley Field. We were expecting Fred to arrive any minute and proceeded to order a pitcher of beer. After about an hour of nursing our pitcher in walks Fred Winston. He had walked about a mile from his place along the shoreline to this bar and was ready to spend the afternoon with us! “Round of shots!” he yells. Gulp…. “Another one!!! And Another!!! Another pitcher of beer!!” The drinks just kept on comin’!! We shared radio stories and he and Gary seemed to hit it off real great.

At one point we were throwing names of a bunch of other radio legends around the table and the name Charlie Van Dyke came up. “I know him!!” Fred says. “We worked together in the 60’s and 70’s”. I proceeded to bust out my cell phone and it just so happens that I had Charlie’s number on me. Long story short, I worked with Charlie in Los Angeles as well and he was the minister at my wedding. He now lives in the Phoenix area working out a studio doing voiceovers for TV and Radio stations across the country. Well anyways, I called him up and passed the phone over to Fred. He played 20 questions with Charlie until he figured out who he was talking to…… wow another radio reunion!! These two haven’t talked for almost 25 years!

5 shots of tequila and 5 pitchers of beer later we headed out towards Wrigley Field. Wow what a sight!!! There’s a baseball stadium in the middle of a neighborhood!!! Nothing I’ve ever seen before! Fred wandered over to a bar named Yak-zees. It’s located in what would be considered the 3rd base side of the ballpark. Another 3 shots and 2 pitchers of beer later we were walking along Waveland Ave. This is the street in the outfield where all of the home runs land. How different this all looks in person. When we got behind the center field area there was another bar called Murphy’s. It’s on the corner of Waveland and Sheffield Ave. Everyone in that bar knew Fred. He was a regular. 2 more shots and a pitcher of beer later it was time to go!

We proceeded to walk towards the lake. It was about a ½ mile away. We stopped at this little hole in the wall bar and grill to re-hydrate ourselves before heading back to the convention.

Afterwards we finished our walk with Fred to his condo on Chicago’s “Lake Shore Drive”. He hailed us a cab…. We got in… and the rest is history! Wow!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen.... The Heat Goes On!!!!

OK, I’ll be blunt!!! “It’s Freakin’ HOT!!!!!!!”

I moved to the Inland Empire about 4 years ago in a house that was built in the mid 80’s. Well…. The air conditioner that I have at home is the original unit. Every summer since we’ve been here its fizzled out in the worst of heat waves. Well we’re in another heat wave, and you guessed it, it’s fizzled out once again!!! I know…. What a wus right?? Well for those of you keeping score, I spend the majority of my day here at home. I work early hours and I’ll usually home around 1pm.

Try taking a nap in 110 degree heat! Today (Friday) I woke up in a puddle of sweat. I got so frustrated, that I got dressed and went to the Ontario Mills Mall just to cool off! I’m hoping to finally get this sorry air conditioner replaced! Until then… the sweat goes on!!!

My Vacation Timed Just Right For Launch!

I'm totally stoked!! I'm on vacation, I have tivo, and the Space Shuttle Discovery is going into space!! So in case you haven't heard on the show, I'm a total space geek when it comes to the Space Shuttle. I guess it's because the first launch of the Shuttle "Columbia" occurred on my birthday on April 12, 1981! My tivo will be tuned to the NASA channel for the next week or so!

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

Typical Friday night snack!!!