You spelled Laser wrong!

Back to the History of Radio Randy, but I wanted to share this picture of our recent visit to Richmond for Carter's Baptism. Vicky is about half way thru Chemo-Therapy and hanging in there. It's tough and grueling and it is no fun to feel bad most of the time, but we're looking down the road to it being over and hoping for the best.

-----
After getting settle in to life in Charlotte and all the activity at WROQ, things seemed to be shaping up. I felt like a had a pretty good group of people and we were moving along nicely. Then management decided to make a change at the General Manager position. Richard Hinshaw, a long time Q employee and devout rock n roller was let go and they brought in a new guy.

His name was Doug Berle. And yes he was related to Uncle Milty. Yup a real life nephew of Milton Berle. Mr. Berle was in his sixties I would guess and didn't have the slightest idea how to manage a Rock n Roll station. Let alone how to deal with the wide range of personalities we had in building.

He seemed most interested in getting the keys to the company car assigned to the GM and finding good places to have lunch. He certainly wore nice clothes and was very urbane, but at every meeting with him I could feel his disdain for what the station was doing and what we were all about. He immediately began a campaign to get ride of a couple of key people on my staff, including John Kilgo, who did nights and was involved in the promotion department. John was a native of Charlotte and comes from a long line of broadcasters, including his dad Jimmy. Jimmy Kilgo had been the PD of WAYS which was in the same building we were in years ago. His Uncle John had been involved in TV sports for years and hosted the Dean Smith TV show.

John was one of my most valued staff members and remains one of my best friends to this day, so needless to say I fought Berle and won that battle.

I don't want to be too unkind to Doug, but clearly this was a mismatch. We were a street fighting station. We all loved the Rock n Roll heritage of the "Q" and he was most concerned about getting our jocks to wear blazers while doing personal appearances. Blazers? Are you kidding me?

This struggle for control of the "Q" went on for a couple of years. At one point we acquired a new station vehicle and sent it off to get a custom paint job with logos and slogans. At the time CD's were just
beginning to become popular and we were touting the fact that we were the first station in Charlotte to play our music on CD's. We had come up with the slogan: Lazer Rock. We of course added that to the
side of the new Van.

When it came back from the paint shop, we were all in parking lot admiring the paint job, when Doug came out to check it out.

You misspelled Laser he blurted out. Well, Doug, I explained we thought it was  cooler with a Z rather than the S.

Cooler? I think it makes us look stupid he bellowed.

I finally managed to convince him that we should leave it and not get a new paint job. He also gave in
on the "blazers" as well, but for the better part of the next two years I battled Doug to prevent him from
turning the station into a wimpy easy listening radio station.

He actually became sort of detached and just stayed in his office most of the time. He never came
to station events, but always claimed to have "driven by" and "seen the crowd" at big Q events.

Despite Mr. Berle I had assembled a really good team during the time period. We brought in Ray Mariner to team with Dwayne Ward in the morning, with Veteran Newsman Frank Lasseter. Jeff Baker had come on board as production director and he did 9 to noon on the air. Blaine Kellis followed, doing noon to four pm. I did 4 to 7 and John Kilgo handled 7 to midnight and Kent Layton did the overnight shift.

As a group we became close and endured a lot, but had a lot of fun as well. Some of my best memories and best friends came out of the "Q" experience.

Next time some other highlights from the "Q" years.

The Worst phone call ever!

It's been a while since I've updated the story. If you have been following along you know that we had taken the story into the mid 80's and our adventures at 95Q in Charlotte.

I'm going to jump into the future for this next episode and I think it will be evident, as to why I haven't updated lately.

Summer 2011.
We arrived back in Greensboro in mid July after our family beach vacation. We had spend the week in a beachfront home in Kure beach. We had a wonderful time with Dan and Erin and Sean, plus the unborn Carter, plus Jenn. We had already decided to book the same house for next July.

Vicky had been struggling with asthma the past year and once back from the beach her symptom's fired up and she ended up on steroids on and off for a couple of months. She would just finish each course of steroids and feel better for a couple of weeks and then another attack. Finally in October her attack was severe enough for her Dr. to write her our of work for a few weeks.

She rested up at home and did improve somewhat. During that time she decided to get some doctor's appointments out of the way. She also thought she might as well get a mammogram.

A few days after that procedure the imaging center called and wanted her to come back in for some more imaging. They determined there was an area of concern and wanted to do a biopsy. While a bit scary, we've have been thru this before. Vicky has had a number of "area's of concern since she was in her early 30's. She has even had a couple of previous "lumpectomies". Each previous time
the test proved benign.

On November 4th our world changed forever. We were expecting Biopsy results and of course we were nervous, but tried to remain optimistic. I had gone to work that morning to catch up, but about 11:30 I started thinking I had best go home, in case Vicky got bad news on the phone.

When I arrived home she had not gotten any calls yet and we settled in for a wait. A few minutes later Jenn showed up, I think because she had the same feeling. In my heart I knew it was going
to be bad, I just had a terrible feeling.

About 15 minutes later our Radiologist called and confirmed, that Vicky did indeed have breast cancer. I grabbed another phone and listened as Vicky quietly sobbed and Jenn looked on in
disbelief. We spoke with the doctor for about 20 minutes as she began to lay out what the next step would be. She was very supportive and seemed confident that the ultimate outcome would be good.

When we hung up, Jenn embrace her mom and they cried together. I tried to say something encouraging, but all I could get out was "I sure it's gonna be OK".

We sat in silence for a few minutes and then I decided it was time to call Erin in Richmond. I went to the bedroom to call because I didn't think I could have that conversation in front of Vicky without losing it. When Erin picked up I simply said "she has breast cancer". Erin said, we're on our way, I love you.

After I hung up I went to pieces....Jenn came into the bedroom and hugged me. I didn't want Vicky
to see me like that, so I waited for a while before going back out.

At that point we were thinking it would be a lumpectomy and some radiation. But of course things got much more complicated along the way. Upon further examination and more testing and imaging they found more cancer in the left side, which meant a mastectomy. Then following genetic testing
it was determined that Vicky carries a gene mutation that makes cancer more likely, quite dramatically more likely in fact.

On a subsequent trip to the oncologist she suggested a bi lateral or double mastectomy. At that point we were a bit unprepared for that option and Vicky was really shaken.

It soon became clear that the double mastectomy had to be done. Followed by Chemo therapy. The surgery was scheduled for December 15th.

Vicky's mom and dad arrived the night before surgery and were there all day on the 15th. Surgery was longer than we expected due to the removal of lymph nodes on the left side, but she came thru it fine, despite
concerns about possible complications with asthma.

Vicky came home two days later, Dan Erin and Kids arrived and in one of the most touching things I've very seen, Sean wanted to hang out with Vicky in our master bedroom and watch movies. He knew she was fragile, but insisted that he sit on the bed with her and hold her hand while they watched movies. What a sensitive and bright 3 and a half year old. It was the best medicine Vicky could have received.

Christmas around our house is always an event. We all love the season and have many traditions we follow each year. Vicky had made sure that all the preparations were all made prior to her surgery. We had done all the shopping, put up all the decorations and made plans for the family to visit.

My mom and dad arrived as usual the day before Christmas Eve. Dan and Erin and the kids arrived as well and we proceeded with most of our normal Christmas traditions including our home made gift exchange. We had a wonderful, albeit, subdued Christmas.

Vicky's co workers certainly played a big part in our Holiday season. They organized and sent food to the house every day from the day Vicky came home from surgery to the end of the year. They sent a catered meal to us for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Honestly it was overwhelming and with each delivery
Vicky became very emotional. She just couldn't understand what we all know to be true: Everyone loves her.

As she continued to rebab from the surgery we began to discuss the implications of the Gene mutation she carries and ultimately decided to remove the Lymph nodes on the right side as well. That Surgery was on January 21st and just involved an overnight stay.

These nodes tested negative, which we took as good news. Plus a recent PET full body scan had come up
negative, regarding the potential for the spread of cancer cells. So with our Oncologists blessing we pronounced her Cancer Free. Now the Chemo-therapy remains to "clean up" as our Oncologist put it.

I don't want to minimize the short term discomfort Vicky is going to be in with Chemo and her loss of some use of her arms, due to the Lymph node surgery, but we can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel.

It has been a journey of discovery for me. Here is what I've learned:
My wife is extremely tough and determined.
Our kids will do anything for her.
Our extended family is very supportive.
Her and my co workers went well above and beyond to support us.
and finally, that while I was scared to death that I might face a future without her, I now know that my best friend and wife will be by my side for the rest of my life.

Ok, next time back to the History of Radiorandy with another exciting chapter of our Charlotte adventure.

The Hippies Next Door.

We moved into our new house in Charlotte on Labor Day weekend 1987. Vicky and I still talk about how exciting it was to finally own our own home. Our intentions had been to rent for a while, but we couldn't pass up the deal we got on our place.

2119 Heather Glen lane would be our home for the next 5 years and little did we know the kind of
adventures we would have in the neighborhood.

The Heather Glen development was about 50 percent complete so there were lots of places in various stages of completion. In fact we bought our place when it was just in the dry wall phase. Vicky flew down one weekend in June and we got to pick out colors carpet fixtures and counter tops.

After moving in our stuff that had been in storage all summer we settled into life in our little cul de sac. Most of the homes around us were empty but by mid fall they were starting to fill up. We met our neighbor across the street. His name was Rickey and he was a teacher and really nice guy.

Then one fall afternoon Vicky was watching things out the window as she often does, and she whispered, Ran, come here, look. Out the window I saw a couple walking around the house next door. Vicky said, I think they might be hippies. I looked again and noticed that the guy had shoulder length hair and a beard and the woman was petite with long dark hair.

Not long after that Danny, Sherry, Ginny and Wally moved in. Danny and Sherry Graves, and their two dogs Ginny and Wally. Ginny was the small yappy type and Big Wall was a large yellow dog we came to love over the next few years.

In fact we came to love them all. They became our best friends and the best neighbors we've ever had. They spent holidays with us and they adopted our kids and often took Jennifer out to dinner with them on Friday nights.

When Sherry had a baby boy Kevin, Vicky watched him during the day when she went back to work. Danny became my radio historian. He had been around Charlotte radio and paid attention to what was happening with the Q. So we had long talks over our fence in the backyard about radio.

We always included Danny and Sherry in our kids birthday celebrations and they did the same with Kevin.

It was great to have friends next door. Especially when Hurricane Hugo came knocking. It was a huge storm as you remember and slammed into Charleston a full Category 4 hurricane. All the week the talk had been that once it came ashore it would weaken as most storms do. That it would bring us rain and some wind, but that Charleston was going to take the brunt of the storm. With Charlotte being a couple hundred miles inland we did what anybody would do. The Q threw a hurricane party at a club called The Cellar.

We were enjoying Hurricane drinks at the club while Hugo slammed into the coast. Little did we know that the storm would hit Charlotte with 100 mph winds and the full fury of a hurricane.

At three AM my Rusty, my overnight jock called the house. I woke with a start and immediately heard what sounded like a freight train bearing down on us. Rusty was shouting, the power is off.....the wind is blowing like crazy and every time I throw the breaker switch to start the generator sparks fly off it.
Don't do that anymore I told him. I'll be right there.

I got up and got dressed, by this time the kids were awake and in bed with Vicky. I was still not really making the connection that this was Hugo. I left for the station and the wind and rain and Vicky and the kids ended up going next door to stay with Danny and Sherry.

As I drove up I 85 toward the station I was the lone idiot on the road. What I did not know is that the center of the storm was approaching and it was still a full blown hurricane. At one point the wind blew my Firebird from one lane of the interstate to another. As I turned onto radio road to head out the station I could see the tower field for Big Ways. It was a 5 tower array but I was only counting four towers.

I got to the station and the engineers were on-stite and they had the generator up and running. We got the station back on the air. Dwayne showed up but no Ray (Ray Mariner). Not too long after we got back on Ray called. He had been standing in his kitchen drinking coffee while his car warmed up. He stood watching as a huge tree came down. It landed on both his car and his wife's care. I guess I need someone to pick me up he said.

Charlotte was destroyed. Trees down everywhere, not power anywhere. No water, no ice. I'm proud to say our neighborhood really pulled together. We pooled our resources, like gas grills and ice and cooked community meals at night and shared our hurricane stories.

One night we were at Danny and Sherry's playing Trivial pursuit by candlelight in their dinning room. ?The kids were all in the living room playing games as well. Erin was 8 at that time and she came into the room and said, I hear noises next door. The house on the other side of Danny's was the home of a pilot and he was gone a lot.

Danny went out the back door, pistol in hand and I went of the front door. I was wearing a T shirt shorts and no shoes. We both saw a car backed up the front door of the pilot'sfhouse and a couple guys wrestling a TV out the door. Danny shouted at them as he came around to the front of the house and they dropped the TV and jumped into their car. I began running back toward my house and Danny followed. My Firebird I shouted and he nodded. As we approached the car I stepped into a hole on the lawn and broke my big toe on  the left foot. Grimacing in pain I jumped into the car and fired it up.Danny got in wielding his pistol. We tore off after the car. It's probably just as well that we couldn't find them. I'm not sure what we would have done if we had caught them.

Here's a tip. If you go thruough a hurricane, lose power and want to get the power back on, here is what you do. Buy some type of expensive item that helps you cope with being out of power and the power comes back on.

After ten days of now power, no TV, cooking on Gas grills and no A/C I was ready for some Football. I was determined to see Monday night football, so I bough a battery operated TV. It was like 300 dollars and used 8 D batteries. I set it up in the living room on a TV tray and watched Monday night football. The Power came on the next day.

Hugo is just one of many example of the great times we had living in the cul de sac on Heather Glen lane. And while they didn't turn out to be hippies, Danny and Sherry and eventually their son Kevin became a very big part of our lives. Something Vicky and I talk about often.

We still really miss the Hippies next door.

The Summer of Dwayne

Thump, we hit another curb as we turned right. I didn't say anything but it was the second time we had
bounced over the curb while making a right hand turn. We we're cruising the streets of Myrtle Beach. Dwayne was giving me the tour. It was July of 1987 and he had convinced me that we need to hit
Myrtle Beach for the weekend and I had agreed. Earlier in the evening we had met some of Dwayne's beach buddies and hit a few nightspots. By the time we were  bumping curbs we were headed to one of D's friends condos to spend the night.

By this time Dwayne had indeed become the music director for WROQ. He had pursued the job daily. He was in my office with ideas for which new songs made sense for the station. He talked to everyone around the country about music. Remember, this was pre email, pre internet. Dwayne worked the phones like a crazy person.

Dwayne's background up to that point had been in radio news. He grew up in Boone NC and graduated from Appalachian State. He eventually ended up at WKZQ in Myrtle Beach as a news anchor and reporter. Dwayne was at once fearless and tenacious in almost any situation. He chased hurricanes, went undercover with the sheriff's department on a drug bust and interviewed everyone you can imagine. He won several South Carolina news awards from the Associated Press and others.

What I saw in Dwayne was that same unending pursuit. Only now he was in pursuit of great songs and information about those songs and artists. We spent a great deal of time together I got settled in. While his mountain upbringing had instilled a certain hillbilly aspect to his nature, he was also one of the most intelligent individuals I ever encountered. He was fluent in all important subjects. From politics to pop culture. He was also witty, charming to a fault and in the right circumstances a complete Southern Gentleman. I like Dwayne right away. I mean, other than his Jed Clampett walk and his George Jetson hair cut what was not to like.

So, I made a decision. Why not give this guy a chance. He was so passionate about it. He also saw a dead end in the news side of the business. So I went to the General manager and told him I wanted to move Dwayne out of news to become my music director. OK, he said, what air shift will he do?
Well, he's not really gonna do an air shift, just be music director. An off air music director? The GM was dumbfounded. I'll admit, it was unheard of. But, I figured I was doing 3-7 on the radio plus being the PD for WROQ and operations manger over our AM station Big WAYS and I could use the help. Finally he agreed, but told me, you have to tell Lassister.

Frank Lassister was the news director. A veteran broadcaster to be sure. Golden throated and well traveled,  Frank was not happy about losing his street reporter and fill in person to be a God Damn music director. But I managed to convince him that it would be good for the station, and that Dwayne could still fill in for him when need be.

I'm sure Frank was not alone in wondering what the hell I was up to. Mostly I recognized Dwayne's talent. But I was also looking for an ally. Someone to bounce ideas off and to help me make the station better.

With Vicky and the girls still in NY waiting for our new house to be ready, Dwayne and I spent a lot of time together. We worked long hours and often went out to dinner to plan and scheme. Dwayne was a natural born strategist and loved game playing and crafting attacks and counter attacks on our competition.

To some extent snaring the MD job at the Q full filled a dream of Dwayne's. Having grown up in Boone he had listened to the station for many years. It really was his dream job. Dwayne also brought a lot of Swagger to the station. Confidence. It was infectious. He loved being at the Q and over the years he gave his heart and soul to the station and his co-workers, no not co-workers, friends.

Over the  years Dwayne became well know all over the country by radio and record people alike. When a special version of a new song came out..Dwayne would have a copy the next day. Overnighted by one of his friends. When information about an artist broke, Dwayne was on the case. When a new format trend developed in other markets, Dwayne had the info.

All I had to do really was challenge him. Whatever the challenge was, he wouldn't sleep until he had accomplished something great.

One of my favorite Dwayne stories involved the release of Madonna's song Vouge. We had received word from the label that they were shipping us a copy of the new single over night. It would be arriving the next day. Dwayne came to me with this info at about 9 am. I mused, sure would be nice
if we could get a copy and hit the air with it before 107.9 wouldn't it?

Dwayne smiled. What if I told you I could get a copy of Vouge by 8 tomorrow morning? Well, I said Fed ex doesn't get here until 10 or after so how can you do it?

So in an effort to out-do the competition we hit the air that morning at 11 with a promo that guaranteed the Q would have the new Madonna single before anyone else. We would play it at 8am the next morning and then every 95 minutes all day.

The next morning I'm driving to work. It's about 8 and I hear my morning guys making a fuss over Dwayne bursting into the studio with a special delivery. Yup within seconds Vouge was blasting through my speakers. I flipped over the competition. No mention of Vouge.

Dwayne was waiting in my office when I got to the station. OK I said, how did you do it. After a few moments of his patented giggle he shook my hand and said, it pays to make friends with guys who work at the Fed ex counter at the Airport. Dwayne had gone to the airport and picked up the package at 5 am, rather than wait for the regular delivery to the station. Brilliant.

As he walked out of my office he tossed another package to me. It was addressed to WBCY.
Dwayne grinned and said, the guy at Fed Ex said, hey, since your picking this up for the radio station will you deliver this one to?

Sure Dwayne told him. We didn't hear Vouge on the competition for another 24 hours.

That kind of planning was typical of Dwayne and over the years we had many more adventures just like that one. Dwayne became a frequent guest in my home and got to know Vicky and the girls and we enjoyed 4 and a half years of friendship and fun at the Q.

We all eventually went our separate ways, but stayed in touch. Dwayne went to the West coast to work for a trade magazine and to terrorize L.A.

Just before Christmas that next year I got a call from Dwayne. He said that he was going to be back in North Carolina for the holidays and we should get together. We did just that along with John Kilgo and Ray Mariner, two more of our Q compatriots. We gathered in North Myrtle beach at Kilgo's family's beach house. We spent the weekend re-living our great times in Charlotte, telling stories and promising that we would keep in touch and keep getting together every year.

We did just that. That gathering was named "the Kilgo conclave".
For the next 15 years the four of us would gather around the holidays for the Conclave. After that first year other folks began to join us. Some years we would gather at the Beach. Some years in the Mountains. I think the reason we felt the way we did was Dwayne. He was the hub we all revolved around.

We stopped doing the Conclave three or four years ago, I've lost count. Too many conflicts, family commitments and so on for us to be able to find a weekend that worked for everyone. At the last conclave  as we always did, at some point in the weekend we spent some time alone remembering the glory days at the Q. Dwayne never failed to thank me for giving him that opportunity all those years ago to get out of news and into music. It turned out to be his calling. After radio, and the LA magazine experience Dwayne entered the world of Record promotion, working for several different labels. He was masterful at it.

My friend Dwayne died last fall. He was just 49. Most of the Conclave group reunited at his funeral in Boone.

Several years after the curb bumping in Myrtle Beach Dwayne mentioned it to me. He said, man I shouldn't have been driving, but I didn't want to admit that to you and I was nervous cause I was driving my new boss around. I was hoping you didn't notice.

Notice what? I said.

Next time:The Hippies next door.

Life in the fast lane part 1

One of the most important things I've learned in 35 years of radio, is that people are the most important resource we have in the business. They tend to be quirky, introverted, passionate and ego-centric. Those are not bad qualities to have when you spend you days sitting in a room along pretending that you are talking to people. That's what it's like to be on the radio. You sit there, playing songs and talking to no one. Being an introvert helps and a very high percentage of on air folks have that quality in spades. Most are more comfortable in front of a microphone that a group of people. On the other hand, when you put a microphone in front of most anybody else they act like it's a rattlesnake and recoil.

Anyway, the experiences I've had are wonderful but the people I've met on this journey have made it really special. Up to this point in the story I had already encountered some very memorable characters, but in Charlotte that went to a whole new level.

All of us have times in our life that we cherish and look back upon fondly. For many it's High School or College. For some it's the military experience. I have great memories from all of those times, but my time in
radio is even more special. Charlotte in particular stands out because the the incredible cast of characters I encountered at WROQ as well as the folks who became our neighbors. It will take me a few chapters to
re-live the rich experience we all had while in Charlotte.

--
It was May of 1987 when I crossed into North Carolina on I 77. I stopped at the rest area at Fancy Gap to take a breather and admire the view. I had been driving for a few hours from Woodstock Virginia. I  had stopped over there to see my old Air Force friend and roommate Martin French. The day before I had driven from N.Y. about a six hour drive. Vicky had given me a wonderful send-off: A surprise going away party in our backyard in Waterloo. Friends and former co-workers showed up for the party, some I hadn't seen in quite some time. She managed to arrange the whole thing complete with a large tent in the backyard without me suspecting a thing.

Up to this point in the trip I had been reflecting on the party and saying goodbye to Vicky and girls for a while. I'll admit there were some teary miles along the way. But as I got back into the car after a brief rest at Fancy Gap I started thinking about what I was traveling toward. I flipped on the radio as I got back on
the interstate and tuned in 95.1. The Q came blasting in. After about 30 minutes I thought to myself, wow!
The station sounded great. One of  my first thoughts was, yikes, what have I gotten myself into? Am I ready for this? This is really a big time sounding radio station.

I've found that over the years, each time I have gone to a new station I have the same reaction when driving into town for the first time to take over as the Program director. But in all cases I've  figured it out and went on to be successful at each turn.

I arrived in Charlotte in the early evening on a Sunday night. The station had set me up at a Hampton Inn for a month so I could get settled. I checked in and started planning my first day at the station which would begin early on Monday morning.

It turned out to be a typical first day experience. I spent time with the General Manager and the Corporate programmer who had hired me. I met with the staff and moved into my office. What cool digs, the office was a glassed in office with a private bathroom, a first for me. We spent some time strategizing on the direction of the station and then I settled in for put my plan together.

Here is where one of the most memorable characters entered my life. He was hanging just outside my office door and had been for quite some time. I finally motioned for him to come in.

He shook my hand and said with his amazing baritone voice, Hey, I'm Dwayne Ward. I remembered that
he worked in the news department as a street reporter and fill in anchor on the morning show when our Lead anchor was out.

We both sat down and Dwayne handed me several CD's. These are some tunes I think we should look at to add to the play list he said. I took the CD's and replied, uh, don't you work in the news department?
Yup, he said, but I'm going to be your music director.

With that he got up and walked out.

Next time: The Summer of Dwayne.

Summer Hiatis is over....

Ok, so I sort of took the summer off from the blog and History of Radiorandy.

In case you just found this, there are chapters done that start in, well the beginning when as a kid
I dreamed about being on the radio. You can catch up on the story be scrolling down thru the early posts.

The story is complete through 1986 which takes us up to our pending move to Charlotte and
the incredible days at WROQ.

Several Chapters about our time in Charlotte are ready to go and I will post them over the next few days.

Thanks.
RCB

IT WAS LIKE WORKING IN A BANK

So it's 1986. My radio career is about 8 years old. So far I've broadcast from a corn field, been shot at, cleaned up dirty beer glasses and found a mentor. For details, you can read the previous posts.

Anyway after almost 4 years at CQ 102 in Geneva under the tutelage of David Weinfeld, I was starting to feel like it was time to pursue larger market opportunities. We had a great team at CQ and did a lot
of wonderful things and pretty good radio I think, but I had certainly maxed out in terms of compensation.

In the late summer that year I got a call from John Elliot at WVOR in Rochester. Said he wanted to meet with me. Said they had had their eye on me for some time. He was aware that I was station manager by now at CQ and continued to do weekends at WPXY in Rochester.

I wend to Rochester to meet with him and the station GM who was also part owner and a Rochester broadcasting legend: Jack Palvino.

In the meeting they laid out a plan to bring my on board to do afternoons and to be a "PD in training". In other words, eventually, if I played my cards right, they would promote me to PD. The money was pretty good and WVOR was one of the top stations in Rochester. So after a discussion with Vicky I Took the gig.

It was like the best and worst of radio. The studios were located on the 17th floor of a downtown office building, the pent house actually. Beautiful. In the control there were floor to ceiling windows that allowed a view of the entire city. All the best equipment. It really was an incredible layout for a radio station. The best I'd every seen. We had our own traffic helicopter and each afternoon on his way out to report traffic, he would fly by my window and wave to me.

On the other hand these guys were so pretentious and full of themselves that it was insufferable. White shirts, slacks and ties was the dress code. Hushed tones in the common area's of the station. Lots of closed door
meetings. It really was like working in a bank.

I settled into the afternoon drive show and tried to get involved in programming stuff but Elliot basically shut me out. I found a small storage area in the engineering area that had a desk and phone and set up camp, since no office seemed to be in the works for me.

To make matters worse, after investigating the housing situation in Rochester we found it to be way out of
our price range to move anywhere near the city. So we stayed in Waterloo and I had an hour drive each to work every day. Plus parking was in the deck under the building and it was 5 dollars a day. Doesn't seem like much now, but between the cost of driving and the daily parking most of my pay increase was eaten up.

I learned a valuable lesson about checking out the economics of the situation before jumping into another market.

After a couple of months of the freeze out, the drive, the parking expense and the white shirt and tie routine I was miserable.

All the other jocks were nice, but most were older and had settled into doing their air shifts and going home. Most of them had other incomes of some sort. So there was no real team feeling. No fun. No radio station stuff.

I could see what these guys wanted. They wanted you to commit for life essentially and maybe eventually you might get a promotion, or more money, but don't count on it. To them the prestige of working there was
supposed to be enough.

Well, not for me.The only upside was that my ratings in afternoon drive were great.

I tried my best to get involved in programming stuff, but the door kept slamming in my face and I began to think about bolting. I knew of course that it had to be something good, so I started looking around.

Then, lo and behold, a familiar voice on the phone.

Hey, I just picked up a client station in Charlotte NC and we need a PD. It's a hot rockin' flame throwin' top 40 station. It was Gary Burns, David's close friend and radio consultant who had come to CQ to rob our talent bank for the launch of PXY.

Look, he said, fly down to Charlotte this weekend and we'll talk with the corporate PD. The job was actually Operations manager for WROQ and Big Ways and AM/FM combo in Charlotte.

I flew down, had a great meeting with Gary and Neil Newman who was the corporate PD for the company that had just purchased the stations from Stan and Sis Kaplan.

I guess it was a good meeting, cause they offered me the job on the spot. Then it was time to talk money.
Gary asked what I was making in Rochester and without blinking said, OK we'll double that.

Wow, a real life Rock n Roll station, 100,000 Watt Flamethrower with legendary call letters, an exciting city and twice what I was making. I asked Gary if I had to wear a white shirt and tie, he just laughed at me. That sealed it.

At the airport I called Vicky with the news. Double what you were making? She asked. Yes I said and I've already taken a look at housing and we can certainly buy a house.

I could have flown home without the plane.

Monday morning I gave my well dressed friends at WVOR my two weeks notice. They went berserk.

It was two of the best weeks of my life.

Next time: Life in the fast lane.