Radio Flyers

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100_3087.JPGTime to dish the plastic dirt. Why would I keep what looks like two paper plate holders?  You know it's just me setting up another joke for something nobody in their right mind would ever keep. These "plate holders" can indeed be used as plate holders, but I think most that we've ever bought were woven to let air get to your plate when it gets sloppy. I remember mom had a nice set of 4 multi colored wicker woven plate holders. They were pretty nice, but not really sanitary because of all the little folds to hold crumbs and fried chicken grease. When I first moved out on my own, I bought two complete settings at my local dollar store. Big pasta bowls, small cereal bowls,  main plates and small plates. I also bought some plastic bottoms for paper plates and a 500 count paper plate bundle. I also got about 8 forks and spoons and a few knives. I was all set. I figured most of what I ate would come from the three pots I bought and not need a bunch of other stuff. Up until that point, I'd been using my room mate's eatin' junk. Now I was on my own in a cracker box in Toledo.  Turns out, I didn't have very many picnics and I wasn't entertaining 10 people, so I just washed my dishes and avoid paper plates to this day. That is, except at Boomers house where I just bought Boomer a few salad bowls so he has a complete set. Likewise, he was like me in Toledo. Just didn't see the need for more.  Now I have more dishes, but that means I leave dirty dishes in the sink. Mom's only been over a few times....

100_3086.JPGThere we are. Get it? The title? See? Flying discs! See? Radio station logos! See? See? I made a funny there! Gotta be better than half the jokes I make on this blog. Yes, more cheap radio promo crap. I had a few more of these but I think I gave them away or I have them lurking elsewhere. They are the BIG buttons in my button box. No pins. Great exercise if you have a friend to toss it with. I would say toss it to a dog but cheap flying discs like this are supposed to be bad for mutts. That's what I heard. Besides, who wants all those teeth marks in it? It would whistle when I throw 'em.

Well, the first one I got from WIOT. Another perk of the gig. I think I did get one with the new logo on it as well in black and red. It didn't say it was Toledo's Home Of Klinger's Douche. It just said "DOUCHE". Ahhh, if you lived in Toledo, you knew who we were.

The other disk is a storied one. Wanna hear it? Here it goes. The guy I used to run the show for at 3WE and the first one to put my wacky bits on the air and encourage me to do more and "keep 'em short" was Jaz McKay. He did a very funny talk show, was a Dead Head before I knew it was more than a a sticker on a Cadillac. (It's one of Adam Carolla's all time worst songs.) It was the first and only time I thought about quitting a radio gig when he was fired. I wanted to follow him, like Fred Norris to Howard Stern. It wasn't to be and he knew better. Thankfully I got more chops and worked my way to the mid-day comedy producer and bottle washer job with two old time radio pros, Jeff and Flash.

When the job offer to step away from the board and be a "producer" and get benefits and a really tiny salary (but more than I was making) in Toledo, I took the gig. I was working with a morning show with a history in Toledo. Two more radio pros, Jeff and Mark. Four months after I got there, the winds of change blew in and the writing was on the wall. (Clearchannel, IT IS ALIIIIIVEEE!)  It took a year and two months before myself, my boss and the midday guy were canned.  Six weeks later the rest of my morning show team was broomed and a shiny new satellite dish beamed Indiana's "Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha" morning show saving the station  about 16 bucks.

In the time I was there, Jaz McKay had gone back to where he had huge success. East Lansing, Michigan. Hey, if you're going to be going from an apartment in Parma, Oh where the neighbors could expire at any time to being #1 DJ in a small market, jump at it. I would. Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller? He had the "He's Back" billboards and I think had his head pasted on a model's body with a hat over the bits. So, one week during the only vacation I took, I went up there to watch him doing his show. They had an amazing industrial 500 disc or so manual changer system that was computer controlled. It was very mechanical but hey, it was 1996 and MIDIs (files of syntho pop songs) was all you could get for your 100MHZ home computer. His morning show used the manual method. It was great to see Jaz in his element again and in such a short time.

Before I got broomed, I think he got broomed. Something about a FCC fine and then the radio station got "flagged" by the ratings book people . (Bad Ju-Ju) We lost touch when I moved to Louisville but he's working in the great state of CA in Bakersfield. You know it's him as from WIKI he calls his show "The Jaz McKay Radio Extravaganza."  Jaz has the street cred for working a tour at a GUAM radio station. (They fly you down, pay you well, then when you are fired, if you didn't save the $1800 in 1980's cash to get off the island, you were stuck.)  When the idea of putting a show that I did in REAL AUDIO format on a 100MHZ computer on borrowed space from a friend, I thought the NET was the new GUAM.  Could be worse, I could be "on the beach"  (no radio gig at all and working in the insurance industry.) *COUGH* *COUGH*

Oh yeah, "Buzz 95" was his East Lansing station. See? THAT'S why I keep this junk. It reminds me of GOOD ol' BAD ol' times.

-Ric