Memories of the people who have come and gone from my life and the opportunity to do what I love with the freedom I have been given.
I can't help but think about the Mad Hatter and how much the way he treated me and how that affected these forty years.
Forty years is a long time to be in more or less one spot and means there are some folks you know for a long time. Some are gone and some remain but I think about them and smile.
When 103 went on air we had very little in the record library and we were encouraged to bring in some of our own records which meant we were able to turn people on to what we liked.
Thanks to the Winter Dance Parties we became a place of interest and the Z was a hit. We had ticket giveaways for concerts in Ames, Cedar Falls and Des Moines and organized bus trips to the venues. Local events such as Christmas in July and public appearances in parades were fun.
I was fired more than once from 103 but was able to go to the radio station across town and work for them along with the Record Vault in Mason City.
My friend Dennis let me come to work with him at his store off and on over the years.
A couple of years later the Mad Hatter asked me to come back to the Z guaranteed whatever I wanted to do and the Night Train began.
I worked for the US Post Office in Clear Lake and have lots of memories of that 15 years some I would rather forget.
I was one of those obnoxious callers trying to sell you something for a year or so and in 1995 after Dennis passed away in preparation for the cigar store we were working on opening I went back to the radio at KLSS until 2007 back with 103 the Fox in 2008 until I was fired again in 2015 asked to come back with the Insubordination Train at the end of 2017 and still do that.
I remember the places I have lived in over these 40 years and the neighbors who became friends. Too many have gone some forever, not for better as the song goes.
Looking forward to more memories bad and good in the years ahead.
So for now I feel like I am just a guy who has a really cool job.
