Down..But Not Out
After being fired in Miami, I went to work in the beautiful town of Ocala, Florida. Everywhere I looked, nothing but beautiful horses, lots of room, and, a station that called itself- Z93 FLAME THROWING HITS’! (I’m not kidding. Now, when I think of this, I think Taco Bell. Get it?) I tried to make the best of a bad situation, but the boss at Z93 was at times, insane. I have to be honest here. One day he called an emergency meeting, and in addition to all the other duties we performed everyday, he wanted us to sweep the floor and clean the bathrooms. Made the staff follow him up and down the halls looking at every dirt mark on the carpeting. “Look, damnit! There’s another one!” I have no problem with manual labor, never did. However, all this guy wanted to do was save a buck by having his air personalities do it. Would you like to see my reaction?
Quite a culture shock, I’m not making very much money, but I had my sons with me, after five months and an incredible amount of money in legal fees, and that’s all that really mattered. This was, to put it mildly, the worst time of my life. I thought I had reached rock bottom. Living in an almost condemned house to offset my legal fees that was full of rats and staying up late at night to listen to the stories of my landlord. You see, (I’ll call him ‘Dan’, because if I revealed his real name, he might hunt me down and kill me!) Dan had a very secretive past with the United States Army and was well versed in the term ‘covert operations’. Dan would regale me with some incredible war stories over candlelight and Old Milwaukee, and a bond developed between us that lasts until this day. I’ve not seen him since that time, but I am sure that if we ran into each other again, we’d pick up right where we left off. I think of his friendship often, as I do the family that helped me rebuild my ‘Bug’ and kept me going with encouragement and a decent meal occasionally. Did I want the divorce to be adversarial? No, and this is important here. If you are facing this type of crisis, put your own feelings aside and make sure that the children have access to the other parent. Trust me on this. It’s the right thing to do. Did I love those boys? You be the judge. I would get off the air at ten a.m., begin driving (in a stripped down, more powerful version of my ‘Bug’-that’s right, we removed the seats and tricked out the engine) to Virginia and arrived there almost twelve hours later. I would spend the weekend, only to leave them again on Sunday at four p.m. and back on the air that Monday morning at five thirty. As I look back, it’s good that the boys and I were in a quiet area. It gave us all a chance to heal. Yep! I was a single father for a few years. It’s quite a balancing act to raise three boys, do morning radio, wash the clothes, cook dinner, and attempt to be happy all the time. You single parents who are reading this–BOY HOWDY–I can relate! My heart is with you. It was a very difficult time but I’ve lived my life always looking for the positive and out of this experience my boys and I became wiser, stronger and closer. I had my ‘Bug’ and 2500.00 dollars. What else could I ask for? I’ll tell you what! A job offer from WLS! Ric Lippincott was the boss there, and if I read him right, I came this close. Well hell, I can dream can’t I? I do get a call, and the Program Director wants me to come to Phoenix, and play Country Music! Country Music? Are they still crying in their beer? Isn’t that stuff twangy? I had a million questions. Don’t the people there put cow bones in their yards as decoration? Doesn’t the devil walk down Main Street at high noon because it’s so hot? How’s this going to play out? Let’s take a cross country trip and find out next!
As you’ve just read, this was not the brightest time in my life, except when I could meet beautiful people like these. Special Olympics…
Hello Phoenix!
Sandy and I had gotten married and we headed to ‘The Valley Of The Sun’. She’s pregnant, we already have three teenagers and three flat tires later we roll into Phoenix. After some initial fear, I found I liked country music. A lot! Garth was just coming into his own and KMLE/PHOENIX let me have some fun along with my partner, Bill Taylor, probably one of THE most talented voice artists I have ever known. He sounded more like George Bush than George himself. Uncanny. I can’t let this segment pass without mentioning Bob Glasco, my boss, and J.D. Freeman, his boss. Two real pros, and they were smart enough to give this rock and roll personality a shot. Thank you both. At KMLE, it was a five person morning show, and we always laughed and played.That is except–one morning. THE MORNING! In the building we broadcast from, there was a water fountain and small pool below us. It was very pretty, except the morning we looked out the window and down, and there was a dead body lying in the water. Oh S*$#! Seems a street person had a little too much to drink, fell in the pool and drowned. Of course, the body stayed there all morning long as the police investigated.(Think CSI..) About 7 a.m., we decided that it was time to go all music. None of us had the heart to laugh and joke around that day. At the moment that I type these words, it’s still the worst morning I ever spent on the air. It was here, too, where I was lucky enough to be recognized as ‘MAJOR MARKET PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR‘.
I didn’t win, but it was sure nice to be nominated. (“They love me..They really do!”) I also met a traffic guy by the name of H.G.Listiak, the first personality who said on the air one day..“TRAFFIC IS AS SLICK AS SNOT ON A DOOR HANDLE!” He had a million of them, and he made me laugh every day. ‘H’ is gone now, but if you’d like to hear him, check out this web site.. www.hgsworld.com It was during this happy time in Phoenix that I welcomed my fourth son to the world, Joe. Remember my concern over the heat? The day Joe was born, it was 122 degrees. And if that wasn’t hot enough, my mother-in-law (Mary) was there too. Being a country boy, I have seen things that have frightened me, but nothing like this! This sight, will send shudders down your spine as it is mine at this moment. My mother-in-law was parked in an RV on our street. After Sandy awakens me to let me know ‘it’s time’, I go out to let Mary know. I was nervous, I should have knocked first, rather than look in the window. Because it is so hot, she had decided to sleep naked. Oh my! Sometimes, to this day, I wake up in the middle of the night with cold sweats. I love you, Mary, but that’s not something I wish I’d seen. OK, it’s time for me to piss everyone off at KMLE by taking a job in Houston, TX. I didn’t mean to upset everyone. I really didn’t, but it was for so much money! A lot of money! And by that time, I had a large family!
We didn’t win..but this was still cool!
Here’s a prime example of what happens when an ensemble cast gets the giggles. Bill Taylor, H. G. Listiak, Becky Lynn, ‘Little Tommy’ and me with a bit that stood the test of time..
Partner Bill Taylor, Kenny Rogers, and me..
Houston! Damn! And the WLS of country music—KIKK! A beautiful city and a legendary station. My partner, Bill Taylor and I were able to get the morning show to a solid #2. We never could totally beat KILT, a monster of a radio station. And there was another great country station there at the time too-KKBQ. Wish I could have stayed there longer. My family really liked Houston. New company, new direction.‘Taylor and The Bear’–Over and Out in a little over a year. KIKK also became a smooth jazz station a few years back. Lots of heritage there. It’s time for me to go to the network…that’s next!
Nationwide and Around The World..
Dallas. There’s another great city! My first experience, too, at working in a building with multiple formats. I could walk down the hall at five a.m. and hear anything from Country to Jazz to Classic Hits pouring out of the speakers. And the personalities! PROS on every format! I made some life long friends there. Robin Jones, my boss, Anna DeHaro, my partner on the ‘Hot AC’ format, Pat Clark, and many more. Funny the things one will remember about places they’ve worked and this, my friends, is how radio people think. I won’t name him, but one of the morning guys for the ADULT/URBAN format comes over to me in the break room and asks, very seriously, how I think a ‘TUPAC TUESDAY‘ would go over? The room erupts in laughter. Hell, I laughed for two weeks. Imagine my surprise when I came into the network one morning and saw tire tracks on the carpet! Seems that one of the overnight guys was a motorcycle enthusiast and he wanted to get ready for the big race that weekend! The ABC Radio Networks building was huge, so he had plenty of room to practice. That type of humor is what sustains us radio people, through thick and thin, always on the road, long hours and, at times, low pay. It’s our way of coping. My family was still living in Houston for about five months, and I was commuting between Dallas and there to give my boys a chance to finish out the school year. I left the network after about five years. I was just…restless, and I missed making appearances. They came few and far between at the network. Luckily we had the money to ‘float’ for a bit, so the family headed back to Florida. That’s next.
One of the coolest things about being on a satellite broadcast and heard globally, was the fact my son, Aaron, could hear these ‘promos’ in Germany. (He was in the Army at the time.)
The Barry and Anna Show
