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 Lippincot 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, Az., 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…
