Saturday October 6rh, 2007 - Vernon Hills, IL

I was up very late last night hanging out with some friends after the shows. Stan Stankos is the feature act this week and we’ve known each other for years. He also went to college with my friend Warwick and his old girlfriend Sandy who I worked with at 93QFM a long time ago. That whole thing is inbred but we’re all friends on different levels for many years so we hung out after work and caught up on a lot of things. Stan brought some friends out from a theatre group too and they were great so we all stayed out and had fun until 3am.

There was something really special about working at 93QFM in Milwaukee. That was a legendary rock station in the 70s and 80s and when I worked there it was full of wonderful people who I still talk to today. I can plug the station because it’s no longer on the air. We still have reunion lunches from time to time and many of the people who worked there are doing bigger and better things. There were a lot of true characters there and it was a blast.

David Lee ‘The Lee Monster’ was working middays with us but now he’s the voice of a lot of things nationwide including monster truck shows and Monday Night Football games on the radio. He and his wife Karen come out to see me once in a while and they’re bigger Packer fans than I am if that’s possible. They’re from Green Bay and they’re both great.

Sandy Maxx and I used to do weekend shifts and she went on to a great career in radio. She was doing middays at WMYX in Milwaukee but now she’s working off air at WTMX in Chicago as a promotions director. She also used to do the hostess gig for Brewer games on the scoreboard and was fantastic at it. Sandy is a pro all the way and works really hard.

All kinds of people who did well for themselves came out of 93QFM. Gene Mueller is a legend in Milwaukee radio and he started there. Tim The Rock And Roll Animal made the national news for sitting on a billboard and getting The Who to play Milwaukee. He’s very cool and could really tell great stories. He also WAS a story. Everyone has an Animal tale. John Perry is now successfully running WIIL in Kenosha and has been for several years.

Mark ‘The Mangy Man’ Krueger is also on the list and he’s a legend all by himself. To be called ‘The Mangy Man’ and like it takes quite a character and he’s exactly that. He is a super person and one of the absolute funniest people I’ve ever met in my life and everyone who worked at QFM agreed. He could have probably been a way funnier comedian than I ever was but he chose not to do it. He’s very successful working at a newspaper in town.

There are still a lot of people in Milwaukee radio who started their career at QFM and I can think of Downstairs Dan, Patti Genko and Steve Palec off the top of my head and I’m sure there are a ton more if I would think about it longer. That station was a great place to get started but unfortunately it wasn’t managed very well. I won’t get into that whole big mess because it won’t change anything now. The damage is done but the people who were there didn’t let it defeat them and many of us went on to do bigger and much better things.

Still, it’s very cool to be a part of the fraternity of former QFMers and any time we have a chance to get back together and hang out it’s a good thing. Last night was another chance.
That didn’t make it easy to get up for a 9am football game but I did it anyway. I didn’t want to miss my friend Jerry Agar’s son Tanner play and I told him I would be there. He’s a great kid and I wouldn’t miss it. We’ve lived in different cities all of his life and now that I’m able to show up I feel a duty to do it to show support. I know it makes him feel good.

This was my third game and his team easily won the first two I attended. Not today. The other team stomped them pretty good and after the game Tanner was feeling pretty low. It wasn’t the end of the world but he could see it from where he was and I thought it was my job to give him the pep talk so I did. I pointed out a few good things he did personally and a few good things that his team did and before long he was telling me how he could get his game up for next week and keep improving. His excitement made me excited and I think it helped us both. That kid is going to be something special whether he plays football or not.

Tonight was not very special at Zanies. The Cubs played a game that started at 5pm. We had a show that started at 7pm. We had about 20 people in a room that seats 400. There is nothing to do to fight those situations. I remember when the Bulls were winning in the 90s and it killed the local club and restaurant business in Chicago. Except for sports bars all of the rest of the places wanted Michael Jordan to break his leg so they could make a living.

I don’t think that will be a problem with the Cubs. They ended up losing and that’s over with for another year but for the first show it killed our business. The people who showed up were really good though and it wasn’t horrible at all. We actually had fun even though the club lost money but that’s how it works. They were glad the Cubs lost and I see why.

The late show was an abomination. There were about 60 people which is more than any of the people at the club thought would show up but they were terrible. There was a party of a dozen or so that had a birthday celebration for a woman who was absolutely stunning. She had huge breasts and normally I’m a big fan of those but these weren’t even worth it.

All of the people in the party were obnoxious and her boyfriend or husband or whatever he was was a total pinhead. He had his head shaved and sat there with his arms crossed to show his disdain and kept yelling ‘Git ‘er done’ which is the moron mantra. What an ass. I could see it being a problem but I didn’t want to let it get out of hand either. It’s delicate.

By the time I got up there the entire audience was broken up into discussion groups. To get angry was futile so I tried to just plow through my jokes and do my time. I had already gotten my paycheck and I know everyone at the club so it’s not like I had to worry about anything like that. I bit my lip and tried to plow through it but that idiot kept poking me.

He kept yelling and it got to be annoying. Between ‘Git ‘er done’ he put ‘Go Bears’ into the mix and I tore into him after about the dozenth time he interrupted me. I don’t have to fake my disdain for the Bears so I let him have it with both barrels and then reloaded and it went too far. I ended up insulting his girlfriend or wife or whomever it was and she was as angry as anyone I’ve ever seen who looked that good. They left for a while and then came back which was really uncomfortable. I took it too far and I shouldn’t have. I regret that.