Radio Again?

Tuesday September 25th, 2007 - Kenosha, WI/Rockford, IL/Lake Villa, IL

Today I took an unexpected trip on the Cheddar Triangle and wound up with a radio gig in the process. I still don’t know how it all happened but I listened to that little voice that’s in us all and that’s where it told me to go. Every time I listen to that voice it usually works out great and it did again today. I went with the flow and it ended up paying off in a day.

I’ve been thinking about my business idea non stop since it came to me September 1st. It is consuming my thoughts in a good way and I have done at least one thing each day since to move the idea along. It’s starting completely from scratch and I know nothing about the business part of it so that’s going to take time, effort and help from people who’ve already done it. I am planning on moving ahead full speed on January 1st but I’m still working now so I can hit the ground running. I’ll gladly write all about it then but for now I’ll be brief.

John Perry is a guy who runs WIIL in Kenosha, WI. I used to work with him at WQFM in Milwaukee in 1991 and we’ve stayed friends ever since. I haven’t seen him in a while so I sent him an email telling him I wanted to run my idea past him over lunch at his leisure. I got a call ten minutes later saying he could do it today so I dropped my plans and said yes.

The good thing about living in Lake Villa is that I am now about 20 minutes from WIIL. I worked there over the years and it was always hard to get to no matter if I lived down in Chicago or up in Milwaukee. This location I am in now would have been absolutely ideal.
We had lunch at Famous Dave’s and I ran the idea past him. He nodded and asked what I wanted him to do. I told him I want to find out how much advertising costs and how I’m going to promote the business when I get it going. I also volunteered to do guest spots for any of the stations in the company. They have two in Kenosha and two in Waukegan too.

His eyes lit up when I asked that and he asked if I’d be interested in co-hosting their new paranormal show on the AM station WLIP. I love Coast to Coast AM and I said I’d enjoy it very much. The other co-host would be a guy named Jimmy Novack who I worked with at the Loop when I first started there. Jimmy is a super nice guy and we got along great at the Loop and after lunch we went back to the station to talk out a few details. Jimmy is as big a fan or more of subject matter like UFOs and Bigfoot and crop circles and every other kind of paranormal subject. He would be a perfect partner for this and we just might see if we can pull this off. I told them I am busy but still love the idea. Now it’s up to us to do it.

After that I tried calling my other radio friend Jim Stone at The X in Rockford. Nobody answered at the station and it’s only about 60 miles so I just drove out there unannounced. He lets me have an open door policy and I appreciate it. If I’m in the area I’ll walk in and be part of the show. That’s how I always enjoyed working but a lot of radio guys hate it.

They had a psychic of all things on today and she was very good. I gave her a card and it could lead to her being on the show in Kenosha at some point. It’s amazing how it all goes smoothly when I’m in sync with the universe. Today was one of those days and I had fun.