Cinco de Radio

Monday May 5th, 2008 - Chicago, IL/Lake Villa, IL

Today was a lot better. A whole lot. I’m pecking through my inner layer of sadness like a butterfly inside his cocoon. I didn’t feel that overwhelmingly dark cloud at all today and that’s a huge relief. It was another fantastic weather day and that perked up my spirits too.

Another Monday meant another appearance on Jerry Agar’s show on WLS. We were all a bit off today but that’s not what worried me. That happens to everyone and today wasn’t our best day by a long shot. We had a few funny lines but none of us got on a major roll.

What did get my attention off the air was that the General Manager quit last week and is now working in Detroit. Good for him. Not necessarily good for Jerry or his Kidders. It’s the scenario that we all dread in the radio business. The G.M. that authorized the hiring is no longer in place and now it’s fruit basket upset. Nobody can guess what’ll happen now.

The program director is the one who does the hiring usually but the G.M. has to sign off on it and give the thumbs up. Kipper McGee is the program director at WLS and one of a few truly talented and nice people I’ve ever met in the radio wars. He’s a class guy and as smart as it gets but this changes his position too because the new honcho calls the shots.

I don’t even know who that new person is. For all I know he could be the greatest thing that ever happened for radio and WLS and Jerry and us too. Or he could blow us all out a month after he settles in and put Portuguese kazoo music on and everyone’s out of a gig.

Chances are he’ll leave things as they are and work on sales. Getting the money flowing in is THE main job of a G.M. and I hope he’s successful at it. I also hope he leaves all of us alone on the air and let’s us keep growing. Jerry is starting to catch on and Kipper is an expert at tweaking and adjusting and like a sports team I think they’re poised to win BIG.

I am just doing this to help Jerry. He’s my friend and I know how hard he’s worked for this and he’s doing great and I just want to see him keep it all going. Yes it helps me to be on the show too but that’s not my main focus. I can survive because I’m a cockroach. I’m able to squeak by and make do but Jerry has a family and a mortgage. He needs this gig.

This all brings back the ugly side of radio I’ve seen so many times before. I am not even getting paid to do this weekly shot but that’s not the issue. It’s great exposure and we will hopefully get paid to do live shows eventually and this could be a huge win/win for us all.

If someone gets an itch in their shorts to ‘make changes’ that could spell trouble for our whole plan. I hate to be paranoid but I’ve seen it happen over and over. Stuff like a switch of G.M.s starts it all and a couple of weeks later we’re sent packing with a station t-shirt.

The situation is what it is. If we’re going to be blasted it was still fun and I don’t regret a chance to make Jerry look good. He has helped us too and we’re all grateful or it. We’ll all just keep showing up on Mondays until the security guards won’t let us in anymore.