Really Good People

Friday July 25th, 2008 - Springfield, IL/Milwaukee, WI

Another day with Max on the morning show on WYMG in Springfield, IL. We had fun yesterday but today we really got on a roll. We started clicking right at 6am and kept it up the whole morning and that makes the time fly by. Before we knew it it was time to leave.

Morning radio is a blast when it’s like that but it’s not always like that. Max and I are a fantastic team because he doesn’t try to be funny and I have no desire to do ‘radio’. He is the one running the controls and making sure all the sponsorships get mentioned and I am looking to throw in funny lines whenever I can and also rile people up to get them to call.

Every story in the news was good today and that was just luck. But we’ll take it. We did make the most out of it and just flew without nets. That’s the other good thing about a gig in a town like this - expectations are VERY low. Max and his partner Liz don’t try to do a funny show and don’t claim to be comedians. They do fine but today we focused on fun.

There is a receptionist in the building named Heidi who is a very sweet person. She is a Chicago transplant and married a Jamaican guy and lives in Springfield. She sat in for the show and was really good. She had great timing and knew when to laugh and when to talk and when to just sit there and let us go. She said ‘I sure wish you were here EVERY day.’

Max gave her a stern look and she caught it and shut up. It turns out Max is up for a job to be the operations manager for all the stations in the building and he wanted to have me on so the new GM could hear me. If he gets the gig he wanted to bring me in on the show.

We went out to breakfast afterward and talked about the whole situation. Max is a smart guy and has made the most of this opportunity. His wife is from here and even though it’s not a big market he’s taken advantage of his experience and besides being on the air he is out selling commercials all day. That’s where the real money is and he understands that.

He told me if he would get the gig he’d love to bring me in as the third person and then be able to spend more time selling. He knows I’d handle the entertainment part and show up every day and after the show he’d do his radio stuff and I’d go to work on Uranus. It’s actually a good plan in a way but I don’t know how long I could stand living down there.

Max told me he knew I probably wouldn’t want to live there but he knew I had to come down and sign the bank papers anyway so he wanted the new GM to hear me and have an opportunity to hear what I could bring to the table. He didn’t tell me because he wanted to just let me rip and be myself on the air which is exactly what happened. We were on fire.

This is a tough situation. I said I’d never get back in radio full time but this is different. Max would be my direct boss and there would be no BS. He and I work well and we have great chemistry on air. He knows I want to build my Uranus Factory Outlet business and I can do that anywhere since it’s going to be mostly mail order anyway. It will take a while to get going and I’ll have a steady income and insurance and a cheap place to call home.

All those things are very attractive and I don’t have to like the town. I’ll be working for most of my waking hours and if I want to do comedy St. Louis isn’t that far and I can still work in Chicago on weekends too. The main thing is to get that steady income coming in.

After breakfast Max thanked me for coming down and I thanked him for helping me get at least part of my money back. He told me he’d keep me posted on the developments and I told him we’d talked about a job here before and it hadn’t worked out so I’m not upset if it’s all fart gas. Radio in general is fart gas and once in a while there is a bit of truth in it.

Driving home with that cashier’s check was a good feeling even though I knew it would be gone way too fast. I kept driving all the way to Milwaukee and went right to the Wells Fargo Bank to pay off my credit card. That felt good actually because I’m saving a bunch on interest. I took the remainder and put it in my bank and will pay the dentist off with it.

I went to Milwaukee because my friend Rick Wey from Nashville was up doing a gig at Jokerz Comedy Club. Rick took me to a Brewers game last year because his company has an office in Wisconsin and he’s just a really good person. He’s the personification of the term ‘southern gentleman’ and he brought his wife up to see Milwaukee. He’s a class act.

The show was cancelled at Jokerz because of low turnout but that’s summer everywhere in the north. Rick was disappointed but I told him it’s very common and it is. The woman who runs the club is named Natalie and a total sweetheart and I’m sorry I can’t work there but I have to play politics. I know and like the owner of Giggles so I am loyal to him first.

That doesn’t mean I can’t visit and hang out and Natalie and the whole staff didn’t treat me badly at all. That’s how it should be but I’m not always used to that because of what’s gone down with the third club in town. I don’t even want to go down that road right now.

It would spoil the positive vibe with Rick and his wife who is also a sweetheart. We all went out to have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and it was a delightful evening. I gave them a few tips on where to go and what to do when they were in town and for once I felt like I knew what I was talking about since Milwaukee is my home town. We had a blast.

Today was also the birthday of a few people I know. For whatever reason nine months ago today must have been rocking because there are multiple people born today. I am the birthday savant and for some reason I seem to remember people’s birthday. I try to always call or send an email because it feels good to have someone remember it’s your birthday.

One of the people who has a birthday today is Anna Davlantes from NBC 5 in Chicago. She is a reporter and part time anchor and I got to know her when I worked at the Loop. If I would have to pick one woman I’ve ever met who has it all it would be her. WOW what a package. She’s absolutely stunning to look at but that’s not everything. She’s very smart and funny and doesn’t have that heartless distant feeling many people in broadcasting are famous for. She has a soul and is a very warm person inside and I think the world of her. I had to call her on her birthday and she was flattered I remembered. How could I forget?