Contact Buzz

Thursday June 18th, 2009 - Lake Villa, IL

Life really does boil down to who you know. People say that like it’s a bad thing but it’s really not. I think there’s a little more to it though. It’s also how you know them and what you can do for each other over time. That’s how to build a solid win/win relationship.

I’ve always been all about that. Zanies is a perfect example. I’ve been working for them for probably twenty years now and it’s developed into almost a family situation. It’s a lot deeper than just business because many of the people there are personal friends and I keep in contact even after they’ve moved on. I’m one of Zanies’ main acts and it’s been great.

Jerry Agar is another example. We met as part of me working for Zanies but we’ve also developed a friendship and have helped each other over and over again for almost as long as I‘ve worked with Zanies. I have all kinds of people like that I’ve met all over the place.

Keith Stubbs in Salt Lake City is another example. He’s a comedian who opened a club when I had a radio job out there in 2000. He was just getting started and booked me for a week and crowds were pretty light. I was doing ok with the radio gig and told him I didn’t need to get paid that week but there might be a time in the future when I’d need the work.

He was extremely thankful for the break and we ended up working together quite a bit. I eventually lost my job and Keith was right there to book me whenever I wanted the work. He still does to this day. We’ve developed a relationship and I will always appreciate it.

John Perry is yet another example. He and I worked together in Milwaukee at 93QFM in 1991. He was the overnight guy and I was on the morning show and I made sure he got to be on our show with a trivia question each morning. It meant a lot to him when nobody else gave him the time of day but to me it was no big deal. I wanted to be nice to the guy.

Well, years later he became the program director at 95 WIIL in Kenosha and eventually the operations manager of three stations in the same building. I’ve ended up working in a varied number of capacities at all three stations over the years including my current show ‘The Mothership Connection’ on Sunday nights. It all started from a trivia question bit.

I’ve got all kinds of these stories and I hope to have a lot more. Today I started another in motion by having lunch with Jayne Nordstrom from the Lake County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. I joined recently and she’s been nothing short of fantastic in hooking up people for me to contact and ideas of what I can do to maximize my membership money.

She’s really a people person and even at lunch with our guard down she was thinking of ways to help not only me but the people she suggested I meet. I can already tell she’ll be a big asset and I’ll do my best to help her in return. It was well worth the cost of a salad bar.

I have a lot of work ahead of me with what I’m doing but people like Jayne and the rest of my network will help me get to where I want to go. This was a lunch that will pay off.