Monday August 29th, 2011 - Cary, IL/Fox Lake, IL Another sad good bye. My friend Jerry Agar and his family are moving out of town, and none of us are thrilled about it. The truck was being loaded as we stood in his living room and talked about all the times we’d done it before. We couldn’t sit, there were no chairs. Since we became friends in 1989, Jerry has moved from Wheaton, IL to St. Cloud, MN to Toledo, OH to Minneapolis to Tucson to Knoxville, TN to Raleigh, NC to Kansas City to Chicago - and now Toronto. He’s been working there for about a year already, but he’s just now bringing the rest of the family. Welcome to the wonderful world of life in radio. It’s a brutal business, and not for the squeamish. Since 1989, I’ve moved from Chicago to Lansing, MI, home to Milwaukee, back again to Chicago to Reno, NV to Los Angeles back to Chicago to Salt Lake City back to Chicago yet again to finally where I am now. I’ve had my own spanking from the radio business, and Jerry and I went over our moves as we watched a moving truck about to leave for another chapter. This one was unplanned and unwelcome. He was doing fine in Chicago at WLS before the powers that be decided to blow him out the door because they could. They didn’t care about the ripples it caused. Nobody thought about kids that have to go to yet another new school. They have not an ounce of sympathy for the strain it puts on a marriage, or the stress of trying to find a new job when there was no real reason for not having the old one. There’s no rhyme or reason for any of it, but it happens all the time. We either keep sucking it up or get the hell out. Jerry is sucking it up, and I admire him for it. I also admire his family for staying in one unit through all of it. His wife Ann has been Superwoman through all these moves, and I always tell Jerry if he ever cheats on her I’ll kill him myself. Their kids are amazing also. They’ve learned to just pack it up and move on to the next town without complaining at all. I’ve known all three of them since they were born, and they’re all wonderful kids who will be productive members of society. None of this was their fault, but they’ve handled it extremely well. The oldest Tanner is now in college in Texas, and he is going to be fine. The whole family will be. I will too. We’ve survived this long, I don’t see how this time will be any different. We shed no tears, because we’ve been through this before. We’ll get together at some point when I get through Toronto, and I will. Hopefully he’ll stay there. Jerry is really great at what he does. He’s a talk show host, but didn’t start out that way. He was on morning shows with music just like I was, and he adapted and used his skill to become one of the very top in his field. To get blown out like he did was without merit. I get my radio fix on Sunday nights on AM 1050 WLIP in Kenosha. I don’t get a nickel for it, but I don’t have to load up a truck and move to another country either. I’ve decided once and for all that if I must go to work for a clueless imbecile, that imbecile will be me.
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