11:00 PM - 5:00 AM, Monday - Tuesday, August 7th - 8th, 1995: SHOW 35
So I'm comin' out of the production room, and Cannon (Now dubbed "Mr.-Anti-Personal-Space-Man - I swear to you he stands 2 inches away) comes up to me and explains how the Log Lady asked him why he didn't play any spots from 4:00 - 5:00 Friday Morning. Obviously he's tellin' me because he wasn't on, I was. Well, I honestly don't remember. I'm assuming she's right, but if she thought that Cannon was on, how long could she have been listening? Oh well, I wrote her a note saying I'd be extra aware from now on.....I hope that's all that comes from this. ANYWAY, the show kicked ass. From 12-1 (and a bit after) I continued the "Brush with fame" theme. It was great, I had some wonderful callers. It was like talking to old friends. Otherwise, trivia went well, 6-4. I made a cheat-sheet in case anyone starts that "flip sides of Beatles' singles" shit again. I really love my job, I think I could do this for quite sometime. It's cool, I'm sitting in Bob Evans, and I can't help but think that some of these older guys listen to me before they get in here. What an awesome feeling (In case you were wondering, I didn't bring my computer in here, I'm writing it down to transfer later). Overall a good night.
 
1:15 AM - 5:00 AM, Wednesday, August 9th, 1995: SHOW 36
As I'm driving in, I hear Cannon tell George (the news guy) that he got messages on his voice mail that said I was great, and should take over Cannon's shift. He was serious, I asked him. It was all in good fun over the air, but Cannon really does act paranoid sometime. Does he have cause to be? No, not to a 19 year old. Maybe a 20 year old... :-) George said on the air that if it wasn't Greg Frey (The GM), or Bill, that he shouldn't worry. I later went on and said that it was all of my friends whom I gave Cannon's number to. Cannon has had a pretty bad week. I continued to do the "Fame" stuff, it was great once again. Trivia was great 6-4, and my cheat sheet finally came into use when someone asked me to name all the songs on the second side of Abbey Road. It was talk all night until my....no, I had a caller at about 4:45. I probably only played 8 songs all night. god I love this job. Made some good eye contact with Mike this morning! Wow! We talked about Dave and how he kind of fell off the planet. Hmm.... I need to tell Dave I've got one of his checks. Ah, well. 4 more nights & then I take a week off to go camping. I can't wait.
 
12:00 AM - 5:30 AM, Thursday, August 10th, 1995: SHOW 37
The best show I've ever had, and probably the best show I'll have in quite some time. Played 4 songs all night. It was unreal. I went in at 12:00 to make a song for the trivia hour. I called it: The Ballad of Trivia. An obvious, but a capella spoof on The Ballad of John and Yoko (with a bass line from my keyboard). It was great. Then I went on the air and said how extremely tired I was, because I stayed up until 9:00 PM after my shift, and then after being up for 22 hours tried to take a quick nap, and it killed me. People called up for support to keep me awake. Then it went into "Brush with Fame Part 4". Man is that popular. Then Loretta called from Sunbury and talked about a boy she knew who was hit by a car and killed. That spawned some supportive callers. Got to Trivia after playing only 1 song. That went well. I got through 8 people and still no winners. Finally someone got me. I couldn't get to all my callers by the end of my shift! I had to cut off the last guy with a commercial, it was crazy. Had callers saying they loved the show and wished I could take Hansel's place. Asking me what happens when Cannon comes back to this shift, and I said that I was the normal weekend guy, so they could catch me there. I talked to Loretta off the air all night. She was very upset, and extremely thankful that I would listen to her, which is exactly what she needed. Some lady called and said: "Well I don't see what a kid has to do in Sunbury anyway" I was pissed, as if what he was doing mattered at all. The kid was run over and killed for christ sake. I really almost lost it. Then Mike saw me and said: "There he is, the King." It was great. Of course guess who didn't have it taped. Then again it was all talk, it wouldn't have fit on a tape. Oh well, I hope I get that many callers again tomorrow. Once again, a superb night. I love my job.
 
1:30 AM - 5:15 AM, Friday, August 11th, 1995: SHOW 38
Ahhh, what goes up must come down. Not only did I get killed on the trivia 2-8, it was a definite "music" night. Cannon just seems so goddamn paranoid. It shows on the air too. I talked with KP about him today, and we had a riot, basically saying that Cannon is a loser. Jesus, that is THE overwhelming sentiment at that station, and I really don't mind him, except for that close talker shit, and his paranoia....he is funny on the air. She said that I also make the overnight more exciting then he does. Without being too pompous I agree. I try to keep things moving and have some topics of interest other than "Open Phones". I hope I get some prizes for my shift on the weekend. The audience is expecting it. I still love my job, fancy that. There's one problem though, if by any chance I were to lose it, I'd be a wreck. I'm on top of the world right now, entirely because of this. It would be hard to rebound from blowing this opportunity......so I won't.
 
11:30 PM - 6:00 AM, Friday - Saturday, August 11th - 12th, 1995: SHOW 39
I go to my mail box, and find this response to asking Jan about the prizes...and I do quote:
 
"NO
NO
There's more to radio +
the overnites than cheap
prizes!! You can quote
me on that!
Hey have a fare time
at the Fair
Jan."
 
What the hell is that shit. This really fucked things up for me, I was pissed. I just do not understand where this came from. I wrote her a note saying this makes no sense and I have no clue where this is all coming from. So when I got to the trivia hour THE STUART SCUTCLIFFE GUY. It took everything I had to stay down. We got into it again. He knows so much about the Beatles, but it's all half-truths. Who played keyboards on the White Album? I knew he was thinking about Preston, and get back, but he swore on his life Preston played the keyboards on the entire White Album. Then when I said the keyboards were most likely all played by Paul, and George Martin who quite often played instruments on some early Beatle Albums. Then he says I was nuts, that George never played a thing. At this point I'm standing and jumping around like a boxer. It was the craziest night ever. I was yellin' and whoopin' and laughin' people called and it was just a "wild ride". I would have thought it was extremely fun to listen to and even had callers say so, then one caller said he was sick of it and asked for music. I said that the callers lead me. If they want music that's what they get, but if I have callers waiting on the line to talk, they take precedence over music. This is Talk Radio. I ended up talking to Mike (Stu Scutcliffe guy) off-line all night, and the last hours was him telling me over and over that I was not 19. He had to be drunk off his ass. Perkins came in at around 5:55, and we laughed and talked a lot. He asked how I was holding up, and I said fine. He also reemphasized what a major opportunity this job was. And I agreed emphatically. Bob even laughed when a "bigot" caller asked if I was greek, and then proceeded to say we suck at the olympics, although we invented them. BC, don't know exactly what he said, but he smiled towards me and jokingly apologized for the racist remarks of the caller, saying: "Well, we've never had a Greek DJ before..." Ate 2 donuts and came home. On my way home, Bob made the comment on the air that it was open phones, "although it seems it is 24 hours a day anymore." He wasn't mad, but I knew he was speaking of me. Anyway, now I must sleep, because I have to be at the fair in a few hours, and this is my last chance until Sunday night.
 
11:30 AM - 6:00 PM, Saturday, August 12th, 1995:
The most influential airtime of my career was done in 5 minute increments. So I wake up at 11:20 (had to be there at 11:30), this is not good. I rush to the fair in record time, run to the van, and noone's there. I finally open things up, and after calling the engineer and the DJ for an hour, I see that I'm not on until 1:00, but I finally have everything working. Then I see my intern Brad. Isn't that cool, my own intern. An incredibly cool guy. My age, goes to Wright State. He got me people to interview for some of the breaks! It was awesome. Had some fair goers, and then the man, Marty Krizen.....The reptile man. Brought this 14 foot snake that weighed 100 pounds. It was an Albino Python. He told us later that people came looking for that snake because they heard us talk about how cool it was. Didn't have any listeners find me, but maybe they saw me and said: "Nah, that can't be him." It was great meeting all of the people. Brad and I managed to schmooze fries, corn dogs, bottomless Pepsi's, gyros, and fudge out of people for free. Even signed some dude's program. It was wild. I can't wait 'til tomorrow, we have a band that's going to play in the van. Now comes the fun...2 hours of sleep and then getting up and going from 11:00 PM - 9:00 AM at the station, and then 11-6:00 PM at the fair...straight.
 
11:30 PM - 9:15 AM, Saturday - Sunday, August 12th - 13th, 1995: SHOW 40
I have no idea how I accomplished this shift. At 12:30 I almost fell asleep on the air. It was wild. But then one pot 'o' joe later I was FINE. I played I'll Walk Away twice. Tom heard it and loved it. Trivia was crazy once again. A drunk guy promised callers pizzas since we didn't have any prizes. We really need prizes. I don't even want to think about not having them next week. Had 2 people say they were going to the fair to see me. It should be interesting. One knows I'm 19, and one has no clue. Perspective and ESPN are easy. Jack is funny. That's about it. Now to take a shower and go to the fair.
 
11:15 AM - 5:45 PM, Sunday, August 13th, 1995:
More problems at the fair, but the engineer was cool and figured them out from the phone. Had some good interviews lined up. A guy who built his house out of the inside of a redwood, Monty, the quilt lady, BBQ people, some mexican band, Misty Mate makers, fair goers. A few couldn't do it so we interviewed a cop, and a family. It went better today. Ken Collins ran the board after Jack at 3:00. He was great! He talked about my music, and how much work I'd done in the past couple of weeks. Things were awesome. Had one listener, Anthony Green find me, and brought his kid. It was strange, Anthony was much nerdier than I thought he'd be. Overall it was the longest I'd ever worked for a measly 2 hours of overall on-air time, but it was the most important 2 hours of my career so far. My name was heard all day, constantly. I still have no idea how I'm still alive right now. Well, I've deserved this... I'm going camping until Friday, and not thinking about radio until then. Ahh, and now the best part: SLEEP.