11:50 PM - 5:00 AM, Monday - Tuesday, December 18th - 19th, 1995: SHOW 84 Today at 11:30 a.m. I got a letter in my mailbox, actually all On-Air Personalities did, that there will be a meeting at 11:30 this morning where a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT about WTVN programming for 1996 will be....announced. What, we're going all country? So after my shift I ask BC if he had any idea. He read the paper and said no: "I'm not comin' or goin' anywhere" Then I said that Hansell figured that you would know. He said: "I wouldn't be where I am today if I told things I wasn't supposed to." Good point....and then BAM! "Hansell's so starved for stardom...." Oh Yes, Conners hates Hansell too....cool. Then he goes on to say what a novice Hansell is in a Big Man's world. He's fryin' little fish...so on and so on. He said that Steve so paranoid because everybody hates him. JJJJJJ. Can you tell I'm enjoying this? He got so bad I said: "Alrighty then, I guess I'll be quiet..." And BC laughed! Then I said that I thought I was the only one that thought he was an asshole. I continued with how when I first came here that I figured he'd probably be the guy that would help me out, since he was younger, but he was a jerk. I said: "I guess I didn't realize how competitive it would be here. Conners says no, just insecure. Then I brought up Cannon and said I didn't mean to come here and ruffle feathers...BC laughs again!!!! He goes: "In time you'll grow to like it..." As I left I said..."yeah, I'm starting to." It was like THE perfect conversation with BC. He still hasn't complemented me yet. For some reason it will be official that I'm pretty good at this if he says something. John Lane has, Bill White, Mike Perkins, Cannon...Hansell hasn't but that's fine with me...But when BC goes: "You know, you're doin' pretty good..." It will be a cool day. Ah well, that was after the show...first I had to get there, and you can tell by the time I barely did that. I saw a movie that started at 8:15, and it didn't let out until 11:20!!! It was HEAT with De Niro and Pacino...when the two O's are there, you can't leave early. So I barely make it in, and BAM-the slowest night of my entire life. Horrible. First hour was rough....Second hour was two calls rough. You know, but I made it through an hour with two calls and no music and that's saying something.....actually I played an Xmas song to round out the hour...but it was still impressive. Then did Trivia until 4:00 and I was home free. Also got some posters from one of the listeners....erin. They're Billy Joel posters, and pretty nice. It's funny, a couple months ago, all of these big events: The announcement, me being late, the BC talk, and the fan response would be so HUGE, probably be all I talked about for a couple days in this journal, and now...they all happen in one night. I'm still extremely curious about this meeting. I'll be dead tired, but it will be good that I'm there. God....what is it!!!!!???   10:30 PM - 5:00 AM, Tuesday - Wednesday, December 19th - 20th, 1995: SHOW 85 For Christ sake....Jane London from Sunny 95 is joining John Lane in the afternoons. Goddamn. I didn't go to the meeting because Bill told me not to. No need he said. Thank God for that. He also said a few other things. Like, it's not the Glenn show...which I do know. Push myself rather than do Coffee Talk. Supportive I guess, but it seems he only listens on my worst hours. I can't figure it out. If he listens other times he must just not say anything. Then I tell him I cannot work 6 AM to Noon on XMAS. Did I say anything about this before? This is insane. I'm doing 17 overnights in a row, then on one day I have to stay up until NOON! Then sleep and come back that night and work! On XMAS! So the only time I'll be awake on Christmas Day and at home will be Midnight to 6 AM. "Adam, you're part-time help....Perkins isn't gonna work on Christmas, I'm not gonna work on Christmas..." (sigh) He's right, but what the fuck!?! I'm making $5.50 an hour still, won't get the raise until next year.....No time and a half for working on the holidays, I work my ass off on my shows and do all talk....and I feel as if I get no respect. Anyway.... Then he leaves a nasty message on my answering machine saying he'll dock my pay if I don't remember to cross off the songs I don't play from the log. Once again he's right. This was no problem when I still played music. But now that I don't at all I don't even think of the music log...nonetheless NASTY MESSAGE. What the fuck have I done? Then Ethan Weisss calls me and tells me about Jane London, the first I'd heard of it, and also tells me that things are worked out and I'm back to midnight to six on XMAS. Good, I needed that. Oh, so how did this night go? Really good. I found a lifesaver with a wire story on the top stories of 1995. It had a list of ALL OF THEM, and the ones they forgot the listeners were sure to tell. That got me to Theme Trivia which went extremely well. Aaron is now a 3-Peater, he has won the 3 past nights. Things are finally looking up again. Damn, long entry huh?   10:30 PM - 5:30 AM, Wednesday - Thursday, December 20th - 21st, 1995: SHOW 86 A landmark night. Bigger than the Coffee Talk revelation. This could make the overnight Late Show unbelievable. So it's about 1:00 and the show's goin' great...I wonder what was wrong Monday and Tuesday? Anyway in the new production room that they built you can feed into the main board. So I got the idea, because some guy was being too flattering about my opening songs, to do a live a capella song - part-by-part, so people could see how it was done. While I'm in there I realize you can take callers as well, the only thing you can't do is the News at the top of the Hour, or I'd live in their. I explain the song, A 25 second rendition of Jingle Bells...it goes over well, and it's fun. People calling up and asking me to put it backwards and speed it up and so forth. Then some guy says I should let people add their own parts. Then all of the sudden, he kept talking, it just exploded what I could do with this. We could do sing alongs, so on and so forth basically have a ball allowing people to create things with this machine through me. The possibilities are endless, and I think it will be a great theme for an hour, maybe two. So, the first hour...Brushes with Fame....any type of talk....2nd Hour - Coffee Talk, 3rd Hour - The Music Factory (I just thought of that), 4th Hour - Theme Trivia, 5th and final - Face-off, and summation of night. It's all there. Of course there's one extra hour on the weekends, but there won't be a problem. I am pumped. This guy called and said the station needs to get Columbus monthly to do a story on the show. I couldn't agree more, but how do I bring that up? Forget that...I want to polish my act so it's like a smooth running machine, and then I'll go ahead. The night was good, the hour that I did the Music thing, there were probably 100 calls, I am not kidding. Granted the same 15 people for awhile, but it was insane...It was like Graffiti for an entire hour. At the end of my shift, Mike Perkins gave me an extremely warm hello, he's obviously not pissed at me, then he said he was a big fan of the show when he can catch it. That I run a smooth machine. Damn! I got out of there quick before he could take it back. Man, I'm lovin' this job. And holy shit will my CD sell this summer.   10:30 PM - 5:00 AM, Thursday - Friday, December 21st - 22nd, 1995: SHOW 87 Wow, racism can fire people up. Edward the Black Separatist called and that was it. No Music Factory, no nothin' until Theme Trivia. Which is fine. A good strong night though. No slow periods. A lot of positive callers and it was a particularly "funny" evening. Bob and I talk like normal people now. It's kind of nice. God, is that all? I guess so.   11:00 PM - 6:00 AM, Friday - Saturday, December 22nd - 23rd, 1995: SHOW 88 "Adam does a nice job." A great night, and all I can think about is what Conners said as I was driving home. First the night. Glenn was telling me about a Brush With Fame with Dave Thomas which led to Burger Joints, which led to Burger joints no longer around which led to restaurants no longer around. Probably averaged 80 calls AN HOUR. It was unbelievable, I could barely talk. It will now be a segment. An excuse for another song. God, can things fall into place any better. Had some trouble with Trivia, some asshole's were prankin' so I threw on some music, then went back and it was fine. Brought up the restaurant thing at the 5:00 hour and BAM! There I was again. So busy, that I was stuck with a whole shitload of things to do as BC walked in. So I'm in there when he goes on.. He starts his normal open phones schmeal, then says, something about that restaurants and starts joking with me...ON THE AIR!!! So you know I'm talkin' on the air with BC. Hello....Hansell won't even do that with me. Unreal. Then he says a joke about Michael, that he's banning him this morning as an XMAS present to the listeners and I laugh which in turn makes him laugh. I stuck around and watched him do the half hour of his show from the other room, basically because I was curious, and kind of 'cause I wanted to see how he did things, and if I did them the same way. Indeed I guess we do. Then 16 year old Craig calls up and as I'm driving home brings me up, and Bob says those famous words. "Adam does a nice job". It was almost a let down though. Jesus I've waited for this for how long? Maybe it's because of how it happened. Craig: "And then I called Adam...you know Adam Kontras, Kontras..." "Yeah, Adam does a nice job," It was almost as if it was prodded, and also..."nice." Meckley did a nice job, the other "music" jocks do a nice job...I work my ass off to make that show great..but jesus I can't bitch. I'm being acknowledged by Bob Conners....that's simply great for me. God, and at those hours...wow. Alright. Sheesh - I go to school in about a week. Boo....   10:30 PM - 7:00 AM, Saturday - Sunday, December 23rd - 24th, 1995: SHOW 89 Went in early to record "Gone But Not Forgotten". The song for that restaurant segment. I decided to make it 5 restaurants for the streak to be alive. Instead I got 75, and an hour of talk. This is truly out of control. I do like it though. I've got almost 300. What the hell am I gonna do with them all? Talk was alright. Went into the other room for the Music Factory. An idea I have yet to know where to go with, but I had people call up and say things to me backwards and I played it back for them. It was another "grafitti" like night. Call, after call, after call. Some guy called up and said: "Do you realize that you get more calls in one hour than Steve Hansell does all night?" It was extremely funny. Things were going fine until I had so many prank callers during trivia that no one could call in with the answers. I was so pissed. One guy called up and said obscenities..another acted drunk, one said "pedophile" then hung up, another said nothing, and the most annoying just turned up his radio real loud so there was feedback...all of this for about 2 hours. I was fuckin' losin' it. I finally played some songs, and talked a little, and ad-libbed. They all had *69 blocks...for Christ sakes! Ah well, it had been awhile since it had been that bad. Perkins came in in the morning and was super nice to me once again. Mabye Bill was just in a bad mood.....yeah, that sounds good.   11:30 PM - 6:00 AM, Sunday - Monday, December 24th - 25th, 1995: Hello boredom. 6 straight hours of music on DAT. I did nothing but play my weather cart twice an hour, and recue DAT tapes. ZZZZZ.... I played solitare, screwed around. The news girl called me at 5:00 and asked me to get the weather from the guy from New York for her. She walked me through this, but I was fucked since I had the weather break at the same time as the guy was supposed to call. Luckily he was late and everything worked out. Alright that's about it. Merry Christmas.