11:30 PM - 6:00 AM, Tuesday - Wednesday, December 24th - 25th, 1996: X-Mas music on DAT for 6 hours. Burg was there for 3. Cut out Boyles covers. The End.   2:00 PM - 3:00 PM, Friday, December 27th, 1996: Meeting #3. I was just offered a full-time position at the station...producing Cannon. Not on the air. Darryl wants me to be a producer, Ethan type, for....CANNON. Can you freakin’ believe it? Creative control! He wants to make that show young and says basically I have to tell him how to do this. That’s what he says. What do I read from this? The final phase in getting Cannon to quit and giving the job to me. First you cut his show to 3 hours. You make him come in 6 nights a week. You tell him he can’t do trivia anymore. Oh and now your producer is 40 years your junior and he is going to tell you how to run your show. If he has any balls he’ll quit. I told Darryl about the friction already and that me telling him what to do will be a catastrophe. "Fine then he’s off the air." He’s really giving this power to me. They obviously want him to quit. Now my schedule if I jump on this would be Tuesday-Friday Night with Cannon. 11-5 AM. I would have to run Rush. Then Saturday my show from 9-2 AM, and Sunday my show from 8-11 PM. With production this will easily be over 40 hours, most likely a good 50. At $7.50 an hour that’s making $19,500 a year. When I asked if this was full time Darryl said yes and said he quotes somewhere in the high teens. FUCK THAT. He said I was getting a raise. At $9.00 an hour that’s $23,400 a year, and I feel I should be making $10.00 an hour. That’s $26,000. So I’m in a bit of a bind there. I will go in asking for mid 20’s and benefits, and not move. The only reason I would make this move is for money. This is not an advancement in my career as far as I’m concerned. Putting up with Cannon’s bullshit is a waste of time, so I’d better be getting paid. On the upside Darryl really likes me. Plain and simple and he thinks I’m good. Of course he’s extremely short-handed and is desperate. My new weekend hours depend on this as well. That’s on hold until they can find a producer. Hmmm. If they give me $9.00 an hour I’ll take it. If they give me $22,000 with benefits I’ll take it. There. Those are good guidelines. I’ll ask for $10 or Mid 20’s with Benefits. But hey, big day eh?! Let’s see what happens. Ugh, overnights again? I was so happy to get off of them with the new hours...   8:00 PM - 6:15 AM, Friday - Saturday, December 27th - 28th, 1996: SHOW 218 (1200 hours passed) Great Show. Had only 2 calls the first hour but I was funny so it didn’t matter. Some nights I could just kick ass by myself. Aaron was in Studio from 1:00 until 3:00 signing Boyles Vol. 2 covers. We did a 20 minute Saturday Morning Fever, and then it lingered on until 2:30. Playing requests and having a ball. It was fun. Got calls upon calls upon calls. People like Cartoon songs. Anyway, last Play It By Ear (I hope). And Kevin O was in every Segment, a Pre-Face Off and a Face-Off! Ain’t that wild. And he won! That was cool. 4:00 hour was filled with Angela’s Stories that just didn’t get us far enough. And the 5:00 hour whizzed by. Now the new job thing. I’m seriously reconsidering. It sounds like a hellish job to me. They’ll have to pay me big time I’m now thinking at least $23. Eh, $22 is good. Who knows. Hopefully Cannon quits soon. As I’ve said before, I would if I were him. It is a big move though. We’ll see. I talk to Darryl again on Monday.   10:30 PM - 6:45 AM, Saturday - Sunday, December 28th - 29th, 1996: SHOW 219 JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO FREAKIN ANNOYED IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. Angela is slacking more than usual. Didn’t get my spots for the first oh, THREE HOURS. Talked on the phone for almost 90 MINUTES. Fuckin’ A. We let Douglas in ‘cause he had cookies, and for christ's sake I almost decked him. He kept fuckin’ lookin’ over my shoulder and talkin to me on the air and so on. Jesus Christ. It was sooooo bad. In the 4:00 hour...2 hours LATER. I hit a break and said. "GET OUT." He said ok..and then stayed for 15 more minutes. JESUS. Fuckin’ Loser. Then Angela and I were talkin about him in the front of the building. And he pops up!!!! He was listening by the bathrooms. DAHHHHHH!!! The show was unbelievably slow the first 2 hours, then picked up a bit. The final trivia went very well and it was nice. The biggest news came when I got to talk to Bradley for a good half hour about my dilemma with the new position I was offered. He was very cool and generous with his time in the end he said to pass the buck. Put all of your problems on either Cannon or Darryl. If you take the job, you need to worry about that. If Cannon is an asshole that’s his fault. Don’t let his being a dick keep you from taking an opportunity. Level with him. Say that you are a messenger of what Darryl wants, that passes the buck back to him. And in the end Joe said call Cannon and ask him what he thinks. Cool move. I’m doing it later today. Oh yeah 239-****, gotta remember that. Cannon’s phone number. I’ve decided I’ll take the job at a reasonable offer. I want the new weekend hours pretty bad. ANYTHING under $10 an hour or $23,000 and benefits will not be accepted. Mark my words. My free time is extremely valuable to me, and that will be gone with this job. Buh-bye. So, I talk to Darryl Monday and I must be firm. Thanks Joe, you helped me out tremendously.   4:30 PM, Sunday, December 29th, 1996: Well, I called Cannon and we talked for about 20 minutes. He actually seemed pleased about all of the changes. He was also impressed I asked for his opinion. He said he wouldn’t mind at all. Hmmm.... It was kind of a nice conversation, but my intuition is strong about what the result is going to be. He was extremely receptive to the new, "younger" changes. So we’ll see. I pray they offer $10 or $24 and benefits. My standards are inching up the closer I get to things. Time will tell. This sucks. All you have to do is look ahead. I gotta wait for days.   10:30 AM - 4:30 PM, Monday, December 30th, 1996: Well, Angela didn’t show up Sunday Night for Cannon. Can you believe it? He had to go 5 hours by himself. Apparently he was frothing at the mouth in the morning. Said nice things about my call though. That’s cool. Bradley and Mike were cool to me. Bradley gave me a tape of Conners doing a promo to run during my show that has him doing a capella. Dear GOD it was funny. I made a song out of it at the end of my shift. Running the board was simple. It’s a little scary having to keep taping everything. Three tape machines are almost always running. Reel to Reel, DAT and VCR. Crazy. Darryl came in to do 12-1 ‘cause it’s rough, and we talked about everything but my new hours and stuff. What the hell? I got two things out of him though. Most likely 2-3 weeks before my new hours start. Great. And the reason for the delay is getting new producers. WHAT!? Talk to me. I guess they want back ups. And one for me. But he was avoiding the issue like crazy. We were talking about John and Jane, there’d be a lull and I’d ask him something about the new job times and he’d say a quick answer and go IMMEDIATELY back to John and Jane. Sigh. What the hell do I tell people on the air this weekend. And Christ, do I have to do trivia? Eh, fuck. Joel came in at 3 and relieved me but I hung around and talked to him for 30 minutes then talked to the computer guy Colin and got him to fix my AOL for me. That took another hour. But it’s done. And I have the fax at the same time!!!! So at least something good happened. And this is it. The last entry of the year. Cannon has to work on New Year’s Eve. Ha hahahhaha. Goodbye and good year. ‘96 kicked ass, but wow, ‘97 may be amazing.