10:00 PM - 5:15 AM, Monday - Tuesday, January 27th - 28th, 1997: Steve is not happy. He feels his show sucks, that he doesn’t have "it" anymore, and wants to go back on the overnights. Reason to smile? Sure, but just cause he’s pathetic. He’s not going anywhere. It’s just his way to self-depricate. A total manic-depressive he is. With reason to be. Kevin Eubanks was supposed to be on (The Tonight Show), but he couldn’t get a hold of him. Yet another example of Cannon not treating me like a producer. I probably should’ve known about this, but didn’t have a clue. I would’ve agreed that he was a great guest, but the fact that Cannon never mentioned it shows where he’s coming from. I am enjoying the job though. Much more than I thought I would. It’s like a soap-opera. And you wouldn’t believe what happened on Rush. A guy named Lester called, and it was perfect! I'm gonna use it in an upcoming Boyles. Rush said Lester about 5 times. It was awesome. Alright. Buh-Bye.   10:15 PM - 5:30 AM, Tuesday - Wednesday, January 28th - 29th, 1997: Ugh, this is getting frustrated. I felt Cannon should talk about medicinal marijuana, front page of Newsweek, and he said ok...then never brought it up. He had no calls, and even brought up straight politics which Darryl said emphatically NOT to do. I mean... "The democrats are talking about this balanced budget amendment, when we know all along it was the republicans idea..." And he went on and on. He started it by saying "this is fascinating..." What? I ended up actually typing the word "politics!" on his screen, but he never really got the point. What am I supposed to do? Should I screen every story he prints up (roughly 40, no kidding), or do I let him be? WHAT IS MY ROLE? Mary Jo has been sick, so I haven’t talked to her, but at this point I’d be curious to see what she has in mind. This isn’t working out.   2:15 PM, Wednesday, January 29th, 1997: Call #4: I told Mary Jo of my frustrations, especially about the politics part, and she asked if I could come in and talk to her and Darryl about this. I explained that I felt lost, and that Cannon really isn’t listening much to me and doing his own thing. I was happy to know she wanted a meeting. I’d like to sit down with both of them and figure this out. I just don’t know how to approach Cannon.   4:30 PM, Wednesday, January 29th, 1997: There’s a message on my machine saying that Cannon will be with us at the meeting tomorrow. FUCK. Just what we need. His arrogance to tell us how great his show is going. Just like how he acted with Mary Jo and I. And it definitely worries me with Darryl there because I can just see him saying to me: "So, what’s the problem..." And everything blowing up. Darryl’s been really frank lately. Remember his comment about what he wants Steve’s show to be like? "Appealing to a male 25-54". And apparently when Steve bitched about BJ to Darryl (BJ produces Cannon one of the nights I'm off), Darryl got all pissy because Cannon was being so petty. By the way, Cannon was bitching that BJ screwed around, watched TV, and didn’t pay attention. All this pointing to the fact that Darryl doesn’t want to deal any of this shit, and could get right to the point by saying: "What’s the problem..." or "So Adam says you aren’t listening to his suggestions, is this true?" FUCK again...   10:30 PM - 5:30 AM, Wednesday - Thursday, January 29th - 30th, 1997: Mary Jo told Steve that SHE heard his political comments and that’s why she wanted the meeting. Cool move Mary Jo. Steve asked if I would be there too, and I said yes. My 2 big topics for the show was the release of the OJ tapes, and medicinal marijuana again. Steve brought up marijuana and it went pretty well for an hour. Oh, and I did a little documentation of his calls: 11-11:30 - 1 call. 11:30-12 - 2 calls. 12-12:30 - 3 calls. 12:30-1 - 2 calls. As far as topic calls THAT’S IT. From 1:00 to 1:30 there were 4 Happy Birthday calls, and 2 in the final half-hour. And come to think of it, a few of the other calls were just Happy Birthday too. This is the norm. It’s pathetic. And at the top of the 1:00 hour Steve said, "well this is going pretty good." Yeah, if you’re the weather hotline maybe. For talk radio it sucks. And especially his talk radio. Christ. Shoot me now. I am really enjoying myself though. Carmen’s being real shitty since she only has one more week left. Did I say anything about that? Carmen got a job in Atlanta and will be gone in a week. Hot diggety-dog. Maybe a smiling face will replace her. Anyway, it’s like a big movie, and I’m enjoying the hell out of it. After the show I was talking to Joe as I usually do. Telling him about my frustrations with Cannon. Ever since I talked to him about the job, I’ve kind of kept him up on things. Conners actually jumped in trying to help to which was nice. I hope they see that I’m sincerely frustrated, and not just bad mouthing Cannon. Oh well. The big meeting is later today, and I need to go to bed. I’ll be very curious to see how Darryl approaches this.   2:45 PM - 4:00 PM, Thursday, January 30th, 1997: Meeting #5. Got there early and did my promo which should run during the day. Very cool, and also got to talk to Perkins. Of course the topic of Cannon came up a bit, and Mike said something about Cannon’s wife being a coward like him. They’re both afraid to live. This was all in reaction to my frustrations that Cannon won’t DO anything anymore. He just reads the paper. Oh well. I walked back out into the lobby and Cannon was walking in. I walked into Mary Jo’s office to talk to her, and Darryl jumped in and closed the door. COOL. I can talk to them first. He asked me what was up and I explained my frustrations. We talked for a good 15 minutes. Highlights: He said how things that are said about him get back to him quickly. Referring to Cannon’s view that his new show is a demotion. But then Darryl started to point to me, as if I said something. What? I came out and said: "Are you saying I said something..." And he was. I said tell me, I have nothing to hide, I’ve said nothing. And he said it didn’t sound like me. I never found out what it is. He then talked about how straight forward he was, and then said: "Like with Hansel, I told him ‘you’re being replaced’" I was shocked, and then realized I was right, that it was Hansel that Darryl meant had no business on the radio. Good guess Adam. It was still a shock though. Especially since he’s been doing so good lately. Apparently he is in the process of being replaced and will become the producer for whomever takes over. I guess they’re not even thinking of me since I didn’t even know about this. Bummer, that would rock being right after Munch. Before too long Cannon knocks on the door and we let him in. Darryl had just started to say something negative about The Beatles, and I was joking with him as Cannon walked in. Then we decided we’d have more room in Darryl’s office, and I joked more with him on the way there. Why am I telling you this? The look on Cannon’s face was once again stone. We were totally ignoring him, and I was kind of digging it.   So he started out asking Steve how things were going, and he of course said how good things were. It was all small talk until Steve decided to argue with Darryl about his move off overnights. It was awesome. Steve opens up this notebook, and takes out some ratings. (About 3 days earlier I saw Steve snooping around in someones cubicle on the computer looking something up. He then told me later he had seen his ratings and they were high... but he says:) "I had someone print these out for me..." He was fucking lying so bad, but I didn’t say a word. Darryl said almost immediately, "Don’t show me numbers and stats Steve. I’ve seen them. You wanna see stats?" Darryl gets up and gets Steve a book that says how our median age listener is 62. SIXTY-TWO. That shut Steve up. He basically said, listen to my numbers, don’t try to out number me. It was a cool cock fight. Darryl won. I had such a big smile on my face. Every time Cannon’s pride got wiped to the floor I couldn’t help but almost laugh. I knew Darryl could see me, but for some reason I just find this funny. And then the ultimate. It was the coolest moment I’ve ever witnessed. We were talking about how nothing really becomes a story until the newspaper prints it implying talk radio needs to follow that lead. And Cannon goes into this long spiel about how he many times brings up topics that the public hears and they look for it in the newspaper. Much more arrogant than that though. Just, quite frankly I couldn’t believe Cannon actually would say it. In the vain of "I create the news." I just can't put into words how arrogant it came off. It was so "Cannon" and I got another grin on my face, and then Darryl says: "Well, it’s nice to stroke our egos, but we can’t compete with someone who buys their ink by the barrel." You almost had to scrape me off the floor. Goddamn it was perfect. And other than the fact that Cannon never got the hint when the meeting was over. He kept saying: "Is that it?" Then he’d meander a few more words out of Darryl. "Is that it?" I finally said: "Ok, I’ll leave first." Then Darryl kept Cannon inside for a private meeting as Mary Jo and I left. Who knows what was said. But the meeting was fun nonetheless. Before I left I talked to the promotions lady and Munch. Munch is the man. I’m really happy things are going well for him. We talked for awhile and then Darryl came in and said laughingly, "You gotta stop making faces at me..." I laughed and said I couldn’t help it. It was cool. Then a few minutes later Cannon comes in and just fucks things up. Just being him. It was officially his birthday today and he showed Munch his shirt. "In dog years I’m dead." Cannon thought it was hilarious, but past age 11...aren’t we all? Stupid shirt.   10:15 PM - 5:15 AM, Thursday - Friday, January 30th - 31st, 1997: Cannon said he got a good talking to with Darryl. Whatever the hell that entails. I didn’t pry. His show went pretty good, but there weren’t any calls. It was good in that the calls he had at least got him to the next break. Just no excitement. Oh well. My show’s tomorrow and I’m nervous as hell. I hope I get calls.   6:00 PM - 3:00 AM, Saturday - Sunday, February 1st - 2nd, 1997: SHOW 227 Darryl’s postponing my Sunday show for one more week, because he didn’t inform traffic (commercial people). Great. I’m sure he’s sincere, but this is what I meant by it being easier for them to boot me if they wanted. Before, they needed me. Now they can run whatever. I’ll have faith though. Hmmmm... So I go in and start a song. It’s ok. A jazz type song. Then I decide I’ll try to do the Dr. Laura spoof I was thinking about. I call it Dr. Dick. I later add Dr. Dick Rosetti. It runs very smooth. I do two letters...sexual call in show, then take about 5 callers. It’s like a 15 minute talk show. It’s really risque, but very funny. That’s my defense. I barely got that and a quick song done before 9:00. Right before I went on the air I got some entertainment stories the sports page and I was set. THE SHOW ROCKED. Talked about Star Wars and being a kid. Then Aaron did SMF. WITH 3 CALLERS for his segment. Then Dr. Dick at 10:15. And Jesus did we get calls. People were pissed. I loved it. Yeah, some was in our demos, but for the most part who cares. It was graphic though. Whew. Played some Boyles in the 10:30 half-hour, and the 11:00 hour flew by with Star Wars calls and so on. It was awesome. I played another Boyles at 11:30 and 12:30. Then a re-run of Dr. Dick at 1:15. And got a really scary call. The first time I was unnerved doing this job. Guy calls up just PISSED about the bit saying he was calling the FCC and Darryl and all that. That's the normal shit. Then he said he was coming down to the station with some other people to protest, then slammed the phone down. His voice was scary. There’s some fucked up people out there. When I looked out at 2:00, no one was around, but walking to my car I was legitimately scared. My heart was pounding and I was watching my back. There was this eerie silence in the air. It sucked. Anyway the show rocked, but I’m bummed I’m not on tomorrow. Fuck. Oh well, I hope Darryl gets bombarded with calls. Most of these people have no balls though. I did get quite a few positive calls though. I’ll tone it down a bit now that I have people’s attention. Wow. Good show.   8:00 PM, Sunday, February 2nd, 1997: I E-Mailed Darryl about the Hansel position. I asked what I needed to do to be considered for that position. I said I felt being after Munch would be an extremely energetic 5 hours. I can’t believe I had the balls to ask him, but am VERY curious how he responds.