The Return of Dr. Johnny Fever

There's nothing huge going on right now, so I thought I'd give you an update on the radio station stuff. Personally, I think things are going OK. The person who owns the station seems to be pretty pleased (more below). I'm in the middle of a 2 week break right now and Kathy asked me to fill in for 5 shifts. Three down. I think they're going well. I'm usually pretty oblivious to this, but it seems like I'm actually causing a little bit of a stir. I guess they're not used to dj's getting requests for Doug and the Slugs and actually being able to play it.

My first shift was last Friday night. On my way in, I'm listening to the guy before me. The Barrister. That's what he called himself...in this slow...deep...African...accent. So I'm thinking he's going to play some cool reggae / world music. Uh, Barbara Striesand? Cher? We Are the World? I'm actually screaming in the car because I have to follow some big gay African lawyer. "Noooooooooooooooo!!!!" People at the stop light must have thought I was being tortured. {sigh} So I do my show and no one dies.

The next shift was morning drive...Tuesday morning. They don't have overnight people every night, but they did the morning I got there. He had some chick there...uh...could have been his daughter. His, very cute, 20-something daughter. I didn't want to know - as long as the chair in the booth was dry, I didn't care. Did the show, seemed to go OK.

Now the person who does 10am - 2pm is pretty much the driving force of the station. It used to be this guy named Barry, who was married to Kathy. Barry died last April. It obviously shook everyone up. Anyway, this guy, Bill, is the guy who does a lot of the grunt work at the station, deals with PSA's, Promo's, etc. He gets a small stipend for it - the only person who is paid at the station - and he does his show 5 days a week where everyone else has one shift a week. So he's the big dog. Well, it seems I stepped on his toes a little that first morning. I played a song that crept into his first couple of minutes. (Hey, Keith Richards' solo album rules, man) So I figured that I'm going to have this guy on my ass now. Well...let's stay chronological, shall we....

So, I'm scheduled to do the Thursday morning drive. Get my ass up at 4am (after not getting any sleep because of those f-ing dogs in the neighborhood. They're actually barking as I type...at 10pm) I'm driving in, listening to the guy before me. Oh God. First I hear Enya. I almost caused my airbag to deploy from banging my head on the steering wheel. Then the guy gets on and rambles for 15 minutes straight. In the middle of this, he tells an incoherent story about how he bumped into Kathy last week who told him that this new guy is going to be coming in on Thursday and that he's really good. (So that's how I know Kathy's cool with what I'm doing) But he sure can't remember my name because he's been up for 25 hours. So he goes on and on about how he can't remember my name. I'm pretty much driving with my mouth open now.

Alright. I get there, the guy seems nice. A bit weird, but nice. I do my show. It goes fine. Though, I'm still having problems with this virus...I have to do a hernia-enducing cough every time I'm about to go on the air. (sorry for being so graphic) So, it's near the end of the show and Bill comes in. Now, I already had this planned, but I figured, what the hell. Let's show this guy that I ain't fucking around. I AM radio, dammit! So my last two songs before his show were Public Enemy followed by jazz vocalist Betty Carter. That's right, bitch*. I'll finish by playing your song, but I'm going out with a bang.

As I'm in my car going home, I'm listening to Bill's show. He started talking about me...not really in a bad way. He had already told me that he liked how I sounded on air. I'm going to need an explanation from someone who hasn't just gotten off the boat, but he said, "He sounds just like he should be downtown, but with a more...eclectic taste in music." He said it with a tone that was complimentary, but when he got to the eclectic part I could tell that the PE thing kinda rocked him.

Well, next week I got some bagpipe stuff from a guy in Maryland....and I'm saving it for 9:57am...and there's always the one Whitee song that's appropriate for the air (Trials & Tribulations)

OK...some pictures. I realized that for whatever reason, Blogger won't let my links to my pictures on Fokti go through. Though you can still see them here. So instead I have to post them directly into the post. So here's the radio booth.

Tomorrow, I'm going to the Ocean Center. So I hope to have more pictures to put up. Then next week, the petroglyphs and the crater.

*All efforts at sounding like a badass were for comedic purposes only. No DJ's were hurt in the making of this post.