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Everyone's Got A Few Funny Radio Stories ...
March 16, 2021
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It’s always fun to talk to people who you used to work with. In those situations, we get into the time machine and travel back. And that’s when all the funny stories come to mind as if they had just happened yesterday.
One of my former colleagues reminded me of my WYLD New Orleans programming days, and the weekend I have always referred to as "My Three-Act Play."
Act One:
What Was That...
I had been in the New Orleans for a short time and was having fun getting used to the food, people, and all things unique. For example, Lovebugs are commonly found in Central America and the United States in the Southeastern region-- especially along the Gulf Coast.These winged insects fly around in pairs in the summer mating in midair. You see most of them stuck together while flying. It was all new to me. So, when I first saw 2 Lovebugs doing the wild thing in midair, it looked like a fly with two heads at opposite ends.
I thought I had discovered something that had escaped from a laboratory doing secret experiments in the New Orleans area. When I got back to the station and asked about what I just seen, the receptionist laughed her head off and explained to me what a Lovebug was.
Act Two:
The Friday Night Scam …
By the end of the day, pretty much everyone was laughing about my Lovebug encounter. The incident sort of cemented me as part of my new radio family. I was headed home for the weekend. However, first I had to make a stop at the grocery store. I was in there for less than 20 minutes.As I headed back to my car, I noticed there was a guy standing next to my car with his arms folded. The gentleman with tattoos covering both arms, accused me of scraping the paint off his car door with my car door when I got out to go inside the store. If I had tapped his car door, I had no idea how he could tell. His vehicle was a rusty multi-colored street beater. I mean this car looked like the “Highway To Hell Special.” But I felt sorry for the guy, he was just hustling. My $20.00 offer took care of the problem, he was so happy, he even offered to share a joint with me. I told him, “Thanks, but that’s not necessary.”
Act Three:
There Are Days Like This …
When I got home, I noticed the hole in the screen I had asked property management to fix was not fixed. Even worse, the widow was up, and the screen was gone. I was not happy and would have called management’s emergency number, but it was 7:30p and not really the end of the world. I closed the window and turned on the air conditioning. Too tired to eat, I fell asleep on the couch and woke up to an intermittent buzzing noise.The Wasps …
It sounded as if was coming from my bedroom, it sounded like wasps. I armed myself with a wadded-up newspaper and headed in. I hate wasps, I looked everywhere, but could not find anything. I closed the door and slept on couch. I figured most likely a wasp or wasps got in when they took out my screen and left the window open.I Know What I Heard …
I woke up Saturday morning with a stiff neck, determined to find the wasp, and to get maintenance to bring back the screen for the window. It was one of those weekends that I decided to only listen and not drop by the station. I stayed in most of the time and my phone never rang once. Meanwhile, I kept hearing the buzzing and I went out and bought a can of wasp spray. Instead of going to a motel for the rest of the weekend, I stayed. I was determined to find the wasp or wasps. By the way, maintenance never came to give me a new screen.Monday Morning …
Monday could not come soon enough. I got to work and found some notes under my door about problems with remote equipment at our paid remotes over the weekend. Apparently, engineering had not responded to calls from any of the street teams.I had a standard rule, call anytime day or night if anything goes wrong. I called an emergency air staff meeting. All morning I had to deal with the Sales Manager, the General Manager, Engineering, and Traffic. The remotes did not go well and heading into meeting, The Sales Manager pulled me aside and told me he had tried to contact me over the weekend.
I Thought Nobody Called …
The first thing I said in the meeting, “Why didn’t anyone call me about these problems? Those involved all said they had tried to contact me. I was beginning to think there was a problem with my phone or my answering machine. I asked, “How many times did some of you call me.” And that’s when it came out, “We paged you.”Oops …
I had a cell phone for private use, but I never gave that # to anyone at the station. They only had the landline number. And the company had insisted on having another way to reach me. That “Lovebug Discovery” Friday, I had reluctantly accepted a company pager instead of a cell phone.My comeback to the pager response was, “You did?” So, to prove it, one of the air personalities paged me and I heard the wasps again. It was coming from my briefcase in the chair next to me in the meeting. The wasp was my pager on vibrate. Once I told everyone what I had gone through over the weekend, the room was in tears laughing.
A Weekend To Remember …
I was laughing as hard as they were. What made it memorable was the fact those three days pretty much summed up my stay in New Orleans. The whole time I was there, it felt like that line from the song Hotel California, “You can check-out anytime you like, but you can never leave.” The entire weekend was like a sitcom, only it had been real. I’ve had a lot of funny moments during my career, but never on consecutive days. -
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