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I Am WAY-FM!
August 27, 2019
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. C.J. Lusk had been canned from a morning show in Atlanta and I knew, because of his immense talent that it wouldn't be long before stations would be lined up to get him off of the unemployment line. The day that I checked in with him, there were, in fact, three stations that were interested in him, and one that he was pretty certain that I would tell him to stay away from
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C.J. Lusk had been canned from a morning show in Atlanta and I knew, because of his immense talent that it wouldn't be long before stations would be lined up to get him off of the unemployment line. The day that I checked in with him, there were, in fact, three stations that were interested in him, and one that he was pretty certain that I would tell him to stay away from.
As he listed his opportunities, major gigs; one in the Midwest and another in the Southeast, he then side barred that WAY-FM had reached out to him for their opening in afternoon drive.
Having just been fired by that organization, C.J. was probably certain that I was about to tell him to take one of the other gigs, and he admitted it caught him by surprise when I answered, "WAY-FM, no question, end of story, WAY-FM."
He asked why I was so sure. My response was telling him what I had told my former boss, Faron Dice when he came to do the hatchet work sitting down in my office in Nashville. On that day that I was let go, I told Faron that, "even at this very moment, this has been my favorite job that I have ever had."
Quality of Life
There have been three cities that I have worked in where the quality of life far surpasses anything a job could ever offer, and Nashville is certainly one of those places, now, along with Greenville, SC and Charlotte, NC; places that C.J. and I have in common as having worked in and lived in all three.
Read the past story about CJ.... If You Are Michael Jordan, Who Is Your Phil Jackson.
I have had a dream career, dating way back to Columbia College when all I wanted to do was get a job in Rockford, Illinois so I could be in Cheap Trick's hometown, playing a Cheap Trick song on the radio. It was a big dream for a kid who, when I was 16 got a call from their lead guitarist, Rick Nielsen, simply because I wrote him a letter with pictures of my friends and I mimicking his jumps and kicks on stage and a passive ask, "If you can possibly manage the time, 815-455-4676."
The phone call as a prepubescent teen should have been enough, but instead, as fate would have it, my first job out of college was a part time gig at 105 WYBR in Rockford where within the first 18 minutes of my first shift, I flipped the title on the card catalog music system, actual index cards at the time, and there it was, a song from Cheap Trick. Dream come true.
Drugs and alcohol had found a place in my life in my college days, attempting to make up for some hurts in my childhood, but almost five years after that dream fulfilling night of playing a Cheap Trick song in Rockford, I hadn't come close to fulfilling any of the dreams I had for my future, which still included working in Alternative radio, becoming a full time night jock in Top 40 and one day, a Program Director.
Unfulfilled Dreams
In the late 80's I had found myself doing Classic Rock on a well programmed station in Westerly, RI, but the dream had stalled and regardless of how much alcohol I could drink, there weren't enough choices at the bar to settle what was unsettled.
In a one week period of time, my car would be stolen, I would lose my radio job and the girl I was in love with would dump me, and depression would grab me at a level that has literally driven some off of a bridge, so when out of despair, I verbally called out to God as I layed on my back on my bed looking at the ceiling, it was a last ditch effort for someone to come to my aid. In the twinkling of an eye, It felt like there was a crash of the walls, as if I had just called upon the Kool-Aid Man instead, but regardless the one I called answered. I could hear the words, "Robert, everything will be okay. Trust me, follow me." It was easy to trust in that moment because my savior had filled me and every area around me with peace to a level beyond the lie of any psychedelic drug I had taken up until that point in my life, and for the next hour, he allowed me to just sit in what felt like bean bags of Jell-O, as I was held in an embrace of love from a God I had never known, and a love that was powerful, yet foreign up until that moment.
He had made such an impact that I was quitting radio, as all I wanted to do was serve Him, and the same voice I heard telling me things would be okay, told me he would send me back to where I once was but that it was no longer about serving myself, but Him. So, immediately I thought, "Christian Radio." But the same voice said, "I am not sending you to speak to those who already believe they're converted."
And then one job after another, God began fulfilling my dreams. Four months later I was on the air in Vermont at WEQX doing Alternative radio, while doubling as their Promotions Director, a job that would open more doors as my next job would be to become the marketing and promotions guy in Tampa at 93.3 WFLZ, which was the Power Pig back in that era. And then I went to 93Q in Syracuse, where He checked off another dream, becoming a night jock on a Top 40 station, followed by the honor of being the first Program Pirector for the newly launched WFBC B93.7 in Greenville, SC.
Dreams Coming True By The Dozens
As a kid I dreamed of living in LA, and I got to work at Star 98.7 and I wanted to work in NYC and I worked at 92.3 Now, and my dream-filled life continued with every job and then I got the call to return to LA to work at The Fish. Christians asked if I was relieved to have finally gotten a job where I could serve God, and I would reply, "No, because I've been serving Him in every job that He's given me." But there was something incredible about being able to have a new level of freedom in how you can approach the subject of God on air, and this is where I learned, that even in Christian radio, THAT FREEDOM, wasn't just a given, that somewhere in the history of Christian radio, someone had laid down some rules on how it was supposed to be done. I blew off and ignored every one of those man-made rules and simply honored God with my words, stories and actions, and as He had done my entire career, He blessed my road with ratings.
That included my time at WAY-FM, where my 90-day review from Faron Dice simply read, "You've done more in 90 days than your predecessors did in 5 years," a word so good I have never gotten rid of that piece of paper, and God blessed our time with ratings and donor income so high city to city, the Program Director of WSIX in Nashville once texted me to knock it off and to back up.
So, when C.J. shared with me the options he had, all I knew was that what I experienced at WAY-FM is something very few experience in all of their careers, and one bitter moment of a dismissal wasn't enough for me to stand in the way of another man's potential time of reaping.
That same voice that once told me to trust Him, told me to continue blessing the ministry of WAY-FM financially after they had let me go, and you'd better believe, I listened to that voice of the one who makes dreams come true.
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