My Swan Song and Best Radio Moment

I don't think it could have been any better than this!

I grew up in Northwest Indiana.  My parents were big country music fans.  Up until my teen years, the only thing we could agree on was Oldies 104.3.  I was not into pop music or anything new until I was well into my teens.  I can remember having my radio/record player automatically turn on with my light switch to Oldies 104.3.

Many Chicago radio legends were on that station.  I always loved listening to Greg Brown.  He had a feature called the Brown Bag Lunch that I loved.  In reality it was only a request show and Greg would make a crumpled bag noise on the air...but it was great.  I always wanted to be a music jock just like Greg Brown.

When I got my first full time radio job at WKOA in Lafayette, Indiana, I started sending Greg tapes.  He actually listened to my airchecks and gave me some very useful pointers.  I couldn't believe he did that!

Fast forward about 10 years...I had moved back home after the whole Wilmington debacle.  I went back to the cozy "home" of Shadow/Metro Networks in Chicago.  I had worked there about 5 years earlier and left on great terms.  This company is (or was) responsible for 90% of all traffic reports on Chicago radio.

My bosses Mark Napoleon and Kevin Scott got me approved for WBBM this second time around.  That meant I could do almost any shift there.  During the Summer of 2008, I filled in on all kinds of great shifts on all sorts of stations in Chicago.

This day, I was filling in for Marti Jones.  Her afternoon shift, at the time, included 2 live traffic reports and hour on WLS-FM.  WLS-FM featured the oldies format and Greg Brown in the afternoon.  I was SO nervous.  I was gonna be on WLS with my radio idol.  I can remember the first break.  I was just nervous about how I would sound and that I could do the report....after Greg and I felt each other out...things got much better.

I left radio for good less than two weeks after this shift.  What else could I possibly do in radio?

I had been a PD, I got my gold record, and I was on in Chicago.

Plus I was on WLS with Greg Brown....what more could I do?

A big thanks to Dave North of Direct From Studio B for this audio.  I lived over an hour from the Shadow studios and airchecking at home wasn't possible.  There really was no way for me to capture this...so Dave recorded this from the live stream in North Carolina.  The audio is great and I will always be grateful to Dave that I have this awesome piece of audio.

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