It's all about me...

If you really want to know more about me, then here we go...
The second kid (and second boy) from my mom and dad. My dad was 20 years older than my mom, and when i was a teenager, the age difference became very acute. I was born in moline illinois, i spent a great deal of time between the quad cities and ava, mo. It seems my mom and dad couldn't figure out where they wanted to live so it was back and forth, back and forth. My olderbrother(by 8 years)turned me on to girls, cars and music (not necessarily in that order). I fell in love with radio at an early age and remember meeting my first deejay(lou gutenberger on kstt in davenport) when i was about ten. I thought he was very cool. On the farm in ava, after the chores, i would sit up in my room, doing homework and listening to kris eric stevens on wls in chicago and clyde clifford, who played (underground) music on kaay in little rock. The first time i heard "the court of the crimson king" by king crimson about shook my world. In 1971, we moved again back to the quad cities, this time residing in east moline (the quad cities actually had five cities, i think east moline got booted out for bad behavior). My brother's wife knew an instructor at the local radio school (this school was run by the morning guy at kstt, chuck hamilton, i was more excited to meet him than actually the school itself). I did audition by reading a commercial, and was immediately accepted. Well, i was only 16 and had other things going on, so i enrolled at the school part time. My family never had any money, so i had to quit the radio school and go to work in the shops. After putting about 3 years of working at a foundry and going to school, i got real burnt out and announced to my wife at the time that i was quitting the shop and going to be a "deejay". My wife left and that allowed me to devote all my attention to the nine month course which i finished in six. My first day on air was may 12 1976 at "country sunshine" radio whbf in rock island il. The first song i ever played was "chevy van" by sammy johns. I went from parttime and weekend work to snatching my first full time gig at a free form album station (that meant you could play whatever you wanted)in muscatine ia. What a great station this was. Headed by a guy that i still enjoy today, steve bridges, i did the morning show (6a-12n monday through saturday) and had a blast playing anything i wanted. It was also the first time that i realised for some reason that djs were cool with the feminine gender. i got sick and had to quit and tried hard to get a gig. The pd at the mellow music am station in the quad cities decided he wanted to try something to improve his ratings so, we decided to launch an album show at night. so,we would literally sign off the easy listening portion of the day with something like barry manilow, play the opening of "the album place" and then hit them with rush or ted nugent or whatever. This worked, we finally caught the perrenial rock leader kstt within two ratings periods. Well, another station in the market on FM was thinking about switching thier programming to what we were doing and i was hired to do middays on wxlp (97x, it's still on the air as we speak). I moved to mornings and after working there for awhile, i recieved a call from max floyd, program director of ky102 in kansas city wanting to know if i would be interested in doing nights. On september 15, 1978, i was hired to do the night show at ky. I did night till 1982, when i moved to afternoons.In 1985, john beck(who was my competitor from kc) called and wondered if i would be interested in working at kshe. Oh my! Back in radio school, one of the things we talked about was were you wanted to be in 10 years. My answer was KSHE!. I started at kshe on june 10, 1985. I was fired on january 4 1989 for reasons i still don't get, but anyway, iwent back to ky and did nights untill 1991, i ran kfmq in lincoln nebraska for almost a year and the returned to kshe. I left kshe in 1998 to do mornings and help run 97fm the Rock!We were successful in taking down kshe, so much that the management at kshe bought us and shut us down in 2000. I then went right across the street and put on the smooth jazz station (wssm)until i got sick again and had to leave the business for awhile. Dana daniels hired me at oldies radio in 2002 and i did part time middays and afternoons until i was offered what i considered at the time to be a vert sweet gig doing mornings at kcfx, the flagship station of the kansas city chiefs. I returned to kc working for one of the best guys ever in don daniels. Together, we made me serious runs at the big boys there, but for some reason, the new market manager switched the oldies and classic rocks pds in the cluster. I knew i was in trouble with my new boss when, on the 40th anniversary of the Beatles performing on the ed sullivan show, he wanted me to edit out some of the original performance. The relationship deteriorated from there. Six months later, i was out the door, and the morning show returned to the lower tier of the ratings. I returned to st. louis to be with my family and figure out what to do next. I waited tables at hacienda restaurant and then i accepted a job selling time for klou. It was the hardest job i have ever had. In march, i saw an ad for an affiliate relations person for learfield communications out of jefferson city. I had heard great things about the company, so i applied and was hired on st. patricks day. I love the job as i get to still be in radio while not being on the radio. My job is to basically make 176 stations in four states happy and also make learfield happy by getting more stations on the network. I still do a weekend shift or two on klou, just to have some fun and keep my chops up. I have a 25 year old daughter (who has made me a grandfather with a beautiful girl)that is wrapping up her eduaction at northern iowa, a 21 year old stepson who is in the air force rotc plan at notre dame ($$$) and 16 year daughter whom i love very much and has made me quite proud. I love my life and feel very fortunate to have done what i have done and met who i have met. I have fallen in love with beautiful women and met interesting people. I am truly blessed by God.