November 04th, 2015

Overwhelming.
Juicy.
Colorful.
Ashamed?

No, not ashamed. You can work yourself into exhaustion, and you can admit that you should have handled an irritating caller with a bit more patience... but ashamed? Not usually.

It's a Wednesday night in the middle of a radio week. Today:

5:30am - Start talking. 

6:30am - East Chicago girls basketball coach Eric Kundich called in. Girls basketball starts tomorrow. Can you believe it? Basketball already? Kundich has one blue chipper who's a sophomore and West Side has the #12 rated player in America. There's a darn good chance that girls eclipses boys this year in high school basketball. 

6:45 - US Senator Joe Donnelly. We talked heroin, prescription drugs and veterans. "6 minutes," Ryan wrote on the board. If you follow the directions of some over-caffeinated staffer, then they'll come back to you time and time again. If you keep their guy on the air too long, staffers will put you on the "pay no mind" list.

7:00 - Andy Qunell, chairman of the Munster Republicans. Andy hosted the elections show last night on WJOB with Dave Kusiak, Kevin Pastrick and, for a while, Lake County Democratic chair, Sheriff John Buncich. They had a pretty good show, but Andy was a little late because he had to wait to see if his Munster council candidate John Reed won. He did, barely, over Kenneth Schoon. 

7:15 - Brandon White, coach of Tri-town Raiders youth football team. They won state. Two more wins and they're going to Disney World. He named all 22 players, which is what producer Ryan wanted.

7:45 - Verlie Suggs called in to admit that she was wrong. Did you hear that, people? Verlie had predicted that Gary mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson would have a tough race. She didn't, winning with more than 70% of the vote.

8:05 - Hammond mayor Tom McDermott said he wished his Republican opponent would have put up a better fight. McDermott won more than 80% of the vote.

8:45 - Jordan Beasley came in. Jordan started working with me when he was 15. Now he's 22 or 23 and graduated from college. "Welcome to the real world," Jordan said, echoing what I've been ramming into his head for years. "Nobody cares if you make it or not. Only you, and maybe your mom Shelby." As much as I would like to see Jordan have a relatively easy go of life, telling him that's how it's gonna be doesn't do him any good. Ryan Walsh joined me also for what was an enjoyable segment. No politics.

9:10 - Students from the Purdue University Calumet "Radio and TV performance" class came in and went on the air live. They're improving, or at least feeling more comfortable in the studio behind the mic. That's always refreshing... although to go straight into teaching from talking will take it out of you.

11am - I arrive at the Radisson in Merrillville for E-day awards for local entrepreneurs done good. I probably wouldn't have gone except that now I'm on the board of the Purdue Commercialization Center and there's things we'll need that people who attend these things can get for us. 

1pm - Stopped for a beer with Mirko Maric and his wife, Kerry. He's on the Commercialization Center board with me and we discussed how we're going to turn northwest Indiana into a mecca for startups and venture capital. Mirko, me, Miller Lite... anything's possible. 

1:50pm - I walked out into the parking lot and Don Babcock of NIPSCO was trying to jump his Cadillac. "Look what the Radisson gave me," Don says. "Hope it works." It was a portable battery charger. "Look, Don," I tell him, "I've got my daughter's car and she's got jumper cables in the trunk. Let's try it that way." At first stubborn Don tries the portable. It doesn't work. Then we jump his Caddy from my daughter's Ford Fusion. It works. Don says people have been telling him that I gave him kudos on the air recently for his work in economic development. See? Didn't I tell you there would be people at the E-day awards who could help us transform northwest Indiana.

2:45pm - I was still sitting in traffic on I-65. Huge traffic jam going northbound towards 80-94. Took me 40 minutes but I finally got up to the crash site on the ramp to the Borman. Crashed vehicles had been cleared, but either way I didn't plan on getting out and doing what I'm supposed to do. Which is to take pictures, maybe interview a cop or something. I'm done with car crashes for now. I don't know why, but I just drive by anymore. Sorry.

8:45pm - I sit down to write the blog that nobody reads. For some reason, I'm thinking of changing the name from "My Radio Life" to "My American, Radio Life." What do you think? I am the consummate American, and I do radio. For some reason I get the feeling that my country matters when it comes to radio. I don't know why.