I first met Tod during the Eastern New Mexico University summer session in 1983. He was in my Introduction to Communications class. Tod swears he saw me during Freshman Orientation in the Fall of 1982. He says I was sitting right in front of him and my big hair was blocking his view. I told him time and again that it wasn't me because I went to the orientation during the summer pre-registration. To this day, I'm pretty certain he still thinks that was me.
Tod was from Florida was pretty much like me. He had blond hair and wore glasses. He also wore t-shirts most of the time that summer. Two main differences were he had short hair and he came from a large family with five brothers and sisters. Judging by his class presentations, we were at about the same intelligence level. I didn't encounter him much during my freshman year. I guess he spent his first year focusing on his General Education requirements before getting full swing into broadcasting.
I encountered Tod in several broadcasting classes over the next couple of years, but I really didn't start becoming friends with him until around January of 1985. I was working at KZZO-FM in Clovis, NM. The Program Manager often left his office door open and employment applications from prospective DJs were on his desk. I saw one submitted by Tod. At the time, I didn't think we were hiring, so I didn't read too much into its presence. The next day, I came into the station and he was there getting trained by one of the other part-timers. (When I go more into detail about working at the radio station, you'll understand why I was suddenly concerned he was there.) I assisted in the training. I was actually rather thankful to have a friendly face at the station.
Several months passed and the station's afternoon drive time guy left to work at a station in Abilene, TX. Tod was asked to become a full-timer and he worked the mid-day shift. This didn't really bug me because I knew the Program Director didn't like me and I was trying to concentrate on getting my degree. However, I still didn't like that I was working the overnight shift on the weekends. Tod dropped out of college because work interfered with his class schedule. In fact, he left one of his classes in a lurch. His partner on a project in a class we were taking together wrote on the handout that he couldn't get a hold of Tod to finish the project and had to do everything himself. He wrote this in a pre-Internet ALL CAPS RAGE so that the entire class would see it.
A few months later, the Program Director quit and the station hired that afternoon drive guy to come back from Abilene to take his place. But he knew he was destined for larger things than working a small market radio station and in January of 1986, he got a job at a station in Lubbock. Tod was then named Program Director. The good news about this was that I was asked to work full-time at the station. I don't know for certain that Tod helped me to attain that position, but it's nice to think that he did.
Very soon, I believe Tod found out that one of the bad things about being the Program Director was that he wasn't really in charge of anything. The station owner was really kind of a puppet master and micromanaged everything from staffing to programming to the music that we played. After a few months, Tod decided he wanted to go back to college and get his degree. He went home to Florida for a brief period of time. He said he was going to be working as a DJ at a strip club, but that didn't happen. He came back for the Summer 1986 session. He was in for a shock when he returned to the airport in Albuquerque and found out he had parked in the short-term lot instead of the long-term and had to pay a lot of money to get his back. In addition to school, he was able to come back and work part-time at the station.
We then went through two more program directors: The one who replaced Tod and the one who replaced him. They both wound up working at the same station in Lubbock. Tod regained the Program Director position again and stopped going back to school.
Under normal circumstances, this would go into Part 2 tomorrow. However, he will be entwined with the person I am writing about next. Tod's Part 2 will be on Thursday.
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