...I have to take a break. I just realized I've posted almost every weekday for the past 11 weeks and it all covered the four year period in which I worked at KZZO-FM beginning in college, living in Clovis, NM and deciding to move to Denver.
I don't normally post other people's videos on my blog, but I'm making an exception in this case. This is a pretty fair representation of what Clovis was like when I lived there. Even though this video was done seven years ago and I know there have been a lot of changes since I lived there, it's still very much the town I called home for two years. The song also echoes my feelings about that period.
I expect to return to the blog sometime next month. We'll see where my life goes from there.
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
KZZO in Clovis: A Post Mortem
I'm wrapping up my experience with KZZO-FM with this post. I'm going to attempt to explain how a station that was so exciting and so popular wound up being such a failure.
Recently, I found some scattered comments about KZZO in the 1980s. In one forum, someone said the local joke was that KZZO was so late in adding new music, the songs were falling off the charts by the time we were playing them. I'll admit this appeared to be a problem the first few years. What would happen is that MTV would start playing the videos virtually the moment they were released. If the song was by a well-known artist and the video was pretty good, it would go immediately into heavy rotation, thus just about everyone would be familiar with the song before it hit the airwaves. And, of course, there was that issue with "Don't You (Forget about Me)" in 1985. But the issues surrounding the music were not the main contributor to the station's failure.
As I've mentioned before, Jid the owner had a dream of owning an empire of small market radio stations. In order for him to achieve this dream, he had to charge a pretty high premium on advertising. Even though we were not officially the highest-rated station in town, our ad prices were set as if we were.
And this was part of the problem. Jid refused to sell the advertising for less than a specific dollar amount. If a potential advertiser stated they would be more inclined to purchase airtime if the sales staff could come down just a little bit more on the rates or allow a few more spots to run for the same amount, the answer was always no. I could see his reasoning on this. If we agree to a lower rate, they're just going to ask for a rate that's even lower. And they're not going to keep that bargain to themselves. The client would likely inform every business in town about the deal he got and then everyone would start asking for that same price. Jid did not want us to be the highest-rated station in town selling air time at bargain basement rates. He was not going to get the empire that way.
But when those first Arbitron ratings came out with a major error that completely screwed us over and we were not listed as number one, it would have been nice if Jid had realized he wasn't going to get his empire as quickly as he thought. He probably should have taken measures to try to make KZZO profitable and become a lot more reasonable on the rates.
Another issue was that we had about 12 hours out of the day that ran almost NO advertising whatsoever. This was between 6pm and 6am. There was plenty of room for ads. If Jid wasn't willing to offer lower rates for drive time and day time slots, he could have come way down on the prices for nighttime programming. Businesses who never advertised before would probably be more willing to buy ads at those times and if they saw an increase in their revenue, could then be persuaded to buy the prime spots. About the only advertising we did at night was the Domino's Pizza giveaway, and they weren't even recorded spots.
I guess it was two years later that Jid figured out that his dream for an empire was not going to become a reality. That's when he brought Mr W in as a partner. He still refused to come down on the ad rates. I'm certain Mr. W and Jid had many arguments about that. I mean, which is better: Allowing an advertiser to pay $200 and get more ads for his money, or refusing the offer and getting no money whatsoever? Jid likely pulled the "I know radio and you don't" routine on Mr. W to trump him every time. But during that whole year, Mr W's bank account continued to be drained and he couldn't do a thing about it.
And of course, there were issues with the advertisers themselves. They were used to the conservative nature of country music stations, so if we did something they didn't jive with, they wouldn't advertise. When we launched, there were some businesses that didn't want to be associated with a station that referred to itself as "The Zoo." I remember that we lost one advertiser who refused to buy air time as long as we were playing the song "I Want Your Sex" by George Michael. The stupid thing was that, when it was a hit, we only played it once a day and it was only at night. That was not enough to damage the morality of the whole town.
But we really found out about the radically conservative values of the local merchants when Heid started working six to midnight. I don't know if Heid was aware of this, but we lost one-third of our advertisers because of him. As I said before, he wasn't vulgar, just somewhat raunchy. However, it was still too much for the tender ears of the grown-ups in Clovis. Members of the sales staff said that if they were meeting with a client and they mentioned Heid during the course of their pitch, they knew they were going to leave empty-handed. The staff begged and pleaded with Jid to get rid of Heid or just switch him back to overnights. Jid wouldn't do that. He was too pleased with the buzz that Heid had created, even though it was causing financial chaos for everyone else at the station.
And when Heid left for Dallas, the sales team immediately went to their old clients and told them he was no longer poisoning our airwaves. But it was too late. They were either pleased with their advertising on the other stations or they found out they didn't really need to advertise on radio, period.
But there was another issue at play: Our sales staff just didn't know how to capitalize on Heid's primary audience. In the movie "Private Parts," Howard Stern is about to get fired from WNBC after two major advertisers pull their spots from his show. But his butt is saved when another advertiser buys enough to more than make up for the loss of those two clients. Good salespeople could have used the fact that Heid had so much appeal with younger listeners to find advertisers who wished to reach that demographic. Of course, they would have had an easier time doing that if Jid had been willing to come down on the ad rates at night. We just couldn't win.
After Heid left, Jid no longer had any involvement in the operations. It was left in the hands of the silent partners, who really had no idea how to run a radio station. The main thing they did was to try to make us seem like a new radio station by having us refer to ourselves as KZZO 107.5 instead of "The Zoo 108." This change forced us to get rid of the majority of our on-air jingles and they did not buy us a new package, nor did they try to get us new call letters. At the staff meeting announcing this change, they didn't state the reason why, but I figured out that they wanted to make it seem like we were no longer that station with the vulgar DJ and the two gay owners.
But the damage had already been done. I don't know if the new people in charge made any attempt to lower our ad rates, but we were not doing any better. I'm glad I was able to get out while the getting was good.
In 1991, when I was moving from Denver to San Diego, I stopped by the station. However, the General Manager was the only person I knew who was still there, but he wasn't in at the time. The next time I came through Clovis a couple of years later, I tuned the dial to 107.5, but it was no longer KZZO. It was a station running satellite programming. I could tell because their listener line was a 1-800 number. The next time I came through, there was silence on the frequency.
When I moved to San Jose, I looked for radio stations in Clovis and Portales on the Internet. I found that there was a new station on the same frequency. It was KSMX. They went by the nickname "Mix 107.5." They were actually the only station in the area with a website. KTQM/KWKA didn't have one. According to the site, a couple of guys from radio in San Diego bought the station and became the morning team. It seemed like they were doing pretty well.
A couple of years later, I went to Clovis and stopped by to check it out. (This was shortly after I had been cut to part-time at the newsradio station in San Jose.) The station was now located in the downtown area. I walked in. There was no one in the front lobby. I heard someone yell, "Hello?" I said, "Hi!" The person came out. It was someone I recognized. It was one of my Mom's cousins (making him my first cousin once removed). He told me he was from the sales department. I had to point out that I was related to him, but we actually hadn't seen each other in a long time.
He told me about how the new owners came in and really turned the station around to make it more a part of the community. He told me the station was doing so well, they were sold out of air time for the next month. When he told me this, I thought, "There's no way you sell out of air time on a radio station." I mean, I can understand how it relates to automation and satellite programming (which was on at the time). I can also understand how, if someone just wants a $200 order, the station wouldn't want to disrupt its traffic, but if Coca-Cola comes up and says, "We need to buy $50,000 worth of air time next month," the response they would get is: "Hey, look! New inventory!"
He said that because KSMX was doing so well, KTQM and KWKA had reduced themselves to offering ads practically for pennies. I'm glad someone was able to come in and squash them.
The owners weren't there when I visited. They were getting ready for a remote at some carnival that was taking place that weekend. I was really hoping to meet them. I don't know that I would have wanted a job there (after practically losing the one I had at the time), but it would have been nice to have that connection.
They proved it was possible to start up and have a profitable station. They probably had the best of luck in getting the Arbritron ratings to come out in their favor early on. I'm just sorry that Jid wasn't able to achieve his dream. But even if he did, he would have only been able to enjoy the empire up until 1993, when he died of brain cancer. It's strange to think that in three years, I will be older than he was when he passed away and that I did not accomplish anywhere near what he did during that same period of time.
Recently, I found some scattered comments about KZZO in the 1980s. In one forum, someone said the local joke was that KZZO was so late in adding new music, the songs were falling off the charts by the time we were playing them. I'll admit this appeared to be a problem the first few years. What would happen is that MTV would start playing the videos virtually the moment they were released. If the song was by a well-known artist and the video was pretty good, it would go immediately into heavy rotation, thus just about everyone would be familiar with the song before it hit the airwaves. And, of course, there was that issue with "Don't You (Forget about Me)" in 1985. But the issues surrounding the music were not the main contributor to the station's failure.
As I've mentioned before, Jid the owner had a dream of owning an empire of small market radio stations. In order for him to achieve this dream, he had to charge a pretty high premium on advertising. Even though we were not officially the highest-rated station in town, our ad prices were set as if we were.
And this was part of the problem. Jid refused to sell the advertising for less than a specific dollar amount. If a potential advertiser stated they would be more inclined to purchase airtime if the sales staff could come down just a little bit more on the rates or allow a few more spots to run for the same amount, the answer was always no. I could see his reasoning on this. If we agree to a lower rate, they're just going to ask for a rate that's even lower. And they're not going to keep that bargain to themselves. The client would likely inform every business in town about the deal he got and then everyone would start asking for that same price. Jid did not want us to be the highest-rated station in town selling air time at bargain basement rates. He was not going to get the empire that way.
But when those first Arbitron ratings came out with a major error that completely screwed us over and we were not listed as number one, it would have been nice if Jid had realized he wasn't going to get his empire as quickly as he thought. He probably should have taken measures to try to make KZZO profitable and become a lot more reasonable on the rates.
Another issue was that we had about 12 hours out of the day that ran almost NO advertising whatsoever. This was between 6pm and 6am. There was plenty of room for ads. If Jid wasn't willing to offer lower rates for drive time and day time slots, he could have come way down on the prices for nighttime programming. Businesses who never advertised before would probably be more willing to buy ads at those times and if they saw an increase in their revenue, could then be persuaded to buy the prime spots. About the only advertising we did at night was the Domino's Pizza giveaway, and they weren't even recorded spots.
I guess it was two years later that Jid figured out that his dream for an empire was not going to become a reality. That's when he brought Mr W in as a partner. He still refused to come down on the ad rates. I'm certain Mr. W and Jid had many arguments about that. I mean, which is better: Allowing an advertiser to pay $200 and get more ads for his money, or refusing the offer and getting no money whatsoever? Jid likely pulled the "I know radio and you don't" routine on Mr. W to trump him every time. But during that whole year, Mr W's bank account continued to be drained and he couldn't do a thing about it.
And of course, there were issues with the advertisers themselves. They were used to the conservative nature of country music stations, so if we did something they didn't jive with, they wouldn't advertise. When we launched, there were some businesses that didn't want to be associated with a station that referred to itself as "The Zoo." I remember that we lost one advertiser who refused to buy air time as long as we were playing the song "I Want Your Sex" by George Michael. The stupid thing was that, when it was a hit, we only played it once a day and it was only at night. That was not enough to damage the morality of the whole town.
But we really found out about the radically conservative values of the local merchants when Heid started working six to midnight. I don't know if Heid was aware of this, but we lost one-third of our advertisers because of him. As I said before, he wasn't vulgar, just somewhat raunchy. However, it was still too much for the tender ears of the grown-ups in Clovis. Members of the sales staff said that if they were meeting with a client and they mentioned Heid during the course of their pitch, they knew they were going to leave empty-handed. The staff begged and pleaded with Jid to get rid of Heid or just switch him back to overnights. Jid wouldn't do that. He was too pleased with the buzz that Heid had created, even though it was causing financial chaos for everyone else at the station.
And when Heid left for Dallas, the sales team immediately went to their old clients and told them he was no longer poisoning our airwaves. But it was too late. They were either pleased with their advertising on the other stations or they found out they didn't really need to advertise on radio, period.
But there was another issue at play: Our sales staff just didn't know how to capitalize on Heid's primary audience. In the movie "Private Parts," Howard Stern is about to get fired from WNBC after two major advertisers pull their spots from his show. But his butt is saved when another advertiser buys enough to more than make up for the loss of those two clients. Good salespeople could have used the fact that Heid had so much appeal with younger listeners to find advertisers who wished to reach that demographic. Of course, they would have had an easier time doing that if Jid had been willing to come down on the ad rates at night. We just couldn't win.
After Heid left, Jid no longer had any involvement in the operations. It was left in the hands of the silent partners, who really had no idea how to run a radio station. The main thing they did was to try to make us seem like a new radio station by having us refer to ourselves as KZZO 107.5 instead of "The Zoo 108." This change forced us to get rid of the majority of our on-air jingles and they did not buy us a new package, nor did they try to get us new call letters. At the staff meeting announcing this change, they didn't state the reason why, but I figured out that they wanted to make it seem like we were no longer that station with the vulgar DJ and the two gay owners.
But the damage had already been done. I don't know if the new people in charge made any attempt to lower our ad rates, but we were not doing any better. I'm glad I was able to get out while the getting was good.
In 1991, when I was moving from Denver to San Diego, I stopped by the station. However, the General Manager was the only person I knew who was still there, but he wasn't in at the time. The next time I came through Clovis a couple of years later, I tuned the dial to 107.5, but it was no longer KZZO. It was a station running satellite programming. I could tell because their listener line was a 1-800 number. The next time I came through, there was silence on the frequency.
When I moved to San Jose, I looked for radio stations in Clovis and Portales on the Internet. I found that there was a new station on the same frequency. It was KSMX. They went by the nickname "Mix 107.5." They were actually the only station in the area with a website. KTQM/KWKA didn't have one. According to the site, a couple of guys from radio in San Diego bought the station and became the morning team. It seemed like they were doing pretty well.
A couple of years later, I went to Clovis and stopped by to check it out. (This was shortly after I had been cut to part-time at the newsradio station in San Jose.) The station was now located in the downtown area. I walked in. There was no one in the front lobby. I heard someone yell, "Hello?" I said, "Hi!" The person came out. It was someone I recognized. It was one of my Mom's cousins (making him my first cousin once removed). He told me he was from the sales department. I had to point out that I was related to him, but we actually hadn't seen each other in a long time.
He told me about how the new owners came in and really turned the station around to make it more a part of the community. He told me the station was doing so well, they were sold out of air time for the next month. When he told me this, I thought, "There's no way you sell out of air time on a radio station." I mean, I can understand how it relates to automation and satellite programming (which was on at the time). I can also understand how, if someone just wants a $200 order, the station wouldn't want to disrupt its traffic, but if Coca-Cola comes up and says, "We need to buy $50,000 worth of air time next month," the response they would get is: "Hey, look! New inventory!"
He said that because KSMX was doing so well, KTQM and KWKA had reduced themselves to offering ads practically for pennies. I'm glad someone was able to come in and squash them.
The owners weren't there when I visited. They were getting ready for a remote at some carnival that was taking place that weekend. I was really hoping to meet them. I don't know that I would have wanted a job there (after practically losing the one I had at the time), but it would have been nice to have that connection.
They proved it was possible to start up and have a profitable station. They probably had the best of luck in getting the Arbritron ratings to come out in their favor early on. I'm just sorry that Jid wasn't able to achieve his dream. But even if he did, he would have only been able to enjoy the empire up until 1993, when he died of brain cancer. It's strange to think that in three years, I will be older than he was when he passed away and that I did not accomplish anywhere near what he did during that same period of time.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
The Return of Chez
A few weeks before I left for Denver, Chez came back into town for a couple of days. We had been talking from time to time and writing letters to each other. She told me about a lot of stuff that had happened to her and her family before I met her.
The most startling thing was that she had been raped by her half-brother when she was 14. Her half-brother was the product of her father's first marriage. Chez was severely injured by the incident, so much so that the doctor told her that she would never be able to have children. Charges were filed against the half-brother and there was going to be a trial. However, he accepted a plea bargain when he found out she was going to testify. In his deal, he was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Her family had come up to Clovis this time because her sister Kiz had just given birth to a baby boy. Chez invited me to go with her family to see Kiz and the baby in the hospital. When we went into her room, I was surprised to find that her roommate was someone I knew who had just had a baby. I said, "Hi, Kyz! Hi, Kiz!" I'll bet Kyz thought I was there specifically to see her at first, but wondering how I knew about her having a baby. She and I spent a little time catching up. I'm pretty sure that as soon as I left the room, Kyz and Kiz turned to each other and said, "So, you know Fayd, huh?"
We went to the area where they had the newborns on display. Chez looked at Kiz' baby and asked, "Fayd, wouldn't you like to have one of those?" I laughed a little, but didn't actually respond. Before I left, I told Chez that I would be at a live remote for the radio station the next day and invited her to come see me if she had time.
She did show up. We hung out and talked a little bit, but she had to get going. Her family was going to go back to see Kiz in the hospital. I stayed to finish up that remote before heading out to the mall.
I saw Chez again a few weeks later as I was driving from Clovis to Artesia after I had completely moved out of my apartment and prepared to move to Denver. I stopped by her house and we hung out for awhile. Considering that I went eight years between my first two girlfriends, Roz and Marz, and I didn't want to wait eight years for my next girlfriend, I decided to hedge. I told Chez that, when she turned 18, if I wasn't involved with someone and she wasn't involved with someone, we could look at becoming boyfriend/girlfriend. As a way of sealing the promise, I gave her my high school class ring. (I should point out I never got a college class ring.)
But I had no idea how we were going to make that work. I mean, I was still going to live in Denver and she was still going to be in Roswell. We could have done the long distance relationship, but at some point, one of us would have to move to the same town as the other. I figured that there was a good chance that by the time she turned 18, she would probably find someone else closer to her age who didn't call her the b-word.
However, I realized how seriously she took the promise when I walked her to her door and hugged her goodnight. She was trembling in my arms. I felt very responsible and very guilty for knowing that I was not really that committed to her.
When I came back from Denver six weeks later, Chez was still wearing my ring. I actually dreaded how I was going to handle the situation when she turned 18. At the time, I had met someone I was very interested in, but hadn't started dating her.
It was during this visit that I was able to take the photos that are included in the post. There were other photos that show her face, but I'm not going to publish those, including the one that clearly shows her wearing my class ring.
As usual, this story is far from over, but it's going to be awhile before I return to it.
Monday, June 8, 2015
BMI Logs Blow!
As you may be aware, there are two major music licensing companies: ASCAP and BMI. When songwriters and publishers get their music played on broadcasts, they receive royalties. ASCAP was set up by artists and BMI was set up by the broadcasters. ASCAP randomly has people driving around, recording airchecks of radio stations across the United States in order to find out how to compensate their members. BMI did it differently. Since the broadcasters already had their own employees, it was those employees who were held responsible for reporting which songs were playing on the radio stations. In other words, the DJs had to do that.
This is what usually happened at KZZO in Clovis, NM: Once a year, we would get a large envelope from BMI. Inside were the logs on which we were required to write down every song that we played on the air over the course of three days. We also had to write down the names of every songwriter listed on the record label. This did not apply to just the BMI songs, we had to do this even for songs licensed by ASCAP. This seriously disrupted our ability to perform quality air shifts. Imagine yourself at your job. Now, imagine that you have the radio on and every time a different song plays, you have to stop what you're doing, write down the name of the song and the names of the songwriters. AND you have to be just as productive at your job as any other day in which you're not doing this. This is why all DJs HATED THOSE DAMNED BMI LOGS!
Usually, when we got the packet, we would find out that we had to start keeping a record beginning at midnight that very night. We never got them a few days in advance to help us prepare. The first thing the Program Director had to do was scramble and type up a list of every one of our current songs that we had on cart with the songwriters. This also applied to our Recurrents and any number of songs in other categories that we had on cart instead of a 45 or LP. This could take several hours.
So, if you were a member of BMI during the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, what I'm about to describe will probably shock and outrage you. We usually had to fill in the logs over the weekend, when our part-time staff was mostly working. I wonder how many songwriters and publishers were aware that their compensation was in the hands of high school students who were making minimum wage. As this was also a pain in the butt for the full-timers, if there was a choice between having a good show and accurately filling out those logs, guess which they would choose?
Not to mention that most of the time, the logs were filled out by hand. Even though the directions ask for clear handwriting or typed entries, we didn't have a typewriter in the studio. It was in another room, so that would mean having to go out between songs and type stuff in. That sure didn't work. So, there's another question of how many people missed out on royalties because the BMI staff couldn't read the handwriting of the DJs.
Jid the owner used to tell about how they handled the logs in Dallas in the 1960s. They hated those logs just as much then, so they just took all the BMI songs from rotation for those three days. They hoped it would get BMI to start doing airchecks like ASCAP. I guess BMI didn't really care if that happened. It just meant paying their members less money. In 1995, I attended a panel on music licensing with representatives from ASCAP and BMI. The ASCAP guy said, at the time, if a songwriter or publisher got a song in rotation on KROQ in Los Angeles, they received $100 every time that song got played and caught on an aircheck. This was because of the size of the market. The Dallas/Ft. Worth area is also a pretty huge market. Just imagine how much money BMI members lost out on in the 1960s because their songs weren't played those three days on that station.
And there were also tales about air staffs that would just get together and make stuff up for the logs, trying to fill them out in a couple of hours without any regard to whether those songs got played. Since BMI didn't aircheck when the logs were being done, they had no way of knowing what was true and what wasn't. It also wouldn't surprise me to find out that there were DJs who did some songwriting through BMI. If their on-air handle and their songwriting name were different, they could get away with listing their own music on those logs and receive money for them. That's pretty sneaky.
I only ever had to do the BMI logs three times during my four years at KZZO. I don't know if we did them my first year there or if the reporting period actually happened to be during the weekdays. The third set of logs came in two months after the second go-round, which meant that the year had recycled and we had to do them again. The only difference this time was that BMI allowed us to write down the title and the name of the artist. We didn't have to write down all the songwriters who appeared on a single song. Imagine having to do that today when some hit songs have as many as six, seven or eight songwriters on them. I think that radio stations would just kill their transmitter those three days.
It was because of this experience that I decided to sign up with ASCAP when I became a songwriter and publisher. The only bad thing was that I still didn't make any money from that.
So they don't do the BMI logs any more. I found that out when I was working at the newsradio station in San Jose. I was having a conversation with one of the DJs from the country station and I mentioned the BMI logs. He said, "THANK GOD WE DON'T HAVE TO DO THOSE ANYMORE!"
It looks like someone finally came to their senses at BMI. Hopefully, that means their members have been receiving more money the past few years.
This is what usually happened at KZZO in Clovis, NM: Once a year, we would get a large envelope from BMI. Inside were the logs on which we were required to write down every song that we played on the air over the course of three days. We also had to write down the names of every songwriter listed on the record label. This did not apply to just the BMI songs, we had to do this even for songs licensed by ASCAP. This seriously disrupted our ability to perform quality air shifts. Imagine yourself at your job. Now, imagine that you have the radio on and every time a different song plays, you have to stop what you're doing, write down the name of the song and the names of the songwriters. AND you have to be just as productive at your job as any other day in which you're not doing this. This is why all DJs HATED THOSE DAMNED BMI LOGS!
Usually, when we got the packet, we would find out that we had to start keeping a record beginning at midnight that very night. We never got them a few days in advance to help us prepare. The first thing the Program Director had to do was scramble and type up a list of every one of our current songs that we had on cart with the songwriters. This also applied to our Recurrents and any number of songs in other categories that we had on cart instead of a 45 or LP. This could take several hours.
So, if you were a member of BMI during the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, what I'm about to describe will probably shock and outrage you. We usually had to fill in the logs over the weekend, when our part-time staff was mostly working. I wonder how many songwriters and publishers were aware that their compensation was in the hands of high school students who were making minimum wage. As this was also a pain in the butt for the full-timers, if there was a choice between having a good show and accurately filling out those logs, guess which they would choose?
Not to mention that most of the time, the logs were filled out by hand. Even though the directions ask for clear handwriting or typed entries, we didn't have a typewriter in the studio. It was in another room, so that would mean having to go out between songs and type stuff in. That sure didn't work. So, there's another question of how many people missed out on royalties because the BMI staff couldn't read the handwriting of the DJs.
Jid the owner used to tell about how they handled the logs in Dallas in the 1960s. They hated those logs just as much then, so they just took all the BMI songs from rotation for those three days. They hoped it would get BMI to start doing airchecks like ASCAP. I guess BMI didn't really care if that happened. It just meant paying their members less money. In 1995, I attended a panel on music licensing with representatives from ASCAP and BMI. The ASCAP guy said, at the time, if a songwriter or publisher got a song in rotation on KROQ in Los Angeles, they received $100 every time that song got played and caught on an aircheck. This was because of the size of the market. The Dallas/Ft. Worth area is also a pretty huge market. Just imagine how much money BMI members lost out on in the 1960s because their songs weren't played those three days on that station.
And there were also tales about air staffs that would just get together and make stuff up for the logs, trying to fill them out in a couple of hours without any regard to whether those songs got played. Since BMI didn't aircheck when the logs were being done, they had no way of knowing what was true and what wasn't. It also wouldn't surprise me to find out that there were DJs who did some songwriting through BMI. If their on-air handle and their songwriting name were different, they could get away with listing their own music on those logs and receive money for them. That's pretty sneaky.
I only ever had to do the BMI logs three times during my four years at KZZO. I don't know if we did them my first year there or if the reporting period actually happened to be during the weekdays. The third set of logs came in two months after the second go-round, which meant that the year had recycled and we had to do them again. The only difference this time was that BMI allowed us to write down the title and the name of the artist. We didn't have to write down all the songwriters who appeared on a single song. Imagine having to do that today when some hit songs have as many as six, seven or eight songwriters on them. I think that radio stations would just kill their transmitter those three days.
It was because of this experience that I decided to sign up with ASCAP when I became a songwriter and publisher. The only bad thing was that I still didn't make any money from that.
So they don't do the BMI logs any more. I found that out when I was working at the newsradio station in San Jose. I was having a conversation with one of the DJs from the country station and I mentioned the BMI logs. He said, "THANK GOD WE DON'T HAVE TO DO THOSE ANYMORE!"
It looks like someone finally came to their senses at BMI. Hopefully, that means their members have been receiving more money the past few years.
Friday, June 5, 2015
Radio Tease # 8: Coz
(What's a Radio Tease? Click here!)
I reluctantly refer to Coz as a Radio Tease, because she was pretty clear about that from the beginning that she wasn't going to be my girlfriend. But we didn't go on a date, so she can't be a Friend Zone. She wasn't married, so she can't be a Ring Zone. She's not a Mistop or a Lostop because I definitely know she didn't have any romantic feelings for me. I can't refer to her as an Unusual Friend because I never went inside her house to hang out. My options are kind of limited here.
About three weeks before I left for Denver, I got a call a few minutes before my shift. A woman asked if we played anything by The Cure and some other alternative bands that I was aware of. My first thought was, "Oh, my gosh! It's the woman of my dreams!" I told her we had played The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" some months before, and even though I liked them and the other bands she listed, we weren't playing them now. I also told her that she was probably the only person in town who liked that kind of music. She said she moved with her father to Clovis from Killeen, TX, a pretty good-sized city a little more than 60 miles north of Austin. It made sense that she would be exposed to that music there.
She told me her name was Coz and she really missed the scene in Killeen, where there were all-ages clubs she was able to go to. I told her there wasn't anything like that in Clovis and she'd probably have to travel four hours to Albuquerque for anything like that. I seriously doubted Amarillo or Lubbock had any clubs like that. I told her I'd like to meet her and that I was going to be at a live remote that weekend. She said she would probably come.
That Saturday, she did indeed show up at the remote. I saw her when she was walking up toward where we were. She was with her two cousins. She was exactly as I'd imagined, with dyed black spiky hair and goth-style make-up (although she wasn't exactly goth). Her cousins just looked like mainstream high school girls, which they were.
After the remote was over, they got in my car and we drove to the mall. We went inside Walmart and she shoplifted some makeup. We got something to eat there. I made some comment about us actually going out on a date and she said, "I want to make one thing clear: I am not going to be your girlfriend. I already have a boyfriend in Texas right now, and we're kind of engaged. I'll be your friend, because you're the only cool person here in town, but we are not going to be a couple." I didn't like what she had to say, but I was glad she wasn't going to lead me on like all those other Radio Teases I had dealt with the year before. It was just as well, because I needed one less reason to stay in Clovis. Even though I had made my plans to move to Denver, I hadn't turned in my final resignation to the station at this point.
The next day, I went to the station to write a dedication to her for the station's Sunday Night Program "KZZO Love Songs." (It was no longer "Love Songs on the Zoo" because we weren't calling ourselves "The Zoo" anymore. For whatever reason, I still have that dedication I typed. It reads "Dear KZZO Love Songs: Yesterday, I met the woman of my dreams, but unfortunately, I cannot wake up with her in my reality because she happens to be somewhat engaged to someone else. I entirely admire her taste in music, her style, and her perpetually intriguing personal flavor, which I wish to savor like an ice cream cone that never melts. (What? Did I actually write that? UGH!) Much to my dismay, her interest in me is expressed only as a friend, so if it must be in this respect that I can cherish her company, I have no choice but to put my falsely self-encouraged feelings aside and become a friend to her needs. I would like for you to play 'Just Like Heaven' by the Cure or 'Sign Your Name' by Terence Trent D'Arby and send it toward Coz, telling her that I would indeed be interested in a state of friendliness with her."
If I remember correctly, they actually played "Just Like Heaven." Mine was the last dedication of the program, so it kind of didn't matter that it wasn't a soft love song. I don't think she heard the actual dedication. I think I had to read it to her later. She enjoyed what I wrote.
We got to hang out a couple of more times before I left town, but we didn't really do anything. Even though she was 18, she was living with her father, who didn't really allow her to go out. I guess he was trying to get her away from the bad influences in Killeen, like her boyfriend. The last time I saw her, I got to take some photos of her, one of which is at the top of this post. It's one of the few times I purposefully took a photo of the back of someone's head.
After I moved to Denver, we wrote each other a few times. In the first letter she wrote, she revealed that she was moving back to Killeen and asked me to buy her a D.R.I. cassette. I did that and sent it with copies of the photos I took with my next letter. She sent me a second letter before she received the package. When she wrote back, she sent the tape, after opening it and listening to it. Here's part of the third letter:
In that letter, she revealed that she was going to be moving to Dallas in two weeks. I never wrote her again and she never wrote me. I wasn't able to get my money back on that D.R.I. cassette. I also did not care much for it.
While I was in Denver, I met people like her and became friends with them. But, like her, I didn't become romantically involved with them, either. And those are stories for another day.
Thursday, June 4, 2015
A cinematic moment in my life
About nine months had passed since I went back to working overnights at KZZO in Clovis, NM. This was despite the fact that Jid the owner had told me that he was going to start having me work mid-days. That never happened and I never saw any evidence that it was ever going to happen. I was surprised at how quickly nine months had gone by and I was doing the exact same thing. I felt like I was stagnating.
One of the things you need to understand is that I loved my job when I was on the air. I had a good time and enjoyed being at work. But I hated everything that was going on when I wasn't at work. I didn't like my girlfriend, I didn't like my friends, I didn't like how I was just barely getting by on my meager income.
One night, I was at the laundromat. While I was waiting for my clothes to finish washing, I saw this older man standing around. He appeared to be in his 50s. All of a sudden, I felt like I was in a movie, in which I was peering into my future. I was concerned that I would still be here in Clovis 30 years later, doing my laundry and wondering what the heck had happened to my life. I knew then that I couldn't continue down this path.
When it was announced that Heid was leaving KZZO in Clovis, NM to move to the big-time in Dallas, I expected 100% to get back into the six to midnight shift. I was looking forward to having a regular social life and a normal sleep pattern again.
The Wednesday before Heid was to leave, I hadn't heard anything about what was going to happen the next week. I asked the Program Director about who was going to get Heid's shift. He said they had decided to give it to one of the part-timers. That part-timer worked full-time at the Air Force Base. I'll admit he was a good DJ, but he did not need a second full-time job. On top of that, he had a family, so unless they were in financial straits, he really had no reason to work that shift. I didn't blame him, but I was upset that the Program Director didn't even bother to discuss this with me before he made the decision.
I went home and I just started crying. It wasn't just the shift, but the combination of all the other issues. I didn't want to live in Clovis anymore. I called my Mom and told her that I wanted to quit my job. She said that she could arrange it so that I could go live with my uncle Ord and his family in Denver and try to get a radio job there or do something else.
I was able to get some sleep. I went into the station that afternoon. I went to my desk and put a memo triplicate into the typewriter and wrote my resignation. I actually wanted to terminate my employment that day, since they had so willingly terminated Tod and Daz's employment immediately upon receiving their two-week notices.
I handed the memo to the receptionist. The Program Director happened to be there at the time. The receptionist read the notice out loud and was shocked. She said, "We need to have a meeting about this right now." The three of us went into the General Manager's office.
The General Manager had recently been hired to replace Mr W after his silent partners had ousted him. At this point, Jid the owner no longer had any involvement in the day-to-day operations of the station. One thing was apparent about the new General Manager: He did not know how to operate a radio station, or at the very least, hadn't been involved in radio for about 15 or more years. I really did not have much respect for him.
I explained that the Program Director had informed me that I wasn't getting the six to midnight shift, so it appeared that my efforts weren't really being appreciated, and if that was the case, I didn't really need to be there. The General Manager responded, "And now you're coming to me, saying, 'Boo hoo hoo! My feelings are hurt!' Well, you don't know what we have planned for you. We're going to put you in a mid-day shift." "So starting Monday, I'm going to be working mid-days?" "I didn't say that. We won't be able to do that for about two months. So, give me two months and we'll have you working mid-days." After much discussion, I said, "Alright, I'll give you two months."
However, I knew that wasn't going to happen. I decided I was just going to work one more month and then move to Denver, regardless of whether they were going to let me work a better shift. I wasn't going to let another 10 months slip through my fingers. I started thinking about one of my favorite songs by REM, "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville." At this point, I could really identify with the closing line of the chorus "...and waste another year." As an adult, I found it was so easy to lose track of the passing of time. That song didn't mean the same to me when I was 19, but it spoke volumes just four years later.
That weekend, I loaded a few things out of my apartment into my car and drove to Artesia. I did this every weekend over the next three weeks. I went into the station and handed them a one week notice this time. I didn't get as much hassle. The General Manager did ask why I was still quitting. I told him I didn't see any indication that he was going to be able to fulfill his promise of a better shift. He didn't have any response to that.
When I had put in my original notice, it would have caused all types of upheaval because they had no one to replace me right away. Their only choice was Mr. W's "Boy Toy," who still worked weekends, but was absolutely terrible. In fact, when I turned in my resignation, they hired someone to replace me on overnights, but this new guy had no experience whatsoever. That really stunk, to know that I could just replaced by someone who didn't really know what he was doing. I actually considered that an insult to what I thought I had contributed to the station.
Another thing that ticked me off was the Program Director's initial attempt at trying to get me to stay. He said the overnight shift was a "righteous shift" that he would love to work. WHY ISN'T HE WORKING IT THEN? I guess the thing was that if I was allowed to do whatever I wanted with the shift, I might have been more inclined to stay. Considering how the other DJs played whatever the heck they wanted after Jid no longer had any direct involvement, I probably could have. I'm pretty certain I could have done a college-style radio program after midnight that catered to my musical tastes. (Even the student station at ENMU didn't have that kind of freedom.) I just didn't think of it at the time. But again, that would have been another reason for me to stay and that was something I really didn't want to do.
So, for my final shift, I actually did a college-style program. I played a lot of the new artists that were normally seen on MTV's "120 Minutes." I know it had to freak some people out to hear The Jesus and Mary Chain's "Kill Surf City" on our station. I only did this for the first couple of hours on my shift, then switched back to normal programming. I didn't think that sounded good after 2am. Since I was leaving at 6am, my final song on the station was Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now." Yeah, I know it's not "Welcome to the Jungle," but I like the line "...you take away the biggest part of me. Oooo, baby, please don't go" as if the station really didn't want me to leave like that.
I'm not done with KZZO yet on this blog. I still have a couple of stories to tell before my big move to Denver, but it's going to be all wrapped up within the next week.
One of the things you need to understand is that I loved my job when I was on the air. I had a good time and enjoyed being at work. But I hated everything that was going on when I wasn't at work. I didn't like my girlfriend, I didn't like my friends, I didn't like how I was just barely getting by on my meager income.
One night, I was at the laundromat. While I was waiting for my clothes to finish washing, I saw this older man standing around. He appeared to be in his 50s. All of a sudden, I felt like I was in a movie, in which I was peering into my future. I was concerned that I would still be here in Clovis 30 years later, doing my laundry and wondering what the heck had happened to my life. I knew then that I couldn't continue down this path.
When it was announced that Heid was leaving KZZO in Clovis, NM to move to the big-time in Dallas, I expected 100% to get back into the six to midnight shift. I was looking forward to having a regular social life and a normal sleep pattern again.
The Wednesday before Heid was to leave, I hadn't heard anything about what was going to happen the next week. I asked the Program Director about who was going to get Heid's shift. He said they had decided to give it to one of the part-timers. That part-timer worked full-time at the Air Force Base. I'll admit he was a good DJ, but he did not need a second full-time job. On top of that, he had a family, so unless they were in financial straits, he really had no reason to work that shift. I didn't blame him, but I was upset that the Program Director didn't even bother to discuss this with me before he made the decision.
I went home and I just started crying. It wasn't just the shift, but the combination of all the other issues. I didn't want to live in Clovis anymore. I called my Mom and told her that I wanted to quit my job. She said that she could arrange it so that I could go live with my uncle Ord and his family in Denver and try to get a radio job there or do something else.
I was able to get some sleep. I went into the station that afternoon. I went to my desk and put a memo triplicate into the typewriter and wrote my resignation. I actually wanted to terminate my employment that day, since they had so willingly terminated Tod and Daz's employment immediately upon receiving their two-week notices.
I handed the memo to the receptionist. The Program Director happened to be there at the time. The receptionist read the notice out loud and was shocked. She said, "We need to have a meeting about this right now." The three of us went into the General Manager's office.
The General Manager had recently been hired to replace Mr W after his silent partners had ousted him. At this point, Jid the owner no longer had any involvement in the day-to-day operations of the station. One thing was apparent about the new General Manager: He did not know how to operate a radio station, or at the very least, hadn't been involved in radio for about 15 or more years. I really did not have much respect for him.
I explained that the Program Director had informed me that I wasn't getting the six to midnight shift, so it appeared that my efforts weren't really being appreciated, and if that was the case, I didn't really need to be there. The General Manager responded, "And now you're coming to me, saying, 'Boo hoo hoo! My feelings are hurt!' Well, you don't know what we have planned for you. We're going to put you in a mid-day shift." "So starting Monday, I'm going to be working mid-days?" "I didn't say that. We won't be able to do that for about two months. So, give me two months and we'll have you working mid-days." After much discussion, I said, "Alright, I'll give you two months."
However, I knew that wasn't going to happen. I decided I was just going to work one more month and then move to Denver, regardless of whether they were going to let me work a better shift. I wasn't going to let another 10 months slip through my fingers. I started thinking about one of my favorite songs by REM, "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville." At this point, I could really identify with the closing line of the chorus "...and waste another year." As an adult, I found it was so easy to lose track of the passing of time. That song didn't mean the same to me when I was 19, but it spoke volumes just four years later.
That weekend, I loaded a few things out of my apartment into my car and drove to Artesia. I did this every weekend over the next three weeks. I went into the station and handed them a one week notice this time. I didn't get as much hassle. The General Manager did ask why I was still quitting. I told him I didn't see any indication that he was going to be able to fulfill his promise of a better shift. He didn't have any response to that.
When I had put in my original notice, it would have caused all types of upheaval because they had no one to replace me right away. Their only choice was Mr. W's "Boy Toy," who still worked weekends, but was absolutely terrible. In fact, when I turned in my resignation, they hired someone to replace me on overnights, but this new guy had no experience whatsoever. That really stunk, to know that I could just replaced by someone who didn't really know what he was doing. I actually considered that an insult to what I thought I had contributed to the station.
Another thing that ticked me off was the Program Director's initial attempt at trying to get me to stay. He said the overnight shift was a "righteous shift" that he would love to work. WHY ISN'T HE WORKING IT THEN? I guess the thing was that if I was allowed to do whatever I wanted with the shift, I might have been more inclined to stay. Considering how the other DJs played whatever the heck they wanted after Jid no longer had any direct involvement, I probably could have. I'm pretty certain I could have done a college-style radio program after midnight that catered to my musical tastes. (Even the student station at ENMU didn't have that kind of freedom.) I just didn't think of it at the time. But again, that would have been another reason for me to stay and that was something I really didn't want to do.
So, for my final shift, I actually did a college-style program. I played a lot of the new artists that were normally seen on MTV's "120 Minutes." I know it had to freak some people out to hear The Jesus and Mary Chain's "Kill Surf City" on our station. I only did this for the first couple of hours on my shift, then switched back to normal programming. I didn't think that sounded good after 2am. Since I was leaving at 6am, my final song on the station was Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now." Yeah, I know it's not "Welcome to the Jungle," but I like the line "...you take away the biggest part of me. Oooo, baby, please don't go" as if the station really didn't want me to leave like that.
I'm not done with KZZO yet on this blog. I still have a couple of stories to tell before my big move to Denver, but it's going to be all wrapped up within the next week.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Friend Zone #5: Betz
I first met Betz when Saqd invited me to come over to her apartment and hang out. Betz opened the door when I knocked. She was Hispanic and had long, black hair. She was also noticably overweight, but it actually looked good on her. I didn't get to interact with her very much during that first meeting. All I found out was that she was a year younger than me, had been married and divorced and had a five-year-old daughter who lived with her. They lived with a roommate.
Sometime later, she called me at the radio station and we started talking. She mentioned something about having to go to Fort Sumner. I told her I was born in Fort Sumner. She said she was born there, too. We determined that our mothers had been in the same high school graduating class there. The prospects for this turning into a relationship looked promising.
But Betz always went back and forth between wanting to start something up and trying to avoid me. I was definitely getting mixed signals. I asked Saqd what I needed to do to get Betz to go out with me. She advised me to get her a bottle of her favorite perfume. I did that and she seemed like she really appreciated it. But I still could not get her to commit to going out with me.
One night, I was downtown when people were cruising up and down Main Street. I saw Betz there. She invited me to ride with her in her car. (I'm counting this as a date!) We drove around for about an hour and talked. It was nice because she didn't have her daughter with her. (Actually, I got along really well with her daughter.)
A little while after that, I came by her apartment and got to hang out. We were up past midnight playing Monopoly. I kept hoping that her daughter was going to go to bed so we could have some alone time, but she stayed awake until 4am! I knew the chances for a little snuggling went out the window when Betz started taking off her makeup.
After that, Betz just turned really cold and I don't know why. Anytime I tried to call her, she would just hang up the phone. I came by her apartment right about the time that she drove up. She saw me and just kept driving. I tried to chase after her, but I lost her.
When I knew I was going to be moving to Denver, I called Betz one last time. She picked up the phone, but said nothing, not even "Hello?" She knew it was me. I said, "Betz, I'm leaving forever. Bye!" and hung up the phone.
When I returned from Denver six weeks later and ran into Saqd, she told me Betz was concerned that I had committed suicide. Betz noticed that after I'd told her I was leaving, she didn't hear me on the radio anymore and didn't receive any more phone calls. Saqd told me Betz and her daughter had moved in with her mother. She gave me the phone number there.
I called Betz and she said I could come over and see her. I got to meet her sister at the house. I hung out with her for awhile and asked her if I could write her. She said I could. However, after I returned to Denver, I became involved with my next girlfriend, so I never did write Betz. That time in Clovis would be the last time I saw her.
I found her Facebook account. She still lives in Clovis. I saw a photo of her with someone who appears to be the daughter I knew. There was another woman in the photo, but they were not identified. I don't know if she had another child, but it could be her niece. She also appears to have a couple of grandchildren. I don't think she got married again.
I have to admit that she looks very much the same as the last time I saw her 27 years ago. It's nice to know that if I had wound up with her, I would have continued to find her attractive. But I don't think she ever found me attractive and maybe that was the problem.
Sometime later, she called me at the radio station and we started talking. She mentioned something about having to go to Fort Sumner. I told her I was born in Fort Sumner. She said she was born there, too. We determined that our mothers had been in the same high school graduating class there. The prospects for this turning into a relationship looked promising.
But Betz always went back and forth between wanting to start something up and trying to avoid me. I was definitely getting mixed signals. I asked Saqd what I needed to do to get Betz to go out with me. She advised me to get her a bottle of her favorite perfume. I did that and she seemed like she really appreciated it. But I still could not get her to commit to going out with me.
One night, I was downtown when people were cruising up and down Main Street. I saw Betz there. She invited me to ride with her in her car. (I'm counting this as a date!) We drove around for about an hour and talked. It was nice because she didn't have her daughter with her. (Actually, I got along really well with her daughter.)
A little while after that, I came by her apartment and got to hang out. We were up past midnight playing Monopoly. I kept hoping that her daughter was going to go to bed so we could have some alone time, but she stayed awake until 4am! I knew the chances for a little snuggling went out the window when Betz started taking off her makeup.
After that, Betz just turned really cold and I don't know why. Anytime I tried to call her, she would just hang up the phone. I came by her apartment right about the time that she drove up. She saw me and just kept driving. I tried to chase after her, but I lost her.
When I knew I was going to be moving to Denver, I called Betz one last time. She picked up the phone, but said nothing, not even "Hello?" She knew it was me. I said, "Betz, I'm leaving forever. Bye!" and hung up the phone.
When I returned from Denver six weeks later and ran into Saqd, she told me Betz was concerned that I had committed suicide. Betz noticed that after I'd told her I was leaving, she didn't hear me on the radio anymore and didn't receive any more phone calls. Saqd told me Betz and her daughter had moved in with her mother. She gave me the phone number there.
I called Betz and she said I could come over and see her. I got to meet her sister at the house. I hung out with her for awhile and asked her if I could write her. She said I could. However, after I returned to Denver, I became involved with my next girlfriend, so I never did write Betz. That time in Clovis would be the last time I saw her.
I found her Facebook account. She still lives in Clovis. I saw a photo of her with someone who appears to be the daughter I knew. There was another woman in the photo, but they were not identified. I don't know if she had another child, but it could be her niece. She also appears to have a couple of grandchildren. I don't think she got married again.
I have to admit that she looks very much the same as the last time I saw her 27 years ago. It's nice to know that if I had wound up with her, I would have continued to find her attractive. But I don't think she ever found me attractive and maybe that was the problem.
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Unusual Friend: Saqd
I've mentioned about how I didn't have many prospects for girlfriends after I got switched back to the overnight shift at KZZO in Clovis, NM. There weren't many women who called just to chat during those hours. Every once in awhile, someone would call, but they weren't really worth meeting.
One night, in the middle of one of my many low points with Marz, I got a call from a woman named Saqd who wanted to talk. She was a year younger than me and was a single mother. When she told me her last name, I asked her if she was any relation to Kyz. It turned out Saqd was her younger sister.
We talked a while longer and she asked me to come over to her apartment to meet her after my shift ended at 6am. I really didn't know what to expect. I thought she'd probably be fast asleep by the time I got there and wouldn't hear me knocking on the door. When got there and I knocked, I heard her tell me to come in. I found her in the living room with her baby boy. She had long, blonde hair (which I'm pretty certain she colored). She wore a lot of make up. (But I saw her without her make up and she looked really horrible. I normally don't think much of make up, but she was one of the few women I'd met who actually needed it to come close to appearing attractive.)
We talked for a little bit. Then she asked me to give her a massage. I wasn't too certain about that, but I knew this wasn't going anywhere. She layed on her stomach and pulled her shirt up to expose her back. I started massaging. Now, I had been used to giving Marz massages. Marz had nice, firm skin and it was very pleasurable to caress. However, Saqd still had some port-partum blubber and her skin felt like I was pulling up globs of gunk with my hands. It not the least bit sexy, but she really seemed to enjoy it.
I wasn't there more than a half-hour. When I left, one thing was pretty clear: If I had wanted to have sex with her, I could have. I think she was actually expecting it. That was one of the good things about still being a virgin. I wouldn't just sleep with anyone who appeared to be that willing and desparate.
I put her out of my mind until about a month later. I got a phone call from someone who sounded like she was drunk. She was griping about how I wasn't picking up the request line when she called it. I figured out pretty quickly it was Saqd. After ranting a few minutes, she said, "You don't even know who this is, do you?" I said, "Yes, I do. You're Saqd!" There was silence on the other end of the phone. We talked a little bit, but it wasn't about anything in particular.
Outside of that, I don't have a lot of really interesting things to tell you about Saqd. I hung around with her a few times after that, but the main thing is that meeting her led me to get stuck in a Friend Zone with one of her friends whose name was Betz. I'll be writing about her tomorrow.
After I'd moved from Clovis to Denver, I came back about six weeks later. I ran into Saqd in the Downtown area. That was the last I saw her. When I saw Kyz in 1993, she gave me an update on her, but I don't remember what happened.
From what I found on the Internet, she appears to have been married three times. I don't know if she had any other children. She lived in several different locations, like Albuquerque, Lawton, OK, Bowie and Amarillo, TX.
But it's not like that's going to have any impact on me.
One night, in the middle of one of my many low points with Marz, I got a call from a woman named Saqd who wanted to talk. She was a year younger than me and was a single mother. When she told me her last name, I asked her if she was any relation to Kyz. It turned out Saqd was her younger sister.
We talked a while longer and she asked me to come over to her apartment to meet her after my shift ended at 6am. I really didn't know what to expect. I thought she'd probably be fast asleep by the time I got there and wouldn't hear me knocking on the door. When got there and I knocked, I heard her tell me to come in. I found her in the living room with her baby boy. She had long, blonde hair (which I'm pretty certain she colored). She wore a lot of make up. (But I saw her without her make up and she looked really horrible. I normally don't think much of make up, but she was one of the few women I'd met who actually needed it to come close to appearing attractive.)
We talked for a little bit. Then she asked me to give her a massage. I wasn't too certain about that, but I knew this wasn't going anywhere. She layed on her stomach and pulled her shirt up to expose her back. I started massaging. Now, I had been used to giving Marz massages. Marz had nice, firm skin and it was very pleasurable to caress. However, Saqd still had some port-partum blubber and her skin felt like I was pulling up globs of gunk with my hands. It not the least bit sexy, but she really seemed to enjoy it.
I wasn't there more than a half-hour. When I left, one thing was pretty clear: If I had wanted to have sex with her, I could have. I think she was actually expecting it. That was one of the good things about still being a virgin. I wouldn't just sleep with anyone who appeared to be that willing and desparate.
I put her out of my mind until about a month later. I got a phone call from someone who sounded like she was drunk. She was griping about how I wasn't picking up the request line when she called it. I figured out pretty quickly it was Saqd. After ranting a few minutes, she said, "You don't even know who this is, do you?" I said, "Yes, I do. You're Saqd!" There was silence on the other end of the phone. We talked a little bit, but it wasn't about anything in particular.
Outside of that, I don't have a lot of really interesting things to tell you about Saqd. I hung around with her a few times after that, but the main thing is that meeting her led me to get stuck in a Friend Zone with one of her friends whose name was Betz. I'll be writing about her tomorrow.
After I'd moved from Clovis to Denver, I came back about six weeks later. I ran into Saqd in the Downtown area. That was the last I saw her. When I saw Kyz in 1993, she gave me an update on her, but I don't remember what happened.
From what I found on the Internet, she appears to have been married three times. I don't know if she had any other children. She lived in several different locations, like Albuquerque, Lawton, OK, Bowie and Amarillo, TX.
But it's not like that's going to have any impact on me.
Monday, June 1, 2015
Really Intolerable Co-Worker: Jerd
In 1984, when I started working for K108FM in Clovis, NM, it wasn't uncommon for students from the local high school to be working at the various radio stations around town, including ours. When Jid took ownership of the station and turned it into KZZO The Zoo 108, that practice came to an abrupt halt. We did have one student on the part-time staff during the change, but for the next three years, we did not hire any high school students. Jid wanted the station to sound professional, and that was not going to happen with the local talent pool. So when we hired, it was people who had worked at other stations or were attending Eastern New Mexico University.
If a high school student turned in an application, the Program Director practically threw it in the trash without even looking at it or listening to their aircheck. It didn't matter if they had already worked at KCLV or KTQM, we just were not going to hire them. I once saw an applications by a student who plain did not have any experience. I wondered what made him think he'd be able to get a job here. I imagined that what happened is some other guy at school managed to get hired at one of the other stations, bragged about it and got the attention of some of the girls because of it. So, this guy decides to out-do him by getting a job at our station, which was a more desirable place to work, and take some of that attention away from that other guy. Yeah, that didn't work.
So, about three years in, it appeared that Jid figured out that KZZO wasn't going to be the moneymaker he'd hoped it would and decided to just start having fun without caring what anyone else thought. Unfortunately, this "fun" didn't extend to loosening up most of his restrictions on music and programming. After bringing Mr. W in as a partner in the station and seeing how unapologetic he was about being gay, Jid decided to open up a little more about his lifestyle. We all knew Jid was gay, but he mostly kept a lid on it up to this point.
So, "fun" involved hiring a couple of attractive young men from the high school to work shifts on the weekends. These "boy toys" appeared to be straight, but knew that they were playing into the desires of the owners. Jerd was one of them. I remember when he first came in to apply for a job. He broke almost EVERY rule for applying. First, he came in after office hours. Second, he brought a friend with him. Third, he was wearing shorts. Fourth, he didn't fill out the back side of the application. If I had been the Program Director, I would have just wadded up that application and thrown it in his face. But as I found out later, if I'd done that, I would have had to eat some crow.
A couple of weeks later, he was in the regular company of Jid. He was basically just hanging around with him at the station from time to time, but he wasn't working for us. After awhile, we started training him and having him do stuff on air. He wasn't bad, but I really couldn't get past that bad first impression. He talked an awful lot. From what I could tell, he was one of the fake "rich boys." He bragged about his rich girlfriend and how he was going to marry her and never have to work. At one point, he told everyone at school that his grandfather was going to buy KZZO and let him run it. When that happened, he was going to let the DJs play Heavy Metal music. Jid really got on his case and straightened him out about that.
The station did this big promotion where we were doing live remotes 24 hours a day from the mall for a whole week. It led up to this "Car Kissing" contest in which selected listeners got to compete for a new car by keeping their lips continuously pressed against it. During this week, Mr W would get the air staff food from Taco Box by putting it on our New Mexico Trade Exchange account. Jerd sometimes accompanied him to the restaurant to help get us some food.
A couple of months after that contest, I was working at the station on a Sunday morning when I got an unusual call from someone who worked at Taco Box. He asked if Jerd was authorized to put his orders on our Trade Exchange account. I told him no. He said that Jerd had been doing that ever since the Car Kissing contest. I re-iterated that he was not supposed to do that. I called our receptionist and told her about the call. She confirmed that Jerd was not authorized and that she was going to talk to Jid and Mr. W about it.
I thought that maybe he had charged up around $100 in two months on the account. The receptionist said no, it was probably a lot more than that because Jerd ate at Taco Box nearly every day. We got the grand total from Taco Box. It was more than $600! WHAT? At that time, my food budget was only about $100 a month. HOW DO YOU EAT $600 WORTH OF FAST FOOD IN TWO MONTHS?
Heid hit the roof when he found out. When Jerd was at the station, he would announce that he was going to Taco Box to get something to eat. Heid would usually give him some money to get something for him while he was there. Heid realized that Jerd probably just pocketed that cash and put all the food on the account. WHAT A RIPOFF ARTIST!
At first, Jid was not going to fire him. But I think he considered some of Jerd's other transgressions, the impact this would have on our standing in the business community and how it would affect station employee morale. He came to the conclusion that this was something worth firing his "boy toy" for. I was at the station when Jerd arrived. He slowly walked in and was looking around for Jid. He was holding a $20 bill in his hand. I thought, "Really? You owe $600 and you're going to start with a $20 down payment? If you pay that much every month, you'll have that paid off in THREE YEARS! And I thought you had a rich grandfather who wipes his nose with $100 bills."
Mr. W was also there. The first thing Mr. W told him was to put the $20 away. He had managed to talk the situation over with the Trade Exchange. They absolved the station of the debt, but Jerd was going to have to pay them back. So he owed the Trade Exchange, not the station and not Taco Box. Then Jid took him into his office. He sulked out about ten minutes later. I never saw him again.
I don't remember his full name, so I'm not able to figure out where he is now. I sometimes think that somewhere out there, he still owes that $600.
If a high school student turned in an application, the Program Director practically threw it in the trash without even looking at it or listening to their aircheck. It didn't matter if they had already worked at KCLV or KTQM, we just were not going to hire them. I once saw an applications by a student who plain did not have any experience. I wondered what made him think he'd be able to get a job here. I imagined that what happened is some other guy at school managed to get hired at one of the other stations, bragged about it and got the attention of some of the girls because of it. So, this guy decides to out-do him by getting a job at our station, which was a more desirable place to work, and take some of that attention away from that other guy. Yeah, that didn't work.
So, about three years in, it appeared that Jid figured out that KZZO wasn't going to be the moneymaker he'd hoped it would and decided to just start having fun without caring what anyone else thought. Unfortunately, this "fun" didn't extend to loosening up most of his restrictions on music and programming. After bringing Mr. W in as a partner in the station and seeing how unapologetic he was about being gay, Jid decided to open up a little more about his lifestyle. We all knew Jid was gay, but he mostly kept a lid on it up to this point.
So, "fun" involved hiring a couple of attractive young men from the high school to work shifts on the weekends. These "boy toys" appeared to be straight, but knew that they were playing into the desires of the owners. Jerd was one of them. I remember when he first came in to apply for a job. He broke almost EVERY rule for applying. First, he came in after office hours. Second, he brought a friend with him. Third, he was wearing shorts. Fourth, he didn't fill out the back side of the application. If I had been the Program Director, I would have just wadded up that application and thrown it in his face. But as I found out later, if I'd done that, I would have had to eat some crow.
A couple of weeks later, he was in the regular company of Jid. He was basically just hanging around with him at the station from time to time, but he wasn't working for us. After awhile, we started training him and having him do stuff on air. He wasn't bad, but I really couldn't get past that bad first impression. He talked an awful lot. From what I could tell, he was one of the fake "rich boys." He bragged about his rich girlfriend and how he was going to marry her and never have to work. At one point, he told everyone at school that his grandfather was going to buy KZZO and let him run it. When that happened, he was going to let the DJs play Heavy Metal music. Jid really got on his case and straightened him out about that.
The station did this big promotion where we were doing live remotes 24 hours a day from the mall for a whole week. It led up to this "Car Kissing" contest in which selected listeners got to compete for a new car by keeping their lips continuously pressed against it. During this week, Mr W would get the air staff food from Taco Box by putting it on our New Mexico Trade Exchange account. Jerd sometimes accompanied him to the restaurant to help get us some food.
A couple of months after that contest, I was working at the station on a Sunday morning when I got an unusual call from someone who worked at Taco Box. He asked if Jerd was authorized to put his orders on our Trade Exchange account. I told him no. He said that Jerd had been doing that ever since the Car Kissing contest. I re-iterated that he was not supposed to do that. I called our receptionist and told her about the call. She confirmed that Jerd was not authorized and that she was going to talk to Jid and Mr. W about it.
I thought that maybe he had charged up around $100 in two months on the account. The receptionist said no, it was probably a lot more than that because Jerd ate at Taco Box nearly every day. We got the grand total from Taco Box. It was more than $600! WHAT? At that time, my food budget was only about $100 a month. HOW DO YOU EAT $600 WORTH OF FAST FOOD IN TWO MONTHS?
Heid hit the roof when he found out. When Jerd was at the station, he would announce that he was going to Taco Box to get something to eat. Heid would usually give him some money to get something for him while he was there. Heid realized that Jerd probably just pocketed that cash and put all the food on the account. WHAT A RIPOFF ARTIST!
At first, Jid was not going to fire him. But I think he considered some of Jerd's other transgressions, the impact this would have on our standing in the business community and how it would affect station employee morale. He came to the conclusion that this was something worth firing his "boy toy" for. I was at the station when Jerd arrived. He slowly walked in and was looking around for Jid. He was holding a $20 bill in his hand. I thought, "Really? You owe $600 and you're going to start with a $20 down payment? If you pay that much every month, you'll have that paid off in THREE YEARS! And I thought you had a rich grandfather who wipes his nose with $100 bills."
Mr. W was also there. The first thing Mr. W told him was to put the $20 away. He had managed to talk the situation over with the Trade Exchange. They absolved the station of the debt, but Jerd was going to have to pay them back. So he owed the Trade Exchange, not the station and not Taco Box. Then Jid took him into his office. He sulked out about ten minutes later. I never saw him again.
I don't remember his full name, so I'm not able to figure out where he is now. I sometimes think that somewhere out there, he still owes that $600.