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.
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