We’re like gypsies, radio people. We go where the format takes us. Get a room of radio folk talking and it ends up like that scene in Jaws where they one up each other over battle scars.
Only with radio people the conversation usually goes, “I’ve worked in Omaha, Vegas, San Diego, Philly, Vegas again, Omaha, again and finally Chicago where I’ve been hired and fired by the same station twice.” Moving is the nature of our business. I feel lucky; I’ve only had 3 radio homes: The Twin Cites, Philly, and Seattle.
You also work crazy hours in radio. I’ve always said radio is like a crying screaming baby you can’t hand to someone else. You work nights, weekends, and holidays, so your co-workers become like a satellite family. I got so close to my WXPN family that when my boss announced to the staff at our company holiday party that I was leaving to move to Seattle, he cried a little, and his wife leaned over to me and said, “He didn’t cry at our wedding.”
I don’t have an kin here in Seattle so John Fisher and Marty Riemer have acted as ersatz siblings to me for 11 years. Marty does my taxes, my real estate consulting, contract negotiation, general hand holding and career counseling. JF and I have literally been through birth and death, not to mention work.
John and Shawn
I caught up with Marty last week, and today with John Fisher.
When I first left Minneapolis and I was openly pining for those I’d left behind, my mother said, “You can’t make old friends.” Ain’t that the truth! At least now after 11 years here, I feel like I’ve earned these two.
Speaking of old friends, but not because John and Marty are bananas, I revisited another old friend today: the banana bread recipe from an earlier post. You might be asking why not try something new with those 6 ripe bananas on the counter? To which I’d reply, “Why bother? Why go looking for the shiny and new, when you can trust the old and reliable.” Yeah, John and Marty, I called you old!
Banana Bread
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