As a general rule, when a large black van pulls up next to you in an empty parking lot at four in the morning and three large men jump out, it is not a good thing.
In fact, I’m willing to wager that 99 percent of the time, when that happens, you are probably going to endure some sort of physical pain.
Fortunately, I’m one of the one-percenters.
There I was, four o’clock this morning, in an empty parking lot in Merriam, working on some editing stuff, when the van pulled up. I could see the smoke rolling out as the door opened and the large men jumped out. I briefly peed and began to wonder how far my brown dress shoes from target would get me if I took off running.
Then, one of the men spoke.
“We listen to you every morning dude! We wanna be interviewed for the radio!”
I’m sure these men were harmless, but I wasn’t about to take chances.
If a crime boss tells you you owe him a favor, you don’t argue over details. And when large men jump out of a van at you and want to be on the radio, you put them on the radio.
Case closed.
What a welcome back from my vacation!
After a week of sleeping in, drinking egg nog and playing with my son, it came as quite a jolt when the alarm went off at 3 this morning. But after a coke and some cheerios (odd combination, I know), I was out the door and on my way.
But just as I rounded the corner and turned out of the neighborhood, I found my heart skipping a beat as I slammed the breaks to avoid colliding with a deer. For a few brief seconds the deer stared into my eyes and I into his. Then, realizing he had not been killed, the deer took off. The problem was that he took off prancing slowly down the road….RIGHT IN THE PATH OF MY CAR.
Due to the massive snow drifts in the other lane, I had little choice but to drive six miles an hour with white tail and deer butt looking me in the face.
Fortunately, the deer turned left no Shawnee Mission Parkway and I turned right. Welcome back Jeff!
It’s one of those holiday affairs.
Christmas is coming and people take vacation. It probably happens at your office as often as it happens at mine.
It may even be tough to fill in for those who are out, since many positions are so specialized. While that may be the case at your office, it cannot be the case at ours.
This week, (try to keep up) Eric was E.J., Cooper was Jayme, Nichole was Cooper and Meade was Bushman. Then, later in the week, I was E.J., Eric was me, Cooper was tired, Nichole was Cooper and Meade was Bushman.
In radio, you have to be able to fill just about anyone’s shoes. If E.J. is out, I’ve got to be able to anchor. If Jayme is out, Cooper has to step in. If Grady is out, Bushman needs to know the city hall beat.
I think that’s why this place works as well as it does. Anyone can fill in for anyone at a moment’s notice. And we always sound darn good doing it.
Happy Holidays!
This is the second year I’ve been able to witness the generosity of the local community as it applies to our annual Coats For Kids Drive. And once again, that generosity shone through. In spite of tough times, we were still able to collect thousands of coats, each one going on the back on someone in need.
And while I, and everyone here at KMBZ cannot say thanks enough for the generosity, I must take a moment today to blog about how much more of that good will is needed.
I just came from the Salvation Army, which is in desperate need of more toys for the needy. And they are just one example. As the economy continues to teeter around uncertainty, almost every local charity is struggling in some way.
These are uncertain times. And even those of us lucky enough to have kept our jobs have felt the pinch. As someone who has a baby on the way, I know how tempting it can be to hold back on charity in favor of playing it safe.
But because I drive the streets of Kansas City every morning, because I see how much need truly exists out there, I cannot, I MUST not give into that temptation. I hope everyone who reads this blog will join me.
It matters not what charity you choose. It doesn’t even have to be a charity. It could be as simple as cooking Christmas dinner for someone you know can’t afford it. In this time of need I hope we all give a little extra….do a little more….think a little more often about that person in need.
After all, isn’t that truly what this season is supposed to be about?
Sometimes I think it takes a special sort of person to do my job. On days like today, I’m sure of it.
Many of the people here in the metro dread mornings like today. There’s snow and ice on the roads, the temperature is negative-forty and they’ve got to brave the rush hour. I don’t care who you are. There’s not much about those sort of mornings that seems fun.
But for me, those mornings are something of an adrenaline rush. I’m up at three, out the door and on the road by four. My rush hour is spent driving not to the office, but IN my office. My office is Cruiser 980 and there’s no snow drift I won’t attempt to overcome.
There’s something different about the streets on mornings like these. There’s a purpose to what I’m doing greater than the purpose of a regular day. Those streets can be deadly, and it’s my job to give our listeners an idea of what to expect. I take that job seriously.
It’s not always appealing. I worry about driving all over the metro in icy conditions. I think to myself that one of these days, the odds are going to get the better of me and I’m going to have a crash. But knowing that my reports could cause someone to slow down, take a different route or leave that extra five minutes ahead of time make it worth the risk.
Now don’t misunderstand me. I don’t think of myself as anyone heroic. The heroes in this town are the police, fire and other first responders that truly do save lives on days like today.
But I’ve received enough listener emails over the years to know that what I do makes a difference. And if it’s kept one person from getting into even the tiniest of fender benders, I think it’s worth its weight in gold. And I go home at the end of the day satisfied that I’m doing more than just earning a living somewhere.
It’s a few days after Thanksgiving, but I didn’t have a chance to do this before the holiday, so I’ll do it now.
My list of “I’m thankful for” is as follows…
I’m thankful (and this is not just a ploy to impress Neil and Nichole) to work in a newsroom full of professionals like no other place I have ever worked before. Whether it’s Lisa, Bob (thank God he’s back!), Grady or anyone of the other members of our newsroom, I must point out that these are professionals in every sense of the word. I am honored to work in the same building as these folks!
I am, of course, thankful for my son and my son-to-be. Fatherhood has brought more joy and fullfillment to my life than I ever thought possible. And I can honestly say that little Ethan Jeffrey is more than I ever hoped he could be.
I am also thankful for my beautiful wife, who most days, I do not deserve. She is patient, sweet, gutsy and kind. She is the rock of our home and she is nothing short of my soul mate.
And finally, I am thankful to have learned a thing or two about being part of MY family from the people who raised me. We almost lost my dad last year, and while I’m thankful that we didn’t, I’m more thankful for the person that he is, and has always been. And I’m thankful for the way my mom handled herself through that whole process. Not to take anything away from the nurses at the hospital, but she has been the best nurse he could ever have asked for.
Happy Holidays!
Some mornings are stressful. Others are just flat out busy. Today was just fun.
I woke up this morning at my usual 3 a.m., still a bit overcome with disbelief. Had that game actually happened? Had the Kansas City Chiefs really pulled off the impossible?
Once I hit the streets in search of fan reaction, I knew it wasn’t just a dream.
I’ve spent a lot of time talking to Chiefs’ fans this season. There was the hiring of a new coach and a new GM. There was drama with Larry Johnson. There was more drama with Larry Johnson. The list goes on. But nothing compared to this.
For the first time since the Dick Vermeil era, I actually get a general sense that fans are starting to believe in this team.
Now, don’t get me wrong. None of them are predicting a huge winning streak. Most of them think San Diego will probably win on Sunday. But what they do think….and this is the important part….is that this team CAN win again. They’re buying into what Todd Haley is selling. In short, they believe again.
I only hope that whatever happens on Sunday, the Pittsburgh game was the beginning of something good. This town needs a winner yet again.
I am writing this prior to any official announcement that Zack Grienke has or has not been named the 2009 American League Cy Young Award Winner.
I’m doing so because I think it fitting to pay tribute to someone who captivated our newsroom and kept fans on the edge of their seats during yet another season of Royals baseball that failed to live up to expectation.
On days when we might have been interviewing fans about how poorly the team was performing, or how fantastically improbable it is that no one who carried a bat to the plate seemed to know how to bunt, we were instead talking about Zack.
Those thousands of fans who packed the new Kauffman Stadium night after night were there in part because of the renovations that may well have landed us the All-Star game in 2012. But I’d venture to guess that a good majority of them were there to catch a glimpse of the best arm the organization has seen since I don’t know when. Zack Grienke is good for Kansas City. And Zack Grienke is good for baseball.
In an era when so many fans are still scarred by the cheating ways of oversized sluggers who stole history from the ghosts of the past, it is refreshing to see the fans get excited about scoreless innings streaks, nasty breaking balls and the art of upsetting the timing of a big league hitter.
From the streets of Kansas City with a microphone in my hand, to my own neighborhood where Mr. Kevin Fox and his three boys caught a case of Zack Fever that lasted well into late September, I saw the impact this young phenom had on a city that loves its sports and loves its heroes.
Zack Grienke deserves the Cy Young award not just for being the best pitcher in the league. For there is no doubt about that. But he deserves the award for being the most valuable player on his team, and possibly in his city. And he deserves the award because baseball desperately needs players like Zack Grienke to help bring it back to what it was long before the hidden needles began turning up in proverbial locker rooms all across America’s pastime.
We’ve been talking about it a lot in the newsroom, and on the air.
The weather was so perfect, so unseasonably warm this past weekend, that some across the metro decided to get ahead of the game and put up the Christmas lights before the cold sets in.
I was one of these early birds of winter festivity.
On Saturday afternoon, wife and son alongside, I braved the ladder with a staple gun and a dream.
Call me Clark Griswold if you’d like. But you’ll never call me Scrooge. And when you’re out there on your own ladder in the freezing cold in early December, you might even call me smart.
This blog is almost always about radio. In fact, I’ve made it a personal rule to always try to tie what I’m writing about into my job as a reporter. Today, however, I must break that rule. This story was too good not to tell.
A few months before we met, my wife bought a dog. I’ve blogged about this furry family member before. His name is Cooper. He’s a schnauser-poodle mix, commonly known as a ’schnoodle’, and he’s a barrel of fun.
When my wife bought Cooper, he was just a puppy, and she had a hard time deciding between him and his sister, who were both for sale at the same place. After playing with both, she made the tough decision of going with the male and naming him Cooper. As it turns out, it wouldn’t have mattered either way.
My wife is a dental hygienist, and yesterday, through a conversation with a patient, she came to realize that he had purchased Cooper’s sister right after she bought him. All the facts made sense. Same store, same time of year, same schnoodle.
It turns out this patient had purchased Cooper’s sister for his in-laws, as a thank-you for helping out with their wedding. And by some strange set of circumstances that can only be explained by something out there in the cosmos, Cooper’s sister was promptly named…….Cooper.
So as you can imagine, we now have to get Cooper and Cooper together. As my dad put it, “George Foreman named all his kids George, and now Cooper’s parents named all their kids Cooper”.
What a world.