Oh so tired...

I worked 16 hours today at the station! I'm tired, cranky and downright ornery.


Just imagine how I'd be if I hated my job!

A forgotten lesson...

I owe a lot of who I am to my high school English teacher, Mr. Nelson. He's the one who drilled me religiously in my writing, so that eventually I'd be able to put together more than three words in a coherent fashion. He also gave me the skills I needed to be an effective oral communicator as well... which is a big help in broadcasting!


But one of the most important lessons I learned in 11th Grade English was that words hurt. In fact, Mr. Nelson said that the most destructive weapon is not a bomb or a gun; it's the opening that's two inches below your nose. And I found that out the hard way on Sunday.


Without going into too much detail (out of respect to my friend), I hurt a very good friend a while ago with some poor word choices. I wasn't thinking with my head... just my anger. It hurt my friend. And I felt like an ass.


I still feel like an ass even now. Granted we're back on good terms; but I didn't realize the full scope of my ignorance and my hurtfullness until last night.


You remember the phrase "Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me?"


I have a one-word response to that... BULLSHIT.


Guess I need to retake 11th Grade English... Anyone have Mr. Nelson's phone number?

Airing out the laundry....

Music of the day: "Sunday Morning Coming Down" by Kris Kristofferson


First of all, congratulations to my good friend Crystal on her recent marriage. She was united in holy-moly matirmony on Valentine's Day... Way to go, my friend! I hope you and Kyle have a long, fruitful, and happy life together. And if you're looking for names for your first-born, "Matthew James" is always a popular one. Just make sure it's a boy!


So here it is, 12:40 in the afternoon, but it feels like morning. Mainly because I just woke up! I usually don't sleep this late into the day; most times I'm up anywhere between 4:30 am and 7:30 am, depending on if I have to sign-on at the radio station. But if I have the day off, then I turn off the alarm and let my sleep-deprived system take over.


It looks like I have to sign-on Monday and Tuesday morning. Turns out my boss (who normally signs on) has to leave for an emergency... not a joke, either! When you're boss leaves you a message at 4:30 in the morning as he's driving to the Minneapolis airport, you have to give him the benefit of the doubt. So I hope everything works out well with him... I must be the only person in the country who actually gets along with his boss and not in a kiss-ass way!


Games I broadcast this week (mark your calendar, folks, there's a lot of em!):

Tuesday: District 7B Semifinals (two games), 6:30 and 8:00, FM 103.1

Thursday: District 5A First Round (Madison hosts Tri-Valley), 7:00, AM 1390

Friday: District 5A Championship (Madison / Tri-Valley vs. Chester / Howard, in Salem), 7:00, AM 1390.


State Tournaments are coming soon, so I'm excited for that. I'll probably be in Mitchell (State A Girls) and in Sioux Falls (State A Boys). Then I'll have about a 2-month break where I'll be concentrating my energy on programming for the station before baseball starts.


Like the mountain of laundry... it never ends!!!

L is for the way you look at me....

Okay, Cole Potter tunes aside, let's talk about... love.


Strange stuff this, this "love"... Stuff of legend, it's responsible for the most creation and destruction on the face of the earth. Al Pacino in "The Devil's Advocate" states that love is simply a biochemical reaction that can be reprodcued by eating large amounts of chocolate. For some it's spiritual, others purely physical.


I'm still trying to figure that one out!


For some people, love is an easy thing... you hear about how people meet in high school, fall in love, marry the day they graduate and never leave each other's side for the next 60 years. Others seem doomed to a life of lonliness, while some others seem like they'll "love the one they're near if they're not near the one they love".


Again, still trying to figure my part in this as well!


Why do people fall in love? Is it for some need of belonging? Financial security? Emotional stability? Or is it just a need to "get your rocks" off.


I post the question to you... why do people fall in love?

Yellow (black) and Blue

So South Dakota State is in its second year of being a Division One School. And it's been an interesting transition. Obviously, the series with USD is no more, but I'm sure it'll start up again when they move to D-I.


But there have been some pretty amazing things... playing some of the top teams in the nation (and holding our own against some of them!) and of course the improvements to Frost and Coughlin... it's been a pretty interesting trip, despite what some small-minded detractors might think!


And now the ugliness...This whole blow-up with the sexual assult charges on the men's basketball players. I know that no matter what happens, it leaves us with a black eye. And it feeds the flames that State got "too big for its britches" when it made the jump.


The fact is, this could have easily have happened as a Division II school and we would still be just as embarrassed. And no school is really "morally superior"; everyone has their own dirty laundry. Those who live in glass houses...

So now I go back to where it all started...back to Madison.


It seemed eons ago that I shuffled loose the employment coil of the radio station. Actually, it was only seven months. I decided that I wanted "a life" and to make more money.


Here’s the lesson I learned at my next job. A job where you get the dry heaves when you wake up is no life to have! But it also showed me that I have to love what I’m doing. I loved radio and I wanted to get back into it.


I never expected to be back in Madison. I applied at different stations in South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, even Colorado and Missouri. I had one gentleman in Missouri want me to come down. But then I got the call from the president of the company...


"Come back to Madison."


So now I come back with some trepidation, but excited about my new responsibilities and challenges. To get the station back to it’s glory days when it typified everything great with radio. To be on par and even exceed the other stations, including in the "major cities."


Next up... a big move to Madison???

This is me and my brothers... I'm the oldest (and sadly, the shortest!) 

In the beginning....

So these are the first words that I’ll be writing here... For some reason, conventional wisdom dictates that the opening words of any great work should be poignant and memorable:
In the beginning...


It was the best of times; it was the worst of times...
Space, the final frontier...


But since this is definitely NOT going to be a great work, I’m pretty comfortable in NOT having some great opening. So let me just start off by saying something Bill Cosby has made popular recently.


Hello, Friend.

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