We were on our way to Alaska and it just seemed like a good idea...
My wife, Linda, and I had decided to tag along with longtime radio partner Cynthia Heath-Kerrigan and her husband, Bill, as they set sail on an Alaskan cruise. Since Seattle was to be the jumping off point, it was only natural to call old Tacoma/Seattle radio goof deluxe, Dayle Nelson, to see if she cared to meet us for dinner. She did, and the Steelhead Diner in Seattle's Pike Place Market will never be the same. Cynthia, who lent her sense of raunch n' roll to shows we hosted on KOGO, KBZT, and KPOP in San Diego found a fellow nut job in Dayle who joined in twisted nonsense with Chuck Boland and me on KTAC in the Pacific Northwest back in the early 1980's.
As the sun burned into the Pacific, (YES, it WAS out!), we recalled seat of the pants stunts we pulled on the air over the many years we played together. There was the vermouth drinking skunk that lived under Cynthia's house; also the hard hitting expose' that Dayle presented on the Tacoma phone book, not to mention phone calls to a dead Elvis and an even more dead Liberace. At one point Dayle reprised her unforgettable Ethel Merman impression and nearly cleared out the restaurant.
We laughed lots as the evening wore on. Days gone by when radio was more "show" than "business" were remembered fondly. The program directors we dissed and tormented with our penchant for always winging it were recalled with some reluctance. (We wondered if our flagrant violations of their various anal retentive formats had taken years off their lives.) It was an evening well spent with two of the best gal pals a guy ever had.
The days of having the kind of fun we enjoyed are long since in radio's rear view mirror--and it's a pity. These days accountants, lawyers, investment bankers and the Internet have left radio flattened roadkill on the entertainment freeway. AM, FM and all those transistors today are about as happening as the Pony Express. It's a sad fact but we still have our memories of the days when radio and spontaneous fun were synonymous.
Cindy, Dayle...thanks for the laughs! You were, and still are, the best in the business. Who needs a transmitter anyway.
As the sun burned into the Pacific, (YES, it WAS out!), we recalled seat of the pants stunts we pulled on the air over the many years we played together. There was the vermouth drinking skunk that lived under Cynthia's house; also the hard hitting expose' that Dayle presented on the Tacoma phone book, not to mention phone calls to a dead Elvis and an even more dead Liberace. At one point Dayle reprised her unforgettable Ethel Merman impression and nearly cleared out the restaurant.
We laughed lots as the evening wore on. Days gone by when radio was more "show" than "business" were remembered fondly. The program directors we dissed and tormented with our penchant for always winging it were recalled with some reluctance. (We wondered if our flagrant violations of their various anal retentive formats had taken years off their lives.) It was an evening well spent with two of the best gal pals a guy ever had.
The days of having the kind of fun we enjoyed are long since in radio's rear view mirror--and it's a pity. These days accountants, lawyers, investment bankers and the Internet have left radio flattened roadkill on the entertainment freeway. AM, FM and all those transistors today are about as happening as the Pony Express. It's a sad fact but we still have our memories of the days when radio and spontaneous fun were synonymous.
Cindy, Dayle...thanks for the laughs! You were, and still are, the best in the business. Who needs a transmitter anyway.
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| Cynthia, KC, & Dayle |
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