Radio

I’ve done a lot of different things in my life. Besides writing, I’ve sold steel (still do), tuxedos, real estate, and a device called a programmable logic controller.

I was offered a job as one of the original hosts of the QVC cable shopping channel back in 1986. Turned it down because they wanted me to give up my radio gig.

Radio was my first career, the one I dreamed of when I was a kid growing up in Chicago. But while my normal friends were listening to WLS, Super ‘CFL, and WMET, I stayed up late listening to the talk show hosts: Dave Baum, the late “Chicago Ed” Schwartz, and Dr. Milton Rosenberg.

Somehow, instead of a career behind the mic examining the issues of the day, I wound up a Top 40 jock.   Played the hits for Peoria, Little Rock, Saint Louis, and Philadelphia before I gave it up for a stable home life.

In 2006, I suffered my mid-life crisis. After months of sending out demos culled from P.I.D. Radio, the Internet show I co-host with my wife, Sharon (who’s a lot better at this radio thing than I am), I was offered a job as the Program Director and afternoon host at talk radio station The Eagle 93.9 in Columbia, Missouri.

During my time there, I had the opportunity to talk with a lot of fascinating people. Here are a few of my favorite interviews.

And some of my favorite Off-Road Friday guests: