YOUR FREEDOM to LISTEN is LEAVING!

Not wanting to alarm you in any way, but someone has to let you know that; the fences are closing in around you.

If I take time to put forward the concept and ideology of why, we're doing what we're doing here on America's Coast to Coast, will you read and keep an open mind; or would it not really matter to you? Opting only for the music of your desires? I promise I will not be affected by your answer, only you may be affected by mine.

Would it surprise you that a radio station in a major top thirty market in the United States does not even have a control room the likes of America's Coast to Coast?

Well, even with our studio problems (and I am VERY GRATEFUL to have what we have) I find it so incomprehensible that a corporation with infinite resources does not have even the basics for a cast of professionals to sit and have fun in a studio, but it's true!

The way of future radio is going to be so homogenized that; the radio stations do not care what YOU think, or what you want to listen to anymore. Hence; NO NEED for any workspace for any radio host, actors-actresses to work with, much less a phone system. But it is TRUE.

I want to try and give YOU a better understanding of what WE are faced with in the future, because YOU are as important to this equation as I am, only I do not want to keep using (I) when it remains so important to YOU also. The mere fact that YOU are slowly being taken out of the equation, when YOU remain the majority of the equation is maddening.

From this point of view, and I would like to think that I am a professional ... I see the immense possibilities of a wonderful new frontier in radio and entertainment, but I grow weary in the fight of holding onto my creative inspiration and passion: while the major Corporations in this Country are slowly whittling it down to nothing, using the word; economics as an excuse. What a shame!

We have been working toward this (something) company for the future for almost three years, on December 30th and; it remains to be a daunting task!

While I continue to read articles about the future of entertainment and radio going down the drain, while independent outlets like JST KLSX are fighting back without the resources, it makes a guy want to question, "What are these idiots really thinking?"

Are WE really asking too much to be on radio stations across the country as a new format that involves those 'Baby Boomers,' their kid's and their kid's kid's. It is happening ... WE are the ONES influencing the market, but why are WE the ONES who are being continually ignored?

If you will give me some time, to spread out the ideology, without complaining that I'm whining ... it will involve a greater sense of understanding that: it all boils down to money, and with that ... this is ONLY another piece of the puzzle that WE (I) remain to rail against, when it remains so important to YOU too.

All of you that have been with US for the last several years, already know that I care so very much for your continued support, and the fact that: YOU tune in everyday to listen, knowing that WE have been pushing this wagon for a very long time and for a very long way ... and I appreciate everyone of YOU. But I do have an agenda and I have to keep making the claim, in my FAITH to make it back into the cultural mainstream. I have to keep trying to get the message out there, and pushing for the ability to get back to where I can say, "Okay, now I feel normal!"

UH OHHH! Would you mind if we started a two way article (Your responses are important) in an effort to stretch forward toward the ground breaking soil of entertainment radio? It may be an effort in futility, but it may be a way for US to get JST KLSX's music and message to the world. Someone has to say something ... You and I. I have to be able to tell you the truth, without preaching to you, but only if you ask me. If you ASK me, I will tell you ... otherwise, I can do the same kind of radio, without giving you the PUBLISHED information.

IT WAS AS MUCH THEN AS IT IS NOW!

Okay ... this may be a little hard to swallow, but open wide; I actually wore a pair of shoes almost identical to these classic and 'styly' 'Huggy Bear' originals.

It was June 04, 1974, a graduation day in Anchorage, Alaska when I figured prominently in a pair of paisley pants adorned by these clogs as I walked down the aisle to receive my diploma, still unsure of my future; much less my career.

Hang with me, there is a point to this short story ... I'm about to unveil the connection between a pair of GOD AWFUL shoes, thoughts of being 'Cool' and my future as it began to unfold. Who would have thought that something so obviously hideous could have made me look like phony Curtis? And it never dawned on me?

What's it gonna take? Maybe a piano dropped from greater heights to penetrate the hard head I've been accused of having!

After graduation, my family relocated from Anchorage to the pan handle of Florida, now affectionately called GOD'S waiting room when; my mother blurted out the first hint that I was going to be in radio and entertainment.

We were en route down the Alkan highway in late July 1974 when this picture was taken, when my mother made the comment; "Why don't you go into radio and become a disc jockey, you have a very nice deep voice" I just looked at her and didn't give it another thought.

It wasn't until another couple of months when the opportunity presented itself through my father who was listening to a small AM radio station in Niceville, Florida WFSH, a country radio station ... while driving MY truck!

"C'mon boy, I called a radio station and we're gonna drop you off to get a job in radio." (we're - meant: the grandparents, my sisters and mother - all piled in one car).

Honestly, that is the way it happened; I found myself being dropped off to begin a career in radio. Yes I was hired, by Dan Harley, a rather portly man who dressed in black suits, white shirts with a little skinny black tie, had his black hair slicked back, smoked a stogy, drove a big Lincoln and called everyone Ace.

I remember that day like it was yesterday, mainly because of my first lesson in radiology: (learning to pronounce the letter W) but Dan's comment of being able to present an image as a country personality rather than wearing something that a pimp would wear, since WFSH was not a disco station, and if I wanted a job ... I had to understand the requirements went beyond just being behind a microphone.

It was a valuable lesson, that has been long in taking hold, but it's one of those little things from the past that is as important today, as it was then. It has made me remember why I love being in this business, and why I don't want to give up on the dream. Besides, I had the ideology grilled into again in 1983 and that also afforded me the thought; I think I can, and I really LOVE the perks.

I haven't been able to get that thought out of my head, and it's either ruined me, or will make me the success I've always intended to be.

Radio was so much greater in the 'Hey Days' of 40's through the 60's, but; there came a day in 70's and the 80's when I was taught that the freedom of Real Radio, was going back to those days that added so much diversity through ONE individual in a cast of many, who could blend all of those elements into the hills and valley's of a roller coaster ride through music and entertainment.

Little did I realize that it was a comment from my mother, later my father who would put me on this career path, where less than eight months later said, "When are you going to get a real job?"