In the second semester of my freshman year, I went into the campus radio station to find out about their news department. Well, I had an ulterior motive: I knew they didn’t have a news program at all. They played lots and lots of music and occasionally the DJ would say “In today’s news, the president said that he’ll veto the new bill, and in weather, hell, look outside if you want the damn weather.”
I never in a million years would have thought that the lack of news was intentional. I just figured they needed my help. So the DJ is pretty much a 1-man show and he says that all news sucks and is depressing and you don’t need news when you are in college and I try to humbly disagree and I’m pretty sure that’s a bong on his desk right next to the news feed machine and the phone rings. DJ Dude nods a couple of times and sounds quite professional and says “Okay, sure, noon tomorrow.”
He hangs up and looks at me funny and says “You can do all news, if you want.”
I’m thrilled. How exciting! And yet, how? I’m just me and I am carrying 12 hours and ...
He picks up his gym bag and his bong and says “I just got a great job in Houston. I start tomorrow. This place is all yours, babe.” And then he throws me the keys and walks out.
That was my start in radio and it coincided with the first year of MTV and so most folks didn’t think radio would last too much longer. I was in hog heaven that semester.
I always wanted to return to my love and radio, and somehow, that funny little investment banking bend in the road led me straight there. They had an internal radio station, referred to lovingly as the “squawk box.”
Turns out, investment bankers are, by and large, unskilled at writing. My writing so impressed them, that they asked me to use the squawk box to broadcast my lovely words around the globe. The squawk box got me a following and, over time, my writing landing me a full time job with a wire service and a syndicated radio contract.
For years, I did daily stock market updates. Usually during Dr. Laura’s time slot and Bruce Williams’ time slot. Quite fun, syndicated globally. A good friend of mine actually heard my stock market update in Bali. How cool is that?
