lived in Florida
so that’s
where I’ll be.
some stations there,
which was
lucky for me.
Meanwhile, back in Boston, there are now three stations doing Adult Contemporary.
So with Garth Brooks being the hottest act in the nation and no Country station, Bob Christy and I talk Hilliard into giving Hot New Country a shot.
We knew it wouldn’t be easy, though, because Boston was very proud of the fact that they didn’t have a Country Music Station.
Luckily, when we launched WKLB, our first rating book was decent, so it looked like we’d made the right decision.
Then we woke up one morning to discover that there were now two.
We’d been a little nervous about whether or not a country station could make it in Boston, but we damn well knew that two couldn’t.
Along with working in Boston, I also consulted our sister station, WRMF, in Palm Beach, and it was during one of my visits that my life was about to change again.
Russ Morely, WRMF’s PD, introduced me to his friend Kari Summerfield. (Kari is pictured on top and with me below)
Kari, a psychotherapist, was not only smart and beautiful, but she was also funny, which is a combination I can’t resist.
Can you spell s-m-i-t-t-e-n?
Meanwhile, back in Boston, the Country battle was intensifying, and even the agency people were betting on who would drop the format first.
Then it even got uglier when Bob gave “a use to be,” called Bud a job. (Bob is pictured with me above)
Bud was in severe financial trouble and was about to lose his home, so Bobby helped him out by hiring him to do nights and also help with the music.
As they say, though, no good deed goes unpunished, and Bud repaid Bobby’s kindness by sneaking out the back door with our music and format clocks to join the enemy across the street.
Unfortunately, even though we were winning the battle, Jim’s real reason for being in Boston was to sell the station, so when Scott Ginsburg made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, WKLB was gone.
He even claimed that he wanted to put a deal together with me, but I was already spending more and more time in South Florida and was seriously thinking about moving there.
Sure enough, it showed up one night when she asked me what I thought we should call ourselves.
Prideful of my quick responses, I immediately answered, “I guess you could say we’re engaged to be engaged.”
Now I had two reasons to move to Florida, my engagement to Kari and the horrifying news that Scott Ginsburg had just traded WCLB to our mortal enemy for one of their stations in DC.
Oh, how I wish I was there the day those creeps showed up to fire everybody.
Then, when they exited the elevator, Bobby looked them up and down briefly before saying, “Fuck you guys!”