I talked about this blog on the radio today, so I guess I should put something new here!

I've been the host of Open Road Cafe on the Sirius Trucking Network, Sirius Stream 131 (soon to be Stream 141 on January 19th!). Wow. I even type it the way I say it on the air. I'm sometimes like Ted Baxter on the old Mary Tyler Moore show. The anchorman who was always 'on'.

Like Ted, I started at a little thousand-watt radio station in Roswell, NM. KRSY Radio. The call lettters have been moved to Alamogordo, NM, but it was in Roswell, NM in 1964. I started there shortly before graduating from Roswell H.S.

I did radio up until I went into the Army in 1967. After the service, I tried to resume in radio but fate put me into television. Have I told you that story? OK.. well, I was newly married and living in Castleberry, Florida. That's a bedroom community of Orlando. While I made the rounds at the radio stations there I sold cars at Winter Park Dodge to put food on the table. The station I most wanted to work for was WLOF. This was when AM was king. I had an appointment with the program director, but when I arrived, it was explained to me that something had come up and could I leave my audio tape and resume'? OK. Plain resume'. No picture or anything fancy.

A few days later I got a call from Dave Walker. Dave, who later went on to anchor at CNN, was the news director for WESH TV. He said he needed someone to anchor the two five-minute local newscasts within the Today Show and the program director at WLOF had recommended me. Recommended me? He never met me! He doesn't even know what I look like!

Well, I auditioned and got the job. That's how I got into TV. I know I'm telling this story in reverse, but years earlier, I got into radio in much the same way.

Remember, I was in my senior year at Roswell HS. I was sitting at my desk one day when the kid in front of me leaned across the aisle and said to another kid that he might be a disc jockey at KRSY. Well! I thought that if he could do it, *I* could do it! I rushed home, showered, went to KRSY and before you know it, I are a disc jockey!

About a year later I decided that I needed to change to a real career and leave radio. I was going back to my home town of San Antonio, Texas and learn how to repair television sets! Yes! I was gonna make somethin' of myself!

So, in early 1965, after working all night, I loaded up my '56 red Ford convertible (with a white top) and headed East from Roswell toward Brownfield, TX. From there, I planned to turn south toward San Antonio.

I had CB radio in my car and, at the time, CB was civilized. As I rolled into Brownfield I got on the CB and called a guy I had met on a previous trip. Another guy came back to explain that the fellow I was seeking was out of town, but could he help me? We got to talking and I explained how I just quit radio and was on my to San Antonio to get a real career repairing TV sets. He said his name was Bob Sewell and that he was the manager of the town's only radio station and would I like to stop and take a tour?

As I was explaining that I was dirty from working all night and loading and getting on the road and I wasn't fit to meet people, there ensued a very loud 'BANG'! My right front tire didn't just go flat, it EXPLODED! I had no choice but to let Bob and his program director Don Turner pick me up and help me out. We got the convertible to a gas station and went on to K-KUB Radio in Brownfield to take the tour. Three hours later I was their newest DJ!

At this point I'm asking myself why I'm rambling like this. Oh yes. It was to give you the Big Picture so you'll understand why I'm doing the Open Road Cafe now. I did radio for a few years, went into the Army and served in German and Vietnam, then fell into TV as a reporter and anchor who learned to shoot his own stories, and then became a network television news cameraman in the early 80's. After twenty years of being an eyewitness to history, fate decided it was time to put me back into radio but without giving up my day job.

My wife Phyllis was a producer on NBC's Today Show in New York when I met her on a shoot. Actually, we had known each other for years over the telephone but we finally met in '91. We got married, had a couple of kids, yada yada, and that brings us to the year 2000 when Phyllis went to work at KVIL radio here in Dallas. About the same time I was rummaging among old reel-to-reel tapes of my DJ days and putting the audio onto CD's. I played a CD of me on the air in Lubbuck, TX in the early 70s and Phyllis so liked it she took it to the program director of KVIL. Kurt Johnson then asked me to 'help out' on the weekends. I was back in radio! I did weekends at KVIL for two years and there I met Mark Willis, who is the news director for ABC Radio Networks and the host of Open Road Cafe. Mark asked me to work for him as his back-up host and here I am doing a talk show on satellite radio. Wow. I love it. Mark and Elizabeth Walsh and Meredith Oches are great people to work with.

But, I may not be working there much longer!

On December 30th (2003) I thought I'd get my brother Gary on the air. Gary is a 'good 'ole boy' who sounds great! He's always got stories to tell and we always laugh. I thought he'd be good to fill those segments where we talk about anything and everything.

Well, I didn't know it, but Gary was hung over! It didn't jump out at me because he just sounded like he was just waking up. The interview was going fine until he started reciting the lyrics to a song he likes to play. Here we are on live radio and he's saying 'She's got tattoos on her titties... / She's the Texas City Dyke". CRAP!

While that was bad enough, what was REALLY bad was that I didn't have the presence of mind to simply cut him off. I've taken to doing talk radio really well. I bring a lot to the table if I may say so. But, in 40 years of broadcasting I had never before faced the possibility of censuring anyone on live and simply didn't have that sense of censure at the ready. I just changed the subject and the interview conluded.

If I don't get fired over this you can bet I'll have lightning quick fingers on all future live interviews! Are you kidding? I'll be SO at the ready to CUT that I'll bet I can see into the future and anticipate it before it actually happens!

If I somehow survive this, I'm really looking forward to more on Sirius. It fulfills me.

Meanwhile, my day job as an NBC network news cameraman goes on. I just found out I'll be helping with coverage at the Super Bow.