{"id":1578,"date":"2012-10-28T11:35:14","date_gmt":"2012-10-28T19:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billkasal.com\/?p=1578"},"modified":"2017-04-21T09:56:06","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T17:56:06","slug":"what-color-is-the-old-gray-mare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/what-color-is-the-old-gray-mare","title":{"rendered":"What Color is the Old Gray Mare?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">My first job in radio was Continuity Director for an AM\/FM combo in Palm Springs, California.\u00a0 Continuity Director was a fancy way of saying that my job was to write commercials for our clients.\u00a0 My initial desire was to be a disc jockey, but the station had a need for someone to write commercials and I had a need to break into radio.\u00a0 Plus, the job included two hours on the air every night on the low-power AM station, so I did get a chance to be a real live radio DJ.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The work was fun and creative and I got paid a whopping <!--more-->$925 a <em>month<\/em>.\u00a0 The year was 1980 and I left an aerospace job in Orange County that paid me $302 per week.\u00a0 Life on that salary, with a wife, toddler and another child on the way, was a struggle.\u00a0 I recall being in the dog house once for using a quarter to let my two-year-old son ride the little merry-go-round in front of the supermarket.\u00a0 I was informed that the 25-cents could have purchased a bag of carrots.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I came to work weekdays at four in the afternoon and got to be on the air from 10 p.m. until midnight.\u00a0 Each day I would find on my desk a stack of copy orders and would begin writing commercials based upon client\u2019s needs and\/or desires.\u00a0 Then, at 10 p.m. I would get to play music from <em>Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Dinah Shore<\/em> and <em>Rosemary Clooney<\/em>.\u00a0 Luckily for me, I actually am a fan of that music from the previous generation.\u00a0 And what did I care what kind of music I was playing?\u00a0 I was a professional Disc Jockey!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Not a good one.\u00a0 No. \u00a0Not by any stretch of the imagination.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I was being paid to be a DJ and that made me a professional, but I was <em>very<\/em> inexperienced and got to make countless mistakes at the expense of the radio station.\u00a0 Luckily, I was on pretty late at night, so I didn\u2019t offend too many people with what I thought was humor.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">John Lennon<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1584\" title=\"John Lennon Newspaper\" src=\"http:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/lennon-shot-dead-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/lennon-shot-dead-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/lennon-shot-dead.jpg 475w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>My first night on the air was December 8, 1980.\u00a0 Nervous? \u00a0Understatement.\u00a0 But about an hour before I was to go on the air for the first time, another DJ burst into our bullpen holding a paper ripped off the AP Wire machine.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cJohn Lennon\u2019s been shot!\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I can still see the look of horror and disbelief on his face.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">So, as nervous as I was\u2014and would have been anyway\u2014my first two hours on the air was giving updates between songs about the shooting and death of John.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">My boss, as is with most small market stations, was also the morning drive DJ.\u00a0 That meant he worked the most listened to shift in radio, weekday mornings from 6 to 10.\u00a0 Odds were good that he didn\u2019t stay up to hear me on my first broadcast.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He did.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The following morning my boss told me I sounded like I was breathing helium.\u00a0 Not the most auspicious start to what I\u2019d hoped was going to be my media career.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Years passed and I gained experience, paid my dues.\u00a0 For those years, our sister station\u2014an FM Pop music station\u2014was fully automated.\u00a0 It was the only contemporary music station on the FM band in the desert.\u00a0 Yet, we were still being beaten by the long-time Pop station on the AM band.\u00a0 \u00a0So, the boss decided one day to have a live DJ for the morning drive shift on the FM station.\u00a0 Where our AM station had a very tiny signal, confined mostly to the city of Palm Springs, the FM station broadcast across the entire valley.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1258\" style=\"width: 137px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.createspace.com\/3857007\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1258\" class=\" wp-image-1258 \" title=\"Cookbook Cover 1 for CS 9 COVER smaller JPEG\" src=\"http:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Cookbook-Cover-1-for-CS-9-COVER-smaller-JPEG-212x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"127\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Cookbook-Cover-1-for-CS-9-COVER-smaller-JPEG-212x300.jpg 212w, https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Cookbook-Cover-1-for-CS-9-COVER-smaller-JPEG-723x1024.jpg 723w, https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Cookbook-Cover-1-for-CS-9-COVER-smaller-JPEG.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 127px) 100vw, 127px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1258\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click here to Order the Paperback and save $2.00 off the list price!<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Within a few months, the DJ he\u2019d selected for the job found a job in another city.\u00a0 But by now the precedent had been set and the station was finally taking listeners from the competition\u2019s AM station.\u00a0 So, our boss needed to find someone else to do the morning shift on the FM station.\u00a0 He selected, Bob, our Production Director, to take over that shift.\u00a0 Bob hated it.\u00a0 Bob hated getting up at four in the morning.\u00a0 Bob hated getting up at four in the morning and going into a windowless production room that had been modified to double as the FM studio and talking happily and energetically to people he did not know.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Not much thought or care was given to the FM station in those days.\u00a0 But, even as an automated station, it was bringing in many times more revenue than the AM station.\u00a0 To say we were a \u201cMom and Pop\u201d station would fit the bill perfectly.\u00a0 The AM station was owned by a woman who inherited her millions and she wanted to own a radio station, as had her father, many years before.\u00a0 From what I\u2019d heard, she had to be talked into acquiring the FM signal and didn\u2019t really care what music it played.\u00a0 She wanted to listen to her AM station and call up the DJ and tell him which of her favorite songs to play.\u00a0 Whatever they played on the FM station wasn\u2019t a concern of hers.\u00a0 Even when the FM signal started making advertising revenue, she still didn\u2019t care about it.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1723\" style=\"width: 122px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Record-Breaking-Intelligence-Adventures\/dp\/1481859943\/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1357780403&amp;sr=8-7&amp;keywords=bill+kasal\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1723\" class=\" wp-image-1723\" src=\"http:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/RecordBreaking-Intelligence-front-cover-copy-187x300.jpg\" alt=\"Record Breaking Intelligence front cover copy\" width=\"112\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/RecordBreaking-Intelligence-front-cover-copy-187x300.jpg 187w, https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/RecordBreaking-Intelligence-front-cover-copy-641x1024.jpg 641w, https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/RecordBreaking-Intelligence-front-cover-copy.jpg 1568w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 112px) 100vw, 112px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1723\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Now availabe in Paperback and for Kindle!<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">So, when Bob was getting up at four in the morning to be a morning drive DJ, at no additional salary, he didn\u2019t even have a phone line so any listeners might be able to call him.\u00a0 The ratings showed there were listeners, but he had no real-time feedback.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Each time he asked for a phone-line, he was rejected.\u00a0 Finally, the Operations Manager told him to just give out the fourth line of our main business phone number.\u00a0 Most businesses have a main phone number and they use that number.\u00a0 When the line is busy, the calls automatically rotate to the next line, though most don\u2019t really know the actual number of those phone lines.\u00a0 So, someone knew the number of \u201cline four\u201d and Bob gave out that number and only answered that line.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">After a year or so, my boss had decided that it was more important that I was at the station during the daytime hours to be better able to talk with sales people about their copy orders and to be able to go to personally meet with clients.\u00a0 So I no longer had my ten-to-midnight shift playing Sinatra music.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">During these early days, I was living in a neighboring city about 10 miles away.\u00a0 At one point, I only had one working car.\u00a0 So, for a few weeks or months, I took the bus to work.\u00a0 Wanting to make sure I was at work on time, I usually got up and caught one of the earlier buses and that put me into the office before 7:00 a.m.\u00a0 Since I wasn\u2019t on the clock at that hour, I\u2019d go into the production studio and drink coffee and kill time with Bob.\u00a0 Bob would say something funny on the air and after he shut off the mic, I\u2019d make some sort of retort and we\u2019d crack each other up.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One day he just told me, I\u2019m going to turn on the mic on that table and you just chime in whenever you want. \u00a0And thus began <em>The Bob &amp; Bill Show<\/em>.\u00a0 We basically spent each morning making each other laugh and little <em>line four<\/em> began to light up more frequently with people telling us they liked what we were doing or to request a song.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Free T-Shirts!<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-1583\" title=\"tshirt plain copy\" src=\"http:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/tshirt-plain-copy-300x244.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"146\" srcset=\"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/tshirt-plain-copy-300x244.jpg 300w, https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/tshirt-plain-copy.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/>Bob went to the boss and told him that it felt like we were starting to get listeners and he wanted to be able to give away some prizes like T-shirts or movie passes.\u00a0 The boss said, \u201cOK.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If you talk with Bob today, he\u2019ll tell you that we weren\u2019t much for planning or thinking out a contest.\u00a0 So we had prizes but no bright ideas on how to give them away.\u00a0 So we created <em>The Stupid and Useless Trivia Question<\/em>.\u00a0 Questions were, \u201cWhat are the numbers in Hwy 111?\u201d or \u201cWhat is the color with the shortest name and it has only three letters and it starts with R?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Things were getting fun.\u00a0 We felt like we were really making people laugh and helping them enjoy their mornings.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One morning we asked, \u201cWhat color is The Old Gray Mare?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We got nothing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">No one called.\u00a0 We shot each other questioning looks and, following the first song, we gave the phone number of <em>line four<\/em> again and repeated our <em>Stupid and Useless Question<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Nothing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1581\" title=\"old gray mare\" src=\"http:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/old-gray-mare.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/old-gray-mare.jpg 250w, https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/old-gray-mare-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/>Yikes.\u00a0 Maybe we weren\u2019t so hot after all.\u00a0 We picked up the line and there was a dial tone.\u00a0 Following that song we made a slight reference to the fact that no one had won the T-shirt yet and we didn\u2019t think the question was that hard.\u00a0 We still received no calls.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bob again picked up the line and dialed the number of <em>line four<\/em>, but the line was busy.\u00a0 Well, of course the line would be busy because he was using that phone.\u00a0 So, while he again asked listeners to win a T-shirt by telling us the color of The Old Gray Mare, I went out to my desk and called in to <em>line four<\/em>.\u00a0 I also got a busy signal.\u00a0 None of this made sense.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The song ended and we again gave the question, then we played some commercials.\u00a0 After the commercials, we came back on the air and added a few movie passes to the T-shirt to sweeten the pot.\u00a0 We again asked the question and waited for <em>line four<\/em> to start blinking.\u00a0 And still nothing.\u00a0 I think our emotions grew from exasperated to mild depression.\u00a0 Hell, I guess we weren\u2019t as funny and popular as we thought.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We found ourselves taking a break and standing out in the hallway, trying to determine what had happened and why no one was listening to us.\u00a0 The boss, who had gotten up from his morning show on our sister station to grab a cup of coffee, walked past us in the hall.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWhat\u2019s up, guys?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWell, we don\u2019t understand what\u2019s happening\u2026\u201d We went on to explain our frustrating morning.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-1582\" title=\"old_radio\" src=\"http:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/old_radio-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/old_radio-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/old_radio-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/old_radio.png 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/>\u201cOh.\u00a0 We decided to finally get you guys your own number on that line.\u00a0 I wonder if Operations contacted GTE\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">His morning show partner poked his head out of their broadcast booth.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Hey,&#8221; our boss said to him.\u00a0 \u201cDid you put in that request for the new phone line?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cYeah.\u00a0 Only they couldn\u2019t tell me when the switch would take place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bob and I looked at him.\u00a0 \u201cDo you have any idea what the new number is?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cUh\u2026 yeah\u2026 I think I wrote it down\u2026\u00a0 I\u2019ll get it to you on the next break.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">They went back to their studio and we went back to ours.\u00a0 We just looked at each other as the song finished.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Do you think they could have mentioned it?!\u00a0 Could have <\/em>mentioned<em> that they were even considering getting us our own number?!!<\/em><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Works Better This Way<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The song ended and we didn\u2019t say anything about the contest.\u00a0 We played the commercials and went back to a song.\u00a0 We waited.\u00a0 The Ops Manager came in and gave us the number he\u2019d been given.\u00a0 \u201cTry this\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Following the song, we went back on and made fun of our Ops Manager and told our listeners (?) that we had a new phone number.\u00a0 We gave it and the phone line immediately lit up.\u00a0 The first caller screamed \u201cGRAY!\u201d and we had a winner.\u00a0 The line blinked continuously until we announced the winner and continued to blink for a while after.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1053\" style=\"width: 130px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Excellent-Adventure-riotous-Stadium-ebook\/dp\/B004VB8R86\/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1338924317&amp;sr=1-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1053\" class=\" wp-image-1053 \" title=\"Yankees Stadium - My Kindle Short\" src=\"http:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Yankees-Stadium-for-Kindle-copy-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Yankees-Stadium-for-Kindle-copy-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Yankees-Stadium-for-Kindle-copy-682x1024.jpg 682w, https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Yankees-Stadium-for-Kindle-copy.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 120px) 100vw, 120px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1053\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click here to order my Kindle Short.<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">That would have made a tidy ending to the story, but there was still more to follow.\u00a0 It was later that day that the police department contacted our station and was put through to the Operations Manager.\u00a0 It turns out that while we were repeatedly giving out the number of line four, which no longer existed; the calls didn\u2019t just reach some dead end.\u00a0 They were being rerouted.\u00a0 Somehow they were relayed to a little old lady somewhere else in the city.\u00a0 This poor woman was suddenly inundated by phone calls where people yelled \u201cGRAY!\u201d at her.\u00a0 She\u2019d hang up and the phone would instantly ring again and someone else would scream at her.\u00a0 She did this for close to half an hour, we were told, and then finally she asked someone why they were calling her.\u00a0 They said they were calling the radio station because this is the number Bob and Bill told them to call.\u00a0 Since it was her phone, she, of course, thought we were giving out <em>her<\/em> phone number.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The calls were constant so she could not call and report the problem, or what had become actual harassment, because each time she hung up the phone, it immediately rang again with ever-more-frequent and desperate callers screaming \u201cGray!!\u201d at her.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1588\" title=\"the three stooges\" src=\"http:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/three-stooges-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/three-stooges-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/three-stooges.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Our Ops Manager told the police what had happened and they both contacted the phone company who did some technical stuff and the calls were no longer routed to the little old lady.\u00a0 By that point we\u2019d stopped using that number on the air and we never heard any more about it.\u00a0 Bob and I wished we could have sent the little old lady some movie passes or some sort of gift as a way of saying sorry, but our management decided to not even try to find out who she was.\u00a0 They preferred to let the police explain it to her and have her think it was the phone company\u2019s fault.\u00a0 The next day we asked how many stooges were in <em>The Three Stooges<\/em>, or something equally as stupid and got our winner right away.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">And that was how I began my stint as a radio morning show host.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1052\" title=\"Bill sig blue\" src=\"http:\/\/billkasal.com\/blog\/io\/home\/users\/web\/b2431\/ipw.adstarproductns\/billkasal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Bill-sig-blue-300x123.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"123\" \/><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My first job in radio was Continuity Director for an AM\/FM combo in Palm Springs, California.\u00a0 Continuity Director was a fancy way of saying that my job was to write commercials for our clients.\u00a0 My initial desire was to be &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/what-color-is-the-old-gray-mare\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[214,215],"tags":[33,169,172,168,170,167,173,171],"class_list":["post-1578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humorous-views-of-life","category-days-gone-by","tag-bill-kasal","tag-gte","tag-morning-radio","tag-old-gray-mare","tag-phone-company","tag-radio","tag-t-shirt","tag-the-three-stooges"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1578"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3637,"href":"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1578\/revisions\/3637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billkasal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}