Ch-ch-ch-changes

I started thinking about “change” as I was stumbling around in the dark, in the middle of the night to “spring forward” all of the clocks in the house. This turned out to be an exercise in futility, as most of the “stumbling” I did was over things like ottomans and doggie dishes, inconveniently waking everyone in the house with the noise. My wife was quick to remind me that the clocks would still be there when the sun came up, but there are some things that are sacrosanct and not subject to change. Like making sure all of the clocks are changed before 2am. That’s when they change in “TV Guide” and that’s good enough for me to trust as gospel.
Change, as we are all well aware, is going to occur. Always. Bottom line. My Mom, who is 84, but, decided to stop at about 34, reminds me, often, that we are required to get older, but, that nowhere in “the rules” is it written that we are obliged to “grow up.”
Change is ongoing and is sometimes so subtle it’s indiscernible. Sometimes it smacks you in the face like a big ole’ wet mackerel. It can hurt and stink. We will all experience this type of change at some point in our lives. The mackerel smack with an outcome that is dictated entirely on our response.
I looked back at some of the major changes I’ve experienced over the years. Going from civilian life to military discipline at an age when I should have only been concerned with the next frat party, then off to war and back to civilian life in one fell swoop, or as it more appropriately felt, one swell foop! Getting married, getting divorced, getting married, getting divorced, getting married, you get the picture. Changing jobs and cities after a couple of years of integrating into a community and life style. All changes that required readjustment and, to some degree, the ability to be chameleon like.
The biggest change in my life, however, taught me the most valuable lesson.
I had been with “the network” for a long time. The first one to turn on a microphone in1981 after we had physically built the studios ourselves in that booming metropolis - Mokena, Illinois. We had a lovely spot to build network radio studios. It was a storefront in a strip mall, comfortably nestled between a pet store and a true value hardware store. Mokena was chosen because that was where WGN had it’s satellite uplink and, since we were to be the first satellite delivered 24 hour network, technologically, even Frankfort or Orland Park were too far away. Since those techno-dark ages innovations have made way for so much change that my wife is now able to do a show from our living room in Miami, but, you have to start somewhere. That somewhere was Mokena. As we grew and time marched on, we were able to become more versatile and, eventually added a bunch of formats and moved to Texas. The changes in technology brought a number of other changes as well. The network made money and was sold. That happened a number of times. New owners brought with them, changes upon changes. For the most part, they were for the better and we watched steady growth, but, over the years, there were many other changes, for the most part corporate, that were much less palatable. But, the industry was changing too and becoming the “bitch” of the corporations and I watched as our beloved project, begun all those years ago in Mokena, Illinois, began a slow and painful, at least to watch, descent into the bowels of corporate hell.
After a quarter of a century of complacency and, quite honestly, laziness, I was forced into retirement. This was change I wasn’t at all ready to accept. There was, however, an enormous issue. I was older and had made a very good salary. I found that, over a nearly two year period, I wasn’t able to “get arrested” in the business I had grown to love so much for more than four decades. Nobody wanted an “old guy” playing rock and roll and telling jokes to people I had socks older than.
It was while lying in bed, probably in the fetal position, wallowing in the pity party I was throwing for myself, that my wife and two of my daughters provided me with what has become a defining moment in my life. They walked into the bedroom with a little cup cake, topped with a birthday candle, singing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” and reminding me that it’s never too late to make whatever change is necessary to continue to thrive. That was the day I decided to try make a huge change and try to break into the world of news. I was able to land a job at the #1 news talk radio station in Dallas, WBAP, anchoring news in the afternoon and then, from there, it was on to anchor news for a number of stations throughout Florida from a hub in Miami. This was a major change because I came from a radio station that was filled with journalistic integrity and am now working for a company for whom “journalism” is a foreign word. It’s merely an assembly line of a few “read” stories to make sure the commercials get played.
Radio as I knew and loved it is gone and now, news, as I have grown to know and love it, is on the way out. So am I. In very short order, I will retire and maybe find a little something part-time in a cigar store, bait shop or golf course and the only "change" I will be concerned with will be what’s left over from my Social Security check after the bills are paid.

THAT’S HOW I FEEL……………….WHAT CAN I TELL YA’