Initially when I entered college, I had grandiose dreams of being the next Wolfman Jack. I wanted to spin records, and spew my guts on the air for all the people to hear, think, hate, love, or whatever.
I was the classic radiophile. Call me a nerd, call me what you will, that's what I wanted. And I had my chances in college. From spinning CDs on the air in Poughkeepsie and Brookville, Long Island, to directing a set of air time at CW Post to hosting a sports talk show at CW Post, to even having Mike Breen and Ian Eagle as interviews prior to the beginning of the NBA season, I had some major league fun doing the college radio scene.
Unfortunately, the wheels of life sometime have different road blocks, and the radio career never got off the ground. While I was enduring life, and the things that happened during the time between my graduation and now, I grew very fond of a set of radio personalities.
From Opie & Anthony to Leslie Gold to Ron & Fez to Craig Carton to Don Imus to Don & Mike to Nick DiPaolo, I had my presets in place, and they came, and they went. Some are still on the air, some are still a part of my life, and some are not. But, all in all, my love of radio, and specifically, talk radio has never wavered.
However, through all this, and through the time between September 1995 and now, I have always had one "base" program that I would listen to, one place that I would always end up back to, one way or another.
The show on WFAN that broke up last night, Mike & The Mad Dog, or Mike Francesa and Chris Russo.
Was it perfect? Hardly. Sometimes I thought they were egomaniacs beyond belief. Sometimes I thought they were talking down to the callers. But one thing was pre-eminent from the word go.
They spoke the words that I believed, as a fan of sports. 9 times out of 10, the opinions in my heart were put out there for the world to hear and see by these two men.
I even met the men once, got their autographs, (which I have since lost due to my terrible memory), but I did win Mets tickets from that time in Hicksville, Long Island, so the memory of meeting the duo still remains to this day, and that was A LONG TIME ago.
The other aspect of the program that affected me was simple. When I was doing college radio, I had that same intensity, that same passion, that same insanity that Chris Russo portrayed for 19 years on drive time at 660AM.
Was it logical? Hell no. Was it legitimate? Who knows. But it was fun. It was a blast to go on the radio, and spew my guts at 100 miles per hour, and have the individuals that I worked with, and anyone fortunate to listen to me to wonder what in the blue hell I was doing.
It was a blast.
Now, the show has broken up, due to life, and all the events surrounding it.
And it's weird for me. It feels like my "base" has been knocked out from under me. It feels like the stability of my day has been drastically changed.
I'll transition, just like all the listeners of the show, and the viewers of the show on YES will transition, but it's definitely something that will affect me for the forseeable future.
I guess the one thing that I need to say after this is the following.
Don't take advantage of what you have around your inner circle. Because it's very simple to take it for granted, and you don't realize how much you appreciate it until it's gone.
That's not just for small points of your lives like radio shows, but it's for the entire scope of each and every person's existence.
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