How I got into radio, Part 2

So where were we? Oh yes...Bellows Falls VT. I referred in the first part to it being the best of times and the worst of times. It was.
I started the job December 15th 1989. Why do I remember it so well? Not only did I have to build a radio station from scratch to launch in 2 weeks (and we made it with just a couple of hours to go) I had to solve the staff problem. They had to go.
So I get there, fresh from my 2 ½ hour drive to meet the staff , whom I then had to fire. It’s all too common in radio for this type of housecleaning and it’s almost never personal, but that didn’t make it easier...especially since the only 2 people who knew about the format change was the owner and myself.
I did keep one jock...his name was Mike. He had a fascinating life, including a period of time as a carny. But he knew quite a bit about rock and roll and his wife was pregnant with their first child. That becomes relevant later on. Boy, does it become relevant.
So here we are, with me still literally sleeping in my office as I didn’t want to waste valuable sleeping time driving to Lawrence MA where my apartment was. I was working 18 hour days anyway. Hell, I was 26 and loving the whole experience. I was going to launch the new format at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve, ushering in 1990 with a mission to show these hicks what a real rock station sounded like. Yes, that’s how I thought at the time. Ah youth, thy name is arrogance.
During the final 2 weeks of December, Mike, Brad (the owner) and myself kept the country format on the air while I waded through literally piles of resumes and demo tapes to find a decent airstaff, create program clocks, categorize music, write imaging pieces, sign syndication agreements and all 4 gazillion other things it takes to launch a format. I’ll never forget the resume that came handwritten (in pencil!) on notebook paper. I should’ve saved that.
After listening to what felt like the 2986th demo tape, Neil agreed to come up from Florida and be my night guy. OK, we had Mike in AM drive, a honey-voiced girl with the killer airname of Kayla Christie from Rutland doing mid-days, me in PM drive, and Neil at night. We signed off at midnight as an overnight jock was an expense we couldn’t afford and reliable automation was still 6 or 7 years off.
During all of this I had to find an apartment, especially as the 100+ mile commute sucked and my fiancee and I were breaking up. Allison was supposed to come with me to VT but due to reasons that don’t matter anymore she decided I wasn’t the right person to spend her life with. Little did I know why...yet. Thanks to friends I moved into a new place right before Christmas.
The last week of December passed in a blur. Then came New Years Eve. The plan was to air the "American Country Countdown best of the 80's" show from 5pm til midnight, where I would play our new kick-ass Legal ID and hit our first song, "Spirit of Radio" by Rush. During that evening we played an announcement recorded by the owner basically saying we were changing formats but not saying which one or when. That last couple of hours felt like forever. I had never attended the birth of a radio station before but the only thing better than that was the birth of my daughter. At the stroke of midnight I unveiled the new "B107" playing "real rock and roll". I spun until about 3AM, signed off and went home feeling great. The phones were ringing and most people liked the new format.