There has been a few times in my radio career that my bosses and I have not seen eye to eye. I've only had one boss that had to be restrained to prevent him from causing me physical harm. Yes, it was my fault, but I sincerely believe he provoked me. He yelled at me in a staff meeting for playing the wrong song, so I told him that he shouldn't project his anger on me just because his wife looked like a silverback gorilla. The fact that her knuckles brushed the ground when she walked and that the room erupted with laughter might have escalated the conflict a little faster than anyone could have possibly predicted.
I never actually finished listening to the phone message from our human resources director, but I think I was put on double secret probation or something like that. Bottom line, I got three days suspension with pay. Ouch.
When I returned to my morning shift, the young man who was working the overnight greeted me at 5:00 a.m. with a six-pack and a hardy handshake. I scarcely knew the guy but for some reason he had latched on to me like a tick on a hunting dog. He was incensed that I had been so unjustly treated and seemed to have taken an oath of vengeance on my behalf. Who was I to cool his passion?
My boss and his wife, Koko, had a spare car they kept in the parking lot of the radio station. This radio station was sitting in the middle of the woods and they used this vehicle to go even further into the woods to fish.
The young overnight guy insisted that I come outside with him as soon as I started my first long song. I followed him to his jet black Pontiac Trans Am, watched him pop the trunk and remove a 12-gauge pump action shotgun. He was so sincere that I almost thought he was going to cry when he said, "this is for you." As he moved around my boss's car, cocking and firing, I felt a certain amount of satisfaction. It wasn’t because of what was happening to his car, it was that somehow I had inspired this level of allegiance in someone that not only carried a loaded weapon, but that he was willing to use it as a show of devotion.
I liked that kid.
