Tulelake, CA— Article:
That Saturday of the first live remote I arrived at the radio station early to try and locate the on air equipment for the live broadcast from the fair grounds. And it was nowhere to be found and now there was a panic spreading as where was it? The live broadcasting from the fair was only hours away. After a few phone calls it was discovered that the broadcasting equipment had been used for a wedding out in Cottonwood. I was given an address and headed that direction with Joel Dooley or Casey Hedrick. I don’t recall which one was with me that day. I just remember it was one or the other of them with me at the time. I know I was not by myself at the time, that’s for sure.
We drove up and down the street and back and forth tying to find the place where the equipment was supposed to be at from the wedding the night before. As each minute drug on I was becoming even more frustrated and riddled with anxiety to a point of being in a panic state of mind. And the adrenalin of knowing this was going to be my first live on air broadcast, ever, did not help either.
Ah, finally we located the on air equipment and headed to the Shasta County Fair Grounds to begin the set up process of the equipment and off air test with the engineer who was live on the air at the K-ARZ 106.1 FM broadcast studio. Flying high now with the adrenalin and the fact that I took my first Lithium pill prescribed by Dr. Wooly of Redding for being diagnosed as being bi-polar manic depressive and which I had no idea what that meant at the time or what it involved.
I just knew I was going to have a great day and to top it off I met this guy who was running one of the amusement rides not to far from the K-ARZ 106.1 FM booth at the Shasta County Fair. In fact the ride he was running was right around the corner from the K-ARZ 106.1 FM booth.
He wanted to know if I would like to have a beer. And I said, “Sure, why not”. I could see no reason at the time why I could not have a beer. Besides Gary Moore the new (PD) Program Director told me to have a good time and have a beer or two if I wanted at the fair. (You are not supposed to be drinking when you are on the air live. But who would know if I did, or did not have a beer.)
The prescription on the bottle for the Lithium said “Do not drink alcohol while taking this medication or some kind of warning similar to it.”
I thought at the time, “Well what could it hurt, if anything I might have even more fun”. I think by the time I got through it was not just one or two beers but three or four 12 oz Budweiser’s along two Lithium pills. Talk about asking for trouble. LOL!
I did all right at first, as I was nervous. After all there were quite a few people out there listing to me all over Shasta County and beyond, as far as the signal would reach in the broadcast area of Redding, Burney, Redd Bluff 106.1 FM K-ARZ. It did not faze me at the time as I was used to being on the air at the station. The only difference is I was out on location live and I did not have to worry about being the engineer running the board back at the station. All I had to be concerned with is being ready to take my cue and then do the break and then hand it back to the station. Piece a cake as they say. Yeah, right! As long as you are not flying high as kite with 4 beers and two Lithium pills in your system.
As the day progressed and the alcohol and medication was fully engrossed in my system I was having a ball. To the point I would forget to mention the sponsor for the lead in to the break. And I would just say what ever came to my mind or where ever I was at, at the time. I didn’t stay in the booth where I was supposed to be. I traveled to different places for the breaks through-out the Shasta District Fair in 1992.
There was one time I was sitting on a new tractor in a tent kicking back on it looking at the ceiling and doing my break for K-ARZ 106.1 FM from there. Oh, my God!
I was all over the place on my breaks for K-ARZ 106.1 FM and I was driving the engineer DJ at the station nuts. LOL! “James, James, James, where are you, are you there”. Then I would pipe up, “Yeah, I am right here. The engineer DJ at K-ARZ 106.1 FM” Where you at now, James? And I would say, “Oh, I am over at the Baskin Robins booth having an ice cream, ready to go? Stand-by. LOL!
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