Article: Dear Dr. Jones of Burney, CA. (Part One)

Tulelake, CA— Article:

For those who still seem to think Tulelake has some nut case running lose by the name of James Garland on Face Book aka (TNT)Tulelake New Times Face Book. And hashtag #‎tulelakenewtimes. Where he comes up with the wackiest ideas and seems to think he is a newspaper man or a writer getting out the local news or his insightful posts on both of his face books pages and now his two blogs.

Where he has one for local news, ideas, or events Tulelake New Times.

Where he also has another blog for state, national politics across the USA. Tulelake New Times Politics

Add to that his ALL NEW YouTube channel TheRealRocks4me.

Where every couple of weeks checks in with Dr. Jones and his assistant at the Tulelake Health Center for a regular tele med conference. Where he sits in a room located right behind the receptionist and has a conversation to discuss the latest happenings in his life with his mental health doctor to get a reality check every couple of weeks to make sure that he is not too manic or too depressed. And if that happens, he then will have Dr. Jones prescribe the correct medication to correct the situation to bring him down from a manic high or a depressive low. But he feels as long as he is not too high or too low, there is no real need for medications in his life. Due to the fact that the medication has a tendency to mess up the mood swing cycles and in his case, it took close to two years to get the medication out of his blood system, and now have some kind of control and knowledge of where he is at, when it comes to mood swings. He knows when he is too high or too low, better than anyone else does in his life.

After all he was born this way, but was not diagnosed until 1993 with a panic attack while working at HomeBase back in 1993. Which was the first time he was diagnosed as being bio-polar manic-depressive, as he had never heard of such a thing before. Nor accepted it, when the diagnose was handed out. Where he was put on five weeks of disability and all this came, at the same time where he had earlier a few months before back in April graduated with his BA degree from Simpson College (University) with his BA in "Human Resource Management" on April 24, 1993. So he was most certainly wore out and tired from all the cram sessions at Simpson College (University) from the (DCP) Degree Completion Program he had just most recently graduated from in Redding, CA.

(Map of Simpson University Redding, CA)

Where he was so out of it from exhaustion of working two part-time jobs and going to school full-time, along with having visitors some times at odd, early morning hours, who would stop by and need him to help them with their needs they had, that they felt he could help them solve or help assist them with it. As he always did for those he loved and who were his closest friends he loved that were in need at the time of him and him in need of their love and appreciation of each others company and true friendship to what could be expected from those that love each other, as it was not always a one-way street, but a two-way street, most of the time, (but not always a one-way street) as there were moments that it was a one-way street for him to help them with their needs, then, maybe down the road, they would adventurely come back to the two-way street in their relationships with each other, but he still loved them no matter what, as unconditionally as he possibly could and they knew that from the very beginning of each of their relationships with him and him with each of them individually.

And there were more than one, sometimes they would show up at the same time or would stay for extend time periods as if it was their home away from home, without naming names, they know who they are and how much he loved all of them, in different ways. Because like the rest of us they were different individuals with different needs, as we all are with our different needs to know, we are loved and cared about by those that are the closest to us and our hearts. What made it hard, they did not always get along with each other, so at times he ended up in the middle between them all. But he loved each and every one of them and would not trade that time he spent with each them for all the money in the world.

One of his jobs was at K-FXS 102.7 FM on the weekends by running Dick Clark's “Rock Roll and Remember” on Saturday nights from 6 PM to 10 PM and then Sunday mornings from 9 AM to Noon. Which gave him time to read his assignments or do his homework or study for the mid-term or final for the classes he was taking under the (DCP) Degree Completion Program, that’s what they called the program then during that time. Eighteen classes, one class at a time for 5 weeks where there was a mid-term half way through, that was 2 and half weeks later, and at the end of five weeks a final for that class and subject to move on to the next class and subject. Sometimes the classes were back to back without breaks and then other times there may be a week or two in-between before the next class started. He had to do it all over again with two-week and half weeks being the mid term and five weeks the final again. Classes were Monday and Wednesday from 6 PM to 10 PM or Tuesday and Thursday from 6 PM to 10 PM with a 15-minute break at the mid point of each class discussion that night that was being presented by the different instructors from Simpson College (University) at the time. And at the same time working part-time for K-FXS 102.7 FM, as well for HomeBase in the Lumber Department.

It is no wonder that he was exhausted at this point, as it had been a long haul from when he first started working for HomeBase on Sept 5, 1991 and starting Simpson College (University) at the same time. Then, also where he was offered the spot at K-FXS 102.7 on the weekends by a good friend, who was also the (PD) program director for K-FXS 102.7 FM at the time. They needed someone to engineer Dick Clark's "Rock, Roll and Remember" and "Count Down America" on the week-ends. And now presently K-FXS 102.7 FM is the same frequency in Redding, CA as K-LOVE 102.7 FM.

They told him they were taking the station off the air on his last shift at K-FXS 102.7 FM. And he was not to say a word on air about going off the air as K-FXS 102.7 FM, but to just catch the satellite as normal at the top of the hour of his shift when it ended. He could not say a word, but he did find a song that would have meaning to him and those that finally realized they were off the air and if they could remember the very last song he played for K-FXS 102.7 FM, it would then all make since to them as to why he choose that song to take the station going off the air with. The song he choose was a short song by the Beatles, “Hello, Good-by”. He choose it because it was a hello for a while for him on 102.7 FM K-FXS, after he was allowed to do his own thing while on the air without a PD to answer too or fear of being fired. The radio station needed him as much as he needed them at the time.

He still has that radio air-check tape somewhere in his personal air-check tape collection from that time period of his life of being a radio DJ in the Redding, CA area. Starting first in November of 1988 for K-PAK AM 1230 Country and then when they changed formats to K-LXR AM 1230 Classic Rock. They were in process of selling that station too at the time, but instead they wanted to keep it on the air to do it, as they felt it was better to try to sell a station that was on the air, compared to trying to sell a radio station that was off the air.

He worked with Jim Anderson and "Clark in the Dark" who know who he is and was at the time. Clark went on to work on many Redding, CA radio stations after that time period where they first started working together at K-PAK and K-LXR AM 1230. (when he first started out he would mess up by using AM, after the call numbers and people would think he was talking about the time of day, instead of the frequency. As in AM radio the AM should go before the call numbers so as not confuse people with the time of day.) And the last station Jim Anderson worked for was K-9 K-NNN FM, but I do not recall the frequency at this time for K-9 FM K-NNN.

Like his past PD of the station told him, Art Encinas that he was playing with million dollar radio equipment as he was using it as his play ground and toy by experimenting with someone else’s property and using it instead as if it belonged to him personally, instead of to the station. He was having a great time doing what he wanted on the air with no one to stop him or say a word or even try and stop what he was doing on the air. Now that was fun he said to his friend, his former boss and (PD) program director who had hired him for the Dick Clark "Rock, Roll and Remember" and "Count down America". It didn’t hurt that they were roommates at the time either, when he was first hired for K-FXS 102.7 FM and for years in Redding, CA. It was not what you know, but who you knew, that got you jobs, you might not ever had the opportunity to get without knowing the right people to get them at the time in Redding, CA.

Where now before he was diagnosed, they were in the process of selling the station K-FXS 102.7 and so he got another job at another radio station. He got a job overnights at K-ARZ 106.1 or known as KARS 106. A friend who was also still in radio at the time and was also in the same classes at Simpson College as him. Kelly Frost mentioned they had a slot for overnights at K-ARZ 106.1 and to get in touch with the program director and drop off an air check tape from K-FOX Redding, 102.7 FM for the PD at K-ARZ 106.FM.

So he did and was given an interview and was hired for overnights on K-ARZ 106.1, where the live on air DJ’s were required not only to keep the FM station on the air live, but were forced to change the commercial carts on the AM station side owned by the same company. Which was crazy and not a good idea as well as being illegal as far as I know, but they had us do it anyway. As every so often during the breaks or the replacing for the carts on the AM side they would be missed due to the fact that at that very moment he had an open mic on the FM side doing that break live for K-ARZ 106.1 FM and it was impossible to be in two different places at the same time. Impossible.

Then, as time went on after graduating he went to work full time for HomeBase, but switched over to Paint and Décor full-time out of the Lumber Department. But he still kept his part time job overnights on the radio station as being on the air, was not really work, or it was more fun, than work. Even though it was from midnight to six AM. He could still go home and get a nap before having to be at work at HomeBase. And the radio station job was only on weekends Saturday and Sunday mornings from 12 AM to 6 AM, and sometimes would get weekends off from HomeBase and only work Monday through Friday with time off on the weekends and on the weekend be on the air at K-ARZ 106.1 FM. But as time went on he was called to work at the radio station when the regular weekday overnight guy would call in sick or need a night off for personal reasons. And even sometimes on the weekends he would be scheduled for the the 6 AM to noon slot or sometimes even the Noon to 6 PM slot on week-ends too.

Summer was around the corner and “Summer of 93” was being promoted by all the radio stations in Redding, CA at the time. The Shasta District Fair in early June was coming soon too. In fact, he was given the chance to do his first live remote from the Fair on Saturday and Sunday. By this time there was a new PD at K-ARZ 106.1 FM, Gary Moore who did not like him very well as Gary was trying to find a way to fire him. And he knew it as the rest of them who were hired by the former PD did too. It always happens in radio when a new PD is hired the old on air staff in fired and the new on air staff is hired by the new PD as the new PD comes in. Life in radio as they say or that’s the way it was in Redding at the time anyway for him.

He was excited and was told by the PD Gary Moore. “Go out on the live remote and enjoy yourself and have a beer or two if you want too, I don’t care," he was told by Gary Moore the new PD at the time for K-ARZ 106.1 FM.

The only problem was he had just been diagnosed with being disabled for stress from HomeBase and had not informed the PD yet that he was off work from HomeBase for a stress related injury.

Mainly the reason he did not tell Gary yet, was because he did not want to loose an opportunity to do a live remote for the first time ever in his life on the other end of a live broadcast side. This time instead of doing the engineer work from the station side and putting the person out on location on the air. This was a chance for him to do it on location and be the one that the engineer at the station would instead put him on the air this time for the live breaks from the Shasta District Fair in Anderson, CA in June of 1993.

Go to Article: Dear Dr. Jones of Burney, CA. (Part Two)

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