Look What I Found Cleaning Out The Studio...
Dog tags given to me the day NASCAR Radio went on the air!
You guys gotta check this out. I was cleaning out my studio this week when I found the dog tags given to me the day that the NASCAR Channel went on the air in 2001. I didn’t realize I still had them.
I really believed in the “liberate radio mission”. I used to get , and still believe, in emails from the CEO when I started challenging us to create radio that was unique and different and to go the extra mile to discipline ourselves to use radio as a creative outlet and create programming that wasn’t “mail it in” - but rather state of the art and something folks hadn’t heard before. We were reminded that people were paying for our product and they deserved more. I loved that. I breathed it, and it’s what made the journey so worth it. Remember, at that time, we had two employees on the channel. We didn’t have broadcast equipment. I went to the tracks and used a hard line phone in the media center. I stayed up till the early morning hours feeding tape so we would have “live” type content. It was the best of creative times for me personally. It mattered.
When we got equipment I carried a box that was bigger than me on shuttle busses and over places like the monster bridge at Dover and the tunnel at Martinsville. I still believe. I still believe in the creative process and in never letting whatever we do get stale. Excited about the opportunities now - to liberate the coverage and still be creative. Wow, I still have the dog tags. Cheers!
