Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Steve Winwood "While You See A Chance"

I owe my career in radio to the first person who gave me a chance. As a young 18 year-old bumpkin from Indiana, I talked my way into an internship at the former WPNT-FM in Chicago during the fall of 1995. My boss, Lynne, held down the midday shift (10a-2pm) as well as duties as the station's Music Director. On my first day on the job when Lynne was just about to put on her headphones to go on the air, she turned to me and said, "And, by the way, I don't date the men I work with.". After a few weeks into my internship, I first heard the alleged stories about Lynne's fascination with boy scouts. Being the naive youngster, I assumed this meant that she volunteered her free time with The Boy Scouts of America (!)--but, no, the rumor was that she (who was 39 when I first started working with her) enjoyed the company of younger men. Specifically, she seemed to date gentlemen in their late-20s and early-30s. However, some around the station assumed I was her newest "boy scout", but I (naive to it all) just worked as hard as I could and tried to stay out of everyone's way. Eventually, I worked my way onto the staff as a board operator and later a weekend on-air talent whereas Lynne was fired as part of a format flip in 1997. A few years later, Lynne passed away and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't still think of her and all she did for me and my career.