(phone rings)
"Hello?"
"John Tesh is kicking your ass!"
"What?"
"John Tesh is kicking your ass. I'm listening to him tell a story about overcoming your greatest fears and then I turn over to you and you're talking over an Elton John songs and telling me how you play the most music in the morning."
My former colleague Rob used to call the radio station's hotline each Sunday morning to tell me two things:
1. He was running late.
2. John Tesh's radio show (which aired on a suburban radio station) had content that far exceeded mine.
At first, Rob's comment bothered me. Wait, you're telling me that John Tesh, the Yanni-wannabe who was the butt of every Jay Leno joke, is putting on a better radio show than me reading liners four times an hour?!? Bull.
In reality, Tesh was not only kicking my ass, he was about to turn his little weekend radio show into a full-time job. His friendly and inspirational style won him legions of fans and, ultimately, his weekend show turned into a daily syndicated radio show heard on more than 150 stations. Damn you, John Tesh.