Backstreet Boys "I Want It That Way"

You can tour all of Europe without paying lots of money if you take a cue from a recent college grad named Anthony. Instead of booking hotels throughout eight countries and 22 cities, Anthony "Tinder Surfed". What is "Tinder Surfing"? Instead of using Tinder to look for someone to sleep with, Andrew looked for a place to sleep. He'd then link to his YouTube page where videos told the ladies what he was doing and even then people opened their homes to him. Anthony not only found places to stay, but he even hooked up with a some of the ladies. Not everyone accepted Anthony's overtures -- he got told "Sounds fun, but that's not for me". It certainly helped that he's an attractive and multilingual person, but wouldn't you feel like the whole time he stayed with you that he was on his phone looking for his next place to stay?

Britney Spears "(You Drive Me) Crazy"

Anyone who's watched Britney Spears' Instagram story lately is probably hoping she's okay...

Jim Brickman "The Love of My Life"

That's the voice of Christian artist Michael W. Smith in Jim Brickman's "The Love of My Life". Up until this ballad, Brickman had typically teamed up with female vocalists (Anne Cochrane, Martina McBride). The song that sounds like it was pulled from a wedding reception was a Top 10 hit on the Adult Contemporary Chart in 1999.

Rod Stewart "Faith of the Heart"

The fear of walking in on one of your friends doing something embarrassing is real. I had four male roommates in college. Stuff that happens behind closed doors could accidentally be seen. One time, I walked into my friend Matt's house. He and I were seniors in college and back home that summer living with our parents. We were about to embark on a three-day road trip to visit some other friends who didn't come home for the summer. For some reason, we named our trip "The Cut-It-Out Tour". Anyway, I walked into Matt's house and his mom tells me he's downstairs in their basement. Matt was always downstairs. He had a pool table, a pull-out sofa, comfy La-Z-Boy chairs, and cable TV. This is why Matt was always in the basement. Matt was supposed to be all packed, dressed and ready to go when I arrived, so I truly was not happy to be walking down into his basement. I notice him sprawled out on the floor watching a movie. Not just any movie, Patch Adams. Yes, the Robin Williams movie from 1998. To make matters worse, Matt is bawling. He sees me and tries to laugh it off by telling me that everyone was wearing a red nose (whatever the hell that means). My eyes are wide as I say, "We're supposed to be on the road and you're down here in your boxers watching Patch Adams and crying?!?" He laughs again. For twenty years and counting, I have and continue to use this story against Matt.

Celine Dion "That's the Way It Is"

How do you know you've worked in Adult Contemporary radio too long? While walking out of work last week, Celine Dion's "That's The Way It Is" blared through the halls of Prudential Plaza. Immediately, I knew all the words...almost like a non-practicing Catholic can instantly recall the lyrics to "One Bread, One Body" once they step into a church.

Ricky Martin "Livin' La Vida Loca"

Credited with sparking the "Latin Explosion", Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca" even pushed its way onto Adult Contemporary radio stations -- which was quite the crazy feat considering soft rock radio stations rarely embraced uptempo songs at the time. Martin's brassy and sweaty dance song peaked at #18 on the Adult Contemporary Chart.

Delerium featuring Sarah McLachlan "Silence"

The door to the on-air studio opened late one evening at the soft rock radio station where I worked as a board operator and in walked Keith, the station's chief engineer. Keith was a character. He told great stories, had an infectious laugh, liked his whiskey, and was rumored to take naps in the transmitter room. Keith told me that at midnight he was taking the radio station off the air so they could performed scheduled transmitter maintenance. Before this happened, he said I needed to go on the air and give the station's call letters. Since I was simply a board operator, I had never gone on the air (a board operator does everything a DJ does -- except talk).

"Do you have headphones?" Keith asked.
"No, why?" I responded.
"You're gonna need them when you go on the air."
I quickly found a beaten-up set of headphones that looked like they lost a fight with a hungry German Shepherd.
"What do you want me to say?" I asked Keith.
"Just do the legal ID which is the call letters and Chicago and then say that we'll be off for a few hours," Keith nonchalantly responded.
I could almost feel my heart beating through the clunky headphones as I muttered through Keith's check-list of things to say. It was the first time I went on the air at Chicago's Windy 100, but it wouldn't be the last...

R. Kelly "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time

Eight years ago, I got my first taste of the Mediterranean with stops in England, Italy, Spain, and Malta during my vacation. The trip had so many highlights, but one particular moment will always stand out from the rest. It happened on the island of Malta in Valleta--a small country off the coast of Sicily. While there, I noticed an elderly married couple pointing and looking around an outdoor coffee shop. While her husband stood raising his cane at some of the pillars, his wife surveyed the area while holding an old photograph. When we approached the duo, the woman explained that her husband was a former British soldier who was once stationed on the island of Malta during World War II. The photo she was holding happened to be a photo of her husband from 1944 standing in that very spot. Chills! This moment was the first time in nearly 55 years that the man last stepped foot there. The two were quite humble and downplayed the significance of their visit, but we would have none of that. I snapped this photo of the two of them holding the photo and thanked them for sharing their story. It was a beautiful and perfect moment of history. 

Spice Girls "Goodbye"

This past week, we learned former Spice Girl Melanie Brown, "Mel B", checked herself into rehab --not for drugs, alcohol or sex addiction as was widely reported, but for PTSD from her past marriage to Stephen Belafonte. Mel B's ex-boyfriend, Eddie Murphy, also announced he'll be a dad for the 10th time (as in nine plus one!). Mel B. is the mother to Eddie's eighth child, Angel Iris.

John Tesh w/ James Ingram "Forever More"

(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.

The Corrs "Runaway"

Whatever didn't happen for The Corrs in 1995 eventually came true in 1999. Their ballad "Runaway" didn't chart upon its original '95 release, but became a minor hit upon re-release in 1999. The sisters later charted the upbeat "Breathless".

Enrique Iglesias "Bailamos"

Say the name Michael Bolton and people always bring up his long hair (which he cut short in 1994). Whenever Enrique Iglesias' name gets mentioned, someone will bring up his emblematic mole. When the spicy Latin singer first popped up in the late-1990s, the mole was his trademark. America's love affair with his mole ended shortly thereafter. Enrique's fear of the mole becoming cancerous led him to have it removed in 2003 and the internet went nuts.

Cher "Strong Enough"

Radio at the end of the 1990s featured hip-hop (Brandy, TLC, Destiny's Child), the "Latin Explosion" (Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Santana), and Cher. The ageless wonder returned to Top 40 radio with her mega-hit "Believe". That song ended 1999 as the #1 single of the year. Lost in the shuffle was her follow-up hit to "Believe" called "Strong Enough". Aside from a home on the radio, dance clubs couldn't get enough of it. With its disco-dance flavor, "Strong Enough" played like an updated version of Donna Summer's "MacArthur Park".

K-Ci & JoJo "All My Life"

Imagine piling the kids into the car and driving down to The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles to see a radio station's Jingle Ball concert...only to see one of the performer's, um, balls. Well, this actually happened in 2000 when Cedric Hailey (K-Ci) revealed himself to the crowd...twice. Children as young as five were part of the crowd that numbered nearly 4,000 people. K-Ci ultimately pleaded no contest and performed community service. "He just got caught up in the moment," said K-Ci's attorney.

Mulberry Lane "Harmless"

Perhaps my boss felt like I was Milton from Office Space. At the time, I was a new hire as Evening Producer at a Chicago radio station and I had no where to sit. Since my position was brand new, there was no existing office or desk which led to the powers-that-be to create a makeshift office within a room that housed computer servers. The once always-locked room-turned-office needed some major TLC--not to mention a paint job. One morning, my boss burst in carrying a handful of posters in hopes that I would hang them over the areas that cried for new paint. One particular poster featured four attractive blonde sisters that comprised the group Mulberry Lane. I had never heard of the band, but hung up the poster anyway.

This particular poster became a conversation piece among visitors of the station as well as fellow colleagues. Since I didn't know anything about the group, I used to tell people the poster was a personality test to identify what type of girl a guy was most attracted to -- similar to those early BuzzFeed articles ("What your favorite female Friends character says about you!"). To me, Mulberry Lane resembled a more tame version of the Spice Girls with each member possessing personality types such as flirty, girl-next-door, sweet, and wild.

Two years later, I changed positions within the radio station and I don't know what I did with the poster (let's assume I threw it away), but the inside joke continued. To this date, my former boss still forwards me all the emails she still receives from Mulberry Lane wishing their fans a Merry Christmas. 

Third Eye Blind "Jumper"

Everyone's got to face down the demons

Maybe today we can put the past away

Santana f/ Rob Thomas "Smooth"

Every hour, a radio station airs something called the Legal ID which is just that: a legally mandated station identification. The Legal ID airs as close to the top-of-the-hour as possible and includes the station's call letters and licensed city of broadcast. In the case of the former WENS-FM in Indianapolis, I heard their Legal ID countless times during my many drives to and from Indiana University in Bloomington. It said: "97-point-1, W-E-N-S Shelbyville, Indianapolis. The flagship station of Emmis Communications." WENS-FM was licensed to Shelbyville, Indiana but broadcast out of Emmis' studios in Indianapolis.

For years, Production Directors spent lots of time crafting big, booming Legal ID's, but that changed when the ratings system morphed from diaries to Personal People Meters (PPM) in the late-2000s. Listeners no longer had to write down what stations they listed to since the PPM (a device that looks like a pager) now automatically records that information. This caused some stations to bury their Legal ID within a commercial break.

In 2006, I voiced a Legal ID for a radio station, and it proudly aired every hour until 2015 until the station switched formats and, ultimately, call letters. The day before the switch, I joked to my boss that my mom would be very upset if she didn't hear her son do the hourly Legal ID. He told me not to worry because I could voice the new Legal ID. The next morning at 10:00AM, the first of my five new Legal IDs started airing. It continues to air today much to the delight of Stephani, a part-time DJ at our sister-station. She liked them so much that I gave her what amounted to the worst cheapest birthday gift ever: an MP3 of said Legal IDs. Happy birthday, Stephani!

Jim Brickman "Destiny"

It's your first day working as Program Director of an upstart Adult Contemporary radio station in Chicago. You're driving an unfamiliar route to work on the expressway when --BAM!-- your truck slams into the luxury car in front of you. After cursing a few choice four-letter words, you exit your vehicle to talk with the person whose car you just struck. Imagine the surprise when the person driving that car is the General Manager of the radio station! You can classify this as a memorable first day of work for both parties. My Program Director at that radio station once shared that story with me (after a few cocktails).

Sixpence The Richer "There She Goes"

After taking a few days off to have my wisdom teeth removed, the co-host of a radio show I once produced cornered me and said, "I will pay you top dollar for your leftover Vicodin." I didn't know what opioid addiction was back then, but the warning signs were there. She often started each day asking the morning team: "Which pill should I take today?". Not only that, she was the first person I ever knew with Attention Deficit Disorder. She frequently would tire of conversations midway through (on-the-air) and would interject by saying "new topic" and move onto a different subject. The only things that seemed to keep her attention were dogs and a zoo webcam that featured pandas.

Elton John, Heather Headley & Sherie Scott "A Step Too Far"

News of WLS-FM cutting ties with Dick Biondi getting fired from WLS-FM shocked long-time fans of the legendary Chicago DJ. Biondi is no stranger to getting fired--it's happened to him 25 times. While getting fired 25 times sounds extreme, it's something common in the radio business. The first time I ever experienced getting fired happened while working for a struggling station that played pop music from the 1980s and 1990s. Instead of playing all popular music from those 20 years, we focused on a very tight playlist of about 340 songs. At the time, I produced the station's morning show and the three of us joked (off-the-air) that we played John Mellencamp at twenty past every hour. The format wasn't inspiring and really gathered an audience--even after embracing the "all-Christmas music" format one year.

In the fall of 2004, rumors swirled in the building and among those in the business that changes were coming as our station languished around 20th place among listeners. At first, we believed the changes would be to the morning show (we were the third morning show on the frequency in two years), but later learned the company planned to completely blow up the format and launch something different. One Friday, we woke up to news in Robert Feder's column of the Chicago Sun-Times that changes were coming soon. This time the story carried a quote from someone in management to "stay tuned".  Despite this, our immediate supervisor dismissed the news as "a rumor" during our daily meeting with him. It was the second time he waved off our questions about our future there and the last thing I remember was him saying, "I don't know where Feder is getting this...". At that point, I remember my brain had enough and involuntarily my hand struck my own face. The sound of it caught every one in the room off guard. Not pleased, my boss glared at me and said, "Yes? Do you have something to say?" Tired of the lies and pretending, I finally unloaded and said, "Why do you keep lying to us? We all know what's happening!" 

For the previous three years, I operated on nearly three hours of sleep each night as I poured my heart and soul into creating the best damn Chicago radio show that no one knew (or seemingly listened to). I woke up at 3:39 A.M. and took the CTA downtown to work while grossing a whopping $28,000. Through rain, snow and piercing winds, I trudged to work each morning. It wasn't about the money. It wasn't about being famous. It wasn't about being on the radio. My passion to engage, inform and entertain folks while they drove to work drove me each morning to put together the best show I could. I loved that radio show I produced and would do anything for the two hosts who were like family to me. Unlike me, they both had families, mortgages and bills to pay and losing this gig would affect them more so than me.

After my outburst, my boss yelled at me to get out of his office after questioning me on who I thought I was to disrespect him like this. Confused, I walked back to my office and wondered if I should start cleaning out my desk. This guy lied to us everyday and yet I'm labeled as the bad guy? I was angry, hurt and very scared. Minutes went by as I sat at my desk paralyzed with fear. Finally, after about 15 minutes, one of the morning hosts who was with me at that fateful meeting returned and told me that he thinks he smoothed things over with our boss. He explained to him that I worked non-stop and lived and breathed this show. My dedication to it clouded my acceptance that soon it would all be over--whether my boss wanted to admit this or not. My colleague recommended I go apologize. For reasons I'm still not entirely sure, I grabbed a biography of Paul McCartney and headed back to the office where a few minutes ago I was not welcome.

An empty office greeted me. I sat down and waited. And waited. It seemed like another 15 minutes passed before my boss entered and nearly froze as we noticed me sitting there. "Todd," he said, as he resumed his composure and sat down avoiding eye contact. What happened next is still a blur to me, but I do recall him suggesting I go home to "decompress" before our station's Halloween party that evening. I apologized to him again that evening and I would label his reception of my second apology as "equally as cold as the first". Six days later, I (along with four-fifths of the on-air staff) were fired.