There are a bunch of things I wanted to talk to you about today...

SpaceX and this ISS launch - which didn't happen.

How much money Facebook/Instagram made off of us because we're #StuckAtHome shopping. I mean... #SafeAtHome. But broke.

Some ridiculousness about who does the most chores when both parents are home - with a kid - during a pandemic.

I may very well get back to those...

... but I want to talk to you about my desk. It once belonged to my friend named Jordan.

See, a long time ago, in a city not so far away, called Lancaster, I met Jordan at a pizza place around the corner from a radio station in the heart of a city - then not doing as well as it is now - or was before the pandemic - which was perched not too far from the heart of downtown over a state-owned liquor store.

How appropriate.

I had been let go about 24 hours before from my job as a Promotions Director/On-Air Talent in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. My old boss - and the morning host I served at the time, Kid, had gone back to Z100 in New York to do nights and serve as OM - that means OPERATIONS MANAGER - of a station he had helped build once upon a time during their then-legendary climb from worst-to-first in the ratings. I don't blame him for going back. He left New York with a few things to prove and so he went back when the chance came... and helped turn around a station he had helped take to the top. And so he went back, did what he does. Helped turn a station around... and the rest... is radio history.

Back in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, however... life carried on.

Anyway....

I, however, had joined the station in 1996. Toward the end of that dynasty. I started as a part-time board op, who then got to track an hour live... from 2am to 3am every Saturday night into Sunday morning. From there, after learning how to "run a board" like a pro while learning the rudimentary elements of high personality, non-predictable and non-liner-card radio, graduated to daylight shifts on weekends... to fill shifts on weekends and weekdays... and all the while, I was putting into practice what I learned as an Promotions Assistant and Late-Late Night host on a smaller station to the South in an un-monitored market.

Kid's then-producer, who trained me on all things 'studio,' Sid, had just accepted a job in West Virginia. That's when I met the world of 01:30 wakeups, being late for a 03:00 shift start... and producing the morning show for a guy who was a Program Director meets fish-out-of-water in a coal region later made famous by an NBC television show.

I could tell you stories about that time, and maybe I will... later.

But let's get out of the weeds, as Dennis would say...

Dennis, is, BTW, our talent coach and a man who has become like a personal mentor to me in my life post pop-top-40-radio. He is the whisperer. Has the direct line. Hell, I snail-mail him. Why?

Because he's a gift I wasn't supposed to even have in my life.

Again... another story. For another time.

I hear you, Dennis. "Weeds..." Let's get back to the story...

Kid had gone back to Z100. Our staff, including our former APD, Danny, had been cast to the wind. Those of us left were looking for either the next opportunity or we were hunkering down for what was to come next.

Well, for me, the next came. A former PD moved into the area and became the current PD, I was promoted to a position I - now, in retrospect - wasn't ready for - for no additional pay.

Back then, in radio in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre - and in life - the idea of "fake it 'til you make it..." was total BS.

It still is. And so that's why some of us who get it -- get it.

"People who get it... get it... it will make your n****les hard. Hot 97."

Back to the story. Fake-It-Free-For-Your-Protection...

I stayed on the air working crazy hours. Wrecked a station vehicle after a marathon weekend of appearances, using resources and whatnot I had no idea about in my early 20's... Looking back, I would have fired me, too. I was being used in a place where all of my strengths and passions... weren't brought to bare.

I got canned. I was out of work for less than a day. If only it were that way for so many people... today.

But something Kid told me stuck with me.

On his last day, he said something like, "If you ever get blown out, call everyone in your rolodex from your time as my producer... tell 'em who you are and have 'em call me..."

So I did.

Of the several hours I made calls... I had several part-time options which would help make ends meet while I figured out what to do next. One was in nearby Allentown...

... the other... was in Lancaster. Pennsylvania. Further away... but little did I know it would be the place where the passion-fire which was stoked in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, home of the OFFICE, would be allowed to burn.

I drove down. Had lunch with the Program Director, Jordan Walsh, at a pizza place around the corner from the station, which, was, just steps away from a downtown Amish Farmer's Market, over a liquor store, in a town which was clearly in need of an upgrade.

But there was something about this place. This city. This team. This station.

We all had something to prove.

Jordan was a veteran of KISS in Boston. I think he was at WTIC in Hartford? . I want to think KISS in Hartford, but I could be wrong. What I knew was that I knew he was WHIP SMART. I knew he went to Ithaca. When I talked to him over pizza at that place which was next door to a place we called TECKS, I knew he was far smarter than the market he was in.

The morning host? He was a veteran of Eagle 106 in Philly - a formerly legendary top 40 station. Pirate Radio in LA. He worked with some of the people I work with now. His name? Cadillac Jack. A hand-picked "pirate" by the SCOTT SHANNON.

The former night jock? Jojo. I don't know where he ended up... but his stunts in Amish Paradise will never be duplicated.

The then-current night jock? Patrick Scott Kain? Talented beyond belief. A theater-of-the-mind-wizard dispatched by Jordan to do what creatives do...

RIP, my friend. I miss you. And your work ethic. And the way you said Y-100 Philadelphia... even to this day.

And Jordan? Well, he wanted to bring me in. Part time to start...

... and then, he shared with me a plan.

I'll keep that part to myself for now. But, let me tell you... that time. In that place. Unleashed the fire which started August 1, 1998 -- and which has burned like the Centralia fires of Pennsylvania -- ever since.

Jordan -- ultimately got promoted. His next step - was to a start-up top 40 station in West Palm Beach. In a new part of the country, he had the chance to do, once again, what he did in Lancaster...

I was jealous.

See, he taught me that market size - even format - doesn't matter. We do what we love. With an unapologetic passion. We work hard. We play hard. We work hard together and we play hard together. We support one another, we show up at each-other's gigs. We even help set 'em up and we help tear 'em down. And then, we make sure we're safe to get home... together.

He did let me do a shift on the air there... at Wild 95-5. So much fun. Later, I would be a regular on that cast.

Thanks, Jordan.

He put me on a stage to introduce my first artist ever. A few weeks after I started... Billie Myers. Remember that song "Kiss The Rain?"

He also taught me that no matter what may have gone wrong... HONESTY... was the policy which would guarantee we would never have a problem.

The only time I was ever at Jordan's place was on his last day. I had come over because I was still too new to Lancaster to have a living room. Let alone a dining room table... or even a desk. Hell, I didn't even have a mattress or a bed frame... but again, that's another story.

For a reasonable amount, he would let me buy his black, bachelor-era living room, baseball-stiched furniture from a place in New England which I gather was awesome. He also threw in his Ikea desk, in some light-colored wood, which he bought and built, and had carried with him to Lancaster from... up there... near Boston.

The years... have past. The black leather living room set -- and glass end-tables - have moved on... thanks to our move from Tampa to Columbia, South Carolina.

But the desk. Once a dining room table... and now, the wooden desk which supports my home studio and studio software, mic and processing which we call "NEXGEN..." endures.

This morning, when our technology was acting up... while our Morning Show team was recording our show for the East Coast from DC... I knocked on the wooden desk, hoping for luck. My teammates didn't know it at the time, but I whispered in my mind a quick wish as things re-booted...

"May the spirit of Jordan Walsh coax you into doing the right thing... so we can get through one more show... under impossible circumstances... in a way which makes the world go... WOW."

I don't know if anyone went "wow..."

But I do know that the spirit of a guy who took an untested dude, out of work for 24 hours, and gave him a gig... and who helped him to climb up, through, beyond, and into the future of this life, professionally and personally, is alive and well in me. In my home studio. Therefore, on our morning show. On our major market home station...

... and in this life.

And, every morning... what we're doing through this pandemic... stands on the support... he literally and physically... gave me.

If, someday, on a Facebook Live, Insta Live, or during a show on iHeartRadio... in the morning, afternoon, or night, or on weekends, you hear me 'knock on wood...' now you know who I'm calling upon to help me figure it all out.

He's my friend Jordan Walsh. And I'm who I am today... because he believed.

Happy Birthday, Jordan. I miss you and can't wait to see you soon.

-tk

#TobyTalks: The Toby Knapp Interviews

About Toby Knapp

98.5 The Cat · Hudson Valley's 90's to Now!