The Mayor of BOOMTOWN
MORNING GLORY
By Greg Budell
"A true story from the Greg files"
someone’s out-of-control behavior they knew a competitor would pick him up and pay more in a heartbeat!
2020 marks my 5th decade in the radio business. For most of these years, I’ve been a morning radio host. The question I’m asked most frequently is “what time do you have to get up for that job?”.
When my party spiraled out of control, I chose rehab because I couldn’t take it anymore- not my employers. When I finally made the long overdue trip to rehab, I was scared you-knowwhatless. I thought being in a chemically altered state led to the creative, abstract humor that became my radio brand.
My reply is “2:22AM”. People understandably react with horror to that number. I wouldn’t trade my schedule for anything! It wasn’t always that way. There was a time when I could party until 3 or 4AM on a weeknight, and still get by on an hour’s sleep to make a 6-10AM show. That was then. When 10AM came along it was home for the day to recoup. Big money. 5-hour workday. What a life! It took time and consequence to negotiate those hours into a state of manageability. It was amazing how much easier that schedule became when a trip to rehab ended the party. I picked morning radio because that’s where the big money has always been.
58 BOOM!
March 2020
RiverRegionBoom.com
The staff ruined that delusional thinking on the first day!
Greg grilling in the dark, 4:30 AM!
Morning people got the “star” treatment. Years ago, being a “bad boy” (partier) was part of the persona required for the job. Booze and drugs made it easy to be bad. Notoriety was good for ratings! Believe it or not, being the “Peck’s bad boy” was good for job security in those days. If a radio station had enough of
“Look what you’ve accomplished working in a fog. Imagine how great you could be if you lifted the fog!”. There was no arguing the point. Sure enough, my career really took off after 6 weeks of hard-core rehab. Something else happened during that process. Instead of dreading the early wake up, I embraced it. I don’t have to wake up at 2:22. That time just works. I was so undisciplined
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