Monday, December 13, 2004

A red-letter day in Okie radio history (/sarcasm)

News from RadioBizarro.

Do you have a favorite radio show that you listen to regularly? I do. It's Lisa & Ron...they're on every weekday morning from 6am to 9:30am.
I've listened to them for, oh, I'd say about 5 years or so. I've even changed radio stations with them when they moved. Evidently, there have been a lot of strange things going on behind the scenes.

This morning, the alarm went off at about 6:15am as usual, and the radio was set to KQOB (also as usual). I reached over to hit the snooze, when I heard Lisa...and she sounded drunk off her ass. And tired, very very tired. No Ron. Hm. I hesitated before hitting the snooze button...and I heard Lisa say, "I wish Ron would come in here right now so I could tell him what a DICK I think he is, right to his face."

Well now. That was certainly an eye-opener. I no longer needed the snooze button. So I lay in bed a few minutes, listening in growing horror. I felt as though I were witnessing it with my own eyes, and I was just sick sick sick. It was the saddest, most pathetic, most awful, pitiful thing I've ever heard. I was embarrassed for Lisa. AND Ron.

Here is a little more of what she had to say:

"Y'know, I've found out that Ron has tried to get me fired and/or replaced at least three times for certain. And he wants to get rid of Toof (the producer of their show) as well. I picked him to be my cohost 7 years ago, while sitting at a Waffle House restaurant. NOT ONCE has he ever even thanked me. So he wants me gone. Y'know, I wish I'd never left the old place (insert~Lisa & Ron had the #1 radio morning show at KRXO for the last few years, then last year about this time they moved to KQOB for reasons that have not been made clear to the public. Ron convinced Lisa to make the move...they had much more freedom & less censorship at the old station). If Ron would have complained about me missing work at the old place, the boss would've just said, 'Deal with it' and that would've been the end of it. Now that coward won't even come in here to face me in the studio.
(in the background right about then, the news lady, Shawn, said, "This is embarrassing" in a dead sort of voice. I had to agree, I was embarrassed for them as well.)
Ron, why don't you have the balls to come in here? You can't face me? I cannot work with such a snake ever again. This is such sh...crap. All you ever do is think about how to get more girls on your arm and add to your 'pussy pool'. That's all you ever talk about. I've been faking this thing for a good three years, being 'close' to you. You're nothing but a snake and a coward. So, Oklahoma City, I love you. This is my last day on the radio. You know, I've been through three of the most stressful events in the last year...moving, divorce, and changing jobs. And I haven't talked much about it on the air but one of the reasons for the divorce was that I got beat up & he broke my nose. And all I ever hear is "Shake it off, shake it off". How am I supposed to shake that off? When I was hospitalized with pneumonia, did Ron come and visit? Or send a card? No. Some of you think he's such a great guy...he's not. All he did was cry about having to do the show by himself.
I see you standing out there, Ron, come on in here and take over. I just want to go home. I want to go home if ANYONE will come in here and take over. I'm waiting for the police to come and drag me out of here, which I'm sure will happen at any time. But I can't abandon the studio. WHY won't someone come in here and actually WORK?"

Wow.

She kept on in the same vein for quite some time. Each time she'd go to commercial, I was completely surprised to hear her come back on the air. I figured they'd have pulled the plug LONG before they did. But someone~the engineers, other producers, whatever, whomoever~just let her keep going. I don't know if she came to work drunk & that's why they were going to fire her, or if she was sick & on medications & called in & they threatened her with her job...or if she was drunk because she KNEW that she was going to be fired, or what.

Eventually, she played a song...and at the end of the song there was 30 minutes of dead air on that station. Amazing. Made me wonder about that station...the company owns several other radio stations...why couldn't someone come in and cover? Took 'em nearly a half-hour just to put on some music. Dead Air=Death Knell.
Needless to say, there was no morning show today. Ron never even came on the air.

All I can say is that I was HORRIFIED. And very sad for her. It was a real-life drama unlike anything I'd ever heard before. I STILL don't know what to make of it...it was simply awful. I'm going to go check the station's website to see if the PR department has issued a statement or anything.


Oh, and a side note~I've met RON BENTON. Lisa had the right of it...he IS sort of a dickhead. I certainly wasn't impressed with him...he used to come into where I used to work every Friday or so with a group of his friends and hangers-on...he's a Jerky Boy if ever there was one.

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