Life and Stuff

As I am writing this, I'm listening to the online stream of my old stomping grounds WMLN-FM on the campus of beautiful Curry College in scenic Milton Massachusetts. In four short years, I went from being an obscure early morning DJ who no one listened to, to one half of the campus phenomenon known as "Durka Days with Pieroni's People." Through that program, I became an iconic figure in the minds of those who listened to the show week after week. Although it personally hurt me that I never got the credit I felt I deserved for our success, I miss that show like you wouldn't imagine. I have always loved making people laugh and entertaining them while they were doing something. Radio is a two-way process, you're always doing something while you listen. I'm extremely grateful for the fact that people listened to me while they were doing everything from driving home to cooking dinner. The 6 months worth of Fridays in which I was fortunate enough to host that show convinced me that I had the stuff to make it in the industry through my infectious personality and quick wit. However, making that show a major success was a daunting task and I took a lot of crap from other DJ's who were jealous of my success. Many people felt I was over promoting the show on other programs, most notably the Sports Corner. It was never my intention to upset people, I did it because I knew that our show was the best on the air and I wanted to get the biggest audience possible. The success of the program was a tremendous boost to my ego and I know it made me popular with some people, but I regret nothing. I say this because I had worked my butt off for that station for three years and got no respect for it. Now that I was a star, people grew jealous of me because of it. I regret two things about my time at the radio station, the fact I did not apply to become a director after my junior year, and the fact that I used my radio show to express my anger at my fellow sports directors for not thanking me for my hard work at last year's awards banquet. Although I once said that there was little I was going to miss about the station, as I look back on my time there, I feel like I'm missing a major part of my life. As I listened to part of the the afternoon drive slot Friday afternoon, I felt a tad nostalgic. Here was this guy sitting in the same chair,and playing the same ads I was playing as little as four months ago. How could you not miss that? There are several other things I miss about my time at the radio station and I would like to share them with you.

Perhaps most of all, I will miss the people who treated their time at the station as a springboard to a professional career within the radio industry like I did. These were folks who truly put effort into their shows and because of that, I immediately bonded with them. People like Jadd Naamani, Travis Libman, and most of all, my own on-air foil Alex Durka, made me laugh out loud and always made a conscious effort to make their shows better week in and week out. I think the effort we all put in made our station better as a whole. I will also miss the constant encouragement I received from the station rock of stability Prof. Alan Frank, who was very encouraging to me and countless others who have honed their craft in the little brick building next to State House. I miss how my voice would constantly be hoarse because of the hundreds of Eddie Andelman imitations I did for people who asked me to on a daily basis. Finally, I regret that I will no longer be around to see people like Dan Mazella and Paul Varga become as popular on air as yours truly did a year ago. I consider the two of them my mentorees , because they were both inspired to do their respective specialty shows in large part because of my success. I will be listening to them from home, but in all honesty it would have been better to be apart of the show from an on-campus or directorial perspective.

There were numerous amounts of people who would just leave an album on continuous play for the duration of their show. There were people that were not as talented or dedicated as I was that were promoted above me because they knew how to kiss ass. There were people who did not do as they were told during my one year as a director, leading a rather large amount of gray hair to sprout upon my head. There were people who disrespected me and were never grateful for my efforts, but these negative experiences made me a more tolerant person and taught me that not everyone thinks like you, even if your way is the right way. In truth, my time at WMLN was fun, productive, and frustrating at the same time, but I would not trade it for the world.