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 Jon "Rock N Roll" Anthony - nights/afternoons
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- from Jon 'Rock N Roll' Anthony -
*STORY 1** I was about one week away from getting married and during one of our weekly Pig staff meetings there was this drop dead beautiful girl introduced as a new member of the on-air traffic team. They arranged for her to sit next to me. After about 10 minutes into the meeting I felt her hand start to lightly rub my thigh, under the table. I was thinking "Oh my God.. What the hell is this girl up to?" It was all I could do to stay focused on the meeting. I found out later that everyone in the meeting knew what was going on except for me. At the end of the meeting, everyone had a huge laugh and they let me in on what was going on.. This girl was a "Mons" stripper.. After the meeting, they brought in food, cranked up a boom box, put a chair on top of the conference table, with me in it and I got one lap dance after another. This was the staffs way of saying "Hey man, congratulations.. We love ya".. It was GREAT!!
Belinda Carlisle was on the Q-105 float during a huge parade. Everyone was flipping her the " Pig" (a bird). She had no clue about the radio war and wanted OFF the float after 3 blocks of pure hell.
I remember going in to do midday weekend shifts and stepping over sleeping, drunken bodies, (both male and female) to get to the board… During the shift, I'd keep the monitor down so I would not wake them.
 audio of Jon demanding ransom money from Q105
**STORY 2** (About why Jon left his #1 night show at Q105 to join then-oldies Z93 for nights) There's two sides to every story... Here's the parking ticket story no one ever tells !!! "The mgmt of the club I was at TOLD ME to park where I did and that all would be ok. Well it wasn't ok and I got the $25 parking ticket and told the mgnt of the club about it. They did nothing . So I took it to Q Mgnt... From what I remember, I ended up paying for it, but should never have had to. Now you can see why I was a tad upset over this.
**E-mail to us** (written Summer 2004) I just dropped by your Power Pig web site! Wow, what a GREAT place to visit, spend time and have a lot of fun!! I look back on those days and think " My God, did we really do all that? YES WE DID and if we had it to do again, I'm sure we'd do it the same way!" LOL.. I knew we were about to make radio history when Marc Chase held up a "Screw Q-105" t-shirt at the first Power Pig staff meeting. Then took us to the parking lot and handed out cans of pink spray paint to cover a van with. The next step was black paint to write " Power 93, The Power Pig" on the van. To say the least, the Pig was the most fun I have ever had in all my 30 years in radio. Loaded with talented, creative people and a management team that was 2nd to none! We had the best in the business with us. Randy Michaels, Marc Chase, Gabe Hobbs, Jack Harris, BJ Harris, Dave Mann, Tim & Tom, Jason Dixon and many more… If the Pig were the only station I had on my resume, I'd be totally happy! Again, great job with the site.. and don't forget to drop by my web site.. JATampaBay.com.
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TIM AND TOM
Tim Dukes (right) & Tom Steele (left)
nights/afternoons |
- from Tim Dukes -
My on-air partner Tom Steele and I had been at Y107/Nashville for roughly 3 years before arriving in Tampa 2 weeks into The Power Pig format to first do 10p-2a. After 2 weeks in that shift, PD Marc Chase moved us to 7p-11p (when Jon R&R Anthony moved to PMD). We did Nights for about 15 months, then replaced Anthony in PMD and stayed in that shift for a year and 8 months until I left for my first programming gig back home in KY in August `92.
I remember Tom & I in Nashville helping to prep for the flip as early as June `89, completing monitoring assignments from Chase and other tasks that would eventually be put into play 3 months later when The Pig was finally born. It was an exciting, but frustrating time... listening to tape of Q105 and hearing their vulnerabilities, and wondering if we'd ever be given the chance to flip from Oldies Z93 to CHR and give Mason & Co. a run for their money and pursue their 18 share! Much of the summer the switch was on-again/off again. Then a couple weeks into Sept. `89, the call was made and there was no turning back. Chase began rapidly making preparations to leave town, and Tom and I would join him 2 weeks later in early October. I remember sitting in Nashville, dialed into the listen line and hearing history being made in late Sept. after the sign-on, and chopping at the bit to get to Tampa.
Finally we arrived... Tom and I left Nashville in a U-Haul with all his earthly possessions on an early Monday afternoon... getting into Tampa late that night. We were to drive to the studios on East Jackson St. in downtown Tampa and wait for Chase and Michael Albl from JACOR corporate to meet us so we could follow them to the hotel on the Causeway where all the staff who had moved into town were holed up. We got to the station as Dave "The Bat" Mann got off the air to find his black Hyundai parked on the street with the passenger window broken out and his stereo gone. It was the first time we'd met Dave... he was glad we had arrived so he could move to Middays and not have to worry about his car being burglarized late at night at the station anymore. He was waiting for the police to arrive and file a report as Chase and Albl pulled up to meet Tom and me in a mid-70's model Lincoln Town Car that had been spray-painted fluorescent pink to be a station vehicle. Shortly thereafter the cops, arriving because of the "vandalized vehicle" call, got out of their cruiser and saw the Town Car with the Power Pig graffiti sloppily sprayed on it. It was a male and his female partner. They looked at the Town Car and the male cop, shaking his head in disbelief, repeatedly apologized because Chase's Town Car had been "vandalized". We explained the Lincoln was supposed to be that way... it was Dave's Hyundai that they were there for. And so it began for my nearly 3 year tour of duty at The Power Pig. I feel fortunate to have been there and contributed to the worst to first run in the Fall `89 ratings book. It was simply amazing... and unbelievable fun!
Last summer I was in L.A. for the R&R Convention and went to see ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live". After the show, the group I was in were introduced to Jimmy... for years I've thought he was a huge talent and I was pleased to tell him so and point out that I was at The Power Pig when he was at Q105 as the Morning Show Producer on the Mike & Kent Show, which replaced legendary QZoo leader Cleveland Wheeler. He thought for a second and asked me if I was Tim from "Tim & Tom". I got a kick that he too was a big radio geek just like me.
Great job on the site, Brian... and thanks for making sure that all this history is being kept somewhere for the rest of the world to enjoy! - TD
Tim&Tom were always in trouble for messing with the Q
- from Tom Steele -
Well, as I said, Tim has the details down pretty well. I was actually preparing Arbitron reports on the Tampa market for several books before we went down to Tampa and quite honestly, we had projected PARITY to Q105 in a year. Who could have guessed what was going to happen? Tim and I arrived about two weeks into the flip, but as he said, we spent a great deal of time listening to the insanely unfocused radio station that was the first few weeks of the Power Pig on the listen line. Randy Michaels was probably cussing us when he wanted to listen because we kept it tied up so much.
Even, by the time we arrived, (two weeks after sign-on) the focus of the station was much better. Power Pig started off playing all kinds of music, everything from Motley Crue to Stevie B. Within a couple of weeks the focus was clearly Rhythmic CHR. When we arrived, we were still doing shifts at the old downtown building and I remember Dave Mann's car being broken into as well. When the cops showed up, we asked them if there was anything open that late (this was market 21 after all!) and they acted like we were crazy. I think we eventually found a Krystal over by Dale Mabry and Kennedy and ate there. We stayed at Sailport, which was/is? an "on the bay" executive suite, furnished hotel.
I found an apartment (Dolphin Point) pretty quickly and moved out. Tim and his wife were staying at Sailport for a lot longer - taking advantage of the company's largess because he was a cheapskate! <grin>
I still recall him being in Sailport when I was out at Barritz, a club that Power Pig mixer Matt the Bratt worked at in Clearwater with the station Izuzu Trooper. It was actually a NEW truck that the station had a lease on, and underneath the PINK SPRAY PAINT you could see the OLDIES 93 logos. I was there with friends who had come over from the east coast (I grew up there) and we were partying pretty good that night. We ended up hitting a curb at about 60mph. My friend Alex said, "you blew the rear tire out." I told him that he was crazy. He wasn't.
As we crossed the Courtney Campbell Causeway, the noise of the bent rim and flat tire became nearly unbearable as the tire began to disintegrate. If you've ever seen a NASCAR race, you see what a tire can do to the fenders of the car as it comes apart. We were actually conscientious enough to try and change the tire, but the spare was mounted on the rear of the truck and one of the bolts holding it on stripped, so we couldn't get it off.
Well, sitting on the side of the CC Causeway at 2am after "partying" didn't seem smart to me, so we loaded up and headed on across the bay. Halfway across the bridge, the entire tire came completely off of the rim. Now we were sending a rooster-tail of sparks out the back of the car as we continued at 60mph down the road. Again, the noise was unbearable.
Then, a stroke of genius hit me! Tim was staying at the Sailport! I pulled into the garage underneath the rooms. The rim was bent badly, so at slow speeds, it was making a CLUNKING noise every rotation. There was a security guard on duty. He was at least 80 and he's freaking out, chasing us around the garage. He finally caught us and said, "you have a flat tire!" I said, "No, we don't HAVE a tire." I told him we were parking and he seemed ok with it.
We then woke Tim and his wife up, and made Tim give us a ride to the station so we could get our cars. I had to go back the next day and get a new tire mounted on the bent rim. Never did get that spare off the truck.
This was within the first month of us working there. And trust me, it was CONSTANTLY like this.
Tim and I would take the junkyard station cars out, painted bright pink, with EVERYONE "flipping us the pig" constantly. If there was a stoplight, the person in back would deliberately skid up behind the car in front and hit it. Hard. Then we would jump out and start yelling at each other. When the light turned green, we would hop back in and take off. It got to where every time you came to a stoplight, you would tense up and cringe just waiting to be rear-ended and wondering how hard it would be.
I remember the ratings. The whole station would crowd around the printer and cheer or groan as the numbers came down. There was a LOT of cheering on that first book. Most of all, I remember the radio shows. We did whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted and all we ever seemed to get was praise and encouragement. No matter how insane the show was, Marc would find something that we had done well. Even if he had to lie I guess. As a result, we took crazy chances and learned all kinds of things that we never would have learned in a million years anywhere else. To his credit, as crazy as we were, Marc was a stickler for the basics. We learned to start and end breaks with the call letters, even if we were performing a testicular exam on the other guy during the middle part of the break. And we USUALLY did it over an intro of a song, although we developed a strong liking for 30-45 second intro, Stevie B songs. A lot of people don't know this, but Stevie B's huge success in Tampa was because his songs all had HUGE intros on the front and Tim and I played them all the time because of that.
Another thing I will never forget. After Q105 let Brian Christopher go, they brought in Johny D. We called him Johny Pee Pee. We were very mature for our ages after all. We harassed and tortured that poor guy so bad. We had pizzas delivered to his apartment all the time. We thought he would never get a pizza when he wanted one, because they would be sick of him not paying when they showed up with one WE had ordered from him. Then we found out he WAS paying for them and eating them. We started ordering weird combinations for him then. I think we had his power, phone and cable turned off at least a couple of times. We would sneak around his apartment complex and try to spook him too. It must have worked, because one night we got a sincere phone call from him. I swear to you, he asked us if we had STOLEN HIS JEEP!!! We had the guy thinking we were so insane that we might have stolen his Jeep. We had to tell him that, "no, sadly someone else has stolen your Jeep." I almost felt sorry for the guy.
I could write a million of these stories. One of the Q105 part-timers showed up at a State Fair remote Tim and I were doing and started yelling stuff on the bullhorn while we were live. Unbeknownst to him, we had several Q105 staff lists from various folks that they fired right and left when things started coming apart and we immediately gave him the Q105 loser of the day award - 23 years old, still lived with his dad, and his phone number was... Yes we did. And his dad didn't like it. I forgot the kids name, but I think it was Pat or something like that.
Not everyone at the Pig liked Marc's little pets though. There were a lot of folks on that "first day" list that thought we were a couple of spoiled punks at first. Later they became more sure, but by then we had established ourselves as a serious part of the Power Pig image.
One of those guys that didn't like us much was Jeff (Booger) Kapugi. I mention that because of the huge turnaround that Jeff made later in my career at WFLZ. He was a friend when I didn't have many left in the building and I will always remember his solid stand-up belief in what he felt was right and wrong. I will always owe Jeff a huge favor.
I'd also mention some of my other really close friends at the Pig: (in no particular order)
Brad James - always a blast to hang out and bitch about things - and people - with. And one of the best cart dubbers I've ever worked with.
Brian James - Brad's better-haired brother (a lot of people don't know that, but it is true.) Brian was outstanding at production, and we had similar tastes in women (you know what I'm talking about Brain!) Brian no longer has to do production, he just sits around and talks and makes God-awful amounts of money for it.
Brian Fink - my Jewish friend. Truly the hardest worker I ever saw come through the intern program. Brian you deserve all the success you get, even if you did turn snooty towards the end and wouldn't get me lunch anymore. And after I let you use my apartment the way you did! I owe you a bottle of Kosher wine.
Lenny Lyons! And the Vegas trips. Lenny taught me to play Craps!
Bubba The Love Sponge. Bubba and I were unlikely friends, but it worked out that way and I owe Bubba a lot for the fun times we had together, especially at his club and doing the Groove Tube. Speaking of which, on a side note - Bruce Hammil and Joey the Small Man are now internet porn kings from what I understand, after their huge success with Voyeur Dorm. Go figure.
Of course Marty McFly, who I was already the closest of friends with before they came down from Y107. We also had similar tastes in women, well sometimes...
Dale Doe who lived with Hawk and I during some of the most fun times of my life! I'll never forget when Dale weighed about 400# and we had been "imbibing" at a gig on Clearwater beach (which we got in trouble for because of... well, a list of things) and we got home and he decided we should wrestle. At the time I weighed about 150. I still remember the pain of that body slam. I also still remember Dale's Zebra wrestling pants. You still have those?
BJ Harris, another guy who really stepped up to the plate for me when I was down. Thanks!
Gabe Hobbs. I knew Gabe from Nashville/Knoxville and we really got to know Gabe in Tampa. He was crazy enough to let us do shows on Saturday mornings on 970 WFLA. Tim and I would get the paper, and read a story then say we had that person on the line. We would then call, and wake up, my roommate - Joe Jeffries - and claim that Joe was the person in the story. Joe would try to play along, as we corrected him on any details that might conflict with the story as we had already told it. Joe was good at it too!
I always liked Dave M too, and hated it when he got let go. I was too low on the totem pole to know what the politics were, but he was a good guy. But to be fair so was Dave Reinhart after him.
How about Ron, the Quiet Storm, Shepard? Hey buddy. Can I get a CD out of the prize cabinet?
And MJ, wasn't sure what to make of him at first. You can't argue with success. I once remember him breaking a table in my MD office and he actually bought me a nicer table to replace it. We were never "friends" but I respected him.
Big Bad John! How are you doing my friend? John can single handedly keep me from ever running for President. He knows my secrets! Again, someone who shared some of the most fun times of my life!
Ed at Rainbow Roller Rink!!! Brian Christopher - how's WinnerBase doing? Chris Veit. (Is that how you spell it?)
Gator McCluskey - You're scaring the kids!
I should also say hi to Jeff, Jennifer Jordan, Dr. Don Carpenter, Guido, Cowhead, all the "Jimmys", Darcel, Ganoot (man there were a bunch of us there from Nashville), Jason Dixon, Andy the pool man, Robert Charles Wagman who eventually hired me for the greatest gig of my career (so far), Elvis, Fingers, Mike Waters, Todd Grubbs... I'm sure I'm forgetting some of you. As if you care. But if you do, I'm genuinely sorry.
And did I mention Jeff Kapugi? Good.
Only person I really didn't like was that Hawk Harrison guy they brought down from Tennessee...
Here are some places that might spark some memories:
Coyotes. Is it still there? Great wings at 2 in the morning.
Steak and Shake on Dale Mabry
Krystal on DM and Kennedy.
SHULA'S and BERN'S - every record reps nightmare!!! (And Ruth's Chris, later)
Biarritz
Club Fed (or was it Red?)
The Palace
HammerJax
The Krush
Bubba's Beach Club
City Lites - remember it burned down with the accountant inside! Crazy.
What was that place on the Causeway, Kokomos?
Tim will remember the club in Lakeland where we had to wait for the club owner to fix the swimsuit contest before we could announce the winner. Sometimes we would have to wait to start the contest until the girl who was gonna win would show up...
I'm forgetting some of the other clubs...
Gasparilla and Guavaween. Anyone remember seeing the cars completely squashed after the night parade. I wasn't sure if they hated us or loved us.
The Gasparilla Parade when Belinda Carlisle got out of the Q105 float because everyone was "flipping her the pig" and she thought Tampa hated her.
What was the TV show that Hawk did - some teen thing... It was national I think!
Dale and I (well, I was driving) flipping the Pepsi Geo Tracker over on the beach a couple of days before we were supposed to give it away. We had the local body shop fix it just before it was awarded to the winner.
Jeff, you remember when we gave away the red Mustang GT in Brandon? Jeff knew which key would turn on the car and when the guy picked it, he started elbowing me in the back. I had no idea what he was doing.
The Bobby Poe conventions. First one I ever went to, Hawk and I filled a "water balloon" and dropped it on Steve and DC and Tim from the fourth floor. They were at a table and glass shattered, some woman screamed, "Oh my god, they dropped a microwave!" (???) This was at the "other hotel" next to the main convention hotel. By the time we got dressed for dinner and got back to the main hotel (Sheraton?) people were coming up to us and saying, "I heard you Power Pig guys threw a mattress off the tenth floor of the hotel!"
The Jack Harris tours at the Poe!
Vegas trips with Uncle Bill and Lenny!
Bubba in New York for (Billboard?) awards. We threw pillows and dill pickles out of our 43rd floor hotel room. I kid you not. When we got back from dinner, our key wouldn't work! We had to lie and say "it wasn't us, and it won't happen again!"
Oooh, how about the Tom Steele School Bus ride (thanks to the Baha Club, couldn't pay a bill so they gave us a bus) to Guavaween and I nearly flipped it on the railroad tracks in back on the way home! Now that's fun stuff. Hit the dumpster in the back too. The thing had no brakes, but we built a toilet into it with plywood walls and it just drained into the street!
The FIRST Power Pig Gasparilla parade with the keg on the float. Oh my. That one is a blur to me.
Tim and Tom in L.A. and Eddie Money's turd.
Graceland and the Lodge. Remember the pool party at the lodge? For those of you who don't know, "The Lodge" was where Hawk and I lived after Tim left. It was also where you could find most Power Pig staffer's playing Nintendo on their assigned prize patrol days. Except Dave Mann, he would usually end up eating lunch during his assigned prize patrol, occasionally at the same restaurant as the PD... Ooops.
Oh, here's one, remember the Fireworks show with Debbie Gibson? Linear was there. Marc decided he was going to shoot fireworks from the barge with BJ and left the inmates back to run the asylum. By the end of the night, an intoxicated Jason Dixon was on the air, hitting on Debbie (it was Debbie back then, not Deborah) Gibson. It had to be a low point for broadcast radio. But it was awfully fun. Tim quit shortly after that I think.
The Power Pig band.
Ok, my hand hurts - this isn't what I usually do at the computer. Hope I was able to revive some lost memories for some of you. -Tom |
Russell The Love Muscle
overnights/panty collector |
- from Russell the Love Muscle -
Hi Brian, Although my radio days took me all over the country working on air for some great radio stations, nothing ever really compared to outrageousness and the excitement that was part of the everyday goings on at the Power Pig. I remember, for example, the first Gasparilla parade we participated in as a radio station. During the whole parade route, people were screaming as we went by in a manner which can only be compared to the Beatles appearing on the Ed Sullivan show. It was complete madness and we all ate it up.
When The Power Pig debuted, I had just left 95 YNF where I had worked on air for about 2 years. Within a couple of weeks I was down at the FLZ studios asking the Program Director, Mark Chase for a job. On my last interview, I remember that Chase was on the air as I walked into the studio to plead my case. In an effort to try and sway him, I opened a bag a put 3 cans of fluorescent pink spray paint on the counter. I told him that if he hired me right now, I would go into the parking lot and spray paint my car…a 74 cougar that was so beat up that made a Ford Explorer with Firestone tires look safe. I think that Chase liked my enthusiasm but told me that painting my car wasn't necessary…and that he would find something for me. A few days later, I was sitting in his office when he offered me the overnight gig…however, there was a catch. I could only have the job if I changed my name to “Russell The Love Muscle”. At first I thought he was kidding…but he wasn't. I told him that I needed a couple of days to think about it…after all, how could I tell my grandmother what I was doing with a name like “Russell The Love Muscle”. A couple of days later, I decided to take the job and keep my employment a secret from certain family members. In the end, my car eventually became a Pig Mobile and was later used in a promo where listeners could come by the radio station and pound the hell out of it with a sledge hammer. I never told my grandmother who I was, but I became part of a radio family that made every day seem like the set of a Jim Carey movie.
As far as great radio stories go…there were so many. Unfortunately, since I worked over nights, it was hard to be around the station while all the interesting stuff was going on. But it was certainly going on. From Belinda Carlisle asking to get off the Q105 Gasparilla float because everyone was flipping her “The Pig”…to Mark Chase passing cash around the conference table when we got the numbers and found out we beat Q105, it was definitely a radio experience I will never forget.
As for my favorite Pig Moment…it had to be the night I put Q105's Night Train Lane on the air. Night Train was working overnights, opposite me at Q105. One night, while monitoring them as we did to try and get out of the commercial break before they did, I noticed that they had gone off the air. I of course used this to my advantage and told my listeners that Q105 was off the air. I even went so far as to air the static that was now coming from Q105 as well as invite my listeners to switch over and see for themselves. I then said that it wasn't fair that we take over the airwaves this way and proceeded to call Q105 live on the air. What my listeners didn't know was that the actual call to Q105 took place a few minutes earlier. Calling Night Train on the Q105 hotline I somehow forgot to identify myself…oops, sorry. Anyway, as a result, he apparently thought I was one of his fellow employees because I called on the hotline. When I told Night Train he was off the air, he tried to be funny and answered with a dumb sounding voice…”Duh….uh…we are?” When asked what he was going to do about it, he replied, “Duh….Uh…I don't know…Duh…Uh…what should I do?” I then I told him who I was and he that we didn't want to take over this way. He laughed and said, “Oh, thanks Russell.” Of course, with a razor blade and some creative editing, I aired the call with me introducing myself fist and the Dumb and Dumber comments to follow. I kept airing his reaction all night as it was classic Pig radio. Although management thought it was great…they were concerned about Q105 having taped the phone call as it actually occurred and felt it best that we not air it anymore. But that bit was a perfect example of our take no prisoners mentality…something that went on everyday at
The Pig….it was war and no one was safe.
After my time at the Power Pig, I ended up working 7 to midnight at “WDIZ – Rock 100” in Orlando as Hank Bonecutter. This lasted for about a year until I couldn't take it anymore. You know…when a program director feeds you Don Henley's “The End Of The Innocence”, and you have to mix it into Metallica and AC/DC…you know it's time to go. Next, I moved to Charlotte N.C. to take a job on the air at “WRFX - The Fox” as Sly Bone. A few years after that, it was Denver to work at renown rocker, KBPI…and talk radio stations KTLK and KOA. It was in Denver that I became a single father decided to get out of radio business and pursue a career that was more stable. Going back to school and receiving my Bachelor's degree from the University of Tampa , I started my own business developing web sites and marketing them online. I now own and operate www.bigcowmedia.com and www.destinationfla.com while raising my two children….Garrett, who is 9 and Isabella who is 3.
It's funny how life changes you. I would have never thought 15 years ago that I would be a single father who lives for soccer games and painting nails. Looking back, the Power Pig was a great experience. I only wish that I wasn't that young and that self absorbed when it happened. But, to my benefit, my kids changed all that. Of course once and a while, I'll get the itch and wonder what it would be like to be on the air again, but then I listen to the managed sounds over the airwaves and I turn on NPR. Anyway, to all the others that I knew at the Pig…thanks for the memories!
When I get the chance I will look for a copy of the call to Q105. Good Luck with the site!
Bryan Sykes (Russell The Love Muscle) www.bigcowmedia.com |
 Program Director Marc Chase -
Music Magazine - December 16, 1989
"People need to take the radio station with a grain of salt &
just have fun with it. We're all having a good time, you know,
the people that work here. Whereas I don't think the people at Q105
are having a good time really." |
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