Grandma June (the paper towel czar mentioned here) took me to Radio Shack (note the 1990 vintage catalog here) and bought me the equipment that led to the humble beginnings of my illegitimate radio station that I called WRAD, Garden City.  Please don’t tell the FCC.

Years later, I worked at Yes FM in Toledo.  It was a good experience, but I got busted for talking too long between songs.

After that, I tried podcasting but realized that content is pretty important and that good content takes work and focus.

Enter Home.FM.

We moved to Jackson county in 2006 to work at Spring Arbor Free Methodist Church.  I knew about Home.FM and what they were all about, and I thought “I would love to work there, maybe on the weekends or something.”  A year later, Carl Fletcher asked me to fill in during his vacation.  It wasn’t long after that I was sitting in the mornings chair — temporarily.  “Can you just fill in for a few months?”  That was about 5 years ago.

Marla was there with me in the early days, showing me how it all worked.  It wasn’t long that she had enough and ended up getting a real job, which always seemed like a loss to radio because she came by it so naturally.

Malachi Crane asked me if I knew anyone who could join me on Mornings at Home.  I suggested he contact a gentleman named Ben Barnes.  They met with him and it went well, but my favorite part was when Ben was introduced to me on his way out of the interview.  Funny — because we’ve known each other for years.

Mornings at Home with Adam and Ben might’ve started in 2008, but the show as we know it actually began in 1999 when Ben and I traveled in a music group: commentary about this and that, an occasional song, and food.  What was broadcast across south central Michigan was the continuation of our bizarre conversations that started during the summer of our freshman year.

That show ends today.  Shelby will be here.  Tonya, too.  Ben Barnes will guide the ship.  And I’ll be in Portage, part laughing and part sad.