At the tender age of 6, my parents brought home a cassette recorder. I was six, not my parents. I took the cassette recorder and made it my own, using it to eavesdrop on adult conversations and to make silly shows. Since that day, I have been screwing around with electronics. I devised a way to hide the cassette recorder, usually under a chair, and then insert a paper clip, with string tied to it, into the A/C power cord receptacle. When a small switch inside the receptacle is pressed down, the recorder is off, thinking it’s plugged in. When I pulled the string, the paper clip comes out, and since the recorder is now running on batteries, it starts recording, without me having to hide it and record the noise associated with the recorder being moved around. Many a conversation was recorded in this fashion, but sadly, none survived my childhood.

 

As I entered my pre-teens, I bought a mixer and microphones, and got a little more serious about recording. Eventually, it led me to get a degree in journalism from the University of Iowa, attend a broadcasting school in Seattle, and get my first real radio job in LaGrande, OR at KLMB in the late 80’s.

 

From LaGrande, back to my home state of Iowa, to Wisconsin, and then to KEX in Portland, Oregon, my radio odyssey continued, stopping here on the north coast of Oregon. Throughout the radio journey, I have glimpsed many glimpses, interviewed thousands of people, from politicians to policemen, from governors to garbage men and from dogs and cats to silent goats, elephants and an armadillo.

 

Now, here at KAST in Astoria, I am the news director, with mild-mannered reporter Jeff Nelson daring to go where no reporter has gone before—well, at least, he hopes to dare. I also host the Dezmo Zone, an amalgam of local politics, community events, and various other subjects of interest to me, and hopefully, the listener as well. By my side through it all, my pug Elvo continues to aspire to radio greatness.

 

A is for Astoria, long may it wave
B is for the beach, where all may play
C is for the County, Clatsop as its called
D is for Derickson, the County Manager of all
E is for Echidna, a beast from the far South
F is for Freel, the Tom with the mouth (at least it rhymes)
G is for Gearhart, the place not far away
H is for hammock, which I soon to hope to sway
I is for Iowa, the state from whence I came
J is for Journalism, the course I choose to stay
K is for kismet, look it up if you don’t knoway (more silly rhyming)

L is for Lexi, my daughter who is three
M is for Mischel, her middle name, you see
N is for Nicholas, my son who be five
O is for Ocelot, a kind of cat
P is for Paul (Benoit, Mitchell, or Hansen, depending on the day)
Q is for quiescent, a word used all too seldom (the observant reader may notice I’ve given up on rhyming)
R is for Roundabout—I use it most every day
S is for Stephanie, my wife of 13 years
T is for Tualatin—my favorite town to mispronounce
U is for Uvula, for no reason whatever
V is for Victory, didn’t you already know that
W is for the east side of the Mississippi radio stations
X is the coolest letter in the alphabet, or xenophobe
Y is for you, the person reading this
Z eats everything (or was that E)