Two for Three and One for One

On January 4, 2010, "Simon & Sam in the Morning" signed on the KUPL airwaves for the very first time.

At that time, it was Scott Simon, Amy "Sam" Bishop, and Jolynn Winter.

The new morning team had their work cut out for them, to say the least. They were stepping into territory that had been occupied for fourteen years by Lee Rogers. To say the least, many, many listeners were not happy about this.

For a time "Simon & Sam" struggled to gain the support of listeners. Some had completely tuned out KUPL, in protest of the changes that had been made; others stuck it out a bit longer, with some eventually leaving as well.

Four months into "Simon & Sam" being on the air, "Sam" decided to leave and go back to Arizona, where she was from originally.

The show title was changed to "Simon in the Morning", and long time KUPL employee, Earthquake Jake, was brought in to take "Sam"'s place.

Jake has always been a favorite of KUPL listeners, and he fit in well with Scott and Jolynn.

The three hit it off immediately on the air. What had once sounded forced with "Sam", was genuine with the reformed "Simon in the Morning" team.

Two years later, it's the same way. You can hear it in their voices on the air, how well they work together and genuinely like each other. I don't know about anyone else, however, for me, the people on the air are almost more important than the music. Granted, I have to like the music I'm listening to; though if the DJ's aren't good, I'd change the station. Never happens in the mornings anymore with me. There's so much going on between 5 and 10 am weekday mornings on KUPL, you almost forget there are songs being played also!

So here's to a very happy second anniversary of "Simon in the Morning" and hoping for many more!

On a side note, January 3, 2012 was the first anniversary of now producer, Eduard "Sputnik" Rusu, joining the morning team.

Eduard was an intern when he started with KUPL, and has since been hired as part of the morning team. Congratulations, and happy first anniversary to Sputnik as well!

A Long-Time Friend

(Today's word will be in ALL CAPS, BOLD, ITALIC, and STRIKETHROUGH.)


No matter who they are, everyone has had at least one special friend in their life; that person who's always been there, through thick and thin. That person who, though you may not hear from them very often, you still know they're thinking of you, just the way you think of them.

I've never been one for having lots of friends. I prefer having those few friends like I described in the last paragraph. Fortunately, in my life I've had some wonderful friends, those that I think of often, though I don't see or talk with enough, and those I see more frequently. Despite the time spent with, talking, emailing or whatever, each of these friends is special in their own way and will always have a place in my heart.

Marc, Peggy, Geri, Denise, Dani, Pam, Patty, Sandy, and the friend I've known the longest, Diane. There are other friends as well, so hopefully if any of you are reading this, please know, you're not forgotten in my heart; my brain just hiccups sometimes!

Back to Diane. As I said, I've known Diane the longest, since 7th grade at Hockinson Jr. High. We were both the new kids that year, which is part of how we became friends.

Over the years we've shared several experiences. In high school Diane ended up having a frog collection, because of a nickname she was given..."Freddy Froggy" I won't go into all the details here of how the name came to be, because it's a bit complicated.

She was maid of honor at my wedding, and I remember when her first daughter was born. Of course those are two major events that have happened in our lives; there's so many other things we've shared growing up through the years.

Diane has lived in Arizona over the past few years, so we haven't seen each other in awhile, though we do keep in contact on the phone and through Facebook.

Another special thing about Diane is, today happens to be her birthday. Because of that, I decided I should write a blog for her, to CELEBRATE her special day.

So, happy birthday Diane Herz! I hope you have a spectacular day and I'm sure glad you're my friend!