Saturday July 4th, 2009 - Dyer, IN

   Absolutely anything would have been more enjoyable on this 4th of July than last year’s and I do mean ANYTHING. All I can remember is being laid up with excruciating dental misery and not being able to eat, sleep or even think straight the entire day. It was torture.

   Today was the exact opposite. We had a super fun Jerry’s Kidders segment on WGN at 11am and I can tell we’re catching on, at least at the station. There’s an engineer who was in studio for our first day and I could see he wasn’t totally sold on us initially. His name is Ben but he’s on the ball and caught on to us quickly. We made him laugh that first day.

   Ever since he’s been a fan and we see him laugh out loud as we do our round table style bit with jokes flying around the studio. He gets the subtlest of stuff and he’s been our best audience so far. Jerry is now running his own controls so Ben doesn’t work our shift as he used to but he came in today just to say hello and I could tell he likes us. We appreciate it.

   There’s a producer named Matt who is getting to be part of the team as well. He sits in a producer’s booth next to our studio on Michigan Avenue and I can also see him laugh the whole time we’re on. He’s also a sharp young kid and a big sports fan and I can see in his eyes that he enjoys being part of what we’re doing. That kind of energy is always needed.

   The third signal was having the news person Steve Alexander bring in a potential story for us to do on the air. He’s a top notch broadcaster and a total pro and for him to bring a story for us to use was a very generous gesture on his part and we all appreciated it. Jerry read the bit on the air and we riffed on it and I hope it made him feel good. We sure did.

   Tim Slagle wasn’t live in the studio with us because he stayed at home preparing for his annual 4th of July blowout. Literally. He lives in a suburb which is right over the border in Indiana where it’s legal to blow off fireworks on a person’s own property. Boy, does he.

   Tim and his wife Kathy have a made it a tradition to have a fireworks party and they’ve been inviting me for years. For whatever reason I was either booked or like last year I was not able to attend and by all accounts from absolutely everyone it’s always a ton of fun.

   I’ve been looking forward to it for months and it didn’t disappoint. Normally fireworks aren’t my favorite pastime but in this case it’s total fun. Tim passes the hat with everyone and takes the money to the fireworks mega store and spends it all. Then he brings it back and starts lighting it off and before long a person would think they were lost in Baghdad.

   Ken Sevara and his wife Lori were there and Jerry Agar came over after he finished up his night shift at WGN and we all just relaxed and enjoyed the show. There was fantastic food and an eclectic mix of extremely nice people and it was a blast and a half. Literally.

   I’m really glad I was able to hook Tim up with Jerry. They’ve clicked and so have all of us as a whole. The Kidders are more than just a radio bit. We’re a group of good friends.