The Origins of a Saint | Jimmy "The Saint" Christopher

Show Notes

In this special edition of Your Dark Companion, Mike Rhyner welcomes the unmistakable voice and soul of the airwaves—Jimmy Christopher, a.k.a. The Saint—for a ride through 50+ years of broadcasting brilliance.

From the early days spinning records at The Zoo in Dallas to sparring mics with the boys at The Ticket, Jimmy’s been everywhere—and he’s got the stories to prove it. You’ll hear about his childhood obsession with Hank Aaron, his first trip to a big league game in 1957 (spoiler: it changed his life), and his music-soaked, mic-wielding journey from Minnesota to California to Cleveland and finally to Texas.

Whether you know him from KNAC, KISS, KZEW, or The Ticket, one thing is clear: The Saint’s got soul—and he’s not done talking.

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:01 – Two Legends Walk Into a Studio
7:47 – The Braves, The Browns, and a 7-Year-Old Superfan
10:49 – Torn Between Cowboys & Texans (Not Those Texans)
15:00 – How Vietnam Turned a Braves Fan into a Dodger Die-Hard
17:31 – Dubuque, Iowa: Where Baseball Dreams Begin
20:22 – A Mic in One Hand, a Record in the Other
24:23 – Memories of Baseball Parks and Iconic Voices
26:18 – Vin Scully, the GOAT, and Broadcasting’s Golden Age
28:39 – Getting Drafted, and Dodging the Draft (Sorta)
31:44 – Music Rebellion and Microphone Freedom in the ‘60s
35:33 – Why “The Saint” Stuck (Thanks, Springsteen)
37:49 – Radio Stops Across the Country (and Back Again)
41:25 – What Happened When The Suits Took Over Radio
47:14 – CBD Ad Break: Chill Like a DJ on Sunday Morning
49:58 – The Fine Line Between News and Noise
55:33 – Getting Hired, Getting Fired, and Staying Weird
58:42 – Creativity vs. Clean Copy: The Eternal Battle
1:01:05 – Final Memories from The Zoo Days

🎧 So grab a cold one, put your feet up, and dive into this mic-drop of a memory lane with a man who helped shape the sound of Dallas radio. And don’t forget to subscribe—there’s more where this came from, and trust us, you don’t want to miss it.

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Creators and Guests

Host

Mike Rhyner

Mike Rhyner… "a little on the bumpy side, but rather likable"…so stated famously by a grade school teacher in Oak Cliff, where Mike grew up. A complicated guy, yet a guy who can do long division and remember call strike three to A Rod. Probably best left unattended. Don't expect assistance from him if a medical situation arises.

What is Your Dark Companion Podcast?

"Whatever I want it to be about on a given day; is what it is." Your Dark Companion couples your familiar friends from radio, Mike and Grubes! Mike brings his classic interviews that draw you in, and Grubes—The Devil—drops…well the drops, and throws the occasional grenade. Mike likes to draw on his fascinating acquaintances and friends allowing them to tell their stories as you've never heard them. But he also goes outside his network, sharing Grubes' network, and often outside of both, to bring you those they don't know, but believe have a story that will make you laugh, make you think, think differently, or just entertain you…"that's what we are trying to do here."

0:00:01 - (Mike Reiner): Hey everybody. Mike Reiner of your Dark Companion here to talk to you about almaximo. Football, soccer, F1. They are our Spanish language show. It features Victor Villaba, the Spanish voice of the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Mavericks. And Carlos Nava, ESPN Deportes, reporter of NFL, mlb, NBA boxing and soccer. They give the majority's look at sports and all that that implies. They are Almaximo. Check them [e-mail]
0:00:33 - (Mike Reiner): sunsetlounge DFW. Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Reiner. Sports talk. Baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball. Oh, with the big mic. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, okay, now I get it. Is that a lightning strike, boys?
0:00:55 - (Jimmy Christopher): What happened over there, Grego?
0:00:57 - (Mike Reiner): We had a little light right outside the window. All right, all right. Here's a tip for all these Americano league teams.
0:01:09 - (Jimmy Christopher): Don't. Wait, you said tip?
0:01:10 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, tip. Okay, with a P. Keep jamming the ticket colon. Nothing but a big Gen X jerk off sale. Is this a cool night or what? Although somebody would hear that. Go. Oh, I'm back. And ahoy boys and girls, it is another episode of your Dark Companion. We are glad you are with us as we emanate live today from inside the nurturing biosphere of the mothership. I would be Mike Reiner. This is the 4th of August.
0:01:55 - (Mike Reiner): This is episode 139 of your Dark Companion. For those of you counting, those of you who like counting stats, as they call them, or those of you who don't give a shit about any of that. Nevertheless, it is what it is and we are ready to roll today day. We have with us this afternoon because it is late afternoon today. We have with us one of my favorite guys from my time at the Ticket. We have other radio history beyond that, but he was with us at the Ticket for a good number years and I always enjoyed him. I enjoyed his work.
0:02:48 - (Mike Reiner): I thought he was an awesome guy. And I'm especially excited about this today because this is one of the rare occasions in which I get to talk to somebody my own age as things have turned out just. We've just learned that he's a few months older than me. You will remember him from his time at the Ticket, but he's done a lot of other things as well. In fact, we share a little bit of another commonality on another station here in our Fairburg, although that one no longer exists.
0:03:27 - (Mike Reiner): But let us say hello to the man who delivered the ticket. Ticket for low those many years. The great Jimmy Christopher.
0:03:35 - (Jimmy Christopher): Hi, Ryan's.
0:03:37 - (Mike Reiner): Hi Mr. Jimmy. How are you?
0:03:39 - (Jimmy Christopher): I'M fabulous. Ryan's. And I'm excited.
0:03:41 - (Mike Reiner): Good to see you.
0:03:41 - (Jimmy Christopher): You. Good to see you too, brother. It is. And actually, I'm about three months May, June, July. Three. Three months and 19 days older than Ryan's.
0:03:51 - (Mike Reiner): All right, so he's already had his and I've got mine coming up. When? A week from Saturday.
0:03:58 - (Jimmy Christopher): And we'll hit the three quarter mark, believe it or not.
0:04:01 - (Mike Reiner): Yes, we will hit the three quarter mark.
0:04:03 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yep.
0:04:03 - (Mike Reiner): Isn't that crazy?
0:04:04 - (Jimmy Christopher): Oh, it's nuts. It just zips by. Yeah, it goes so damn fast.
0:04:09 - (Mike Reiner): But I prefer it to the alternative, I think.
0:04:12 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yes, yes. We're ambulatory and we're having a good time. And congrats on 139 shows and proud to be the 139th.
0:04:20 - (Mike Reiner): Well, we're glad to have you. Glad to have you with us because like I say, we've got a lot of commonality here. I'm really enjoying this jag that we've kind of gotten off into of having some of my friends that I made during my time in the game who may not have had the opportunity to tell too much about their stories, tell too much about their time in the game and what they did and how they did it and what happened and all that stuff. And I've gotten to do that, you know, in the course of doing your dark companion. And I look forward to getting into that with you today. But I'm also know that we got a lot more than just beyond that to get into.
0:05:04 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I mean, what do you want to talk about? Music, which we both. You're in Petty theft, which I still haven't seen yet, Ryan. So I am going to say before I pass into the next plane, hopefully that'll be some time from now. But I gotta come see Petty theft live.
0:05:22 - (Mike Reiner): Well, I hope you will see Petty Theft live. We'd love to have you out.
0:05:25 - (Jimmy Christopher): And I'll catch up with the two bands that I was in back in Dubuque, Iowa. So where do you want me to start? I can start from birth because I know the first two words that I said when I was born. The first shortly after I was born.
0:05:38 - (Mike Reiner): Don't tell me they were ticket ticker, were they?
0:05:40 - (Jimmy Christopher): No. Yeah, Next ticket ticker at 10, 30 and 50. No, past the hour. And they were never on time, the ticket ticker.
0:05:48 - (Mike Reiner): Oh, of course not.
0:05:49 - (Jimmy Christopher): I remember when Bruce Gilbert, the PD, one of the PDs, at least when I was there, offered the host's money to be on time, you know, to hit the 1030 and 50. And especially on the crossovers, and I'm not naming any names, but on the crossovers, like at 50 before the top of the hour, say Bad Radio is coming on before the hard line. So you guys would do the crossover till, like, 305. And then we had to have. We had a ticket ready for 250. We had to do the 250 at 305.
0:06:21 - (Jimmy Christopher): And then it did a break then. And then we had to get ready for the 31, because sometimes they went past 05 or after 10. You went to, like, 3 10. They're past 3 10. Yeah.
0:06:33 - (Mike Reiner): Well, that's when we were doing why Today Doesn't Suck, and that was a very popular.
0:06:36 - (Jimmy Christopher): Right? It was. It was a great. It was a great.
0:06:41 - (Mike Reiner): In fact, it's one of the. It's one of the few. The things that I miss most by today.
0:06:47 - (Jimmy Christopher): That's what's done.
0:06:48 - (Mike Reiner): Why today does it suck every day?
0:06:50 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yep.
0:06:51 - (Mike Reiner): How's life for you these days, man?
0:06:53 - (Jimmy Christopher): Doing great. Ryan's doing great. Thank you for asking. My wife and I, Corrine, we celebrate our meeting anniversary. We just celebrated our 33rd meeting anniversary in February and our 30th wedding anniversary. Actually, our 32nd wedding anniversary will be 33 in February, and we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary a couple months ago. So.
0:07:14 - (Mike Reiner): So excellent.
0:07:15 - (Jimmy Christopher): We're just happy together, as the Turtles used to sing, and just living a great life. Ready to.
0:07:21 - (Mike Reiner): Did you meet her here after you'd come to this market?
0:07:24 - (Jimmy Christopher): No, I met her in Cleveland.
0:07:25 - (Mike Reiner): In Cleveland?
0:07:26 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah. And at wknr. I was at wknr. She wasn't working at wknr. She was. She's a Cleveland girl. So we met in Cleveland back in 1992. I moved to Cleveland, and last day of September. I got there in 1992. Should I go through a bit of my history to start?
0:07:46 - (Mike Reiner): Please do.
0:07:47 - (Jimmy Christopher): I was born on the mighty banks of the muddy Mississippi River. Dubuque, Iowa. Right on the river at the border of Wisconsin and Illinois. I could look out my bedroom window and see Wisconsin. So I grew up a Braves fan. Got to meet Tamron, Hank Aaron, my hero. When I was seven. That was the first big league game that I went to in 1957. I can give you the whole starting lineup for and the starting pitchers, the rotation for the Braves that year.
0:08:15 - (Jimmy Christopher): But I met the Hammer that. That day. My dad somehow got tickets, and we got there real early. I mean, I could have stayed overnight the night before, but we drove up from Dubuque, which is like three. Three hours away from. From Milwaukee, from County Stadium, the original County Stadium, where the Miller park is now. But that was in 57. That was my first big league game I had seen. And I'm in love with baseball as you are, and music, which we hopefully can touch on both of those.
0:08:43 - (Mike Reiner): Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
0:08:45 - (Jimmy Christopher): Love baseball. And that was my summer. I wanted to go see the Braves in Milwaukee, take the three hour drive. The sweet words that I'd hear from my dad every summer was, let's get some tickets and go up. It just, you know, in the years we didn't go, I was going, oh, dad. You know, I don't know if I whined or cry, but that was what I looked forward to for the summers in Dubuque was going to see the Braves because I'd listen to.
0:09:09 - (Mike Reiner): Do you remember your very first game?
0:09:10 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yes. It was August 8th. Coming up here in 1957. Reds, Braves. Gene Conley started for the Reds, Luber Debet for the Dodgers. Joe Adcock was at first, Red Shandin at second, Johnny Logan at short, Eddie Matthews at third. An outfield of left to right, Wes Covington, Billy Bruton, my idol. Hank Aaron, Del Cran behind the plate and Big Blue on the. On the mound. I wanted to see Spawny. I saw Spawny years later. But that first game, it was Burdette that started.
0:09:43 - (Mike Reiner): So it was Spawn and Burdette.
0:09:45 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah.
0:09:45 - (Mike Reiner): Those were their two main starters.
0:09:47 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yep, yep. And then Carlton Willie starred in Juan Pizarro in. In that time. And that's a year.
0:09:52 - (Mike Reiner): Was in there, too, wasn't he? Who's that, Bob Buell?
0:09:55 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yes, Bob Buell. Yeah, he was. Yeah, yeah. And they won the World Series. They beat the Yankees that year.
0:10:00 - (Mike Reiner): Yes, they. That's right.
0:10:01 - (Jimmy Christopher): Ryan's. When they left for Milwaukee, I was 15. I cried my eyes out. I'm losing. My Braves are going to Dixie. They're going to Atlanta. I just. I couldn't believe it.
0:10:13 - (Mike Reiner): You know, I had a tragic or a trauma, not really tragic, but traumatic sports episode like that of my own. Because when pro football came to our Fairburg, the NFL expanded and the Cowboys were an expansion team. Well, while that was going on, the American Football League was forming, and it was formed by Lamar Hunt. That's right, of the Hunt family, which was based out of here. And he was not going to start a pro football league.
0:10:49 - (Mike Reiner): What he did was he. He went and rounded up some guys who were like him, who came from very moneyed families and wanted to get into sports somehow, some way. And they formed the American Football League. And the team that they formed was the Dallas Texans, right? So for three years, 60, 61, 62, we had two pro football teams where they're just years ago were none playing in a college football town, you know, and then all of a sudden, here is pro football, and nobody really gave a damn about either one of them. You know, there might have been enough interest for one of them to be somewhat successful, but there were two of them and they were competing and they played in the same stadium.
0:11:42 - (Mike Reiner): And we had pro football in the Cotton bowl every fall Sunday from September through the end of the year, you know, And I thought, wow, man, this is going to be great. Well, my dad would not support the Cowboys because he admired the entrepreneurial spirit of Lamar Hunt. Lamar Hunt said, okay, you won't give us me an expansion team. We'll go out and form our own league. And he did it.
0:12:10 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yep, he did, you know. Yep.
0:12:12 - (Mike Reiner): And my dad threw his support behind Lamar Hunt, so therefore, he would take me to Texans games, but no Cowboy games. The only Cowboys game I got to see in the Cotton bowl was one year we were out there at the fair. The family was out there at the fair, and the Cowboys were playing the Cleveland Browns inside the Cotton Bowl. And I wanted to go in, and I kept bugging my dad to take me in. He said, no, no, we're not going in there for that. I said, but I want to go in. He said, all right, go in if you want to, but be back here by.
0:12:51 - (Mike Reiner): He gave me a certain time, by 4:30 or whatever. Now, he didn't give me any money for a ticket or anything. So I went up to the gate. The guy looked at me and said, can I help you? And I said, yeah, I want to go in there to the game. He said, well, do you have a ticket? I said, no. He just kind of looked around and, real exasperated, said, all right, I think I've got one for you going in. And so I went in there and had a seat and got to see the great Jim Brown in action, who, as I recall, didn't have a huge game that day, but still, it was Jim Brown.
0:13:33 - (Mike Reiner): It was football. Football was football to me. I had a great time there.
0:13:37 - (Jimmy Christopher): That's great.
0:13:37 - (Mike Reiner): But my team was the Kansas City Chiefs, whose tenure in. Or I mean, the Dallas Texans, whose tenure here was wrapped up by winning the American Football League championship game in overtime against the Houston Oilers. And that was, at that time, the greatest sports episode I had ever had. And it remains so for until about oh, two years or so ago.
0:14:04 - (Jimmy Christopher): Wow. That's when the Rangers. Yeah. Won the Ws.
0:14:07 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah. And you know, then in ensuing days, word started to come out the Dallas Texans are moving to Kansas City. And that was my first kick to the sports nuts as a young fan. That was tough, man.
0:14:26 - (Jimmy Christopher): Chiefs fan now. What are you a Chiefs fan now?
0:14:31 - (Mike Reiner): Put it this way. It never really kills me to see them do well, but as far as, you know, making any extended effort to root for them, I don't really do that. But, you know, this is a time of glory for the Chiefs. They've been good for some years. I got them a Super Bowl a few years ago and that made me very happy, I will say. What about the Braves? How do you feel about them now?
0:15:00 - (Jimmy Christopher): Was for them when they moved to Atlanta. As a matter of fact, I got drafted and went to Vietnam. Before I went to Vietnam though, I was in Fort Gordon, Georgia at the start, the base. It was right at the start of Tobacco Road in Augusta. And so we made a trip over to Atlanta to Fulton County Stadium, you know, the cookie cutter round Stadium, the original one. So I saw the Braves there, then Hank Aaron and then Bobby Bonds, not Barry. Bobby's Barry's father son, Barry's father Bobby. They played and I think it was like a one nothing game. We had seats in the center field, upper deck because it was a cookie cutter. And I went with a buddy of mine from AIT Fort Gordon.
0:15:48 - (Jimmy Christopher): So I remained a Braves fan till about 71. Came back from Vietnam. When I was in Nam, you could go anywhere you want, not only on R and R, but you can come back to the. To the world. And I chose California. And a buddy of mine just who's still to this day are good friends of mine, he had gotten out that I was in Nam with. He had gotten out of the army, came back to California, was staying with his brother and sister in law. Sister in law was part of the Ming dynasty. Anyway, they lived in Palos Verdes, which is a haughty toddy area there in Southern California. So we came back and they. And that was really my first time around California.
0:16:24 - (Jimmy Christopher): And I had sergeants and lieutenants and captains in my unit and Nam betting cases of beer that I would not come back because this was like later into my tour, I was in Nam for a little over a year and this was in the summer of 71. But I figured, nah, I mean, I'm not going to go AWOL now because they'll catch me, they'll run me down. I'LL be a criminal. I'll have to go to jail. I. So I went back to Nam and nobody won any money off me because I came back.
0:16:53 - (Mike Reiner): Why did they think you wouldn't come back?
0:16:55 - (Jimmy Christopher): Well, were you that renegade? Noms. Noms, yeah. You know, and especially for a 19 year old. I turned 20 in basic training, turned 21 in Nam. And yeah, it's just. So they were betting I was going to come back. I mean, you know, go to California, Went all over California with my buddy John. And then I had to go back to Nam to finish out my last four months. But so. And one of those things we did, we went to Chavez Ravine in that July of 71. So I've been a Dodger fan since.
0:17:28 - (Jimmy Christopher): I was gonna wear my Dodger shirt, but I didn't want to piss you off.
0:17:31 - (Mike Reiner): I wouldn't piss me off.
0:17:35 - (Jimmy Christopher): If they played the Rangers in the World Series and beat them, you'd probably be pissed off.
0:17:39 - (Mike Reiner): But maybe, maybe for a little while.
0:17:42 - (Jimmy Christopher): Hey, going back to the first professional game that I went to, sports wise, actually I saw the Harlem Globetrotters too, if you consider that professional. But before that, in Iowa, in Dubuque, they had at that time Class D, you know, now there's like low A, high A, double A and triple A in baseball. But they had Class D then the Dubuque packers, because of the packing company. So that's where they got their name.
0:18:06 - (Jimmy Christopher): And it was in this Petrakus field, right by the river in Dubuque. And lot of hot summer nights, the river would stink if it would overflow or whatever. But it was by the shot tower, this big shot tower where they used to make shot during the Civil War. Yeah, this is in Dubuque, Iowa, and that's where they brewed Star beer. But that's where the packers played. So that was the first baseball event that I went to. Professional. They had Tommy John because they were.
0:18:32 - (Jimmy Christopher): Tommy John, Tommy A.G. remember him?
0:18:35 - (Mike Reiner): Sure.
0:18:36 - (Jimmy Christopher): They were part of the packers because at that time they were affiliated with the Indians. And then was it the Pirates? I know it was the Indians. No, it was the White Sox and the Indians, they were an affiliate. And then I started going to the Braves games and stuff. In 57 and in 60 was my next Braves game. And we took my older sister and my younger brother, I think one of my other younger sisters. I'm from a big Catholic family.
0:19:02 - (Jimmy Christopher): Dubuque is known as Little Rome because of all the Catholics. A city of 55,000 and little San Francisco because they actually have the hills you know, the three dimensional hills.
0:19:13 - (Mike Reiner): Really?
0:19:14 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah. And they have still to this day a cable car, the fourth Street Main, the elevator, it goes up and down fourth Street.
0:19:23 - (Mike Reiner): Well, you wouldn't think that about Iowa.
0:19:24 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah, I mean, you go up and you go out to Dyersville and Epworth where Field of Dreams. I have some good stories about Field of Dreams too. But so anyway, in 1960, we went to our second Braves game and it was the Phillies and it was rain, it rained cats and dogs going from Dubuque up to, to Milwaukee. And I was crying, I was going, no, we come all this way, I want to see the game. But the reins lifted and I got to see my second big league game, my Braves of the Braves and they played the Phillies, but so I was actually weeping twice for the Braves and five years later cried my eyes out when they moved to Atlanta.
0:19:58 - (Mike Reiner): Oh, man.
0:19:58 - (Jimmy Christopher): Man, that was tough.
0:19:59 - (Mike Reiner): It is tough. You know, it's tough on kids, man.
0:20:02 - (Jimmy Christopher): It is. You know, you grow up with these guys and you meet Hank Aaron. And then I later interviewed him when I was working with Steve Garvey. I was. And company Steve Garvey and company show on Extra in San Diego. So I met Aaron when I was seven and I'm a seven year old kid and he was six foot 170 pounds, you know, lift. And he had those eight inch wrists.
0:20:22 - (Mike Reiner): Yes.
0:20:23 - (Jimmy Christopher): You know the. And that's where he got all his power. That's where he hits 740 plus home.
0:20:28 - (Mike Reiner): That's what they used to say about him.
0:20:29 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yep, yep. Because I mean, he didn't have any. But you know, that's where you get your power from. Yeah, he was, you know, slim and with those big quick wrists and that's where he got his power from. And then I interviewed him later with Garvey in 1989 after meeting him in 57.
0:20:46 - (Mike Reiner): Did you tell him about that?
0:20:50 - (Jimmy Christopher): No, no, I didn't. I can't remember. And I don't know if we saved the tape then I have to go back in my archives, but I think I did. You didn't remember though.
0:21:01 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah. So what got you into the radio game?
0:21:06 - (Jimmy Christopher): Good question. Ryan's music, sports. Two things, especially sports. When I. My first two words when I was two years old was how do you. My mother would log all that again? Five sisters, four of them younger, younger brother, big Catholic family. So seven kids. And so they'd log, you know, the baby books and they'd, you know, your first words were how do. And I remember Philip Sharp, we were doing the Frisco Rough Rider, not Frisco Rough Riders. I did Frisco Rough riders, but Frisco ISD high school games back in 15 and 16.
0:21:45 - (Jimmy Christopher): It was. No, it was 14 and 15. And Philip was, I did a lot of games with him when I first came here to Dallas High school games. And he was a big fan, you know, of the Ticket. So he knew who I was obviously, but he. Remember when I said that on the air once on the Ticket, my first two words were how do? And I'd forgotten that I'd mentioned that on, on the air, but Philip brought it up and said, you know, you said how do you.
0:22:09 - (Jimmy Christopher): So those are the first two words I spewed out. But to get to your question, always loved baseball, football and basketball and music too. So, you know, I was through that 50s era with Philly soul, soul music, Johnny Horton, Conway Twitty, you know, the country stuff from the 50s into Beatle mania and the British Invasion. And that stuff was, was pretty neat, that music that I just mentioned. But the Beatles really hit me when they came out, you know, from then it was over. But music and sports and I've been fortunate to make my living now after 50 plus years in this crazy business doing both of those. As far as music goes, played in a rock band. But I programmed the two stations in Long beach to trend setting formats. The rock and rhythm format and the pure rock format, which I converted from the rock and rhythm format and rock DJing.
0:23:07 - (Jimmy Christopher): I was a country DJ for a while too. And then, you know, all the sports stuff that I've achieved over the last 30 years. So that's what basically got into sports and my love of music. And I've been fortunate to make my living doing both of those at some point over the last 50 years.
0:23:23 - (Mike Reiner): Boy, your story runs very concurrent to my own. It's not. Mine's not as varied as yours. But as far as how you got to where you, you wound up and what drove you to do it, I mean, it's almost like parallel lines between the two of us because all those things that, that drove you toward it or what drove me toward it, you know. And now look at us.
0:23:52 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yep. And I remember going into, was it 60, 61, 62, I don't know, it wasn't 60 because that was a night game, but a Braves game in 61 or 62 that early. Maybe it was 63 or 64, I don't know, it wasn't 65, but one of those early years we'd get there early, you know. I couldn't sleep the night before and, you know, keep your bedroom windows open in Iowa. And my brother and I had. We're the only two boys, but we had bunk beds, and I slept on the bottom, he slept on the top.
0:24:23 - (Jimmy Christopher): And I always hear the robins, this kind of choking me up. I'd hear the robins the night before. And now when I hear robins in our neighborhood, I call them the Braves Robbins. Because I'd hear that sound, you know, before the sun came up. I'd hear the robins chirping and the Braves robins. Now I hear it. I associate that with the Braves robins.
0:24:40 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
0:24:40 - (Jimmy Christopher): And I was going, okay, because, you know, I couldn't sleep. I'd be laying there, it's still dark. And sometimes we get up before dark to head up to the. To County Stadium, because I wanted to get there as soon as the gates open. I wanted to see batting practice, I wanted to see infield. So one of those years, Earl Gillespie was one of my idols. He and. And Blaine Walsh were the first broadcasters for. For the Braves. And then later, Tom Collins with. With Earl.
0:25:06 - (Jimmy Christopher): But they were coming in just as we were coming in. And we came into the gate, you know, we had our tickets and they had their passes, and they. He stuck out his hand and went in. And how many times I've gone into the ballpark, into Angel Stadium, into Dodger Stadium, into Municipal Stadium, into the Jake in Cleveland, or all the major league ballparks, I've been with a pass. And I flash back to that, that day when I saw Earl Gillespie, you know, giving his pass to the guy. I was going, it'll be kind of neat if I did this.
0:25:38 - (Jimmy Christopher): I'd sit there and look up into the booth and see him. And all the Dodger games, I went to and saw Vin. Got to meet Vin two times. Once here and then once when I was in la. You know, I spent a lot of time in Southern California in LA and Long beach. And that was the first time I saw him. And just a great guy. And I saw him at the ballpark when, you know, the Dodgers came. I forget what year it was, but they.
0:26:03 - (Jimmy Christopher): Shortly after, they started interleague play. And, you know, the ticket booth was right next to, you know, the visiting booth. So we're sitting there, you know, could knock elbows with Bill King and Ernie Harwell and Vin and I used to.
0:26:16 - (Mike Reiner): Really like watching those guys.
0:26:18 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah, me too. Me too. And it's so much different now. Nothing against broadcasters today, but especially Vin. I mean, Vin was Up here and even Harwell and Bill King and all those guys, they were on that level where the other guys. Not that they weren't good, because they were, but they, those guys were just the elite.
0:26:38 - (Mike Reiner): They were the pioneers, man. And they knew. Oh yeah, you know, they were the pioneers. They were the guys who, who really. I don't know if they. It's probably an exaggeration to say they started at all.
0:26:51 - (Jimmy Christopher): Right.
0:26:52 - (Mike Reiner): But they're certainly the ones who took it next level.
0:26:55 - (Jimmy Christopher): Absolutely.
0:26:55 - (Mike Reiner): They're certainly the ones who influenced guys like you and me to try and do what we wound up doing.
0:27:03 - (Jimmy Christopher): And they told stories.
0:27:04 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
0:27:04 - (Jimmy Christopher): Today it's just like, you know, pop up to short is like they get excited. Like it's a walk off grand Islam and the seventh game of the World Series.
0:27:13 - (Mike Reiner): Well, that's because all, you know, their bosses and all the guys who, who put broadcast teams together and run stations, they want excitement, right?
0:27:21 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah.
0:27:22 - (Mike Reiner): And baseball. And baseball, you know, is exciting, but it's exciting in spurts, right?
0:27:28 - (Jimmy Christopher): Exactly.
0:27:28 - (Mike Reiner): Most of the time it's just the norm, normal course of the game. And if you don't find that exciting, then you're probably not going to like the game. You're probably not going to like listening to it on the radio.
0:27:38 - (Jimmy Christopher): Right.
0:27:39 - (Mike Reiner): But if you do and you appreciate what happens when something does take place, when something is exciting, then you will be drawn in to that. Like few things will ever draw you in. Do you remember the first words you uttered on the air?
0:28:02 - (Jimmy Christopher): No. First station that I worked at was in northern Minnesota. Foster, Minnesota. K, E, H, G, A M and F, M. It was like 100 miles from the Canadian. This is a good story too. I can lead into. It was about 100 miles from the Canadian border and I had to turn down two really good spots sports jobs because I was so eligible for the draft. Got out of Brown Institute, where Gene Peterson and Ralph Strangis went. Ralph, he was a grad. I went, you know, before those guys because I was a lot older than them.
0:28:39 - (Jimmy Christopher): But they had a lot of graduates that went on to achieve.
0:28:43 - (Mike Reiner): Yes. Ralph Stranges, who has sat in that seat.
0:28:45 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yes, I know. I saw him on the, on the lineup. You had him on a couple times too, I think, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:28:53 - (Mike Reiner): I'm a huge fan of Ralph.
0:28:54 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah, me too. Ralphie's great. Yeah, he's. And we've gotten together a couple of times and you know, shared stories and he's a Midwesterner and he went to the same school that I went to the Now Defunct Brown Institute of Broadcasting. Anyway, so the first station though, that I had to turn down two jobs, Hugh Phillips, who was the broadcast director, the main director, Brown Institute. It was a 44 week course. You took 33 broadcasting and 11 for electronics. Because at that time you had to have a third class or second or first class license. So you know, you got all these cards, you know, we'd memorize the cards for the questions. And then after we we succeeded, passed the test and we got our first class license, we had a big bonfire outside of the park place where we're staying because we burned all those cards in the question, what is an ohm? What is mgmhz? Or whatever they were. And we had the question and answer. So we had to memorize those to ace the first class license test.
0:29:58 - (Jimmy Christopher): But so anyway, what were we talking about? We were talking about your first, first.
0:30:03 - (Mike Reiner): First words on the radio.
0:30:04 - (Jimmy Christopher): Okay, so the jobs had to turn down. There was one in Florida, in Dade City, Florida. Hugh pulls me out, you know, toward the end of my graduation. Hugh Phillips pulls me out. So he's got a couple jobs, one's in Florida doing baseball, football, basketball, water sports, country and western shift. He can make extra money doing sales. And he told me the amount of money and at that time in 1969, it was like 12 and a half thousand bucks. And that was about as much my dad was making, raising a family of seven, you know, at his job in, in Dubuque. And I was going, whoa.
0:30:39 - (Jimmy Christopher): And the other one was Owensboro, Kentucky for like 11, 000 bucks to do Kentucky Wesleyan basketball and easy listing at mor middle of road station. Remember those days? But I said, okay, Florida sounds good. Because around that time my grandparents were leaving to go to Florida. I was going, that sounds great, you know, give me the 12 and a half grand in the sports in Florida. Next question. Was probably strong and healthy as an ox. And I says, yeah, I am. I don't know if I was strong as an ox, but I was healthy.
0:31:14 - (Jimmy Christopher): He said, what's your draft number? And I said 77. And he shifts around in his seat and he says, well, they're not going to offer you it because you're so eligible for the draft. And that's what screwed me for nom. And get this, Ryan's. If I would have been born 75 minutes earlier or 22 hours and 45 minutes later, I would have gotten out of the draft and Nam because my birthday, the 27th was 77. Day before is like 3:35, I think.
0:31:44 - (Jimmy Christopher): And the day after it's like 285, I was going single 19, you're going to nom boy. Yeah, so, but, so the first words I said at kehg, I don't know, I had a babysit the country station for the pd. It was just me and the pd. He, he would take lunch. So I'd go in and babysit for an hour while he was at lunch on the country stage. And then at night they switched to easy listening, you know, Billy Vaughn, Ray Kaniff singers, which I actually kind of, you know, I have a very wide musical background and you know, I never hated that. I mean, I wasn't into that then, but I mean it was kind of too. Because you know the Christmas stuff.
0:32:29 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
0:32:29 - (Jimmy Christopher): Rayconif and right. And all that, that easy listing elevator music. So anyway, I was the only 19 year old kid in town. I befriended some high school kids and this was in late 69 and I didn't have too much. I amassed like 15,000 albums in my collection over the years, you know, from being PD and MD at these stations and stuff. At that time though, I didn't have any. I was just getting out of radio school, living in a boarding house in Foston, Minnesota, town of 5,200, talking to these teenage kids, these high school kids. But they lent me their records and I said, I tell you what, if you give me your Hendrix, your Dylan, you know, whatever, I'll play them at night on this easy listening station. And I would do that and they would tune in and listen. And I never got busted. Nobody ever said anything to me.
0:33:23 - (Jimmy Christopher): They never said, well, stop playing, you know, Hendrix at 11 o' clock at night on the beautiful music station. So I kept doing it, you know, and this was a couple years after the first AOR stations, you know, filled with not Phil Donahue. The Donahues in, in San Francisco, started KSAN in six. Tom Donahue, that's right. I knew his name. I just couldn't. I said Phil and his wife Rachel, who I knew later in the days when I was in Southern California. She's in, she in Paris now or did she move to Spain? I don't know. Anyway, I digress again.
0:34:01 - (Jimmy Christopher): But, but. So that was a couple of years when I was playing the rock albums on a beautiful music station in a little town of 5,200 in northern Minnesota. That was two years after the first Tom Donahue AOR stations, then KPPC in LA. Prior to KMET, they were doing AOR in the late 60s. So. But I don't think I made any.
0:34:25 - (Mike Reiner): Well, what was your first, where was your first real shot at being on.
0:34:30 - (Jimmy Christopher): The air was K u T. Well, K e h t but K u t Y. Palmdale.
0:34:37 - (Mike Reiner): California.
0:34:38 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah, it's up in the upper desert, the Mojave Desert. It's in Palmdale, next to Lancaster, just about 35 minutes north of the valley. I'm a big. I'm a surrogate Californian, so there's not too much you can tell me by California that I don't already know. But anyway, K Mendy was the owner. Her husband had died, but she and her husband hired Imus, don Imus in 1975 years, really by five years before I was there at the big 147 kuty palm deal.
0:35:07 - (Jimmy Christopher): So it was a dumpy little station next to this dumpy little apartment complex. And apparently Imus would stay in that apartment complex, he'd go on the air and he'd pound railroad ties because the railroad would. Was like not far from the station, the apartment complex and then the railroad. So he pound ties, work at the station the K Mendy hired him for and then go back to LA on the weekends when he wasn't working.
0:35:33 - (Jimmy Christopher): So. And that's where I was dubbed the Saint by the morning man, Wes Gibson. That's where I got the nickname the Saint.
0:35:39 - (Mike Reiner): Oh, really?
0:35:40 - (Jimmy Christopher): So, you know, because Christopher, my last name, which is my confirmation name in Catholic Dubuque, you know, you have to kiss the ring and slap the, the po, not the Pope, the bishop or whatever to get a third name. So I officially dropped my last name when I got married to my Hungarian Ukrainian wife who had a, you know, a name. But like when they say eye chart, you know, that, that, that long. And so I officially dropped my last name and just became Christopher. But at that time in 75, west started calling me the Saint.
0:36:13 - (Jimmy Christopher): Then we find out later because we didn't know this, but the 1973 album by Bruce Springsteen, Greetings from Asbury park, has a song in there called It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City. And then Lost in the Flood, that big epic nine minute cut. There's a line in there that says he leaned on the hoods of racing cars, telling stories and the kids called him Jimmy the Saint. And that was in 73. And this was in 75 when west started calling me the Saint. But we didn't know about that. You know the Bruce album? Yeah, I think.
0:36:46 - (Jimmy Christopher): Was it Born A Run album out then?
0:36:48 - (Mike Reiner): No, no, the Asbury park came before, right.
0:36:52 - (Jimmy Christopher): In 73. But when was born to run out.
0:36:54 - (Mike Reiner): That was like 74, I want to say.
0:36:56 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah. So that was the one we're familiar with. I wasn't familiar with at that time, but with Asbury park, because that came out in 73. Asbury park did. So I didn't know about just Jimmy the Saint. It's hard to be a city. Hard to be a saint in the city. Or the Jimmy the Saint lion in Asbury Park West. Just started calling that because. The same Christopher.
0:37:12 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
0:37:13 - (Jimmy Christopher): Which was my confirmation name, you know, growing up Catholic. So that's how I got the saint.
0:37:17 - (Mike Reiner): I just figured that that was something that somebody attached to you, just, you know, just. Because it's a very normal, logical.
0:37:27 - (Jimmy Christopher): Right.
0:37:28 - (Mike Reiner): Procession.
0:37:28 - (Jimmy Christopher): You know, a lot of people don't know that.
0:37:30 - (Mike Reiner): Somebody has no real backstory there, but there is.
0:37:32 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yes, absolutely. And somebody asked me a couple years ago, so I thought it was because you were a friend fan of the New Orleans Saints. No. You know, I grew up a Packer fan and became a Cowboy fan, and. And now I'm a Bucks fan. Went back to being a Packer fan.
0:37:49 - (Mike Reiner): And now here we are.
0:37:50 - (Jimmy Christopher): I'll leave it at that.
0:37:53 - (Mike Reiner): So how did you get to our Fairburg?
0:37:57 - (Jimmy Christopher): Good question. I was in Cleveland. Moved there, as I told you, in late September of 92. And, you know, I love Cleveland. I mean, I'll go to my grave defending Cleveland. A. I met my best friend, lover, companion, soulmate, everything wife who was a Cleveland girl there. And it's a great town. It's got great restaurants, got culture, it's got sports, it's got. Got music. So anyway, you know, I was looking to.
0:38:29 - (Jimmy Christopher): To move up, so. And then I heard about the ticket, you know, going, you know, maybe doing the ticket thing in the late 93. So I called Spence Kendrick because I was looking around for gigs.
0:38:43 - (Mike Reiner): Now, weren't you at the zoo first, though?
0:38:45 - (Jimmy Christopher): Oh, yeah. Okay, let's. Let's go. Let's go back. Yeah.
0:38:50 - (Mike Reiner): Rewrite the tape a little bit.
0:38:51 - (Jimmy Christopher): Right. Yeah.
0:38:51 - (Mike Reiner): Tell me about how you wound up at the zoo.
0:38:53 - (Jimmy Christopher): Okay. We go from Minnesota, then I went to the Army. Then from the Army, I went to where I was named the Saint. And then I went to. Up the coast to kzoz, one of the last bastions of an AOR station. Great station, halfway between LA and San Francisco. Got a job at KLOL with The great Jackie McCauley, who was the program director. And Ken Noble worked there, Paul Ryan. You know, it was. KLOL was like number one station. Went there.
0:39:24 - (Jimmy Christopher): Then I went to got the gig in California at KNAC, applied for the K West job. They hired the 7 to 12 guy at KNAC, Frank Bennett. Then that created an opening KNAC. So they sent this doesn't happen anymore. But Tom Yates, who was consulting, and I don't know if he's a gm, but he was consulting K West on Sunset Boulevard in la. He liked my stuff. But they gave the job to Frank, you know, who was leaving knac. He sent my stuff to Paul for a PD at knac.
0:39:55 - (Jimmy Christopher): Paul hires me, my girlfriend and I pack up the old olds, whatever it was, and our cat and moved, you know, California, where I had lived before. And I did nights at knac, then afternoons for a year and then music director. And then I programmed and developed the rock and rhythm format which turned to pure rock. So anyway, and then after that went a number of places, went to Garvey and San Diego after Hawaii.
0:40:24 - (Jimmy Christopher): And that was a trip short lived, but a trip. So that's why I hang loose now. And there's not too much you can tell me about Hawaii that I don't already know either. But anyway, and then went back up the Central coast and I got the job in Cleveland and I was, you know, wanted to come, you know, to a bigger market and I figured, you know, I worked at the zoo after. Oh, I went to KISS in San Antonio after the second time in 87.
0:40:55 - (Jimmy Christopher): So, yeah, I went to KISS in San Antonio from KNAC in Long beach in 87 to program the Real Kiss K I S S995 with Lyle and Han. Great morning show. Tom Shepke, T Bone Shepke was the, the music director. I went there thinking I was going to be there for a while, but yeah, that didn't work out. They brought in a new ownership. And so I left there because I was making too much money or whatever. I was old.
0:41:25 - (Jimmy Christopher): So.
0:41:25 - (Mike Reiner): I see. Right. Probably right around this time that you're talking about.
0:41:30 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah, I was. Came to the. To the zoo.
0:41:33 - (Mike Reiner): That's when things like that started happening.
0:41:37 - (Jimmy Christopher): Right, right.
0:41:38 - (Mike Reiner): Radio.
0:41:39 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah.
0:41:39 - (Mike Reiner): And I was up at the zoo and that at that time we were owned by belo.
0:41:44 - (Jimmy Christopher): Right. In 87 were you. When were you at the zoo?
0:41:47 - (Mike Reiner): I was there from 80, from 79 through 86 in one capacity or another.
0:41:55 - (Jimmy Christopher): And I came there in 88. March of 88.
0:41:57 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
0:41:57 - (Jimmy Christopher): So it was already.
0:41:59 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, yeah. Well, in 86, below decided it was time for them to get out of the radio game. Below, Owned at that time, kzw, WFAA am.
0:42:13 - (Jimmy Christopher): Right, right.
0:42:14 - (Mike Reiner): And the zoo was actually nothing more than wfaafm, although they changed the call letters. They also owned the Dallas Morning News and they own WFAA, Channel 8.
0:42:27 - (Jimmy Christopher): That's right.
0:42:28 - (Mike Reiner): And they had a real. They had the most massive local media empire you could possibly imagine at that time. But they decided it was time for them to get out of the radio game. So they started spinning off the two radio stations and they sold the zoo. And it wound up in the hands of a. Of a guy who was just in it for the money.
0:42:57 - (Jimmy Christopher): Anchor.
0:42:58 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, anchor. It wound up in the hands of anchor media. And they came in there and just cleaned house. Just wiped everybody out. Yeah, and that's what happened to me there.
0:43:11 - (Jimmy Christopher): Right.
0:43:11 - (Mike Reiner): And that about that time was probably when you wound up there.
0:43:15 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah, I came from kiss. After I got blown out at KISS or asked to leave, I almost went to Corpus Christi, the rock station down there. Ncn, wasn't it in Corpus, but had an offer from David Grossman, who was a PD at the zoo. And it was. I tell you, Ryan, that was what a cockamamie shift. I did 10p to 3a. And this guy was anti computer. This is in 1988. So I had a handwrite every frigging show, you know, from the sheets, every hour of every music for every hour of every show. Yeah, I'd get off the air at 3 and do the net complete the next day and then go home and sleep and then do whatever and then get up, come back in at 10pm.
0:44:07 - (Mike Reiner): To 3am I spent years doing that too.
0:44:10 - (Jimmy Christopher): Oh, it's ridiculous. You know, you couldn't put. You couldn't put car. He didn't like the cards there and stuff but. So it had to be cards. But I was going, you got computers. Just put all this on a computer. So anyway, he left when I was there.
0:44:23 - (Mike Reiner): Computers weren't even a thing.
0:44:25 - (Jimmy Christopher): Right. And they were coming into vogue.
0:44:27 - (Mike Reiner): A couple out there in the distance somewhere.
0:44:29 - (Jimmy Christopher): Exactly. So he left. They brought in John Roberts, the late John Roberts. He was the PD. He put me on 6 month notice but. But took me off 10 to 3, made me afternoon drive, which I felt I was accustomed to. It's one of the reasons why I always wanted to do the hard line. Because I always considered myself an afternoon drive guy, you know, but that's the only shift that I. Well, I did mornings with Dunham and Miller and then of course middays with, with Chris and Rocco and Norm and bad radio, but never the hard line. So anyway, we'll get into that here in a Little bit.
0:45:02 - (Jimmy Christopher): But yeah, I wanted to. You know, I. And I became assistant PD for six months because I had the programming experience from KNAC and kiss. But they brought in John Roberts and he came in and brought in his guy in September. He says, well, when this guy's contract runs out, I think he came over from the Eagle. John came over from the Eagle, I believe. And I forget the guy's name who came in. So I went back, I was out. And then Roberts left shortly after the.
0:45:30 - (Jimmy Christopher): That and they brought in another guy that did part time at the zoo. And it was, you know, like you say, it was going sl. Sliding sliding all the way down, going to the toilet.
0:45:40 - (Mike Reiner): Sliding away.
0:45:41 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yep, Slip sliding away. And then after that I went to Hawaii in early 89.
0:45:46 - (Mike Reiner): But how long were you there?
0:45:48 - (Jimmy Christopher): All told, less than a year, but I think it was eight months.
0:45:52 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, because I do remember your name. I mean, I. I didn't know much about what was going on up there. Just about everybody that that was there when I was there was gone.
0:46:04 - (Jimmy Christopher): Right. You know. Right. Yeah, I was. Came there in March and then part time around the holidays. And then early January I went to. To Hawaii, but. And then when I was in Cleveland, you know, I was wanting to move up. Still a big Cowboy fan then. It's been, yeah, cool. You know, let's go back to the cowboy market. A sports station. Yes, sir. So I got in touch with Spence. He called me like my stuff.
0:46:30 - (Jimmy Christopher): Week later Spence did. Yep.
0:46:33 - (Mike Reiner): Wow.
0:46:33 - (Jimmy Christopher): Week one, week later. This was like around Thanksgiving. This is right before Spence called me, right before the Leon let Snow game when he. Ashley recovers fumble at the 10.
0:46:47 - (Mike Reiner): You know, guys, I just. I can't keep my together.
0:46:50 - (Jimmy Christopher): That's okay. On a good day. So Happy Monday to me. That's. That's right. It is Monday. Happy Monday, Ashley. A lot of us can't keep our stuff together.
0:47:00 - (Mike Reiner): Let me take one second here and do the dreaded mid show read if.
0:47:04 - (Jimmy Christopher): You don't, because I got a. We'll tease the Reiner line coming up. The Reiner story. I do not have the Dun, dun, dun. So there it is.
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0:49:38 - (Mike Reiner): Begin your healing at the House of Healing. All right, there you go.
0:49:47 - (Jimmy Christopher): That is. I'm going. I'll be back in. How far is that? I'll be back in a half hour.
0:49:53 - (Mike Reiner): You can get there in less than that. Let's let me go today, Mike.
0:49:56 - (Jimmy Christopher): All right. 15 minutes.
0:49:58 - (Mike Reiner): All right, so now let's get back to your experience at Zoo.
0:50:02 - (Jimmy Christopher): At the Zoo. Well, we completed that, then I went on to after that, went to Hawaii and then came back to California to be Garvey and Company's host, Steve Garvey, the famed Dodger. And then later Padre.
0:50:16 - (Mike Reiner): Now, how did you hear that the ticket was even going on in Cleveland?
0:50:21 - (Jimmy Christopher): I don't know.
0:50:21 - (Mike Reiner): Were we up and running by then?
0:50:23 - (Jimmy Christopher): No, it was, it was prior to that. It was November 24th, was when Kendrick called me, Spence called me. Then that Thursday Thanksgiving, right after that, or around that time it was, was the ice game when Leon let you know, stupidly recovered the fumble in the end zone. The Cowboys got beat 16, 14 by the Dolphins. I'm up at my friend's house with Corrine. We're still. We're engaged, but we weren't married yet.
0:50:49 - (Jimmy Christopher): You know, watching that game and going nuts, going, how could you do that? You don't recover a fumble. Leon. Oh, Leon. Or like Dale said, oh, Leon. Whatever. Whatever, Dale said. But so anyway, I was, you know, looking for gigs. I spent. I have enough rejection letters, Ryan's, to wallpaper my house. I think, you know, they don't send them out anymore now, but, you know, very seldomly do you get a rejection email. Yeah, I was always looking for that next step.
0:51:16 - (Mike Reiner): I think I've got some of mine somewhere, too.
0:51:19 - (Jimmy Christopher): I got a whole file cabinet, you know, roll full of them. But. So I'm always looking for jobs and you know how it is, you're making calls and then you couldn't text anybody, couldn't email them. You know, this is back in the. In the, you know, the early 90s and stuff. Yeah, I mean, cell phones, the flip phones were barely a thing then. So anyway, I was connected with, you know, a lot of people coast to coast.
0:51:46 - (Jimmy Christopher): So some, you know, I contacted Spence, he called me back. And then on December 1st, I just looked this up. It was a cold day in Cleveland, that late fall day on December 1st. It was about 40 degrees. And Mike Reiner gives me a call. I was in my apartment in Cleveland, suburb of Strongsville, or is it Royalton at the that time, whatever. And we talked and he said, I love your stuff. You know, we have. Don't have any openings now. I'm doing a poor invitation, but that's okay.
0:52:19 - (Jimmy Christopher): Where's Gordo when you need them? You know, but. But I like your stuff. It's really good. But I'll keep you on file. Let's stay in touch if we have any openings. We'll be in touch. So I was going great, you know, because you were just a month away. That was in December 1st. You went on what, January 24th? Yeah, six, seven weeks later. So. And then. So I kept in touch and I was at K and R, which was the number one station in town.
0:52:46 - (Jimmy Christopher): Music or spoken word? I mean, they were doing like eight sevens and whatever. We had the Browns. I saw Kosar leave and come to Dallas, and he gets his ring after all those years. He Comes to Dallas and gets a ring, is back up to Troy. Saw Nev. Chandler, the great announcer, die, Saw Art Modell move the team, the Browns to Baltimore in the dead of night. A lot of crazy stuff went on in the four years I became friends with Belichick. That's why I became a Patriot fan, because I think I was the only media guy that Belichick liked.
0:53:20 - (Jimmy Christopher): You know, the Akron Beacon Journal guys, the Plain Dealer guys, they had the ass for Belichick. You know, they were out to get them, you know, and he. Like Saban and Schwartz and Pioli and all those guys you'd see in the locker room because they were part of his staff. But, you know, I got to know Bill a little bit off, you know, sitting there with his feet like this and. But he was a completely different guy to me. Anyway, off, you know, out of the. The press conferences, he was great, you know, affable, smiling, laughing, you know, talk.
0:53:55 - (Mike Reiner): Well, I've heard from others and read that if you can somehow crack the code, which, you know, when he was up there with the Patriots, nobody ever could.
0:54:06 - (Jimmy Christopher): Right, right.
0:54:07 - (Mike Reiner): But if you could, he was a great guy and really a great hang. That's. I know. I don't know that. That's just what I've heard.
0:54:17 - (Jimmy Christopher): It's always nice to me, you know.
0:54:19 - (Mike Reiner): Well, so here's testimony to that from Mr. Jimmy.
0:54:22 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yep.
0:54:23 - (Mike Reiner): Yep.
0:54:23 - (Jimmy Christopher): I mean, I don't. He would be now, but. I mean, that was years ago when I saw him. But it was completely different than the Persona he gave during those press conferences in Cleveland and, of course, the ones with the Patriots. So anyway, you know, and then. So I'd call Cat, who was producing the Hard Line, and I was on the ticket air because I talk. You know, there's a lot of Browns fans in the. In the Metropolitan Plex.
0:54:49 - (Jimmy Christopher): So I'd call Cat every once in a while. I became friends with Cat, Jeff Catlin, and I'd call him. I'd be on the ticket and talk about the Browns. He'd call me and be on the air, and K R Talking about the Cowboys, you know, because a lot of Cowboy fans in Cleveland, too, you know, a lot of Browns fans in the Metroplex. So Cat and I were in touch, and then for. Mike Fernandez called me. Then it was. We came down. My wife and I came down. We had been married that spring, but in 95, we came down to see the Cowboys, and the 49ers stayed at the Omni in Las Colinas, which is basically home to us now. Not The Omni, but Valley Ranch.
0:55:33 - (Jimmy Christopher): So anyway, Fernando calls me, offers me the midday gig, says, okay, you know, come to the ticket. It was a little less money than I was getting at KNR in Cleveland, so I passed, but then went on the road with the Indians for a couple years because we were the Indians flagship, got to know Hargrove and the Indians, and went to travel around all the little Amish communities in the dead of winter and little towns in Ohio talking Indians baseball, the Indians winter caravan.
0:56:08 - (Jimmy Christopher): So it was a real cold day In January of 96, it was. And Fernando calls and says, well, we have another opening. It's for mornings with the Musers, Dun and Miller. And it's a little more money. Plus you'll be doing pre and post game with Preston Pearson. I was going, okay, we're going, honey, start packing. Let's move to Dallas. Got a gig, you know, and it was obviously a little more money, and the Preston pre and post game was what clinched it.
0:56:41 - (Jimmy Christopher): So we packed up and I came here and it was. I remember driving across the bridge at Lake Ray Hubbard, listening to the sports princess on Leap day. Oh, yeah, Sports princess Kate Delaney.
0:56:54 - (Mike Reiner): Yes.
0:56:55 - (Jimmy Christopher): So then I started doing mornings with. With Donovan Miller, and then Falwell had left. He came back. So I only did one year of pre with Preston because Followell was doing. And then Followell went someplace to do sports for. Was it, I want to say GTE or some other.
0:57:20 - (Mike Reiner): No, that was me.
0:57:22 - (Jimmy Christopher): You did gte? Yeah. So where did Falwell go? Because he left. And that's what created the opening for me. Because, remember, I turned down middays and then. Was it Gary Daniels was.
0:57:34 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, Gary Daniels was.
0:57:36 - (Jimmy Christopher): He had left in, too. So the morning show is open. Yeah, because Rich. They put Rich Phillips in middays when I turned down the midday gig. And then a couple months later, Fernando called and says, yeah, there's a little more money pre and post with Preston. So I came here, did one because follow Will was gone. So I did one season of pre and then Followell came back and I was going, you know, I left.
0:57:59 - (Jimmy Christopher): The lateral move. A little more money, but a lateral move. The thing that clinched it for me was doing the pre and post with Preston.
0:58:04 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
0:58:05 - (Jimmy Christopher): And then I only did one season of pre for that. But as it worked out, it was fine, you know, And I got moved off of mornings and did bad radio into nor and Norm into bad radio. And like I say, I always wanted to be part of the hard line because you guys were great. You guys. I feel I got more Support from the hard line than they did for the shows that I work for. You know.
0:58:33 - (Mike Reiner): We liked you.
0:58:33 - (Jimmy Christopher): I know. I loved you guys, too. Yeah, you guys were great. And then the. The thing, Clee and Deet. Remember I'd use that in my. In my tickers.
0:58:42 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
0:58:43 - (Jimmy Christopher): You know, I call Cleveland Clee and Deet deed. Yeah. And you guys bought into that. And you're going nigh and nine from the Yankees. Yankees or whatever. You guys supported that. And then Bruce Gilbert, you know, prohibited me from doing that. And he says, you're confusing people. I says, no, Bruce, I'll say, oh. And then I was doing, you know, the dictionary explanations of a team like Forest Lupus for the Timberwolves and the hat shorts. I had. The hat shorts were the Mavs, because they had hats on their shorts.
0:59:10 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
0:59:10 - (Jimmy Christopher): The Rangers were the red shoes. The Cowboys were the star heads. These stars with the green sweaters. I says, no, no, I. I'd say, you know, Forest Lupus, you know, at the hat shorts tonight, I says, yes, as the Timberwolves start a three games or start a, you know, they play not three game series, but they play tonight at the aac. So I identify Forest Lupus as the Timberwolves and hat shorts as a maverick. So I didn't see where I was confused, confusing anybody.
0:59:42 - (Jimmy Christopher): Did you?
0:59:43 - (Mike Reiner): No. No, I didn't.
0:59:44 - (Jimmy Christopher): And you guys, I mean, I made one. A couple of Dale's sports casts at night, and he was saying, nine plays mia, like Jimmy Christopher would say in the ticket, Nime is hosting MIA tonight. I was going, see, Dale's into it, the hard line's into it. Why can't I do it anymore?
1:00:02 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, you ought to be able to do it.
1:00:04 - (Jimmy Christopher): I know. So lighten up.
1:00:07 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, there's always a party pooper around somewhere.
1:00:10 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah. And it was depending on what program director there. It was either you're a journalist or then, no, you got to be the little buddy for whoever the midday person was. And that was back to, no, you're a journalist. And in Cleveland, I was using sound effects. Like the Spurs. I had a sound effect. The spurs, you know, burnt the Cavaliers and have, like a guy screaming because he's getting, you know, a heated, searing spur on them or. Or whatever. And they. They encouraged that, you know, and Marge shot, you know, her team smelling like her dog's poo, you know, or whatever. They encourage that. And then they get to the ticket and it's like, okay, you can do whatever you want. Then it was, no, you're a journalist. And then it Was. No, you're.
1:00:56 - (Jimmy Christopher): You can do whatever you want. It's. No, you're a journalist. You know, just. Just let me be me. Let me say 9 and DEET and clean pit, you know.
1:01:05 - (Mike Reiner): Could make up their minds about a lot of stuff.
1:01:07 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah.
1:01:07 - (Mike Reiner): About what they wanted. I always thought you were great, though.
1:01:10 - (Jimmy Christopher): Thank you.
1:01:11 - (Mike Reiner): I always thought you were great.
1:01:12 - (Jimmy Christopher): And.
1:01:13 - (Mike Reiner): And you were always one of my favorite cats to. To interact with up there.
1:01:20 - (Jimmy Christopher): Remember when we had the Cactus Prior put it together. It was the. What do they call it? The Battle of the Bands. When we had a. It was music trivia.
1:01:31 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
1:01:31 - (Jimmy Christopher): And I had you, too, except for I choked and I couldn't remember. Eric Clapton's Five Bands. I can do that in my sleep now. And I was going. I couldn't remember. Couldn't remember. John Mayall Blues Band, the Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Domino. I just couldn't get that out.
1:01:50 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
1:01:52 - (Jimmy Christopher): So that cost me in the final round.
1:01:54 - (Mike Reiner): After that, I just went.
1:01:56 - (Jimmy Christopher): God, that was fun.
1:01:57 - (Mike Reiner): I knew he was gonna nail that.
1:01:59 - (Jimmy Christopher): I know. I thought it was. But I. For some reason, I think. I don't know. Cat came in during breaks and stuff, was explaining the rules. So that shot my wheels off. I had somehow. That. And I'm not making excuses. I just choked. You know, I was looking somewhere along the line.
1:02:16 - (Mike Reiner): We have all been there, Mr. Jimmy.
1:02:18 - (Jimmy Christopher): I was looking. Breaking pitch and got a fast. Or the other way around, whatever. I couldn't drive it up the gap.
1:02:25 - (Mike Reiner): Somewhere along the line. We all have that time when we search for our best game and our best game is out there somewhere and you just can't find it.
1:02:36 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yep.
1:02:37 - (Mike Reiner): Happens.
1:02:38 - (Jimmy Christopher): I know. Yep. I choked in the seventh game of the series.
1:02:42 - (Mike Reiner): Well, I hope life is good for you these days, man.
1:02:45 - (Jimmy Christopher): It is, man. I hope it is for you, too.
1:02:47 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
1:02:47 - (Jimmy Christopher): Hey, how did you. How did you get the first. It was. Was the zoo your first job?
1:02:52 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
1:02:53 - (Jimmy Christopher): So how did you get that? Were you just knocking on doors and stuff, or.
1:02:56 - (Mike Reiner): No, no. I'd been making noise to whoever I could make noise to about wanting to get into radio. And everybody just kind of rolled their eyes and went, you really. You talk about pie in the sky.
1:03:11 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah.
1:03:13 - (Mike Reiner): And an old girlfriend who ditched me to get together with the news director at the zoo at the time. He was ready to give it up because he'd been there a long time. He was ready to go to law school, but he wasn't going to give it up quite yet. However, he needed somebody to do his shit work for him and so she called me and said, hey, you want to do some shit work, which is not going to pay you anything, but do you want to do it? And I said, hell yeah, I want to do it.
1:03:49 - (Mike Reiner): And that was my entree. And once I got in there, I was willing to do anything for anybody at any time, day or night. You need me to take your car to get your tires rotated done, whatever it might be, whatever anybody wanted me to do, I would do. And when they get a puppy dog like that on their hands, they. They take to them a little.
1:04:15 - (Jimmy Christopher): Right, right. Yeah.
1:04:16 - (Mike Reiner): And I got in good with the program director up there who taught me a whole lot about the rules of the road of the business. And I. After that, I just kind of made a place for myself, you know?
1:04:31 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah.
1:04:31 - (Mike Reiner): Just because I was willing to do anything.
1:04:33 - (Jimmy Christopher): And that's what the club. That's when the classic DJs were there, too.
1:04:37 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
1:04:38 - (Jimmy Christopher): Was Labella.
1:04:39 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, Labella was there. Labella and Rhodey were there.
1:04:42 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yep.
1:04:43 - (Mike Reiner): They decided they needed a producer for their show and they said, let's get him. He's willing to do anything at any time for anybody, so let's get him.
1:04:53 - (Jimmy Christopher): Right.
1:04:54 - (Mike Reiner): And that was my big break up there.
1:04:57 - (Jimmy Christopher): Was Doc there? Doc Morgan?
1:04:58 - (Mike Reiner): Doc Morgan was there, yes.
1:04:59 - (Jimmy Christopher): He was there when I was at the zoo, too. How about Tempe? Tempe? Lindsay.
1:05:03 - (Mike Reiner): Tempy. Lindsay was there.
1:05:04 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah, she was there.
1:05:05 - (Mike Reiner): They had the all star crew then.
1:05:06 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yep.
1:05:07 - (Mike Reiner): And man, some of those guys were among the best air personalities I've ever heard to this day.
1:05:13 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah, absolutely.
1:05:14 - (Mike Reiner): I mean, they were just flawless. John Dylan, right? Was there. Michael Brown was there. There were just a whole lot of others. And of course, labella.
1:05:27 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yep.
1:05:28 - (Mike Reiner): May he rest in peace. God bless his soul. Yeah, I mean, I mean, he was just the epitome of a no nonsense, no professional dj. He was just wonderful at it. Never stumbled over words, never made a mistake, always knew where he was going. It was just wonderful. It was a great time.
1:05:50 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yeah, it was. Yeah, you got to rock there. Unfortunately, at the zoo, it was like I say it was once anchor came and forgot to throw the anchor overboard that I think dragged him down.
1:06:02 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, that ruined him.
1:06:03 - (Jimmy Christopher): Get those anchors off ship, please. Thank you.
1:06:05 - (Mike Reiner): That was my first jolt of the real world radio.
1:06:09 - (Jimmy Christopher): Yep. Jolted and take it.
1:06:11 - (Mike Reiner): Well. Well, Jimmy, thank you for doing this, man. I really appreciate it. I want to have you back.
1:06:18 - (Jimmy Christopher): Good. I love we do that. Yes. I'd love to come back Ryan's. Thank you. You know, I've always admire you and proud to be and humbled to be a part of the 139th show. But, yeah, let's do it again.
1:06:32 - (Mike Reiner): All right, now, if you like what we're doing, what you need to do is on Instagram. We're where? Wherever. Wherever you're looking. We're probably there. And what we need you to do is to like us, share us, and tell others that they need to get into this thing because it's coming along. We are making some legitimate progress over these last few months. We're very excited about it. We got a lot of great things coming up here.
1:07:12 - (Mike Reiner): So jump on board the YDC train, tell your friends about us, and get with us, man. Get with all we've got coming down here, because, like I say, it's an exciting time. To quote the words of a great man. All right, that is it for this week. Thanks.
1:07:30 - (Jimmy Christopher): Which great man are we talking about?
1:07:32 - (Mike Reiner): There's only one great man. That's Jerry.
1:07:33 - (Jimmy Christopher): Oh, okay. I mean, I thought you. I thought you were a great man.
1:07:39 - (Mike Reiner): No. No, I'm not. Okay. No, that would not be me. Okay. Thank you, Ashley. Thank you, Becca. Thank you guys for watching and being by the channel today. We will see you next time. Bye. All right, I'm gonna go take pants off. Your dark companion is a stolen water media presentation.