Whenever I meet someone new, they always ask me the same question about myself. "How did you get that job on the radio???" So, instead of a bio, I'll just answer that question and maybe inspire a person or two along the way.
When I was a 5th grader I got chosen to be my elementary schools' representative at city hall. This meant that I was going to be giving a speech once a month in front of all the city council members. That's pretty much where this all began. From there I started taking improv classes during the summers for fun and didn’t really have another opportunity to get in front of people until I got into high school.
I was in 10th grade when the girl who was supposed to be on the mic during the pep rally, got sick 30 seconds before the show started. She handed me the mic and said "hey, I heard you'd be good at this." From there I hosted every pep rally, charity auction, football game, basketball game, and talent show all the way up until I graduated. That was when I really knew that I loved being in front of the mic.
I started school at Palomar College in San Diego that next year. I wasn’t very good at the numbers and graphs, but I did great in speech, and any other communications courses. After my first year I started enrolling in Radio Television classes. THAT WAS DOPE!!! I loved being in those classes and I soon got my own radio show on the college's radio station. It was called "Big Smooth's Monday night Party". Yeah!!!!!! hahaha..... One night when I did my show I went to the local radio stations' shotty website and tried to email anyone there who would listen:) Finally a guy hit me back and told me how easy it was to become an intern. BLAM! I took an internship class and got a job at the biggest station in town!
I was 19 yrs old and the story is almost over I promise:) Basically I started washing the station van's, organizing CD's and pretty much doing ANYTHING I could to get in front of my bosses at the radio station. Finally I got a shot to sit in my boss’s office and play her a tape from my college show. She HATED it, BUT, she noticed some potential and a SERIOUS work ethic. I began learning from everyone at the station at that point. It wasn’t long before I got my first shift on Saturday nights from midnight to 3 am! I was rough, but it felt so good to be on the air. I began doing a lot of weekend shifts and fill INS for about a year and a half, AND THEN, I got offered two jobs! The station I worked for asked if I wanted to be the morning show producer AND midday personality. UMMMM YEAH!!!!!!
I was 21 and feeling so accomplished when I got the news that I was going to be a father. This changed my life and gave it new meaning. It gave me a new reason to succeed in radio and as much as life became very hard, there is nothing more rewarding than accomplishing things for your family. I’m proud to say that I am a full time single father.
After being full time on the radio for a couple years in San Diego, I got the opportunity to start doing weekends on KIIS-FM. That is basically like getting called up to the majors. HUGE! I couldn’t believe that I was going to be working at the same station as Ryan Seacrest, Valentine, and Jojo on the Radio. I still can’t believe it. So, yeah, 3 years of weekends, holidays and vacations later, IM HERE!!!!
© 2008