RICK REMEMBERS

About 10 seconds after I entered the Sutter Street building for the first time, I figured out that KSAN would be an endless source of surprises.  Tom Donahue had asked me to come up from KMET to talk about becoming Creative Director.  Of course Tom took the day off and didn't tell anyone I was coming, so after a hurried conference between Vickie and Hadwig,  it was decided that I should talk to O'hair who was just then coming off the air. I soon discovered that my carefully edited resume and aircheck tapes didn't interest him.

With no more than ten words spoken, he pulled out 3 or 4 lethal Thai Sticks and asked McQueen to roll a few.  He handed me one with a peremptory "smoke this."  When I tried to pass, they waved me off.  They had already smoked a few during the morning show. I could see their half smiles as Thom and Dave sat back and watched me smoke and waited for me to fall off the chair.  When I still didn't fall after we all smoked the second and third together, we talked radio for a few minutes (at least, I think we did, because my brain by this time was oatmeal) and they appeared satisfied as they said good-bye at the door at around 11:30 AM. It took me around 45 minutes to get out of the building (15 just to find the elevator which was about 4 paces from the door).

After leaning against the window of the Hong Kong Tailor on the ground floor for an hour or so, I started thinking "airport 4 PM, airport 4 PM" over and over to myself.  By sometime around two, I could actually speak the words aloud and caught a taxi.  I guess I passed the test because Thom called me two days later and hired me.