Darryl Brown:  

So what happened after '82? Plenty, actually. Nothing that would have Hollywood scurrying for a screenplay, but overall an interesting, kind life. In 1986 I was academically disqualified from Long Beach State University much to the dismay of my parents, and in December of that year I settled in Redding, California for my first radio job at KARZ-106 FM. Endless repetitions of Michael Bolton and Whitney Houston (RIP) drove me crazy, so I left. I came back home to So-Cal and worked at the Tower Records (RIP) on the corner of Sepulveda and Crenshaw. In a complete lapse of good judgment I moved back to Shasta County in 1990 and took a job a radio station where I thought I was going to be on-air, but ended up in a lonely office in Red Bluff selling commercial time by phone. It was the first of only two jobs from which I was fired. Out of desperation I headed south to Quincy, a place that will remind you of "Twin Peaks," and hosted a morning show at a tiny, Mom-and-Pop station that gave me a little more leeway in the music programming department. They even let me play hip-hop and heavy metal at night. It was liberating, but the town was way too small for this city boy, so when modern rocker KRZQ in Reno called me to fill a weekend shift, I did not hesitate. I always wanted to work for KROQ in L.A., but KRZQ came pretty darn close, and I had fun at that place. To supplement my income I worked part-time as a cashier at a casino, and kept my eyes open for better opportunities. One came along in 1994 when I became an Audio Board Operator, then Video Editor for KRNV, the local NBC affilliate. It was my first TV job in a career that would span 18 years and three cities. I loved radio more than TV, but in 1996 I had to make a choice. The radio station wasn't going to hire me for a full-time gig, and the pay was unliveable. Big market stations ...Expand for more