I Got To Meet One of My Radio Heroes at the Cedar Rapids Beer Summit
This would be on my Mount Rushmore of the coolest radio moments I've had in my life. In my 9 years of doing radio, there are a handful of people I've wanted to emulate. This guy is one of them. I'm so happy he turned out to be such a nice dude. They say you should never meet your heroes... I'm saying screw that.
You may know who this is already but if you don't, his name is Dwyer. He's been a part of the legendary morning radio show, Dwyer and Michaels, since the late 1980s. Everyone in the radio business only hopes to be as great as those two. The fact that they're still going at it, after all these years, is nothing short of incredible.
The radio world can feel both gigantic and tiny at the same time. We've all heard of each other's names, but we've most likely never met. There's this weird bond radio people have right off the bat when they meet. It doesn't always work like this... but usually, the hosts who care and work to be great, stick around. The ones who don't care or take it for granted, get shown the door.
Some hosts are nice and very down-to-earth. Some have huge egos and come off like major divas. It's like any job really. I would like to assume most are just trying to do their best and have a good show every day. I've always said if I can make one person's day a little better, I had a good show.
Every radio host knows who the good ones are. Dwyer and Michales are two of the best. When talking to Dwyer last Saturday, I tried my best to shut up and just listen. He gave advice, he shared old radio stories, and most importantly, he made you feel like you were his friend.
I've known about Dwyer and Michaels since my very first few days at "Radio School" (Brown College) and have tried to do everything I could to be as good as they are. They have one of the most successful morning shows, in all of radio, and for good reason.
There's a website a lot of radio people use to share ideas. It's kind of like Facebook for radio hosts. We basically share ideas for things that have been successful on the air or contests that have worked well. Dwyer is someone I've stolen ideas from for the past 9 years. Can we call it borrowed, just so I feel better about myself? He's constantly tried to help other radio hosts be great and for that, I'm very thankful
Dwyer, if you ever read this, thanks, man. You were awesome and I appreciate it. I can now scratch your name off of my "I need to meet them" list.