Daniel J. Hogan's Blog

I read yesterday that Drew Lane, part of the popular Drew and Mike morning radio show on WRIF in Detroit, is leaving. I haven't thought about Drew and Mike that much since moving to Lansing, where WRIF is but a distant memory but I realized yesterday just how sad I was to hear he was leaving.

All through middle school and high school I listened to Drew and MIke in morning, enjoying their silly banter and skits--specfically Cliff Notes Theater (their compressed versions of Titanic and The People vs. Larry Flynt were amazing). And they had the local edge that Howard Stern did not. They would call up the Red Wings and talk to them on the air or Mickey Redmond or the famous prank calls during the playoffs to donut shops in cities we were playing against ("I'm looking for Mr. Royblows? Could you just yell that out please?")

Drew was my favorite and the more talented of the two in my opinon. Mike's 'Butt Mike' and sex jokes got old fast for me, although I did like the 'Don't Stump Mike' game a lot.

Still, this will greatly change the dynamic of early morning radio in Detroit. Drew and Mike have been a powerhouse in my hometown since the mid-90's and I really wonder what is going to happen next. The article I read said that Drew wants to do a syndicated show that is in the afternoon or evening--the early morning routine for him was getting to be too much. I can totally understand that. They were on air at six in the morning, which means they were at the station pretty dang early.

The article also pointed out how Drew and Mike made the WRIF a more popular station and greatly increased its value. They made a ton of money on advertising because the two ruled that spot for the much sought after demographic of males 18 to 54.

As I said this doesn't affect me too much because I'm in Lansing now, but I would try and catch their show whenever I was visiting the D. Listening to their goofy banter reminded me of the simpler days of my life that are long gone.

But don't get me wrong--even with funny radio shows, high school sucked. Srsly. 

So that happened.

I did my guest spot over on the Ebling and You show tonight (along with Jim Fordyce) and it certainly was a misadventure--I almost didn't make it in time!
Lemme 'splain...y'see, Mother Nature decided to pull a fast one on all of us here in Michigan.  Yesterday: first day of Spring! Huzzah! Today: a blizzard cast down by the Frost Giants from the Land of Ice and Snow.

The radio station, according to Google Maps, is only about 15 minutes from my underground bunker. I exited the tunnels at 5 sharp and prepared for a rare venture out into the World.  I didn't get to the station until just after 6 o'clock. You read that correctly. A trip that should have maybe taken 15 minutes took me over an hour.  The roads were horrendous and to make matters worse, I was driving during rush hour.

The other contributing factor to all this nonsense was that I was looking for a road sign that did not exist. I kept driving and driving until I hit the free way, waaaaay on the south side of Lansing. Time: 5:38. I knew I had passed it so I pulled into McDonald's parking lot to get my bearings. I foolishly did not take the stations number with me, so I called 411 on my cel phone. I got a number but it was just an all purpose directory and did not help me at all. So I turned around and kept looking until I got lost again. Time: 5:55 (had to be at the station at 5:45).

So I gave up and pushed my OnStar button. Thankfully, they were able to confirm my theory: the road I was s'pose to turn down did not have proper signage. They made sure to mention to me that one side of the road it was one name and on the other it was the name I had been looking for. Thank you OnStar! So I get to the station. Time: 6:02. I run to the front door--LOCKED. WTF? I go around the side of the building and...there was Scott from Everybody Reads Bookstore waiting for me.

This story ends well, got in there did my spot and hung out for a bit.  Although I did screw up the first time I talked. Jack introduced me and what do I say?  "Thanks for being here!"

Genius. I quickly covered it up and said "Well, I'm off to a great start." Everything else went well though. I'm spent though, I'm not leaving my bunker for the rest of the night, I'm going to curl up with a few discs of Battlestar Galactica and lock myself away until the signing tomorrow at Bestseller Books.  Pray that the weather is good...

Oh and I realized today that I forgot to take my library books back. Lovely.

Just a heads up that I'll be a guest on the Ebling and You radio show tonight at 6PM on 1320 AM here in Lansing to talk about The Magic of Eyri.  Make sure to tune in if ya can. I'll hoping they'll have it on their website at some point so I can send people a link to the interview (or put it on my websites).

www.1320wils.com
www.jackebling.com

If you live outside of Lansing, well then you'll just have to use your imagination.  Hopefully I'll be just as witty and charming on the radio as I am in person and won't keep saying "umm...yeah...umm."  I did radio shows for 4 years at GVSU, so I should do OK.

Sold two copies of The Magic of Eyri today, which puts me at 99 copies sold. So, of I (hopefully) sell a copy at Saturday's signing at Bestsellers Books, I'll hit the triple digit mark.  I'll try and make a big deal of it at the signing if someone buys a copy, write something special in the book, etc.  I had hoped to have broken the 100 copy mark before the signing, but I ain't complainin'.

Reminder for my Lansing readers, I'll be a guest on the Jack Ebling Show on 1320 AM this Friday evening around 6 PM.  MiEntertainmen.biz's Jim Fordyce will be on the show as well. Should be a great time!

From BBC website: California is suing the US government over emissions.

And here are the top headlines on CNN.com at the same moment:


Uh...yeah.