Michelle Mitchell, Radio Veteran, Dog Rescuer, Proud Mom

00:00
Hey, how are you? What's going on? I haven't seen you in forever. I haven't seen anybody in forever.

00:13
So to another episode of Chewing the Fat, I am your host, Big Robb. Thank you so much for tuning in. Thanks to John for buying me a coffee at ChewingtheFatBR.com. I certainly do appreciate that. The folks who have been leaving reviews and ratings on your podcast platforms, I certainly do appreciate that. It's been an interesting kind of couple of weeks here as the podcast has had to transition to a different host. That means nothing for you. Hopefully, you're still able to find the podcast as you normally would.

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So if you run into any issues, let me know. There's an email form on chewingthefatbr.com and that way you can let me know what's going on. Of course you can shoot me a message on Instagram as well at ChewingTheFatBR, just to get that technical stuff out of the way because I am so excited to reconnect with my guests this week. Please welcome an old time radio friend. Not that we were, not that I was like old timey radio. Hey, let me tell ya. Let me tell ya, sir. What's going on, sir?

01:13
Michelle Mitchell. Woo, yay! I'm so happy to be here. I'm so happy for you to be here. This is so, oh man, this is the highlight of my day. Michelle and I, well, I had heard Michelle before I actually met her from radio, but back in the old Y105 days was where- Back in the olden days.

01:43
Avenue is where I got to meet Michelle and work alongside her. And as I say often, you know, radio and television, they are some of the most highly functioning weirdos you'll ever want to work with. Every station I've ever been at, I was like, if you made a TV show or a movie about these people, I mean, nobody would believe that it's real. I mean, you could take things straight from what happened. Yes.

02:13
No, not really. That was Tuesday. That's pretty much it. That's so cool. But yeah, those were some fun times back on Georgia Avenue there at Y105. And you had been in radio for a while prior to that. Right, yeah. Moved around and stuff like that. Are you native to Augusta? Is Augusta home? It is. I grew up here.

02:43
hospitals. Did the whole thing. My dad was in the Marines, so we did move around a good bit when he came back from Vietnam. So a little bit of that moving around, but we ended up back here as I was growing up and went to Silver Bluff High School and did that whole thing. Went to USC Aiken and all of that. Did the theater program. All of that kind of good stuff. So yeah, so when I finally ended up trying to figure out what I was going

03:13
Well, I got all this stuff that I'm doing, but radio just seemed like a good fit. I actually was actually going to school in Charleston and I had to do an internship at a TV station and literally it only took that one semester for me to go, I don't want to do that. That's not for me. Not for me at all.

03:43
a victim of a crime or something. I can't remember all the details of it. I just remember the reporter that I was working with going up to him and to the girl's father asking him how he felt about things and all this. And I was just like, I could never do that. I could never intrude on someone's pain like that. That was just beyond, you know, and you do, you have to be, you have to be ruthless like that to succeed in that job. It's not me. Not for me.

04:13
different type of person that can separate themselves, you know, the To operate still with humanity, but to to opt to just disassociate yourself from it a bit Yeah, so that you can get the details of the story. Yeah, I'm not sure I have that so Yeah for the folks that do that that's great Yeah, we do need folks that report the news sure or it honestly and everything like that But yeah, yeah that wouldn't that wouldn't be me either

04:43
I'd be blubbering in that, but wouldn't be any, because I mean, I cry at like car commercials and stuff like that. It's like, that would be no good. Same, same. So what was your first foray into radio then? So if you were going to school for this other thing. Right, well actually, one of the guys at the TV station that I was interning at, worked at a radio station down in Charleston, and he was like, look, we're looking for people.

05:13
if you can, you know, you can probably get a show on the air. And I was like, I couldn't be on the air. Me? No, I couldn't possibly. Literally, I did weekends, Saturday nights specifically, and I would focus on a particular CD and play like deep cuts off of it. It was wild because the guy that owned the radio station was, had been the accountant there and it had always been his dream to own a radio station. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

05:43
It was the most fun. We had the guy that was doing the morning show. He was just a plethora of information for me. Like I love people that I can learn stuff from and that kind of thing. And he was just, I mean, he was so funny. And he just had, he loved things like the old Monty Python and stuff like that. So, you know, I loved that stuff too. So I just got into it and, you know,

06:13
and doing all this. And it was just so much fun to get into that. But when it came to doing my own show, I was terrified. So I would literally, I would read the card that had the legal ID at the top of the card. That was it. That's all I do. I just play the music. You just play the music other than that one, like four seconds an hour. I was so scared. And Bill calls me up and he's like, you know, you can talk if you want to.

06:43
No, I'm good. I'm good. I'm terrified. But that's what I'm saying is he was so much fun and he really helped me to relax into it and just be okay with, okay, this is it. This is going to happen. Yeah. Well, how long did that take then? It actually, he actually, you know, he, he was great. He got me, got me relaxed into it and I managed to kind of pull myself together. Now having done that, I still was in school at that time.

07:13
And my grandmother, my son was very small at the time, and my grandmother offered to babysit for me. So that's how we ended up coming back here from Charleston. And I was looking for a job and I really had no idea how radio worked. I just thought, well, I'll just go put my application in and somebody will hire me. It didn't occur to me that I needed an air check.

07:43
So proof that you talked on the air. We probably got into radio around the same time, so that was back when you actually had to have a license to be on it. You had to have a telephone operator's license, but basically it was a tele radio operator's license that you had to take a test for so that you could open a microphone. I think I was literally one of the last people to ever take that test.

08:13
Yeah, because it wasn't long, like after I got my license, that they started to where you could just pay for the test, pay for the license, and you had to pay for it like, you had to pay for it annually. Then it's like, well now you pay for it once and it's good forever. And then they were like, screw it, we're just not gonna do the test. You don't need a test anymore, anybody can be on the radio. I'm like, great, quality control, this is awesome. Really good for my self-esteem. Yes, yes, especially after having to take that test. It's like, come on!

08:43
That's too funny. So now you're trying to get a job in radio. Yeah. And I talked to a few people. I remember talking to Jeff Sanders at 96RXR and he said he had some part-time positions open and I was like, yeah, that's not going to work for me. I really need a full-time job, but thanks. And I just went on about my way. So I didn't understand the whole, you get a part-time job and work your way up. That just didn't, it's like, no, I need full-time.

09:13
Bye. Right, right. Until you can come back with that. I look back on it now and I'm like, God, what an idiot. Yeah. Well, it's like my first job was at 96RXR, but I was an intern. So I mean, I was splicing promos on a reel to reel, and I'd run the board for the morning show for the morning zoo with Tony Powers and Anita. And Anita Mann. Anita Mann. Yeah.

09:43
but that was my first, there was no pay at all. It was just, hey, come and spend all of your free waking hours here outside of school. And I was still in high school at that point. I was 15. Yeah, I wasn't anywhere near radio at that time in my life. So I think I was 22 when I got into it. Well, yeah, I didn't get a paying gig until I was probably, I was almost in my 20s.

10:13
because my mom was dating...

10:18
Buddy. Car. Yeah. Oh, wow. She was going out with him and he was trying to impress her by being super nice to me. And I was just like, whatever, dude. But it was fun. I just remember, it's so dirty here. That's one of the things that people don't understand. You can walk into a brand new radio station. They could have just literally built it.

10:48
coffee and cigarettes, even if it's a no smoking building, somehow. When I look back on it now, BBQ is probably one of the better ones I've seen. Right, right. The place, the building that I worked in down in Savannah, I-95 was horrible, horrible. I remember they had the double storm windows, you know, where you have a paint on the outside and a paint on the inside. And there was a rat that lived in the middle. Oh my gosh.

11:18
idea how it got in there, how it got out, I don't know. They were like, oh yeah, that's just Mickey. I'm like, no, that's not Mickey. Somebody needs to call an exterminator. That's like down at the double wide. When Clear Channel took, well, when CUNY was sold to Clear Channel and there were a bunch of stations that kind of came together, we got the double wide down on Carolina Springs Avenue, which is where Eagle was.

11:48
And actually, 96. Here's a little tidbit for you. I was the very first person to talk on Eagle 102. Wow. Yeah. I was the last person to talk on Froggy and the first person to talk on Eagle. Oh, okay. That's right. You were when it was Froggy 102. They did the switchover during my shifts. That's right. That's right. And what was your name?

12:15
Uh, amphibian. That was me. It's okay. Because John Patrick brought it up before on the episode that John was on. You mentioned that we both knew amphibian from the Froggy Days show. Yes. That was me. We actually had two different Jimmy Hoppas. There was a couple of them. Wow. And then, I think John said he was... I don't remember what he was. I think it was like Tom Crocock, because he did like news or something like that. Yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah, that sounds about right.

12:45
I remember that Mary Liz Nolan was Lily Pond, Lily Pad. Lily Pad. And then Rebecca. Uh-huh. Yeah, Rebecca was, was she Sally Mander? I think she was Sally Mander. Yes. Such fun, fun names. Now you have to understand that I was probably 24 at this point. Mm-hmm. I'd been doing radio for a couple of years, kind of at stations.

13:15
And one of my first gigs in radio, the guy told me, the program director said, don't ever work at a station where you really love the music because you're going to get tired of it. And it's better to not ruin the stuff that you really love, which made a sort of kind of sense to me. But at the same time, my first actual job in a station where I really love the music is absolute best. That was just like, it was like coming home.

13:45
Yeah, it's like turning your stereo on and literally listening to the radio. Exactly. Except you got to play the music. Yeah, exactly. That's awesome. Yeah, I highly recommend that. So in your time working in radio, what, you have a favorite story from a station that just sticks out? Gosh. Or a favorite artist that you met? So many. Probably...

14:14
I don't know. I should have prepared for this. I really didn't. Trying to think of some of the crazier stuff that we did. Well, of course, you know, my friend Jordan's a, the funniest thing I think was we went backstage at Pearl Jam. We had hung out with their record rep. The guy took us to dinner somewhere in Atlanta, some fancy schmancy place. He started telling the record rep,

14:44
and he started talking about his band that he was in. And of course the record reps sucking up to him. So he's like, oh, well, what's the name of your band? What's that all about? And in deadpan, he's like, we are a TLC cover band and I do left eye and Michelle does. And I had to sit there with a straight face and keep it going. Right, right.

15:14
choked on my food. Right. So that was fun. Yeah. That was fun. And I think most of my really crazier stories come from him and silly things that I was kind of an instigator, like I would tell him to do stuff and he'd be like, yeah, that's a good idea. I'm gonna do that. Yeah. Yeah. I think probably the one that, his morning show partner at 96X was Fish. And Fish had been trying to get

15:44
Some jerseys with their names on them. Mm-hmm our names on him because he got me one too and I Convinced I convinced Jordan. It was the show that we were doing. I'm pretty sure it was actually at James Brown, but it was before it was James Brown obviously, but it I Don't remember who the band was. I really don't I just remember was a huge crowd and we were going out to

16:14
to do the introductions and stuff. And I was like, you should throw your jersey into the crowd. And he was like, yeah, I'm gonna do that. And Fish was so angry. He had spent months trying to get those jerseys through us. He just threw it out the first. First thing we did, first time we were him, he threw them out in the crowd. That's hilarious. That's classic Zay though. Yeah, but somebody has a jersey with Zay on the back of it. There you go. It's one of a kind.

16:44
Yeah, I remember one of my not finer moments involved you and me and the Bare Naked Ladies in Atlanta. That was a great, again, it was one of these, hey, some winners get to go see a private concert with Bare Naked Ladies and photo op and all this other stuff. And I was a huge Bare Naked Ladies fan. And we got there and this was like in a warehouse. It was in like some industrial park in some sort of little like warehouse.

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And they were set up and they did like a five song set. It was really not much of anything. There were no chairs. I remember people having to sit on the floor. And then afterwards it was like, okay. And again, the total group of people, maybe, maybe was like 50. It was not a huge group of people. But they decided that for the end, when you're gonna do pictures, it was gonna be group pictures. So it was like me and you

17:44
half of the group, like 25 people with Bare-Naked Ladies, and then they did another group with... and I just did not like that at all. And I had taken... I had taken my camera to do like... this is before digital cameras, so it was a film camera to take photos that we would then scan and put on the website or whatever. And I remember standing outside waiting for them to leave and yelling,

18:14
I'm stealing your souls. Not one of my brighter moments. Yeah, it was fun though. It was a fun trip. It was a fun day. Yeah. And the thing is, that type of stuff would happen on the regular, because you just never knew who was going to stop in. Station, some artists going from Atlanta to Columbia for whatever reason needed to get gas and they're like, oh, well, let's go to Y105 while we're here.

18:44
bring, you know, Wivesavers Chicken for lunch or something like that. Just stuff all the time. And people that weren't, that don't do radio don't understand that, but also don't understand how little we got paid. Right. It was basically for the perks. It was. You got it for the perks. You got into radio because you loved it, because you were, you know, liked the entertainment, you liked the music. It wasn't because you needed to keep lights on at a house. Right. Because of that. Well, I remember at my first job saying something about,

19:14
I just want to make enough to support me and my son. And the lady that was doing mid-days at the time just posted a laugh and she was like, good luck with that. Good luck. See, and that's the clue we all should have taken. Exactly. So many red flags, so many. So many red flags. Just wasn't picking up on them. All just colorblind to all of them. Well, and also I was so, I had never really had any other kind of job.

19:44
Understand that we weren't well paid. That's stupid as that sounds I just didn't it didn't occur to me and because I wasn't doing it for the money Oh there you mean they're paying me to do this just talk on the phone and listen to music. That's awesome When you're inside the bubble that you don't realize yeah what outside the bubble is either But you also you know, I remember when I first got out of radio

20:14
buy a CD. I didn't know what that was all about. And this whole Taylor Swift thing with the tickets and all. I just have a hard time relating to it. I haven't bought concert tickets in forever. We bought concert tickets. It's like, just call up the rep and say, hey, I need to. And it doesn't matter if it's not your town. Literally, you know people at a, either you call someone to call someone at a station or you call the actual rep themselves. You're like, hey, can I go to Atlanta? Can I get a couple of tickets? Yeah, sure.

20:44
It can definitely change your perspective on both sides of that. Yeah. Definitely one of my favorite backstage moments would have been Meet and Sting. That was fun. That was so fun. And let's see, who else? I guess the Goo Goo Dolls were, it was a fun show. It was just a sad show because we knew that was going to be the last hurrah for 96X. So it was kind of an impact.

21:14
in between, but it was fun. It was still a fun show. Having people write your name all over their bodies and stuff is so weird. It's so weird. But it's cool. And so you're still in radio though? Sort of, yeah. So you're now a station manager? Yeah, I was actually, I was in Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa. I was doing mornings at a news talk station

21:44
Well, I was doing mid days at the Classic Rock, which is very much like Eagle. Even they had Bob and Tom instead of John Boy Billy. That's basically the only difference. But yeah, my mom was ill and needed my help. So just kind of dovetailed at the same time that the radio station was getting flipped to a different format and something that I wasn't interested in doing.

22:14
packed it all up and came home. So been here taking care of my mom ever since. When I first got back, there was just no radio jobs available. I mean, there was just nothing. It was like a desert. Well, yeah, and I mean, when, because I got let go with, well, you know, the thing is, is everybody has gone through either changes in ownership and you've made it through and you're like, okay.

22:44
point, it always will catch you at some point. 96X was a huge learning lesson for me, life-wise, because it's like we were so, we were doing so well in ratings, we had these great promotions, we had these huge concerts. And I mean, it was all just, we just didn't have people selling advertising for us. And unfortunately, that's a big part of it. You don't have money coming in.

23:14
anymore. Unfortunately, that didn't last too long. Well, and that's the thing is like when I got let go, it was 3,499 other people let go that same day. I was talking about we all left the same day, all with the same skill set. And there's no jobs. Literally, they just got rid of those 4,000 jobs. So what

23:44
turn this into something that how do I turn a brain full of useless knowledge into some sort of marketable skill? You know, there are only so many game shows you can host. And that's when you start your own trivia company and start doing trivia at bars. There's so many trivia places around here. But yeah, well, I mean, it's great that you've been able to stay in the industry that you fell in love with. I mean, it has changed. It has changed so very much.

24:14
And really I say I'm kind of in radio because I'm not on the air anymore. You know, I'm just doing like a it's a lot of paperwork and it's a lot of You know being on other people's time so it's not it's not the Exciting fun thing that that it used to be but yeah, you know, you gotta grow up at some point I guess That's always always fought against when you're right you fight against exactly I always think of Cosmo

24:44
Yes. Like you would never ever imagine how old he was just by being around him because he was just so Cosmo. Cosmo in your face. Yeah. It's like I said, there was no other group of folks I'd want to be around. And people that would pretty much do anything for you if they could. No doubt. Again, we're all in the same poor boat. But if you need a ride.

25:14
ones that you want to borrow money from. But if you need a ride, more likely they'll come pick you up. Even if it's in a station van. Yeah, that's that's how we got around. There's another good station story. Eagle 102, I'm driving home from a remote. And of course, the remote's involved going to the place of business, setting up a table, setting up all the stuff on the table, having pizza for people or whatever. So you had to tip the driver

25:44
pizza place and then you'd have the pizza would last maybe two minutes. Right. Because all of the sales folks at the place you had the remote at came and got the free pizza thinking it was for them and not for listeners. You might have three or four CDs that you had to give away during that time and of course they all wanted those as well. So like do you want the CD or do you want the business that's going to come in looking for the CD? Looking for the CD. Think about it. Just think about it.

26:14
So, yeah, but anyway, so I did my, oh, and we had the big blow up thing too. So I had to think about it. Now I did all that stuff by myself. That's kind of weird. Like now I can't imagine doing it. I'd be like, no, not for what you're paying me. Yeah, there's huge inflables that had to be staked down and it's like, you know, it's two stories tall. And in big country too, not only did they have, they had stuff.

26:44
they had the barbecue grill that you had to set up and cook hot dogs from.

26:51
No, I'm not doing that. Speaking of things you won't do for people, you got frozen in a block of ice. I did, yeah. In front of Kmart. Yeah, I did. Do you know I still have vertigo from that? I wonder why. Not much longer. Stay in there. Not much longer. Stay in there.

27:21
back into the thing and there's like little panels on the side and a panel on top of you. And the first thing I see when I lay down is, does your back hurt? Because it will. I got pulley punches here. Yeah. It's just gonna hurt. It's gonna hurt. Because you can't lay in one position for however many. Whatever hours it's gonna be. I don't know how long it was. I think I was supposed to be there for 48 hours

27:51
I got vertigo from people stepping on, it was on a trailer. And so they were stepping on the trailer and it was constantly, it was like being on the ocean. I mean, it was crazy. Yeah.

28:03
get me out of here. And I remember going to the emergency room after that and the doctors were just like, you did what? Ha, look, look, I'm in radio. You see the station t-shirt, I have on. This should explain anything. This is great, the looks on their faces is like, you did what? Okay, okay. But yeah, good times. Good times, good times. So what's going on with you now

28:33
you got going on, like, you know, you're still a station manager, so you got paperwork and stuff. Yeah, it's all, it's a Christian talk station, so it's a lot of preachers and just motivational speakers, things like that. And it's really just managing the station. I don't know how to put it other than that. It's making sure everything gets in on time and commercials get in on time and

29:03
the most exciting thing. But like I said, it was there for me when I really needed something. And that was great. So that's awesome. So outside of work though, what do you got? I really have, my mom's got animals. She has her farm, which has horses and we have a lot of dogs now, unfortunately. That's my fault, unfortunately.

29:33
sucker for a cute dog. But yeah, I've learned a lot about taking care of horses. Did no thing about it. I did not. My mom grew up with horses. She was actually kind of a little TV star around here back in the day. Yeah. The building where BBQ was used to be Channel six. I think it was channels, channels six. I think it was. Yeah. But you remember the

30:03
on the bottom part of the building. Yeah, she used to do the show that became Trooper Terry, but it was called Buona John. And she was one of the hosts on it too. And so from the time she was like a teenager, she was on TV, Punky's Ponies was on TV. And so my entire childhood, it's like, Punky and her daughter and mama would say, this is Punky's monkey.

30:33
Oh yeah. That's awesome. Funny stuff. But yeah, she's, it was kind of funny. I remember the first time I was working with Mark Summers and I told him, yeah, my mom was punky from punky's ponies. Like I used to ride those ponies. This is so weird. Weird. And that's a weird thing to say. Okay, Mark. Literally everybody, you know, they always had her, all the people up on the hill.

31:03
birthday parties with my mom's ponies. And that's pretty cool though. I mean, and so, I mean, you're just now learning about horses and horse care and stuff like that. Yeah, I never did it. I, but because, you know, she, as she grew up and got older, she didn't have the ponies anymore and she got into law enforcement. And so when, uh, when, when I was in high school, she was a juvenile detention officer.

31:33
Oh, wow. Which was great for me, let me tell ya. Your social life was poppin'. Yeah. Wow. It was great. Really awesome. I got away with nothing. Oh, well, that's, my mom was a OR nurse, so there were never sick days. Yeah, no such thing. No, no such thing as a sick day. Suck it up, kid. You'll be fine, you'll be fine.

32:03
It's good stuff. But yeah, so yeah, taking care of my mom now. And it's funny because, you know, she's always been the outdoor person. She's always been the one that I just never cared about stuff like that. I'd rather sit in the air conditioner. Thank you very much. Right. Play my little video games and had no interest in all of that. So I've had to learn a lot about it.

32:35
Just basically learn how to push through it. You know, whatever you're doing, the horses don't care if you're not feeling good that day. They want their food. Right, right. They don't care. Their sympathy only goes so far. Right. That's awesome. So what's bringing you joy? Rescuing the dogs has been a big thing for me.

33:05
It's helped me a lot. And I don't know if I guess you could get into the whole why it's so whatever. You know, but but

33:18
I don't know, I mean, there's just nothing more grateful in the world than a dog that does not have a home and you can help them find their way. It's really, I don't know, makes me feel good. I like it. Yeah, is there a certain like group that you help with? Well, not that I'm particularly associated with. Now I did find a dog that came up into, well, my mom's property is surrounded by woods.

33:48
So we have the part where the horses are in the middle in our house and then the woods are all around us. Well, there's people drop dogs off there all the time. I mean, it's really, really crazy. So you can at any given time, you can hear dogs in the woods, just hear them. Actually, I just heard a whole group of them the other day. But yeah, it's a problem.

34:18
where they're, there's, that just doesn't exist. They don't have lots and lots of animals because I guess, because the weather, they don't last very long, you know? So you just don't see strays around. And there's so many strays. My mom lives in Beach Island. So there's just every corner you can see it. And so, I don't know, a little bit I can do. There's a group out of,

34:48
Aiken that they gather up some of these strays, puppies especially, and they'll fly them up to New Jersey, give them a home. So that's kind of cool. Have you ever like gone with them on one of those transports? I would love to. I've never been on that end of it. It's just been a more of a kind of trying to trap them and get them, get them safely in custody. That kind of thing. I had one dog, I think I was telling you, your wife about it earlier.

35:18
She just, she was pretty wily. I mean, I could not get hold of this dog. Four years, I tried to catch her. The only time I would ever see her is after she'd had her puppies and she would bring them to me. She was not the best mom. But I mean, she knew where she could bring them that they would be taken care of. And she knew that I would feed her. And I just, I can't see a hungry dog and not feed it.

35:48
I'm not capable of that. So I eventually bought her a big dog bed and she started sleeping on the dog bed on the front porch. And she, you know, I put the traps out and she just kind of looked at him and be like, right, whatever. Her daughter actually was the one that I kept catching in the traps because she's pretty

36:18
She would always fall for it no matter what but we got her caught and got her fixed and she still lives at the house Actually, she won't let you touch her. She's still feral in that way But she's super sweet and she'll like come up behind you and lick your hand or whatever as long as it's on her terms She's cool with it Yeah, and Did you I mean so she's staying around houses

36:48
them long enough to kind of get attached to it because that would be my problem. Like if I rescued a dog and it takes more than like two days to get it to somewhere else, you're like, well, we've got another dog. It was so hard. It was so hard, especially when they were really young and they were so cute. You just fall in love with them. It's so hard to let them go, but I couldn't keep all of them. There was just no way. I would say probably 35, 36 dogs that I found homes for.

37:18
the years. So I mean, I wish I could keep them all. I wish I could just run one of those sanctuaries where you just live your life, babies. I would love that. But yeah, unfortunately, I'm not independently rich. But I mean, but you're still doing great work. You know, whether it's, you're not getting paid to do it or anything like that. I think that's one of those things that to have something

37:48
to go to sleep, you can sleep well knowing that you helped a creature that couldn't help itself. Right. Yeah, for sure. It feels good.

38:02
Michelle, this is the second segment of the show where we dive a little bit deeper into you. We talk a little bit more about mental health. I'm a firm believer that everybody has those kind of dark days, those down days, sometimes the day just, you just don't feel like getting out of bed. You may not have like diagnosed depression, or anxiety. But I think we all have those kind of things that we go through. And one of the things that that depression wants to tell you is that you're alone, you're the only one that feels like that, but but we're

38:32
And so being able to share your message that hey, I'm there too. I've been there This is how I've got out of it. This is what I do when I feel those times. I think that's really important So for you, how do you keep the darkness at bay? Well, like I said the the dogs help a lot and then Spending time with my son. I mean I've made more of an effort. He actually he lives about

39:02
miles away from us. He has his own house, his own car, his girlfriend and he lived together. You know, he's always been my rock. He's always been my go-to and now he doesn't need me anymore. I have a little bit of that emptiness thing going on, but you know, you have to learn to separate and let people live their own lives kind of thing. So it's tough, but when

39:32
Yeah, it's so much fun. He's such an interesting dude and he's just a good guy. I like hanging out with him Yeah, it's fun. Yeah, I love Brent. I remember I Mean seeing him grow up. Yeah, you know from from y105 and and Jacob and Jeremy were a little older than him. They were younger than yeah Growing up but to just to see you know, cuz I'll see his posts on

40:02
and Facebook and things like that. The filibuster. Yes, filibuster. He does go on his rants, but I promise he's not as crazy as he comes off Facebook sometimes. Well, I feel like sometimes he does it just to poke the bear. Right, I mean, there's no question he is on the spectrum for sure. I have no idea where. He's chosen not to, you know,

40:32
And I'm fine with that. I think it's okay for people to be different and not... He's never gonna be the person that fits into whatever round hole, square peg, that's him, you know, completely. But I think it's beautiful. And for you to have fostered, obviously, a nurturing environment for him

41:02
Right. I mean that says a lot about you and and the person you are and I mean I feel like you're not a Square peg round hole, you know person either for sure. I'm a weirdo Parallelogram that's right But yeah, I mean that's again one of those things when you when you can be in a place where you feel comfortable Being yourself, right? Whether it's you know

41:32
whether it's with a group of friends, finding that place. That's really hard for me and especially lately and I know this is gonna sound weird, but I, because I work alone and now, I mean, I used to go to the office and work alone and now I'm pretty much working from home. And my mom's quite ill sometimes, so sometimes she's, you know, not even awake during the day. So it's just me and the dogs. I do worry about being.

42:02
into a weirdo now, you know, because I literally have no social interaction with people or, you know, Facebook might be the only time I talk to people and that's not real interaction, you know? It's just not, it's not normal. So, like I said, it's so nice to be able to go out and see people. I know that I probably freak people out because I'm like, hey, how are you? What's going on?

42:32
I haven't seen anybody in forever. Right. But you're right, but that is good. That is good to have that opportunity to do that. And again, to feel comfortable being your weirdo self, you know, and not have to put up any pretense. You know, I think we've reached a point in society that everybody should be able to be who they are without having to put a mask on or anything like that. Well, unless you have to put your mask on.

43:02
Yes, unless you got the COVID. Yes, but to be your true self and to whether you're letting your freak flag fly or letting it fry, whatever. I prefer to fry mine. Yes, I like my flag fried. Everything's better fried. But yeah, it's important to have that ability to, I think that's a lot of confidence in yourself to be yourself.

43:32
You know, it's a lot of self-love, not a lot of self-loathe. You know, you have to love yourself enough to say, you know what, I'm okay with this. The people that are going to be okay with this, those are my people. The people that aren't. Yeah, those are my people. The people that aren't okay with it, they're not my people. Yeah. And to be able to seek out your people and find your tribe. Right. I think I've always been lucky. I think I've always kind of fallen into

44:02
in the different places that I've been, like at Y105, you and Dale, y'all were my tribe. Yeah, yeah. And it's like I knew it instantly. I knew, I can tell instantly when we met that we were gonna be friends, that we were gonna be really good friends for a long time. And that said Dale, same thing, no matter how weird he gets. He wouldn't talk about a freak flag. Yeah.

44:32
and I love you and I'm just, it's like, it's hard to explain to other people. It's like, yeah, I've known him for a long time, but that's, that's not, I've known lots of people for a long time. I don't feel the same way about them that I do you, you know? It's like my heart smiles when I think about you and Dale and our little, our silly little time. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, you're right.

45:02
life forces vibrate and harmony, you know, and you can feel that, that energy, and you feed off of each other, and you, I mean, cause that's a lot of what it was whenever we, it was like a, you know, two hour long improv of yes and, like how far are we gonna go with whatever this is? Whether- We can take it further, I know we can. We can push it one more level, we can cross one more line.

45:32
I always depend on Dale to bring it to an end. Oh yeah. It's like, here's the line, and then there's Dale over in the next county. It's like, all right, Dale, we have to stop now, thanks. But it's always such a good time. And like I said, those are important people to hang on to. I love those times when your face hurts because you've been smiling so much. Yes. You just laugh.

46:02
you've just been laughing or you can't catch your breath and you can't cry anymore because you've been crying because you're laughing so much. And that's what it's like to work with Rob. Yeah. Yeah. Until I pee on your tire at a remote. Or I puke on you. Oh, yeah, yeah. That was fun. Find yourself some friends like that, friends. Stories we could tell.

46:32
But like you said, nobody would believe them. No. Nobody would believe them. Well, other radio people would believe them. Yeah. That's about it. Yeah. But I actually can top that story with another limo story. Oh. When I was in Iowa. Okay. So before we, we are, one of the first weekends that I was there, we were taking a group to

47:02
I see Sticks and Ted Nugent and somebody else. Oh, Cheap Trick. Cheap Trick, Sticks and Ted Nugent. But they were playing in...

47:14
Council Bluffs, I think Council Bluffs, which was two hours away. Anyway, the point was that we had this huge stretch limo that we were taking people with us and it was a couple of us from the station. And I was like, yeah, I don't have a great track record with women. So I definitely need to be sitting in a seat that's facing forward. I don't do well. Not on the side, not backwards.

47:44
So let me sit. And so I explained that to them and everybody was like, okay, okay. So we do the thing. We go the two hours out and it was a great trip. We had a couple of listeners. I think it was probably four or five listeners. And then we may have had more people from the station actually than we did have listeners, which is not surprising for everybody at the station. Right, right. So we're all having fun and it's a good time

48:14
and we're on the way back and.

48:19
I think there were two girls that were sitting and I was in the back, you know, face up forward. There were two girls behind me and they had been drinking probably since 8 a.m. I think is what they said. And they brought a cooler full of jello shots as well. So, I mean, it had been pretty long party for them. Yeah. So at some point during this drive home,

48:49
I'm like, I feel something wet on the back of my head. And I'm like.

48:56
and I look around and all of a sudden, everybody can smell vomit. And of course I had told them about my situation and Clutch, the guy that did afternoon service, he's like, Michelle. I was like, it wasn't me this time, I swear to God. It wasn't me. Yeah, the girls in the back. I don't know if it was just one of them or both of them or what, but that whole limo just reeked. Yikes. And it was all in my hair.

49:26
Yikes. So I got to be friends with Clutch's girlfriend who washed it all out of my hair because I was literally, I was just like in shock. I'm sitting there going. What do you do? I can't be upset about it because she's a listener. Right. But I'm really upset. I'm really upset about it. So she washed it out of my hair and I felt better and we got some air.

49:56
And the girl, you know, never did apologize to me for it either. Why? She doesn't even remember it happens. Probably not, no. If she was going since 8 a.m., she doesn't remember it happens. So that was my first trip to, uh, with, that was with KGGO. Wow. Yeah. And let me just say, what a waste of gasoline and, limos are not comfortable for more than

50:26
driving. They are not made for long hauls. A limo from Augusta to Atlanta is miserable. It doesn't matter which seat you're in, but especially for the advertegro. I felt so bad for the driver because he had to clean that. I mean that's one reason why we were out walking around because he was cleaning the back end out. So I was like, it's got to suck. But luckily you had somebody that could help you.

50:56
Yeah. So yeah. Yeah, Jenny definitely became my best friend in Iowa after that. It's a tight bond that forms around cleaning someone's hair. Someone that will do that for you is a good friend. Yeah.

51:17
Michelle, this is the third segment of the show. It's time now for the Fast Five. Oh no. The Fast Five. It's time now for the Fast Five. Woo hoo. Fast Five. Sorry, I don't have a theme song written. I'm still working on workshops and things. Brent will write one for you. Yeah, that's what I need to do. The Fast Five is powered by Poddex. It's an app created by my friend Travis Brown. It's great icebreaker questions. There are different categories. And there's an app on your favorite app store

51:47
or whether you're iPhone or Android or whatever. There's an app for that. There's an app for that. There's also physical decks you can get. So if you just wanna keep some weird questions in your pocket to whip out on people on the bus or something, you can do that. Matter of fact, if you go to chewingofhatbr.com slash pod decks, use promo code chew, you can get 10% off your physical decks. But I'm gonna use the app here. No wrong answers, just first thing, come off top of your head. Okay. All right, you ready? No pressure. Okay. Here we go.

52:20
Where is the weirdest place that you've gone to the bathroom?

52:27
here. Right now. Like at my house? Right now. Oh, in the chair. Great. Perfect. You got the number of that limo driver I can see if he does urine cleanup as well. No, definitely the the woods for sure. Yeah. Yeah, that's the worst. I, it's, it's not necessarily an odd place to go to the bathroom. But I remember being in Savannah for St. Patrick's weekend. And I

52:57
to get to the porta potty and the porta potty was not on level ground. It was kind of at an angle so and it was full so there was like this waterfall that was coming and I was probably about still six eight people away from the thing and I happened to finish drinking what was in my cup and I had shorts on so I peed in line for the porta potty

53:27
And then when I got to the port-au-pot, I just emptied the cup into the... And then I did get rid of the cup as well because I would have forgotten and then got a refill at a window if I hadn't thrown that away. Yeah, I think I lived in Savannah, so I think St. Patrick's Day, pretty much the entire city is a bathroom. Oh yeah, I mean, and seeing people talk about puking, just puking in the gutters, just let it just walk, and then keep walking. Go get another hurricane or margarita or whatever it is.

53:57
I do remember one time, because I was driving back and forth from here to, or from Savannah. I was still living in Savannah and working here in Augusta. And I would come up and on Monday mornings, I would be driving from Savannah to here and I had to be so bad. It was terrible. It was painful. I had to go so bad. But I didn't want to stop because I was going to be late for work. So I tried to do it into a cup while I was driving down the road.

54:27
go well. That go well. It did not. It probably ended up being later than you would have. Yeah. I should have just stopped. Stop at a Waffle House. Just go there. There's nothing there. There's nothing between here and there. That's true. Oh, that's true. Yeah, that's back roads. Yeah. And it was coming up through South Carolina. So that's like, yeah, even more, even less stuff. Yeah, nothing. Question number two.

54:56
What is the disadvantage of playing things safe?

55:03
boredom yeah boredom yeah sure yeah absolutely I mean I don't I don't know cuz I don't really do that yeah just in general in general in life I like to I feel like I'm here I might as well go for it yeah exactly I'm gonna tell the guy that I'm not gonna take this this part-time job at the radio station because I need full-time I need full-time buddy so I don't know what

55:33
with this part-time jazz. Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. Makes perfect sense. Boredom. Awesome. Alright, question number three.

55:44
What's the last thing you've done that you are really proud of?

55:52
I made a baby. Yeah, I made a really cool baby. Yeah He's I'm the most proud of him. Yeah. Yeah He's pretty awesome. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. I Feel like you've probably done some things but I would agree as a father It's hard to top them being most proud of right of that. The coolest thing is I mean he's 30 He turned 33 this year. I'm like wow, you're the same age as Jesus

56:22
So, yeah, but the cool thing is being an adult, him being an adult and still liking him. Yeah. You know, that's kind of cool. I like that. That is awesome. All right. Question number four.

56:44
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Here. No, I mean... In this room? In this room. I wanna live here. But someone peed in the chair. I did. It's okay, it's warm. It's warm. It's warm and they like me. Yeah. Honestly, I don't... I mean, I used to fantasize about going to all these places. I wanted to go to Paris

57:14
I wanted to go to London and I don't really have that wander list anymore so much. I have traveled a lot in the United States. I've seen a lot of different things. When I moved to Iowa, I'd never been to the Midwest. Didn't, had no idea what I was in for. Driving up there from the time you leave St. Louis to get to Des Moines, it's about six

57:44
of nothing but cornfields. Wow. I was terrified. I was like, what have I gotten myself into? What am I doing with my life? And then it was just like, I pulled into the edge of town and light shone and the rainbows and Cupid smiled. And it was like a nice city. It was a really nice city. So yeah, I ended up being very lucky.

58:14
The cornfields set you up for appreciating anything. Wow, dude. I was so scared. I was just like, all right, first of all, if my phone dies, what am I going to do? If I need gas, what am I going to do? Because I literally, thank goodness, I had filled up, you know, a write-out. Actually, my grandfather had told me, don't stop in St. Louis. Oh, no. Yeah, he said that. He said from the time he was a young man,

58:44
So I was like, okay, well, so before I got to St. Louis, I filled up my car. So thankfully, but I was really on fumes. I was like, couple of hours, I was just, please let me make it, please let me make it. And then my phone was dead. And thankfully, my mom had set me up with an Atlas. So I had my Atlas, I still wasn't lost or anything like that. But at the same time, when you have no phone, you don't realize how dependent you are

59:14
100%. Yeah. Because we're just so used to grabbing it like you need to call or look up directions or is this place open? Whatever. Yeah. That's what but so so no particular place now that you'd want to live. I mean because you lived in Savannah. So you've done kind of beaches. Yeah. You've done kind of I wouldn't necessarily call mountains. No, it's definitely more of a plains type of place. And I mean Midwest people, it's a different kind of people.

59:44
They're a hearty bunch. They're a hearty bunch. They call it Iowa nice, because the people are very nice. They are super nice. Very blunt too though. Mm-hmm. And a guy come out, I was doing a remote at the Iowa State Fair, which was a big deal. And I had been working on the rock station for a little while at that point. And so I'm doing my show live from out there. And this guy comes up

01:00:14
He was, he's an older man too. And he's like, you sound younger on the radio. Thanks. Thanks pal. Appreciate that. You still want that bumper sticker though, don't you? Give you this bumper sticker. That's awesome. All right, and question number five.

01:00:40
Oh, it's a classic. Toilet paper, over or under? Over. Over. Viemently over. Like I've changed it at people's houses before. Ha ha ha ha, yes! Yes! That's the one question I've had people tell me, they said there's really only one answer to that. There is an incorrect answer. Right. And under is it. Yeah. Under is the incorrect answer, so. No, that's it. Yeah, absolutely. I'm also team over. Yeah. All right, that's it, Michelle. Sweet.

01:01:10
five and that is the show. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for having me. This was awesome. We definitely need to get together more often. Sure. Yeah. And, you know, go grab, we'll grab up Dale and we'll, you know, we'll go terrorize somewhere. Let's do it. If folks want to keep up with you, what's the best way for it? Probably Facebook. I do have other accounts on other mediums, but to be honest, I really don't pay attention to them. I'm just not. I might go back to Twitter at some point.

01:01:40
I think I have a Twitter. I haven't been there in ages, so I'm not sure if it's still there or not. I might've gotten booted on. You never know. You never know. I mean, now you can pay for a blue check. Sorry, I'm sorry. I don't wanna pay for a blue check, I'm sorry. Yeah, I don't wanna do that. Well, I will definitely make sure I put a link to your Facebook and show those. It's facebook.com slash Mitch Rocks, M-I-C-H-R-O-X. There you go. And again, thank you.

01:02:10
much for being here. This has just been awesome. Thank you, buddy. And if you would like to support this podcast, I'd appreciate it if you bought me a coffee at chewingthefatbr.com. But until next time, look forward to we have a moment to sit a spell and chew the fat.