Sad day....

Another sad day in my radio world.  I mentioned in the story about the radio station getting burglarized that the station fired me shortly after that and that the BIG top 40 station in Scottsbluff hired me the next day and doubled my salary.  The man who did that for me passed away yesterday after nearly 50 years in radio in western Nebraska. His name was Mel Sauer.

Mel was no ordinary broadcaster.  Mel was an accomplished air personality.  Mel was a talented Play by play color announcer for local sports teams on the station.  Mel was a radio manager that was fair and honest.  Mel was one of my groomsmen.  Mel Sauer was blind.  We never told him his tux that day was orange.

So how does a blind guy do color sports commentary?  Theater of the mind?  The man was a BS artist!  But it worked and people admired him for it.  There wasn't anything Mel couldn't do.  He would have airstaff meetings and we would do things like turn his cigarette around in the ashtray and sometimes everyone would quietly leave the room while Mel continued the meeting alone.  He anchored the first remote broadcast I ever did in radio, from the county fairgrounds tractor pull.  Small town radio was such a hoot.  I guess I miss that stuff as much as anything in radio.

Mel died in his home in Gering on Friday at the age of 67.