Nobody reminded me....

So I'm goig to write about the "Dream team's" trip to Beaumont Texas. 

The Wichita stations were doing so well in the early eighties that Jim Long and Charley Pride decided to buy a pair of stations in Beaumont Texas.  They also decided to send the "Dream team" to Beaumont for Charley's kickoff concert for the radio stations.  One person from each department would go and be a model for their counterpart in Beaumont.  The news guy Mark Elliiot with the news guy from Beaumont, sales person Lisa Allan with sales people from Beaumont, the morning guy with the Beaumont morning guy's wife.  It only right at the time since the morning guy was busy doing coke and rehearsing to be the opening act.

The flight started out simple enough.  Pretty much all of the dream team was intoxicated before we ever got off the ground in Wichita.  It was a party flight.  Theme song:  "Hooked on a Feeling"  by Blue Swede...ooga chaka ooga ooga ooga ooga...all the way down and all through the Houston airport.  We boarded a chartered bus to take us to Beaumont because apparently there were cattle or something feeding on the runway in Beaumont.  The bus, as per Sales Manager Ken Clifford's instructions, stopped at the first liquor store for many cases of beer.

As we drove in the driving rain towards Beaumont we consumed many of those beers and threw the empties into the stairwell at the front of the bus.  We continued to get more and more intoxicated.  As the bus pulled up in front of the Beaumont stations, H. Roger Dodson had the staff lined up in the parking lot, during the only cessation of te rain we would have, awaiting our arrival.  The movie Stripes was a big hit about that time and I decided to borrow a line from the movie where Bill Murray exits a private jet and proclaims, "What tha...a surprise party for me?"  As I deliverd the line and as the bus door opened and the many beer cans poured out into the parking lot, I swear I saw Roger's jaw hit the gravel.

Roger forgave us and took everyone to a park where it continued to rain, and they fed us what would be the first of many fried chicken meals.  We also learned that the Beaumont area is quite humid and none of us would need a bathroom for the rest of the weekend as we sweated all moisture out of our bodies pretty much on a constant basis during the trip.

Coming up, more chicken meals, bonding with the morning guy's wife, keeping Jim Long up all night and the trip home.  Stay tuned....

That is all (for now)...Peters out!