Remembering Mike Garwood

Today is the 12th anniversary of Mike Garwood’s passing. We’ll start with what I wrote on my MySpace blog the very day I heard the news that Mike had died. (Photos added and captioned in 2019.) I’ll see you at the end.

I received the call today, this morning, that Mike Garwood had passed away.  This was not a surprise.  We were all told it was going to happen.  The doctors said it would happen within 24 hours.  And it did.

But still, nothing quite prepares you for receiving that call and facing the facts.

In the summer of 1998, preparing for the exit of the warm cocoon of college life, I sent out a few demo tapes.  Most of the openings were for board-opping jobs–only one was for a position I thought would make genuine use of my abilities.  An entry-level position as Programming and Production coordinator for a group of stations in some town in–which state is NE?–right, Nebraska.

Nebraska?

I interviewed over the phone with Mike.  Kevin Horn was also in on that interview.  They talked to me, then Mike talked to Koz.  And I was given the job.

10 years later, I have an apartment filled with stupid goofy crap.  I have a job I enjoy. I have great memories of vacations I have been able to take because I have a steady job.  I have great friends here in Alliance, some of whom are now out to sea, or confiscating beer from dorm rats, or whatever.  But everything that is good about my life right now–and there is so very, very much more good than bad–boils down to Mike Garwood taking a chance on some goofy kid just out of college.

So I owe the man eternal gratitude.  But of course that only begins to tell the story.

Mike Garwood was a great boss. Outstanding.  Now, let’s be clear, some who have passed through the halls of KCOW might not agree.  But for me–for what I expect a boss to do, and be, you’ll never find a finer one.  For one thing, he appreciated my talents and gave me plenty of opportunity to use them.  He knew I could write commercials, and host the morning show, and I did those things.  But he also knew that I could, for instance, write up a description of the station’s programming for a rate card–or come up with an unusual, attention-getting on-air promotion–or, with his raw notes, write up a quarterly report for the corporate office.  Or design a logo for a website promotion.  Mike made me feel like a “go-to guy”.  And he always showed appreciation for my efforts.   

Mike observed the way Pat and I yammered back and forth in the office and decided that having Pat join me on-air once a week would be a good way to introduce Pat to the people of Alliance, and make him an official part of the KCOW on-air family–just as Kevin Horn had brought me on his morning show in my earliest months on the job.  He similarly made a point to get to know all of our part-time announcers and make them feel welcome (and occassionally call up the station to bawl them out for missing a cue).

This is going to sound corny but it is absolutely true–Mike did look upon the KCOW staff as a family.  I enjoyed many experiences with Mike outside of the studio…like the times we would go to the Post Playhouse to see live theater…or the Thanksgiving that Pat and I spent with Mike and his family.  And there was always time for non-work-related conversation at the office–about something he had seen on Letterman last night, or talking over old times as a city council member or disc jockey at KCOW. 

 Every Christmas Mike would call us into the office one-by-one and hand us our Christmas bonus envelope, filled with Chamber Bucks (the corporate office did not do bonuses so I’m certain Mike had to do some bookeeping sleight-of-hand to make it possible for us to get those Chamber Bucks!).  And when I got mine I always made it a point to tell Mike, “Thank you for hiring me and letting me work here.”  And he would always say, “We enjoy having you here.”  And he meant it.

All I have ever wanted to do since the age of 3 was to be an announcer.  Seeing the man who made that dream come true go through so much suffering and hospitalization over the past year has been tough.  But it’s even tougher to know I’ll never hear that deep, almost Hank Hill-like voice again say, “Hello there young feller” or “Nice work, my friend.”

Thanks for everything, boss. 

I’m back. My memories of losing Mike Garwood are heavily tied into the holiday season. I remember hastily training some high-schooler on how to run a special Christmas program that was airing during Mike’s funeral. Even during one of the station’s darkest hours, KCOW continued to serve. And I am certain Mike would be pleased by that.

Earlier today I heard from Mark Vail. In 2007 Mark was with our parent company Eagle Communications. He swooped in and took over the leadership role when Mike became too sick to be at the office. He helped us all through feelings of grief, which hit three or four days before Mike died when we realized our boss would likely not recover from this latest medical challenge. I can draw parallel comparisons to a time four short years ago when it became apparent to me that my mother was facing medical struggles that in all likelihood would take her life; again at that time my coworkers showed that “family” is not a bromide at KCOW but a genuine reality.

12 years later, I am only more indebted to Mike Garwood, and Kevin Horn and other important folks, for making my radio dreams come true. There have been 5 General Managers since Mike’s passing and I have enjoyed working with them all-some better than others, and even if you think I’m a suck-up for saying this here goes: my favorite boss since Mike has been our current GM. Olivia puts up with my neuroses and lets me call her “Olivia Newton-Boss” even though I’m pretty sure she thinks that’s a pretty stupid nickname. (Spoiler alert: It is. But you can ask Magnanimous Mike Fell, Mamacita, T.Q., Kroheim von Nameheim, Stewbling, Sir Ian of Feels, Dangerous Dave, E-Bone, and others. Stupid nicknames are a gift from me, a stupid gift that can’t be returned.)

I’ll close with this thought before things get too far afield: for a lot of the people I went to college with, radio was a springboard to something else. They did radio news to get a job in TV news, did radio play-by-play to get a job in TV play-by-play, and so on. For me, then now and always, radio is it. Nothing else makes me happier. So, 12 years later, thanks again Mike Garwood.