Thank You, Frances

Hopefully a case of “Better Late Than Never” here. I wrote this the weekend after Skip left KMJ, but I wanted to give it a little time to marinate. Having just now re-read it I don’t think I can frame the sentiment much better. I’m really grateful we got to work together, and I’m really glad Skip has found a better balance for herself. So, here we go…

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Thank You, Frances

That was quite an experience and I’m grateful to have had it. Honestly, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have weathered the past three years alongside. It got so very weird so quickly and even when you were clearly not comfortable you showed up and made it work.

I don’t know if that’s a blind spot for you, but it’s something that I think can get overlooked in the three alarm fire that is any given news cycle in the Cursed Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty Two:

You are an incredibly courageous person.

You knew some people would bristle at some of your politics, but you took the job and you never betrayed your beliefs. You learned the players and the theater of talk radio as quickly as anyone I’ve ever seen, and you did it while trying to keep good, factual information in circulation during a once-in-a-century pandemic. You fought for equal time with a habitual over-talker and rarely lost your cool. And, when the rest of your life came calling, you stepped away with grace and kindness…but you stepped away.

The moment that captures your bravery and flexibility better than any other is probably the James call. We were still debating the effectiveness of “Two Weeks to Flatten the Curve” and the anti-masking people hadn’t yet come into the fullness of their cause when Acting Call Screener Miller put that poor bastard on the line.

You didn’t step away, you didn’t stop trying, you didn’t lose your bearings. You saved a guy’s life on live radio. You did it by being you, by having a heart for a stranger. The self-deprecating “chihuahua” stuff makes me think you don’t always see yourself the way others do, but in that moment – as with so many others – your strength shows through the warmth you usually present.

My favorite moment is probably the “Tinkerbell Room Key” debate. You WERE right, of course. Giving a woman a hotel room key in front of a group of children in the middle of Disneyland IS trashy as hell. But I just couldn’t stop when I saw how ready you were to stand up for that chick. It was GREAT radio, but I apologize for deliberately aggravating you.

All right. Enough. I have to get back to work. Thank you for making the last three years so much better than they would have been without you.