My Wife Fired Me

An adult stories – My Wife Fired Me by StoneyWebb,StoneyWebb I apologize for the length of this story. I just couldn’t find a natural point to split it in two. Also, I apologize to those of you who want to read a BTB story because this isn’t one of those. And it is not a RAAC story. Oh yeah, when I was a newbie to this site, I had no idea what a BTB or RAAC meant. For any newbies just discovering this site, a BTB is a B urn the B itch or B astard story, and a RAAC is a R econciliation a t A ny C ost story.

I also apologize that there is no sex in this story. It is, instead, a story about a man who finds himself in a situation where his wife has become his boss. And the first thing his wife does is create a situation where he is humiliated and disrespected.

My wife became my boss today, and in short order, she fired me.

Well, in reality, my wife didn’t actually say I was fired. She told me, in no uncertain terms, that if I didn’t accept her decision concerning my job, I would be terminated. However, what she wanted me to do was just too humiliating, so I accepted the termination.

Jenny, my wife of twenty years, and I married shortly after we both started working for Hamett Communications. This was a corporation that owns radio and television stations along with a Cable network, Premium Cable. The cable operation covered 12 states with plans to expand into 10 more.

Jenny was only three days younger than me, and even though we’d never met in school, we attended the same high school. She was about five-foot-six and about a hundred and ten pounds. Jenny had silky brown hair, and soft brown eyes. She was cute, smart, and had a great smile. I had no romantic interest in her initially, but the more we worked together, the more I liked her. I was five-foot ten and a hundred and seventy pounds with sandy colored hair. I never considered myself handsome or ugly; I was just me.

Jenny and I spent our last semester in high school as interns at WJTR-FM in Atlanta. As interns Jenny and I were bounced from one department to another. It was fun, and we both learned a lot. Jenny enjoyed the sales department the most. She enjoyed the freedom to schedule her day and spend time away from the office. I found that I loved working in the production department. The idea of being able to use my creativity and sense of humor just got my juices going. Still, I wasn’t allowed to do much. Basically, I was the “go for” for two weeks. Still, I paid close attention to everything happening in that department, learning to operate all the equipment, and the dos and don’ts of writing commercials. It was a fantastic nine weeks, and I learned quite a bit about how a radio station operated.

By the end of the semester, Jenny and I were going steady. We were both eighteen at the time, and we were both passionate about radio. The decision, however, to marry was thrust upon us because of a passion of a different kind; Jenny became pregnant.

It was difficult initially as we struggled to cope on our two meager salaries. We both secured jobs at WJTR, a twenty-thousand-watt FM station serving Metropolitan Atlanta, and its suburbs. Jenny was an associate salesperson, and I was hired as the overnight weekend DJ. I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Chad Jamison, and while I hated the hours and only mildly enjoyed being a DJ, I knew it was basically a bullshit job. The job entailed mostly playing music, giving the time and weather, and reading the events on our local community calendar. Of course, I had to intersperse all this with the commercials, IDs, and PSAs. I worked Friday and Saturday from midnight to eight a.m. The hardest part of this job was staying awake but there was one huge benefit, I could use a production studio to practice. But being a part-time DJ didn’t bring in nearly enough money. So, I needed to find a second job.

The economy was in a downturn, so finding any work was proving difficult. And I was getting a little desperate, especially with Jenny now stuck at home with our daughter, Tiffany. We’d been existing on handouts from our parents since Tiffany’s arrival, and I hated that. Thankfully, I landed a full-time position at a local hardware store. The store was owned by a married couple, John and Helen Mickleson. They were a lovely couple, and they treated me like a son. John also had a woodworking shop in the back of the store where he turned out custom-made furniture. Over the two years I worked there, John taught me a lot about carpentry, electrical, and even a little about plumbing. But my passion remained radio.

WJTR, at that time, was a top-40 station, so we had a limited number of songs we were permitted to play, which made the overnight shift even more boring. Computer automation hadn’t become widespread yet, so the station needed DJs on duty twenty-four hours a day. But I knew my weekend job wasn’t going to last long. I read Broadcasting Magazine religiously, and I knew it was only a matter of time before WJTR brought computer automation to the station. When they made the conversion, I would be out of a job. So, during my overnight schedule, I worked even harder, refining my production and commercial writing skills.

My shift ended at 8am, but from 6am to 8am, we used network programs that came via satellite. So, all I had to do during the network programs was take meter readings every half hour. The rest of the time, I was free to polish my skills. I used the commercials currently playing on the air as my model. I’d just produce a different version of what was already playing. At first, my efforts were miserable. But as time passed, I improved. And when I let my creativity and wit have total reign, I felt I was as good as any of the production staff. Finally, I picked three commercials which I thought were pretty good and took them to the station manager. He loved all three and immediately played them for the sponsors who wanted my version to replace what was on the air.

The station manager wasn’t about to offer me a job based on three commercials, so he told me I could work as a fill-in until I proved myself. This created a difficult situation for me as all three of the commercials I had produced replaced ones done by Jason Stills. He was one of the full-time employees in the production department. He and I never got along because when I was a DJ, I complained a few times about his commercials. He would periodically record over the splice in the tape of a cartridge or record on defective cartridges. Those were big no-nos. He was fired a week after my commercials replaced his when he accidentally erased an agency commercial. With Jason gone, I was hired to work in production part-time.

Since I was now working four hours a day at the radio station, I had to cut back my hours at the hardware store. John and Helen were very kind about it, even though John seemed a little disappointed by my decision. They had no children, and I think John had some thoughts of me taking over the store. But as I said, radio was my passion. Still, I maintained a close relationship with John and Helen over the years, even inviting them to Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner each year. And that relationship would help me out years later.

I’m sorry I’ve wandered into the weeds with this story, but I think you can see my passion for radio. Over the twenty years, Jenny pursued her career in sales, and I continued my career in production. But deep down, I always wanted to own a radio station. I even discussed it several times with Jenny, but she had no interest at all. As she put it, “Why would I want to go from the number one station in Atlanta to some Podunk station in the sticks.” So, I tucked that ambition into the back of my mind and continued my career at Hamett Communications. And that brings us up to today.

Currently, Jenny is the regional sales manager for radio, and I was the regional production supervisor for radio. Jenny was angling to get the Vice President of radio sales position, and I was confident that would be appointed Vice President of radio production. However, three men, Burt Jones, Simon Sanders, and Todd Wankler, were poised to turn my life upside down.

Burt Jones was the Executive Vice President of radio and Simon Sanders was my boss and the current Vice President of Radio Production. Todd Wankler was a relatively new arrival from our San Francisco sister station KJTW-FM and had been installed as my assistant even though I hadn’t asked for one, nor did I want one, especially not Todd.

Todd annoyed me from the very beginning as a “kiss ass.” Supposedly, he was the golden boy in San Francisco. Nevertheless, I thought it was telling that the station readily shipped him to Atlanta. He complained bitterly when he first arrived about how shitty the east coast was and how wonderful everything was in California. I eventually found out that he got shipped out because he was the cause of three divorces at the station.

As much as I disliked him, I had to admit Todd was a very good production man when he put his mind to it. However, that was far too infrequent for me. He only wanted to work on the major accounts, so he was constantly fobbing off smaller accounts to other people in production. Since Todd was the assistant production manager, most people didn’t dare tell him no. But I was the production manager, and I passed out the work, so I resented what he was doing and put a stop to it.

Todd was a real lady’s man. He was six foot two with broad shoulders and wavy black hair. The dress code in the production department was pretty laid back. Collared shirts and slacks were the dress of the day for men. Women could wear slacks or a skirt with a blouse. Todd always wore a suit and tie, which was pretty stupid as he always wound up taking the jacket and tie off sometime during the day. After Todd arrived, I noticed that many of the women started wearing dresses and using more makeup. I finally had to send out a memo on the inappropriate cleavage that was being displayed.

My wife always dressed up, but all the salespeople did. They frequently had to meet with clients from large companies, and a professional look was expected. And nothing my wife wore was ever inappropriate.

Todd was lazy and quick to blame others for his mistakes. His only true interest was trying to charm the female members of the staff, spending a fair amount of time flirting with any good-looking female employee, including my wife. And when I complained to Jenny, she just blew me off and defended Todd. I let the subject drop but kept my eye on my assistant.

When I discovered one day that Todd was changing my production schedule and bumping his favorites to the head of the line, I was furious. We have a lot of commercials that are time sensitive. It could be a one day special, and the commercial had to run the day before. When I discovered we almost missed getting several of these time sensitive spots done, I wanted to know why. After discussing the issue with several of my production people, I learned that Todd had bumped them down on the schedule. However, when I complained to my boss and suggested that Todd be fired, he refused. Simon explained that old man Hamett liked Todd and when the San Francisco station wanted to let him go, he brought him to Atlanta. He told people that Todd reminded him of himself when he was younger.

Knowing that the Hamett family was very religious, I was shocked. “Mr. Hamett screwed married women when he was young?”

“No,” Simon said and then chuckled. “At least I pretty sure he never did that. I think he just views Todd as a hard charging young man, working hard to get ahead. In fact, now that I think about it, I doubt the people at KJTR told Mr. Hamett about Todd’s involvement with married women. The management out there probably feared if they threw Todd under the bus, Mr. Hamett might toss them under as well.”

I was stuck with Todd, and I wasn’t happy about it. So, I had a “Sunday come to Jesus” meeting with him. After that, I thought he would toe the mark. But unbeknownst to me, he started doing it again behind my back. But now he was more selective in who he bounced to the head of the production line.

Anyone with a senior position to mine was accorded this special treatment. And Todd included my wife, probably as his way of sticking it to me. I finally caught on to his meddling and was ready to lower the boom on Todd regardless of what Mr. Hamett thought. Todd had blown off a spot which had to start running the following day. And while the spot was for a relatively small company, they were part of a much larger conglomerate that did a lot of business with us. I had to stay late and do the commercials myself. In my mind, he was so going to get fired. But that was when everything turned to shit for me.

As I said, Burt Jones, Simon Sanders, and Todd Wankler turned my world upside down. But the blame for what happened to me doesn’t lie with any of those three. What started it all was that Simon died suddenly of a heart attack Sunday night. Everyone was shocked, and the production department descended into chaos for half a day. Simon had left a long list of commercials that needed to be produced, but no one knew all the details of what the sponsors wanted. As his assistant, I stepped in, prepared the details on each sponsor, and got everything back on track. Very quickly the production department began operating efficiently again. After stepping up to ensure the production department didn’t miss a beat, I was sure I was a “shoe in” for the Vice President position. But then the second “shoe dropped.” On Friday, Burt Jones announced that he was retiring immediately. Simon’s death had shaken him, and he decided to spend more time with his family. When his retirement memo was sent out, he announced that he had nominated Jenny to take his place. By Monday, the Executive Committee approved her promotion.

I was thrilled for my wife and felt sure she would do a good job but what happened next was crushing. About two that afternoon, I got a message that Jenny wanted to see me in her office. I was sure that she would announce my promotion to the Vice President’s job, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I walked into my wife’s new office, and she and Todd were hugging. They broke apart as soon as they saw me, and Todd quickly left.

“He was just giving me a hug congratulating me on my promotion,” Jenny said quickly. I accepted her explanation and gave her a kiss on the cheek, offering my congratulations.

“Chad, sit down,” she pointed to a chair in front of her. I quickly took a seat and waited to hear that I was being promoted. Instead, I heard, “I wanted to tell you in person before the memo goes out that I’m appointing Todd Wankler as the new Vice President of Radio Production.”

“WHAT THE FUCK!” I screamed as I jumped up.

“Calm down, and sit down, so we can talk about this calmly,” my wife was using her soothing voice that she used with our two girls, Tiffany and Tina when they were little.

“Fuck that,” I spat out. I was not only angry and hurt by what my wife was doing, but I was now deeply suspicious of her relationship with Todd. “I worked my ass off for that job, and Simon told me, he was going to recommend me for it.”

“Well, Simon is obviously not here, and I have to do what I think is best,” Tiffany was still trying to use her soothing voice, but it had a quiver in it. Her eyes betrayed, she did not expect my reaction.

“How can you fucking pick Todd over me?” I demanded.

“Chad, please sit down,” Jenny was desperately trying to calm me down. I remained standing, glaring at her. Realizing the situation wasn’t going to get any better, she hurried on with her explanation. “Todd is as good at production work as you, and he prioritizes better than you do. Also, I don’t want anyone to think that you are getting any special consideration.”

“JENNY, THAT’S FUCKING HORSE SHIT!” I all but yelled and then offered sarcastically. “He’s as good at production work? Please tell me how many Mercury Awards he has won? Oh, that’s right NONE. I’ve won four. And your comment about prioritizing is total crap. You just like him because he’s good looking and always bounces your spots to the top of the production schedule.”

“Chad, lower your voice and sit down,” my wife demanded, but I was too furious to even think straight. I was lashing out at my wife for her actions, and I wasn’t about to stop.

“And your comment that you don’t want to appear to be playing favorites is more horse shit,” I hissed at her. “Everyone in production knows that Simon was going to nominate me to replace him. Now they’re going to think that Todd slept with you to get the job.”

“How dare you!” Jenny yelled as she jumped to her feet. We glared at each other before Jenny sat back down and ended the discussion. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Chad, but my decision stands.”

At this point, I knew arguing with my wife was a waste of time. She had figuratively put her back against the wall. I had seen this many times over our married lives. Once she made up her mind, Jenny rarely ever changed it, and when she did change her mind, it was because there was incontrovertible proof that she was wrong. But even then, she never admitted being wrong and would pretend it had never been an issue. This time, it was obvious that she wasn’t going to change her mind, and I couldn’t shake the suspicion that she had gotten too close to Todd.

“We can discuss this more at home tonight,” she sought to end the meeting.

“No, this discussion isn’t over,” I said through gritted teeth. “I refuse to work for that asshole.”

“You will work for Todd if you want to keep a job here,” Jenny was getting angry now.

“Well, that settles it then,” I said as I started out of her office. “I’ll clean out my office.”

“Look, Chad, I know that you’re upset, so I’m going to give you a few days to get over your bruised ego. Take some time and calm down. Once you’ve had a chance to think about it, you’ll see that I’m right.

“Fuck you, Jenny. I’m not going to change my mind in a few days. I wouldn’t change it in a few hundred years. So, I’m going to leave you and your boyfriend to do whatever,” I said as I left her office and headed back to mine. I think she yelled that he wasn’t her boyfriend, but I wasn’t listening. I headed straight to my office, packed my stuff, and left. The people in the production department were stunned. I didn’t say anything to anyone as I left.

At home, I pulled out a glass and made myself a stiff rum and coke. Then I sat in my den, fuming over what my supposedly loving wife had done. As I stared out the window, I knew two things. I would never work for Todd, and Jenny would never back down from her decision, especially now that I had challenged her. I still loved my wife deeply even though I was mad as hell at her right now and unsure about her faithfulness. But what I needed was a new job, so I started preparing a resume. I only got as far as typing my name and address at the top of the page before I stopped. I was too agitated to continue and knew I needed something to help me calm down. I pulled out my files of radio stations for sale and started going through them one by one again.

Despite the fact that Jenny had no interest in owning a radio station, I never lost that desire. It was like a hobby for me. I kept track of every radio station that came up for sale in the markets I was interested in: Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. And if a station caught my eye, I’d inquire and get all the details. Sometimes, if a station was near a larger market, I would hire a broadcast engineer to see if the station could be moved closer. Nothing ever panned out from those searches. Still, I continued looking.

After four hours of going through my old files of stations for sale and two more rum and cokes, I remembered I had recently gotten information on three stations that had just come on the market. I pulled those three files from the cubby hole where I had left them two days ago. Ideally, I wanted to buy an FM station because of all the people who listened to the radio; only 25% listened to AM stations.

Of the three files, two of the stations were FM stations, and both were located in Tennessee. Station WTXY in Memphis would be perfect. The station covered an audience of over 1.2 million. The price was $1.6 million, which wasn’t bad considering its revenue. And the owner was willing to finance $1 million. I could scrap up the $600,000 by cashing in my 401-K and draining our investments, but then I wouldn’t have any operating capital. And of course, there was the little problem that half of our investments belonged to Jenny. I then spent a half hour going over all of our financials before sticking the WTXY file in the drawer.

WLEB was an FM station in Lebanon, Tennessee. Lebanon had a population of about 38,000 but the tower and transmitter were located eighteen miles east of Lebanon. I had asked a broadcast engineer to see if the tower could be either moved closer to Nashville or raised higher. The higher an FM antenna is the further the signal will go. As I read through his report, the answer was basically no. Oh, it could be done if you could get two stations to switch frequencies, which would be costly, so that folder also went into the drawer.

The last station I asked the engineer to check was WZEP in Zephyrhills, Florida. It was an AM radio station at 1420 khz that broadcast with 1000 watts of power during the day and 187 watts at night. The tower and transmitter were currently located twelve miles east of Zephyrhills. As it stood, their full power signal barely reached the fringe of Tampa’s suburbs during the day with a very weak signal. At night, WZEP’s signal barely covered Zephyrhills. I wouldn’t have even considered this station except for its proximity to Tampa/St. Petersburg. The same engineer who had done the search for me on WLEB had prepared a report on WZEP. Surprisingly, the tower could be moved eighteen miles southwest of Zephyrhills. There was also one other interesting part of the report. If the station was relocated even sixteen miles southwest, it wouldn’t have to reduce its power at night. It would be able to broadcast full-time at 1000 watts.

I’m sorry I’ve gotten into the weeds again, but I couldn’t help it. I just had my legs cut out from under me by my supposedly loving wife at work, and I was floundering around. In addition to being hurt and humiliated, I was struggling with bubbling jealousy. I was desperately struggling to tamp down my anger and decide what to do next. As I started to read the report on WZEP again, I heard the front door open and close. Jenny was home.

I was not looking forward to a face-to-face with her. Over the years, I learned that Jenny was very bullheaded when she thought she was right. And since I’m somewhat of a hardhead myself, our first year was one of epic battles. Our stubbornness coupled with tight finances and a colicky baby pushed our marriage to the breaking point. Once, I even moved out for a week, but I couldn’t stay away. I truly did love Jenny and couldn’t bear the thought of not being with her and my daughter. Since most of our early arguments were over trivial things, I eventually learned to let them go. And if I truly felt that Jenny was wrong, I would gather my incontrovertible proof before she had dug her heels in. But in this current situation, only time would show Jenny that she was making a mistake. And there was no way that I was going to work for that asshole for months or years until she, hopefully, realized how bad her decision was. And even if Jenny did realize her mistake there was a good chance, she wouldn’t admit it.

“Oh, you’re in here,” Jenny said as she stepped into my den. “We need to discuss what happened at work today.”

“Are you going to reverse your decision and appoint me as the Vice President of Radio Production?” I asked, knowing the answer already.

“I won’t do that because I made the right decision,” Jenny snapped. “And your reaction to my decision has just confirmed how right I was.”

“Then we have nothing to talk about. Why don’t you call your boyfriend if you want to discuss something,” I said as I turned back to the file in my hand.

“Stop being a spoiled little baby and come out to the living room so we can discuss this like adults. And stop calling him my boyfriend. That cheat shot you yelled at work has already started rumors.”

“Please close the door on your way out,” I said without emotion, even though my insides were churning with anger and hurt.

Jenny slammed the door as she left my study. The house was ice cold that night, and I slept in one of the girl’s old rooms. My wife was up early and out the door. I knew what was coming. Jenny would put me in the deep freeze until I gave in. But it wouldn’t work this time. I knew the VP job was never going to be mine, and I wasn’t going to hold my breath waiting for an apology when my wife figured out her mistake.

I had backed off many times over our twenty years of marriage. It had been very frustrating at times, but I had learned to live with it. But this issue went right to the core of who I was and there was no way I was giving in. So, after showering and making myself a cup of coffee, I decided to dig deeper into WZEP.

The asking price for the station was $225,000, which I thought was much too high for what they were selling. The income being generated wasn’t enough to pay the expenses. And according to an appraisal done four years ago, the land and building were only worth about $100,000. I reread the engineer’s report about moving the station, and I was now definitely interested. So, I called the broker and received two pieces of information that really excited me.

The first piece of information was that Bob Stammer, the station owner, was now in a nursing home, and his wife, Beth, was desperate to sell the station. She had reduced the price to $125,000. Then the broker told me that Mr. Stammer had already gotten a construction permit from the FCC to move the tower eighteen miles southwest of its current location. Not only that, but Mr. Stammer had put a deposit of $1000 on six acres of land where he intended to relocate the station. The cost of the vacant land was $18,000 and the deposit was part of the station sale.

I arranged to meet the broker, Jack Burrows, the day after tomorrow. Before I headed south, I needed to take care of my finances. The first thing I did was open an account in my name only and then instructed our broker to sell half of our investment portfolio. Then I transferred half of our checking and savings account into my new personal account. When the dust settled, my new account had $187,000 in it. Jenny and I had a joint credit card, and we both had corporate credit cards. I decided not to do anything with the joint credit card, as I wouldn’t be using it, having ordered a new one when I opened my new account. My corporate card, I would return to the station. I know that many would urge me to cancel the joint credit card, but I doubted Jenny would max it out. She had her reputation to think about and getting sued for not paying her bills would definitely hurt that. Besides, the card had a limit of $3000. We rarely used the one credit card we had, preferring to use our debit cards instead.

After completing what I could in Atlanta, I packed a bag and left a note for Jenny. The note simply told her I’d be away for a few days but didn’t tell her where I was going. I know I was being a dick, but I didn’t care. I also told her to say hello to her boyfriend for me. I knew she would be livid, but, again, I didn’t care. Finally, I hit the road. I got stuck in traffic going out of Atlanta, so the trip took an extra hour, which didn’t upset me at all. I was finally following my dream.

After settling into my motel room, I took a ride by WZEP. The building looked like it was being held together with chewing gum and duct tape. The tower desperately needed to be painted, and one of the guywires was hanging slack. I still hadn’t decided whether to move the existing tower to the new location or buy a new one. I was now leaning heavily toward buying a new tower.

I was tempted to check out the inside of the station but decided against it. I’d get to see it all tomorrow. Instead, I headed to the six acres of land. Jack had given me directions to it, and the land was easy to find as it still had the realtor’s sign on it. I used the sign’s number to call the broker. Her name was Sally Wilson, and she was thrilled when I told her to type up a sales contract. I explained I’d be prepared to close on the land if I could come to an agreement to buy WZEP.

The following day, Jack showed me around the station. It was as I expected. Most of the equipment was ancient and the automation program was a joke. They had two transmitters that were tube types, and the logs showed they were constantly being repaired. The console in the main studio, however, was fairly new. It was only five or six years old and appeared to be in good shape. Also, the microphones were good.

A walk around the tower convinced me that it would be a mistake to move it. It had rust in too many locations, and half the guy wires looked like they needed replacement. I decided to buy a completely new, free-standing tower along with a new solid-state transmitter for approximately $29,000. Ultimately, I was forced to take the old tower down and sold it for scrap.

After leaving Jack at the station, I told him I’d call him tomorrow and give him my answer. I drove into town and started wandering into the local stores. Since the station’s format was religious, I wasn’t surprised when only a very few admitted to listening to it. When I asked what format the station should run, it was fairly evenly split between talk radio and oldies. The demographics told me that there was a good-sized market for either format.

After dinner, I went back to my room to go over my financial situation once more. But I was interrupted by the beep of my cell phone. I was stunned to see it was Jenny. I was going to let it go to voice mail but decided to tell her that I wasn’t planning to come back to work because I was following my dream of owning a radio station.

After I said hello, Jenny started in on me. “Are you over your snit yet?”

“So, now I’m having a snit?” I responded as I could feel the anger growing. “I thought I was being a baby. I still can’t believe you gave my job to your boyfriend.”

“God Damn it, Chad, for the last time, stop calling Todd my boyfriend,” Jenny flared and then calmed herself. “Look Chad, I believe I picked the best man for the job even though it hurt me to do it.”

I didn’t say anything, and an awkward silence followed before she began again.

“I really believe that Todd is the better person for that slot. Every time I brought production work down to your department, it didn’t matter to you that my spots were for a $300,000 campaign that needed to be done; I had to stand in line behind some dinky $3,000 sponsor,” Jenny said with some venom. “Todd always worked me in and got my commercials cut immediately. And I believe he’s as good as you at production work.”

“Wow. What a true revelation just how little my wife thinks of me. That’s just fucking great,” I was fighting hard to control my temper. This was so like Jenny. When she was convinced, she was right; it was full speed ahead, and “Damn the torpedoes.”

She must have caught the tone in my voice. “Chad, I don’t want to fight. I love you and want you to come home. We need to talk this over and put it behind us.”

I wanted to really go off on her, but I was afraid I’d say something I couldn’t take back. So, instead, I decided to be upfront about the situation at WJTR. “Jen, I love you with all my heart, but what you did to me at the station was beyond brutal and humiliating, not to mention totally wrong. I will never work for Todd, ever.”

“Chad, I can’t cover for you much more,” there was sadness in Jenny’s voice. “People are already asking questions about where you are. And Todd is demanding that you come back to work or be fired. And he has an absolute right to expect you to do your job or be removed. If you don’t come back to work by Monday, I will have to terminate you.”

“Do whatever you have to do,” I snarled and ended the call. Jenny tried to call back, but I let it go to voicemail and then turned the phone off.

I was ninety-five percent convinced to go ahead with the deal before talking to my wife; now I was all in. The next day, I told Jack to offer $100,000. I was prepared to pay the full price, so I called the real estate broker and told her to prepare the paperwork for the land. The following day, Beth countered at $115,000, and I accepted. After that, I placed an order for a new tower and transmitter. I also purchased a $4000 automation program.

I met a surveyor at the property and had him lay out where best to put a home that would also house the radio station. I also asked him to locate the tower on the survey. I arranged for a well to be dug and power brought to the property. The last thing I did that day was call John Mickleson. He and Helen had retired and moved to New Port Richey, which was a little less than an hour away. I wanted him to help me build the house on the property. He was thrilled, telling me he was totally bored in retirement. He also told me after I had the plans drawn, he’d take care of getting all the permits.

With all the expenses piling up, I knew I would have to tap my 401-K. Currently, its market value was about $350,000. That meant I would have to travel back to Atlanta to sign the paperwork. I also decided to rent a trailer and move that onto the property to be my temporary home. When I got to Atlanta, I would pick up as much of my stuff as I felt I needed for the next few months. I especially wanted my CD collection, mostly of oldies. I had decided to change the format to an oldies station playing music from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. If that didn’t work, I’d switch to a talk format.

As it turned out, it was Tuesday of the following week before I could leave for Atlanta. One of the reasons for the delay was that I wanted to meet with John first. We spent a good part of the week inspecting the land, meeting the house designer, visiting the building department, and pricing out the materials.

At the building department, I received a welcome surprise. Bob Stammer had already applied for a permit to construct the tower, and it had been approved. All I would need was to have Beth transfer the permit to me. I also learned that I didn’t need a contractor to build the house; I could file for the permit as an owner-builder.

I gave John the plans for the pad that the tower would sit on, so he could begin laying out the forms to pour the concrete. My meeting with Jack and Beth went smoothly as we signed the sales contract. Jack called Ray Thomas, an FCC attorney, and faxed him the contract. I spoke briefly to Ray, and he said the FCC could take 180 days to approve the sale, but his experience was that it took much less time. In any event, he told me if the owner and I could come to an agreement, I could begin running the station immediately. Mrs. Stammer agreed to let me start running the station in two weeks if I explained what was happening to the churches and the sponsors. We also agreed that I could keep any revenue from existing sponsors if I picked up the station’s expenses.

I went from the station to Sally Wilson’s office to sign the contract for the land. I spent the rest of the week visiting businesses in Zephyrhills and surrounding towns, interspersed with John and I meeting with subcontractors. I informed all of the current sponsors of the program change to oldies. The churches were a little upset by the change but were appreciative of the heads-up. I worked out a deal with two churches that would allow them to do a morning service on alternate Sundays.

At each business I visited, I explained what I was doing, and many seemed interested. I would have to wait until I took over to see if the interested ones turned into sponsors. Monday night, I went to bed early as I had to be up before the crack of dawn so I could time my arrival in Atlanta between morning and evening rush hours.

I arrived back in Atlanta at about 11am and went to the house first. I knew I had limited space in Zephyrhills, so I only grabbed four changes of clothes, two twin beds, box springs and frames, my easy chair, a small desk and chair, my tabletop computer, and my 2000 plus CDs. I left all my other stuff there as I didn’t want to give Jenny the impression, I was abandoning her.

Somewhere around 2pm, I arrived at WJTR, and easily made it through security since I was still technically employed there. I immediately went to HR and explained what I was doing. They weren’t surprised, and Martha Brown, the HR Director, told me she had expected me to visit her sooner once the memo announcing Todd’s promotion hit her desk. I asked Martha what she’d heard about any relationship between Jenny and Todd. She admitted hearing the rumors but had never seen anything inappropriate.

After a few moments of awkwardness, Martha asked me if I was resigning. I explained that Jenny had told me if I didn’t return to work by Monday, I would be fired. Since this was Tuesday, I accepted my termination. I gave Martha the account numbers for where my last paychecks were to be deposited and the numbers for my new SEP-IRA so she could transfer my 401-k.

Martha gave me a kiss on the cheek and told me not to be a stranger. I stopped by the production department next to say goodbye and was mobbed. They all wanted to know when I was coming back to work. I think some of them were totally stunned when I told them I’d been fired. I didn’t tell anyone what I was doing because I wanted to tell my wife first. Todd stayed in his office like the little cowardly bitch I knew he was.

As I was leaving the production department, I found Jenny standing in the hall waiting for me. “Were you just going to sneak in and sneak out without seeing me?” she demanded.

“No,” I responded. “I was just on my way up to your office.”

“Okay, let’s go so we can put this whole thing behind us,” Jenny turned and started for the elevator without me getting a word out. So, I just followed her.

Jenny’s new office had a spectacular view of Atlanta. Once she settled into her chair, she started, “I’m glad that you’ve decided to come back to work. Todd tells me he has several ideas on how he wants to reorganize the production department. He’s anxious to meet with you, so he can discuss your new duties. I’ve already talked to Mr. Hamett, and he has agreed to a substantial raise for you. You won’t be making as much as Todd, but you will retain your old position.”

I sighed because I knew this wasn’t going to be pleasant. “I think it’s very quaint that you and Todd had decided my future, but I’m going to take a hard pass. I’m not coming back. You told me I had to be back by Monday, or I was terminated. I took you at your word. I came to give HR the information on where to send my last check, transfer my 401k, and say goodbye to the people in production.”

Jenny just sat there, staring at me. I couldn’t tell if she was angry or sad or both. Finally, she shook her head. “Todd said you’d probably do this, but it isn’t what I wanted. Still, maybe it is for the best. I can see that your ego can’t handle your wife being your boss. I think getting a job at another station is probably the best all the way around.”

“Seriously, you think I’m jealous of your promotion?” I was taken aback at Jenny’s thought process. “You’re dead wrong if you think that. I am extremely happy about your promotion. I wouldn’t want that job for anything. It’s way too political for me. You’re going to have to play corporate politics like never before. No, I’m not jealous of your promotion at all. I am jealous that you’ve put Todd over me because he is a true asshole. All he wants is to get into the panties of any woman he can. Someday, you’re going to find out what a snake he is, but I don’t expect you to ever admit it. I just hope your decision doesn’t come back to bite you in the ass.”

“I don’t have any concerns about my decision,” she said firmly. “And I don’t believe the bullshit lies spread about Todd. So, if you’re not coming back here, have you gotten another job at another station? You remember you can’t work for any other radio station in Atlanta for six months.”

“No, I’m not looking for another job,” I said with a smile. “I’ve decided to buy a radio station.”

Jenny looked at me in disbelief. “I thought we decided that buying a radio station was a bad idea.”

“No, you thought it was a bad idea. I never gave up on the idea of one day owning my own station. So, I’m buying WZEP in Zephyrhills, Florida. It’s a 1000-watt AM station.”

“You bought a dinky 1000-watt AM station in the middle of nowhere, Florida?” her voice was filled with scorn. “Tell me that the signal at least gets into a larger market.”

“At the present, no,” I answered as I was really annoyed at her attitude. “In fact, it’s only 1000 watts during the day. It reduces down to 187 watts at night. But I have a plan to change that.”

“So, how is this going to work with our marriage?” Jenny switched gears with concern in her voice. “You’ll be in the middle of nowhere Florida, and I’ll be here in Atlanta.”

“Well, you could come with me and help me rebuild this station,” I said with a smile, knowing there was no way in hell she would do that.

“I don’t care what you say about your ego not being bruised by my promotion,” Jenny was angry now and glaring at me. “Todd told me that you wouldn’t be able to handle my promotion. I believe that buying this stupid little radio station is an attempt to convince everyone that you could have been the boss.”

“Oh, for god’s sake, I’m done,” I said as I started to rise. “I don’t care what you believe. I’ve bought the station, and I have plans for it. I was certain that you would never join me in Florida, but I had hoped you’d be happy for me. I see I was wrong about that.”

I was about to leave, but I stopped. “Oh, you should know, I’ve taken half of the money in our checking, savings, and investment accounts. I’ve also arranged to roll over my 401k to my new SEP-IRA. Also, I picked up a few pieces of furniture and some of my things from the house.”

“So, this is it,” Jenny said as she rose to her feet, and her face started to turn pale. “Our marriage is over?”

“I didn’t say that or infer it,” I was baffled by how my wife had gone from chastising me for buying a “dinky 1000-watt AM radio station in nowhere, Florida,” to my wanting a divorce.

“How are we going to keep our marriage together, if you’re in Florida and I’m in Georgia?”

“Lots of couples make marriages work when they work in distant places,” I explained. “I can come up for long weekends, and you can come down to visit. Shit, military couples have it much harder. They’re separated for months at a time.”

“That’s a bullshit plan, Chad,” Jenny snapped. “If you’re going to Florida, then we don’t have a marriage.”

“That’s entirely up to you, Jenny. If you want a divorce, then you go ahead and file. I’m sure Todd will console you once I’m gone. My goal now is to build my radio station into something special.”

Jenny’s face then went from pale to bright red. She was totally pissed. I could always tell when my wife was over the edge. The vein on her forehead would start to throb.

“Fuck you and that bullshit station of yours,” she shouted. “Todd was right about you. I can see that you want to dump me. And after I’m out of the way, you can spend all your time on that loser radio station. If that’s what you want to do, fine. But I expect half the expenses on the house each month.”

Jenny had pushed the wrong button with me, and I was now beyond angry. “I’m not going to fight with you anymore. I’ve made my decision, and I don’t care what you think. If you think we don’t have a marriage, go ahead and file for divorce.”

“So, you do want a divorce?” Jenny was breathing hard now, and I could see fear in her eyes.

“The way you have treated me,” I said before I could stop myself, “maybe that would be for the best. Ever since you were appointed Executive Vice President, you have done nothing but disrespect and humiliate me. We talked many times about the possibility of our moving up when our bosses retired. And when we talked about me possibly being the Vice President of Production, you always said I deserved it. But when you had a chance to make it happen, you gave the job to Todd, so fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Right now, I don’t give a flying fuck what you want to do about our marriage. I’m sure Todd will warm your bed if you get lonely.”

Jenny burst into tears and fled out of her office. I went back and forth in my mind about looking for her to try and sort things out. But I was so annoyed I said fuck it to myself and left. I didn’t deserve the disrespect my wife had dumped on me, and I was tired of always giving in to her. This time, she had pushed too far.

The trip back to Zephyrhills seemed to take forever, but it was only a little over six hours. I kept going back over our argument, and it was clear to me that Jenny had painted herself into a corner. And I’m sure that Todd had had a heavy hand in my marital problems. Normally, if we had an argument, Jenny would simply dig her heels in and wait for me to fold. But with Todd in the picture, I didn’t know whether Jenny cared anymore. But I was certain that nowhere in her thinking did she entertain the thought that if things were to be fixed between us, she would have to start by apologizing to me. A haunting thought hit me that maybe the divide between us was too far to bridge. I slept badly that night but was up at the crack of dawn. I had so much to do, which was a good thing because it kept my mind off my marital problems.

The station only had one part-time employee, Amanda Tabor, which was good because that was all I could afford. There were three volunteers, but only one offered to stay, Randy Stamos. Amanda was married and had two children. She needed the extra money so she and her husband could make ends meet. She also explained that she sometimes had to bring one or the other of her children if her mother or mother-in-law couldn’t babysit. I was okay with that as long as they stayed out of the main studio, production room, and transmitter room.

As soon as the automation system arrived, I showed Randy how to load the oldies into the program. Then I sent Amada out to distribute flyers to all the businesses and anywhere else she thought people would see that we were changing our format. Also, I made a point of attending a town council meeting in Zephyrhills and one in each of the surrounding towns, introducing myself and offering to be of service in any way we could.

I didn’t think my family problems could get any worse, but I was wrong. Two days after my confrontation with Jenny, I got phone calls from my daughters. I heard from Tina, our youngest, first. She was a hothead like her mother. And she blasted me right out of the blocks.

“Dad, why the hell have you abandoned Mom?” she snapped at me. “And why do you want a divorce?”

I sighed to myself. “First of all, Tina, this is none of your business. Second of all, I don’t want a divorce, and I have not abandoned your mother.”

“Bullshit, Dad,” my daughter flared. “Mom says that you quit your job because she didn’t give you a promotion. Then you told her to go ahead and file for a divorce.”

“Tina, I’m going to tell you this just once, stay out of our marriage,” I was annoyed with both Jenny and now Tina. Even if Jenny had totally spun the story in her favor which I had no doubt she had, Tina was old enough to know better than to put herself in the middle of a dispute between her mother and father.

“Mom’s right, you’re acting like a spoiled child,” Tina shot back.

“Okay, that’s it. Tina, I love you dearly, but until you apologize, we’re done. And you can tell your mother the same thing,” then I hung up.

About a half hour later, Tiffany called. She was more laid back, but she was deeply upset that I had apparently abandoned her mother. I was already in a bad mood, and I wasn’t going to put up with more crap from my kids.

“Dad, is it true that you’re living in Florida now?” Tiffany began.

“I am living in Florida,” I admitted but before I could say anything else, Tiffany cut me off.

“So, it’s true, you are divorcing Mom.”

“Tiffany, I’m going to tell you the same thing I told Tina. This is none of your fucking business, so stay the hell out of it.” Tiffany hung up on me.

As I sat there looking at my cell phone, I felt unbelievably lonely. It pissed me off that Todd seemed to have screwed with my wife’s head and who knows what else. Aside from now being totally estranged from my family, I suddenly realized, I had put all of my eggs in one basket. If the radio station didn’t make it, I was going to be between a rock and a hard place. Getting a job after leaving WJTR was one thing, but trying to get a job as a failed radio station owner would be much harder. Fortunately, there was so much that needed to be done that I didn’t have time to dwell on that or feel sorry for myself.

The Transmitter arrived two weeks after I took over the station, but I didn’t install it. I would wait until we moved to the new location. John had already submitted the plans for the new house, we and were waiting for the permit to be issued. In the meantime, I had the part of the land where the house was to be located cleared and fill brought in. We dug the footer for the house, and I was pleased that the permit was issued four days later. Four weeks after that, the tower arrived, and the erection crew showed up three days later. Putting the tower up cost me another $7000, but the new tower could withstand winds up to 140 mph.

On July 1st, I switched the station’s format to oldies. I was taking over the station in the middle of the off-season, perhaps the worst time to start a business in South Florida. However, within an hour, we started getting calls from people thanking us for the new sound. Also, within the first week, three businesses walked in the front door, and wanted to sponsor. I was very encouraged.

Three months later, we moved the radio station to its new location. John, I, and three part-time laborers had finished a four bedroom, three bath house with a partition roughly in the middle. I lived on one side with two bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen, and a living room. On the other side, the two bedrooms were set up to house the main studio and a production room. There was a small area by a side door that served as the lobby. Down a short corridor was what would have been the family room but now served as a conference room/break room. I had the back end of the garage sectioned off to create a small room to house the new transmitter. To cool that area from the Florida heat, I had a window air conditioner installed. I also had a 24 KW standby generator installed that would power the entire house, radio station, and transmitter.

When we switched on the new solid-state transmitter broadcasting off our new tower, I was pleased that we were covering about a third of Tampa with a strong signal. But our signal rapidly declined the further west you went. Even though our signal didn’t reach all of Tampa, I was delighted by how much it did cover. And with our incursion into Tampa, our revenue took a strong step up. Before I switched the format, the station was losing about $4000 a month. After the format change, we broke even after two months and profitable after four. Still, I continued to pay out more money than I took in to upgrade the equipment. So, even though the station was making money, I was still draining my 401-k. To date, I have withdrawn $190,000 from my retirement fund. This was bad as I had to pay a 10% penalty to the IRS, plus pay the capital gains added to my tax return.

Once we turned profitable, the drain on my retirement fund slowed. Eventually I started paying back into my SEP-IRA. Even though the station was making me money, I was only making about 35% of what my salary was at WJTR. And if I had stayed and accepted the raise, the disparity was even worse. I was making less than 25% of what my Atlanta salary would have been. Still, the reduced pay didn’t bother me. I was immensely proud and happy about taking a failing station and making it profitable. However, this happiness was tempered greatly by the fact that Jenny wasn’t there to share it with me.

During all this time, I hadn’t heard a word from my wife. And after the phone calls from my daughters, I hadn’t heard from either of them. I didn’t dwell on my estranged family, as I had more things to do in a day than I had time to do them. Some days, however, I did wonder if I would ever hear from my wife and daughters again. I was tempted at least a dozen times each week to pick up the phone and call my wife. But then the total disrespect and humiliation would come flooding back. And visions of Todd and my wife made it impossible for me to make that call.

Then, one day, I finally heard from my wife. It came in the form of a separation agreement. I was so angry that signed it immediately. I sent it back with a note that there would be no reconciliation unless she apologized first. I didn’t hear anything further from my wife, but my two daughters called me again to beg me to put my ego aside and reconcile with their mother. I was polite this time, but I was adamant about wanting an apology from Jenny. And I told Tina again that I expected an apology from her also. She hung up on me.

As the months passed, I heard nothing from my wife or my two daughters. I had drawn my line in the sand, and I just assumed my family had written me off. Then out of the blue, Tiffany called. Her voice was so soft that I wasn’t sure who was calling at first until I heard, “Daddy?”

When I asked her to speak up, she burst into tears. “I’m so sorry Daddy. I’m so sorry. Can you forgive me?”

“Tiffany, honey, there is nothing to forgive,” I told my sobbing daughter. “You were just defending your mother. You couldn’t possibly know how humiliated and disrespected I felt by what your mother did. And your sister took your mother’s side immediately and heaped even more disrespect on me. So, I’m not talking to them until they apologize. That doesn’t mean that I don’t love them because I do, and it has been very lonely without all of you.”

“Thank you, Daddy,” Tiffany said between sobs. “I wish I had never believed mom and Tina without listening to your side.”

“That’s okay, honey,” I said, trying to calm my daughter. “By the way, how are your mother and sister doing?”

“Tina’s called me a few times, but all she wanted to do was trash you, so I finally told her if that’s all she wanted to talk about, to stop calling me. I’ve seen her around campus a few times, but we haven’t spoken in three months. I’ve talked to a few of her friends, and they say she’s become very withdrawn. I see Mom every two weeks or so when I go home to do my laundry. I’m only there for a few hours, but she seems out of sorts, and I don’t know if she’s mad at me or what. One time when I was home, she went out on a date with some guy named Todd. But I don’t know if she had a good time or not because I was gone before she came home.”

That news cut deep, and even though I knew I shouldn’t let it bother me, it did. Ever since I signed the separation agreement, I have been out on a few dates of my own. The women were nice but there was no spark, so nothing ever developed. Besides, it was only recently that my workload had begun to slack off slightly, and I had time to think about dating.

“Do you think that you and Mom will ever get back together?” Tiffany finally asked.

“That’s entirely up to your Mom,” I said with sadness. “There is nothing I can or will do until I get an apology from her. But let’s talk about something else. How are your classes going?”

“I changed majors,” Tiffany’s voice now sounded excited and more upbeat.

“What did you change to?”

“Communications.”

“Really. Any idea what you want to do when you graduate?”

“I want to pursue a career in broadcasting,” Tiffany’s voice was now very excited.

“It’s a hard career to make a living at,” I advised cautiously. “What are you interested in -radio, television, cable, print media, internet?”

“Right now, I’m a volunteer at the college radio station, which is a ton of fun. I’m also taking television courses, and that’s a blast. I have my own radio show. It’s a sports show where I do a weekly wrap up of all our college teams, and I interview athletes.”

“That’s fantastic. Say, what do you think of spending time here with me at the station this summer?” I asked.

“I thought you’d never ask,” Tiffany laughed. “But I can only stay a week or two because I have to make some money for next year.”

“I can pay you,” I offered. “It’ll be at least as much as you’d make at a minimum wage job, and you’d get great experience for your courses.”

“Oh God, I’d love to do that,” Tiffany said excitedly but then added in a more subdued tone. “But I’d have to tell Mom, so she doesn’t think I’m abandoning her. And if she pitches a fit, I’ll have to pass and take my old job at the ice cream shop.”

“Understandable, and I agree.”

The talk with my daughter had really bolstered my spirits, and we began telephoning back and forth each week. But what happened two weeks later sent me into orbit and then into a pit of disappointment. A radio station broker called me and told me that two FM translators were coming on the market in the Tampa area. A translator is in essence a 250-watt FM station that rebroadcasts an already licensed radio station’s signal to increase their coverage area. In order to apply for a translator license, a station’s signal had to intersect the translator signal. And our signal did intersect both translators, so I put a bid on both.

As it turned out, there wasn’t another station that had a need or intersected the signal for the northern translator. However, there were three stations, including WZEP, that were interested in the southern one. I offered the asking price of $30,000 for the northern translator, and $75,000 for the southern one, which was $25,000 more than the asking price. But another station put a bid in for $80,000 for the southern translator. I was mildly disappointed in losing out on the southern translator, but the broker had already told me he had a verbal agreement for the northern one. In fact, he was in the process of putting the paperwork together when the northern translator owners changed their minds. After hearing what had been offered for the southern translator, they now wanted $80,000 also. I wasn’t going to be hustled, so I told the broker to tell them, “Thanks, but no thanks.” I was angry and bitterly disappointed. I hate it when people don’t honor their word.

Even though I had failed to secure either of the two translators, I didn’t have time to stay disappointed for long. I had so many things I had to attend to. In addition to running the station, I was doing a morning show with a little bit of everything mixed in with the oldies. When the show finished, I’d get caught up with my paperwork and then head out to drum up more sponsors. Even though I wasn’t making the money I made in Atlanta, I was very proud that the station was retaining 87% of our sponsors.

Once we moved the station, the income continued to rise. Still, I was only making about 50% of what I had been making in Atlanta. But there was another benefit to owning a station – trades. I traded spots for merchandise and services. The car I was driving was leased from a local car dealer, but my monthly payments were taken care of by his commercials on the air. If you factor in the trades, I was making about 65% of my Atlanta pay.

When May rolled around, two great things happened. The first was when Tiffany showed up. But it was who she brought with her that put the icing on the cake; she had convinced Tina to come with her. When Tina got out of the car, I came out of the station. She hesitated before I opened my arms wide. Tina raced forward and fell into my arms crying and apologizing. The girls told me that Jenny had encouraged them to join me for the summer.

I put both of them to work. I turned over the morning show to the two girls, which proved to be a hit. Who knew that the two of them together could be so funny. Three days a week, I took them out and let them experience what it was like soliciting sponsors. And it turned out that they were pretty good at it. Between the two of them, they had convinced eleven businesses to become sponsors.

The second great thing that happened that May was the deal for the southern translator fell through. The FCC determined that the company that had outbid me couldn’t have the translator because it would give them more than 50% of the audience in St. Petersburg, a violation of FCC rules. I did a little research on the other company that had bid on the southern translator, and they had the same situation, but in the Tampa market. They must have realized this because they didn’t make an offer, so I put one in at $30,000. The company countered with $50,000, and we compromised at $40,000. The following week, I got another call from the broker. The northern translator hadn’t sold, and the owner was wondering if I was still interested in buying it at the original asking price. I countered with $25,000 explaining that I’d just bought the southern translator. They accepted the offer. Now I would have a high-quality FM signal over all of Tampa and about half of St. Petersburg.

I had inspected the two translators before I submitted my first bid. One of the translators was located in the corner of the parking lot for a legal firm. The previous owner had been paying the law firm monthly rent and had their own electric meter. Instead of paying rent, once the deal was closed, I negotiated a trade with the law firm – rent for advertising. I also convinced them to let me put a standby generator next to the transmitter, and a 100-gallon propane tank in the ground. The second transmitter was on the roof of a condominium. I couldn’t trade anything for the rent with them, but I learned that they had a standby generator for the entire building. I felt good about that.

With those two purchases, I had moved into the big time. The Tampa-St. Petersburg market was the 17th largest in the country. Even though each translator had a different frequency, people quickly found us. During the next quarterly Arbitron rating, we were the twelfth most popular station in Tampa. With our audience now considerably larger than before, the income jumped substantially. However, I took care of the sponsors who had been with me when it was just an AM station. I kept their rates the same. Shortly, I was making more money than I ever made in Atlanta. Yet, I was lonely. But I didn’t have time to dwell on that as it was hurricane season.

From what I had been told, Florida had been lucky the last few hurricane seasons as all the major storms didn’t make landfall in the state. But this year we would not only get hit, but we got hit twice with the eye of the storm passing right over us both times. The first storm hit the east coast of Florida as a category 3 storm, but it was only a category 1 storm when it passed our area. I was worried about the house, the tower, and the translators. But everything came through without a problem.

Six weeks later, another storm crossed over the Florida Keys and headed almost to the Yucatan before it reversed direction and started a steady march to the west coast of Florida. They named it Hurricane Karen, and the projected path, at first, had it heading south of St. Petersburg. But as with all hurricanes, its path continued to shift. When the path seemed to be taking aim at Tampa, a mass exodus from the city began. The roads were clogged with cars heading north, south, and east. I-75 was jammed, and the southbound lane, north of Tampa, was converted into a north bound lanes. The hurricane was still two days away from landfall, and just past Tampa, you could only go north on I-75. Some people headed south, but word quickly began to spread that every hotel and motel room was booked all the way to the keys. Even though the routes going east were not high-volume roads, they were soon packed with cars attempting to escape the category 5 hurricane.

A day before landfall, Karen’s track moved further north until it looked like it was headed straight to New Port Richey. As soon as I saw that, I called John and Helen and told them to come over and hunker down with us at the station. When I built the house, I had far exceeded the building requirements. I had extra strapping on the roof trusses, a metal roof, and Hardie board, which is a fiber and cement siding, over the wood frame. And I had hurricane proof windows, and of course, we had the generator with a five-hundred-gallon tank of propane. I had built the house with hurricanes in mind, but Hurricane Karen was a category 5, and with a storm that strong, all bets were off.

The usual hour’s drive from John and Helen’s house to the station took four. And about six hours after John and Helen arrived, the regular electricity went out. That was not surprising because winds were blowing at 60 – 70 mph with gusts to ninety. Fortunately, the generator kicked in exactly like it was supposed to.

Our landline and cell phones were still working for the moment, so Tiffany and Tina were keeping in touch with the local and county police. Any news we received was put out over the air immediately. I was very worried about the approaching storm, but we had done as much as we could to get ready. We had plenty of food and water. And when the generator was installed, they told me my 500-gallon tank would last at least a week.

When Tina’s cellphone rang it surprised us. We had been using the landline to communicate with the law enforcement agencies. Very quickly, I realized it was Jenny calling her daughter. I figured that she was calling to make sure her daughters were safe. But that wasn’t why she called.

“No, Mom,” I heard Tina say. “Turn around and head back to Atlanta. It’s too dangerous to try and get here. Please just turn around because the winds are already over 75 mph. Mom? Mom? Mom? I lost her.”

“She’s not trying to come here, is she?” I asked Tina.

“I don’t know,” Tina said as she tried to call her mother back, but it went to voicemail. Giving up her attempt to reach her mother, Tina added, “Mom said that she had gotten to a point where she couldn’t continue on I-75, so she was going to head down the Florida Turnpike and then cut over, using the back roads.”

“I’m sure, she’ll see how strong the winds are, and she’ll turn around,” Tiffany offered with little confidence.

That Jenny might be driving into the coming storm greatly added to my worry. Yes, we were estranged, but I still loved her. But right now, I could only hope that she had listened to her daughter’s advice and turned around.

After another hour, I decided that the girls and I would break into the music more often to offer reassurance, advice, and any information we had to our listeners who were riding out an extremely dangerous storm. After a few hours of this, we rotated taking breaks. I was on my second break when I thought I heard something slapping against the house. Thinking it might be a fallen tree whose branches were hitting the house, I grabbed my chainsaw and headed out the front door. But it wasn’t a fallen tree. I found Jenny lying on the front steps.

I quickly dropped the saw and pushed into the wind to get to her. There was a four-inch gash along the right side of her face with blood running down onto the top part of her blouse. There were numerous smaller cuts on the rest of her face, arms, and legs. The wind was brutal as I lifted her into my arms. She opened one eye as the other was swollen shut and whispered, “I’m sorry.” Then that one eye closed again.

Back inside, John forced the door to close and called for Helen. The girls came running from the studio and gasped at the sight of their mother. I carried her to my bedroom and laid her gently on the bed. Helen was there a few seconds later with the first aid kit, and I went to the bathroom to get a small basin of warm water and soap. The girls stood watch over their mother until I shooed them out of the room so we could address the wounds.

As I washed her face, arms, and legs, Helen either placed a band aid or smeared some Neosporin on the smaller cuts. On the large gash, I used butterfly bandages to pull the skin together to minimize any scar. After the storm had passed, I’d take Jenny to the first 24-hour clinic that was open to get stitches. The last thing I did was put a cold compress on her eye.

I sat with Jenny as the storm raged outside. She looked so frail lying on my bed. Jenny had definitely lost weight. Despite everything that had happened between us, I still loved her deeply and wanted to hold her close. Finally, I drifted off to sleep, but I woke up in the middle of the night when everything suddenly went quiet. I went out and found Tiffany still in the control room, looking up at the ceiling.

“What’s happening, Dad?” she asked with fear in her voice. “It sounded like a jet engine a minute ago. Now, it’s deadly still.”

I knew what it was right away. “The eye of the hurricane is passing over us now. Come on let’s go see what’s happened outside.”

I grabbed a large flashlight before I tentatively opened the front door. It was deadly still, and the air was hot and sticky. Stepping down the front stairs, I could actually see stars above. But I knew we didn’t have much time, and I wanted to see how the house and the tower had fared. What I found pleased me. Even though a half-dozen trees had come down, none had caused any damage. Taking a quick walk around the house, I couldn’t see anything amiss. Then I headed to the tower, checking the meter at its base and it read the correct amperage. I ran my flashlight up and down the tower structure but could see no damage at all. But we had only come through half of the storm.

I grabbed Tiffany’s hand and led her back to the house. I explained that when the back wall of the eye passed, the storm would begin to rage again at full strength. Several minutes after we got back inside, the wind began to howl at its top velocity once again. I sent Tiffany to bed, and I stayed in the studio for another hour, reassuring the listeners that the eye had passed over and the winds would now begin to diminish.

I finally signed off for the night by wishing our listeners good luck and telling them they’d be in our prayers. I retreated to my bedroom where I dropped a quilt and pillow on the floor next to the bed. I wrapped myself in a blanket and drifted off.

It seemed like only minutes had passed when I heard John moving about, and soon I could smell coffee brewing. I stood up and saw that Jenny was still asleep, so I slipped out to get a cup of caffeine; I needed it. It was then that I realized that there was no wind blowing. The storm was gone, so I headed out the front door. I was greeted with more trees down, but aside from one of them lying across the driveway, I couldn’t spot any obvious damage. A quick walk around the house showed no damage either, and the tower was still standing tall as though nothing had happened. A quick check of the base meter still showed the proper amperage.

After greeting John and grabbing a cup of coffee, I headed back to the bedroom. I was pleasantly surprised to find Jenny awake. She looked at me with trepidation.

“I’m so sorry, Chad,” she said immediately. “You were right about everything. Everything you said about Todd was right, except that he was worse than you thought. It took me too long to realize he was a snake in the grass. I can’t believe that I even went on a date with him. That’s when I realized he was a class-A creep. He was only interested in getting into my pants and trashing you. What I didn’t realize until the end was that he had been undermining me from the first day he became Vice President of Production. And even when I realized that you were right about how he handled his work, my pride wouldn’t let me admit it. But finally, I had to face it and sent a memo to Mr. Hamett saying I was firing Todd. I was immediately summoned to his office. That’s when I first realized what Todd had been up to. Every mistake Todd made, he blamed me or someone else. He had been writing memos that supposedly he’d been sending to me which I never got. Mr. Hamett wasn’t pleasant at the meeting, blaming me for failing as the Executive Vice President. When I tried to explain, he got angry and told me he had no respect for people who tried to blame others for their own failings.”

“It’s unbelievable that Todd could pull the wool over Mr. Hamett’s eyes,” I offered. “I always thought that Charles was a pretty good judge of character. That he couldn’t see through Todd’s bullshit really surprises me.”

“Anyway,” Jenny continued, “he told me he was removing me as the EVP immediately and giving the job to Todd. He also told me I wouldn’t be going back to my previous position because he no longer trusted me. If I wished, I could stay on as a salesperson.”

“What did you tell Charles?” I asked with a smile, knowing my wife’s temper.

“You would have been proud of me,” Jenny returned my smile. “I told him that if he believed Todd’s bullshit, then he deserved him. And he could stick his salesperson’s job up his ass.”

“What did Charles say to that?”

“He told me he was sorry I felt that way. But I told him, he wasn’t really sorry, but he would be once he figured out what a fuck up Todd was. Then I got up, cleared out my office, and went home. I wanted to call you so badly, but I was afraid you’d hang up on me. Then, when I saw Hurricane Karen bearing down on you, I had to be with you and the girls.”

We sat silently, looking at each other. Then Jenny asked, “Do you think you could forgive me for my stupidity?”

“Absolutely,” I said immediately as I leaned over and kissed her.

Jenny explained that she was within a mile of the station when a tree came down across the road. She had tried to stop but still hit the tree at about 30 mph. For some reason, her airbag didn’t deploy, and Jenny hit her head on the steering wheel. Jenny didn’t remember how she got to the station after the accident. But she remembered the wind knocking her down multiple times. The last time was coming up the long driveway. After trying and failing several times to get back up, Jenny crawled the rest of the way to the front door. She didn’t even have enough strength to knock, which explained her slapping on the door.

The aftermath of Hurricane Karen was traumatic for the west coast of Florida. Fortunately, my two translators came through the storm unscathed. We worked with FEMA and various other agencies to broadcast emergency information. We were only one of many radio and television stations serving the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, but we were the only station in our area helping the local people. We informed people where they could get emergency food, water, and medical attention. Then, we announced when the various stores, schools, and other services were up and running. We received several awards from the local governments and even one from the Tampa Chamber of Commerce.

John and Helen went back to New Port Richey to find their house had been destroyed. Rather than rebuilding, they took the insurance payout and moved to Zephyrhills to be near us.

When Jenny was back to full strength, and we were back to being a loving married couple, I asked her what she planned to do next.

“I was wondering if you could use an experienced salesperson for your station?” she said with a smile.

I chuckled and pulled Jenny into a tight hug. “Not only could I use the best salesperson in the world, but I’ve got an idea on how to pay Todd and Mr. Hamett back.”

Hamett Communications had two radio stations in the Tampa/St. Petersburg market. So, Jenny and I targeted the sponsors on those two stations. It was mostly Jenny’s charm and persuasiveness, but over the next six months we were able to lure 30% of their sponsors away.

One day, I walked in the door of the station, and Jenny launched herself into my arms. Her kiss tingled all the way down to my toes.

“What are you so happy about?” I asked as I stepped back.

“Two things,” she said as she held up a piece of paper. “The latest Arbitron ratings are out, and we’ve moved up to eighth place, ahead of both of the Hamett stations.”

“And the second thing?”

“I just got off the phone with Charles Hamett. He called to tell me that he had just fired Todd and was sorry for the way he had treated me. He wanted to know if I’d consider coming back to Atlanta to take up my old job.”

The smile drained off my face. “Oh, and what did you tell Charles?”

“I told him no. I have the best job in the world, and I get to work with the love of my life every day.”

It’s been ten years since Hurricane Helen, and life is pretty good. Oh, Jenny and I have the usual number of disagreements any married couple does, but we always make up. The big difference now is that Jenny is much more willing to admit when she’s wrong. The only problem is, sometimes, she is too quick to admit to an error when it was me that was at fault.

Tiffany got her degree in communications and came to work at the station. After three years, I made her the station manager. She’s doing a terrific job, and we’ll soon be moving our studios to an office space in Tampa. Tiffany believes we need a presence in the city, and I agree. Aside from the sales staff that will operate from that location, we’ll only do two live shows, the morning and evening drive-time shows.

Tina graduated from Florida State and accepted a job in Dade City, a small town of about 7,000, just north of Zephyrhills. She’s a special education teacher and loves it. She’s also married to a fellow teacher, and expecting their first child in May.

This past year, Charles Hamett died, and his son took over as the CEO of Hamett Communications. Richard was not his father and had no interest in radio. He considered it a dying industry. They said the same thing about newspapers, but about 27% of Americans still read them. About the same percentage listen to the radio, but radio is considerably less expensive to operate than a newspaper. Anyway, Richard decided to sell all of Hamett’s radio stations at the same time. This was not a very smart business move. By putting so many stations on the market at the same time, he seriously depressed the value of radio stations for sale nationwide for a few years. But his blunder was our opportunity. We bought WSTP an FM station serving St. Petersburg for $1.2 million. It was a 6000-watt station that covered all of St. Petersburg and part of Tampa. Because the station was south of St. Petersburg, we did not have the problem of having more than 50% of the market. Our annual gross revenues were over $8 million before the acquisition of WSTP.

I heard from time to time about Todd after he was fired from Hamett Communications. He first tried to get a job in Atlanta, but when that didn’t happen, Todd returned to California. He wasn’t able to get a job in broadcasting out there either, but he did land a job as a new car salesman for a BMW dealership. And Todd was doing quite well until he decided to sleep with a married customer whose husband had friends in very low places. I haven’t seen a picture of Todd since the “accident” where he fell face first through several windows, but I have been assured that his days of seducing married women are over.

Life hasn’t been perfect for us. I had to have an emergency appendectomy, and six months later, I had to have my gallbladder removed. Jenny broke her wrist and knocked two teeth out when she fell over one of those parking curbs. Thank God Tiffany and Tina are both healthy as are their husbands and kids. They each have two kids. Tiffany has a boy and a girl while Tina has two boys.