Brion O'Brion: Radio DJ Bob

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  0:02  
The sound of podcast, the show about podcast and broadcast starts now.

Matt Cundill  0:14  
I would love for you to meet Brian O'Brion, who's been working on air in urban and hip hop since 1992 we met at the Conclave in Minneapolis back in 2018 and I've been following and listening to his radio shows ever since. Now I'm from Canada, where the idea of a hip hop radio station is best explored by getting a VPN and seeking out your favorite stations in the United States. I think I can count the number of hip hop stations in Canada on one or maybe two fingers, which never seems to get discussed at CRTC hearings. All that aside, this episode is a long time in the making, and I'm glad that Brian and I finally got down to recording it. And now Brian O'Brion joins me from Lansing, Michigan. What goes on in Hampton, Virginia?

Brion O'Brion  1:01  
Well, that's home for me, born and raised there, you know, from elementary, well, I won't say all the way from elementary, because my dad was in the Air Force. So I did part of my elementary school years in the Philippines, Delaware, and then I finished elementary school in Virginia. I got back there I was in sixth grade. So I did sixth grade at one elementary school, and then the following year I was in middle, like Junior High first, and then it became middle the following year. And then after that high school, and then I started my radio career there, as an intern in that market as well. And then, you know, Hampton is like the city I lived in, but the radio station would go over in Norfolk, Virginia, which is like, it's always all the same area. What do you remember about your time in the Philippines? You know, it's funny. I remember that place like it was yesterday. You know, I was a little boy. But I can remember some of the things about the Philippines more than I can remember things from yesterday. Definitely, the food was interesting over there, some of the things that they ate and, you know, just the living, you know, some of the, you know, the living arrangements were, you know, a little different over there too. You know, it's definitely different. You know, we had a maid, and we had a guy used to come and cut our grass. And then we have, I remember as a kid, we had these hardwood floors, and then the guy who used to cut our grass, you know, he would come in the house, he would take his shoes off, and he would take a coconut, and he would, you know, take all the stuff out of the coconut and use the shell of the coconut on his foot. And he would shine our floors. I mean, our floors would be so, so shiny you could probably eat off of them. That's how clean they were, having shiny after he buffed them with that coconut. I'd never seen that before.

Matt Cundill  2:38  
What was the first station you listened to that really inspired you

Brion O'Brion  2:42  
growing up. We had a station in Norfolk, Virginia. It was called W, R, A, P, it was an am station at the time. Was on AM 850 and you know, that's pretty much what we all listened to as far as the in the urban market. And that's all we had at that particular town, is am station. And then, you know, I lived on the peninsula, which is in Hampton, and the station was like in Portsmouth, over on the Norfolk, Virginia side. And you know, they were like, what, 5000 watts during the day, and at nighttime, they go down to 1000 so in those days, you got to turn your radio another direction to pick up the signal. And that's what we did. And you know, that station, gosh, you know. And then I remember after school every day, they would have this show called The rap attack with a guy named HJ Ellison, and he would play all the hottest rap records five o'clock to five to six, and he'd let us call up and you know, you do your shout outs to your friends and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that was pretty fun. You go back to school and everybody like, Yeah, I heard you give me a shout out on the radio and stuff like that. So that's kind of how my love of radio came in, just listening to the radio, growing up as good

Matt Cundill  3:46  
kind of a b part to that question, though, who was the personality that made you say, Yeah, I want to be a big personality on the radio now.

Brion O'Brion  3:54  
That came a little bit later in life. There was a guy after after the am station kind of went away. We had FM station that came on, which was called hot 103 at the time. And there was a guy on the radio. His name was Morris Baxter, and he went by the night hawk. He did the night show. He was, like, my favorite DJ. You know what I mean? It's like, I listen to him all the time. And then this is before I knew anything about radio. He ended up, I guess, he got fired, lost his job, or whatever. And then this new guy came in and was starting to do the night show, guy named Rick party. I was like, I hate this dude. You know, this guy took my favorite DJ spot. I hate him. You know, I'm saying, but you know, you hate somebody so much that you find yourself end up listening to him all the time. And then I was listening to him. And then he started doing, and he would do an eight at eight at eight countdown. And then he would let us call in and be guest DJs, introduce the songs, and then, you know, at the end you get to say on hot 103, you know what I mean? So I thought that was cool. So I used to do this, like, every night of the week, and he was shouting, I would go back to school, everybody's like, I heard you on the radio. You know, it was cool. And then one night I called and. To do the song. And he was like, Man, you sound pretty good. You ought to be doing what I'm doing. So so get out of here. So he invited me up to come take a tour of the radio station. So I took a tour. And I remember the day I went in there, because before I left, it was some famous people in there I met. I had a chance to meet chub rock, who's still a friend of mine till his day, and then Sharon Bryant, from the old school group, Atlantic star was in there, so I had a chance to meet them. And then he was right before I walked out of the door, he was like, how would you like to be my intern for my show? And I'm like, Heck yeah. I was 17 in high school, so I was like, Yeah, I want to do that. So I became his intern. And then on Friday and Saturdays, I would catch the Greyhound from over in Hampton, over to Norfolk, where the radio station was. It was like five bucks. Get off the bus at the Greyhound station, walk down to the radio station. He let me in and, man, I'd be in there pulling his cards. In those days, it wasn't no computer, so I was pulling carts and records, and you know, he would put his voice on real to real, and I'd be in there pushing buttons, making it sound like he was in the studio while he's in another room cutting some production or whatever. So he gave me a chance to give him hands on experience, and now, until this day, Rick Party became my mentor, and he helped me get my very first job in radio. If it wasn't for that guy, I wouldn't be doing it now, you know, and it's funny because we laugh about it sometimes, Man, I hate it to you.

Matt Cundill  6:19  
I don't know much about the personalities we're going to be talking about today, the ones that inspired you. But like Rick party, for instance, is somebody I know who puts himself out there, brings everybody in, and here he is on clubhouse, and he lets me in the clubhouse to just play, yeah.

Brion O'Brion  6:35  
Plus, he's a voice over artist. You know, he does a lot of voice overs for stations around the country. He's the voice of Sports Center. If you watch sports center in the evening, five, six o'clock, that's his voice coming up on SportsCenter. You know? That's Rick party's voice. You know?

Matt Cundill  6:47  
Yeah, yeah. I was in clubhouse. I go. That's your voice. No. And you had a really interesting sort of take on some popular personalities. You mentioned Howard Stern and Rick party, Tom Joyner is one, but you put Doug banks at number one on your list, and I don't have much contact with Doug banks. I didn't get to listen to him growing up. I know of Tom Joyner, and I know Tom Joyner and Doug banks worked together for quite a while, but why is Doug banks at number one for you?

Brion O'Brion  7:18  
For me, I just he had the biggest personality, you know, I always thought his show sounded great on the air. Had a chance to I didn't ever meet him in person, but I've had a chance to talk to him on the phone. You know, he always gave me great advice when it came to being in radio, you know. So that's one thing that I respected, and they know a lot of people forget that. Before he got his own show, he used to fill in for Tom Joyner when Tom Joyner was out. So Doug banks used to host the Tom Joyner Morning Show when DOM was out, you know. So that's kind of how he got, ended up getting his own syndicated, like, afternoon or midday show at least, to have back in the day after, you know, he got off the Tom Joyner show. Yeah. So great guy. I just loved his personality. You know, you got a lot of guys that are in radio now, a lot of the comedians are doing radio. But you know, these guys, him, Tom Joyner, they were radio people. These guys ran their own board. They didn't have some producer in there, running their board. These guys were behind the board, pushing the buttons. You know, that's one thing I respected about him. He was a real radio guy that got it. You know what I mean,

Matt Cundill  8:18  
when we got together? 2016, 1718, 1718, in that zone. 2019 at the Conclave. And you know, one of the things we talked about a lot was, how do we integrate social media into our daily lives and into our work? And here we are. It's now 2026, but for you, you know, on the air at power 96 five, how do you balance your social media and on air and maybe share some of the platforms that you gravitate to.

Brion O'Brion  8:43  
Of course, you know, nowadays in the hip hop world, Facebook, I mean, we still use it, but you know, it's not the generation for hip hop music anymore. So a lot of mine, I still do like I cross promoted a bunch of different social media platforms. I use Facebook, I use Instagram, and, of course, Tiktok. I mean, that's pretty much where our audience is now, between Tiktok and Instagram. So, you know, basically, whatever I put on Facebook, I also cross promote it and put it on those other platforms as well. And, you know, I get a pretty good response. I try to post something every day before I go on the air. You know, hey, coming up on the show today. I got this, this and this, you know, if I got tickets, and I always try to keep it local, I talk about local stuff and say, Hey, I got, I'm gonna talk about this today on the show. So, you know, that's me. It's, I think it's important thing, you know, because remember when we first got in the radio, there was no social media, so, you know, now it's like, that's where the world and radio is kind of headed to

Matt Cundill  9:43  
these days. Yeah, I think we were the social media. Yeah, pretty much. I'm gonna guess at this one. I could be wrong, but was your time at 102, jams your favorite work experience, or was there something else?

Brion O'Brion  9:58  
Yeah, I had a blast. And my two favorite places to work were probably Orlando and St Louis. My best friend still lives in St Louis and Orlando was just so much fun. You can't live in Orlando and say you have nothing to do. You know what I mean? There's always something to do, whether it's the theme parks the movie theaters, there's always something to do there. So that's one thing I enjoyed about living in Orlando. It's kind of the same for St Louis too. There's, there's always something to do, whether you're in St Louis, you know, East St Louis, you got the casinos, if you're into that sort of stuff. And you know, it's just, it's just so much happening. It's really, really cool places

Matt Cundill  10:35  
to live. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that about Orlando, because when people tell me they're going there. I'm like, You didn't want to go to Tampa, you didn't want to go to Miami, to the beach Fort Lauderdale, you know, I just, I've been to Orlando. It was for a conference. But, you know, people go, people like it, and there is lots to do. Yeah, you

Brion O'Brion  10:55  
can't go there and say you don't have anything and do if not, you must be a really, really boring person.

Matt Cundill  11:01  
So what makes it such a great radio markup?

Brion O'Brion  11:05  
Oh, you know, back when I was there, it was, you know, it was kind of competitive, you know what? I mean, we had a few stations that were on the air at the time, and, you know, just, it's just so it was so competitive, you know, at that particular time, it's not as many urban stations there anymore that it used to be. But when I was there, you know, we it was just competitive, and it was a lot of fun. And then, you know, we got into Daytona Beach and all, you know, the beachy area. So, you know, we used to do a beach house in the summertime. That was when MTV used to have the beach house thing. We had a one ot jams beach house in the summer. We'd have parties down there and listen to come out and barbecues and stuff like that. So it

Matt Cundill  11:40  
was a lot of fun. What is something that happened in that beach house that never made it back to management? I don't know. I plead the fifth on that one. You can, you're in the States. You can do that your toughest professional setback that occurred to you in radio. And by the way, there's a b part. How did it change you?

Brion O'Brion  12:03  
Toughest setback was, you know, I started my radio career in Virginia, but I never got a job working there. You know what I mean? I started as an intern there, and then finally, years later, I had lost a job in the Salisbury Ocean City Market, and I had an opportunity. I got hired to become the music director at mid days at 95 7r, B, which is the call letters, W, V, K, L, there in Virginia Beach. And I was like, Man, I get a chance to go home. You know, love it. You know my family's there people that I grew up with, I went to school with, get a chance to hear me on the radio. So that was a major accomplishment for me, to be able to finally go back home after all these years I started there. Just took me years before I was able to go back home and work. And I was enjoying it, having a great time. And then there was something that started. It make me wonder about things, because I was the music director. And you know, we as a music director, back in those days, we get all the CDs and stuff to give away promotional stuff they would send to us. And then I started seeing all of these CDs and demos come in for the Steve Harvey morning show. And I was doing midday so. And then at one point, they let the morning show guy go, and I was filling in, doing mornings until they hired a new guy. And then, you know, ultimately my operations manager, I kept saying, Hey, man, are we getting the Steve Harvey Show on or something? Because we're getting all these demos. He was like, No, we're not getting Steve Harvey morning show or, you know, we're good where we are. I was like, okay, cool. So I go do my shift one day, I get off the air, and I'm walking down the hall to my office to do my duties as music director, and then my operations manager, Don London is his name. He called me into my office. He sat behind my desk, and I'm standing up, and he was like, Brian. And I remember word for word, he was like, Brian. You know, sometimes corporate, they make decisions that I don't necessarily agree with. I don't agree with this one, and they've decided that today is your last day here at intercom broadcast. They were still intercom at the time. And I was like, wow, what did I do? You know, it's like, it was, it was right before the holidays. I was still married at the time, my wife was pregnant with my last child. I was like, really, right now, you know what I mean? So that was really heartbreaking for me to lose that job. I mean, I loved it there. It was home for me. And it changed me, because it was like, you know, I was like, Okay, at this point, from this point on, I got to start looking out for me when it comes to my career, you know, making sure I have enough money saved up for these situations. If that sort of thing happens again, you know, that I'll have to be scrounging around trying to find out how I'm going to pay my rent and pay my bills and that sort of thing. So I was like, Okay, if this happens again, I want to make sure that I'm prepared, and I don't have to, you know, maybe get unemployed. I mean, unemployment or just grounds try to get money, you know? I mean, that's my thing. So it was just maybe prepare myself better in the future. For situations like

Matt Cundill  15:01  
that, was that the moment, or maybe there was another moment when you sort of questioned about whether or not you

Brion O'Brion  15:07  
want to stay in radio. Yeah, there's been a few times, you know, being in radio, we all been laid off. And, you know, you come to work and you get that we're going another direction speech, and it doesn't include you. I'm like, okay, so that one was really hard for me because, like I said, I'd worked so hard to get home to Virginia and work home in the home market, and there were times when, believe me, I thought about giving it up, and I was fortunate enough. And believe it or not, I don't know how they didn't, never say anything to me. I ended up getting a job over at the competitor at the other urban AC, which was called Kiss one, oh, 5.3 the PD over there hired me. Basically, I was coming in and board opping the Michael Bay's in show. He had a show that he's on in the mid days around the country, syndicated show. And basically he kind of created a shift for me, because, you know, he knew I had a name in the market. I'd been there for a while. He created that shift to board up because they didn't really need a board up for the show. They ran it through the computer. Ran it through the computer. He hooked up and hooked me up. So I did that, and plus he gave me a shift on the weekend. So on Saturdays, they had a mixed show they used to run. And basically I was there hosting the show on the weekends, and I was the only part timer working over there. It was still clear channel at the time. He gave me remote. So I'm like, wow, you know what I mean. So I'm amazed that they never came after me from intercom with the non compete thing, because I did have a non compete, but I never got any backlash from it.

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  16:31  
Sound design of the sound off podcast is inspired by mega tracks, the sound of entertainment providing music and sound effects for radio, podcasts and media professionals, mega tracks is your one stop shop for library and custom tracks. Start your music search now at Mega tracks.com the sounding off newsletter delivered free to your inbox featuring Matt's media hacks, hot takes and retakes. Sign up now at sounding off dot news.

Matt Cundill  17:05  
What is something that people outside of radio right now don't understand about radio today, because we talk about this when we you know, we all get together as radio people. We know the power of radio. But what is it that the people who say bad things about it, or say that it's over, or say that it's dated and say that it's finished. What are they not getting because it's still here?

Brion O'Brion  17:28  
Yeah, you know, everybody says it's gonna be over, because there's so many other platforms out there. You know, whether you're listening to SoundCloud or what other streaming devices that you you know you listen to, but you know, obviously, going through the Conclave and things of that nature that we've done over the years, we've learned that radio is still the most listened to entity of them all. So I think people were misinformed when they thought that all those other platforms are going to, you know, take over radio. You know, one thing I will say, though it has taken radio away from the kids. Kids don't listen to the radio anymore. They just don't, you know, when I first got in, like I told you, that's what we did. You got in the car with your mom and dad. Hey, turn on the radio, you know. But nowadays, that's that's not the case. And you know, most of the stations that are doing well across the country are the ones with the older dinner graphics, like urban AC. You know, you got your heritage rock stations and your country stations are doing very well because you got that 2554 demographic listening to those stations, and those stations are the ones that seem to be doing well across

Matt Cundill  18:29  
the country, but in the format that you're working in right now, I would think kids need to discover new music, and I would figure that the radio would be the place to do it. You know, the thing

Brion O'Brion  18:40  
about that now it's not like it used to be with radio. Radio doesn't really break new records anymore. It's all done on Tiktok. You know what? I mean, some of the songs on Tiktok, they hit Tiktok first, and then then sometimes the radio station, we have to jump on them, because they become so popular on Tiktok. You know, it's like, that's where the kids are getting their music from. Now that that's six plus, you know, they're getting their music from Tiktok man. All the new stuff hits there first, and then if it takes off on Tiktok and then, you know, the radio stations have to jump

Matt Cundill  19:07  
on it. And so that sort of leaves you doing live events and creating some of your own fun. And that's what you guys did on New Year's Day. You had a mix off and started 10 in the morning. You went right through to 10 at night. First of all, what is the mix off, and then how would you ever determine a winner?

Brion O'Brion  19:24  
You know what? Thing about it, though, we don't really, per se, have a winner. You know, it's just a lot of my DJ friends from across the country, but, you know, they try to show each other up. You know what I mean, mine's my mix is gonna be better than next person's or whatever. So basically, it's just, you know, different DJs from all across the country come together, and they all get about two hours a piece to show their skills, you know, and they're playing the music that we play on the radio. And, you know, it's just fun, you know, I mean, gives the listener a way to get away from everything. You know, we're bringing in a new year, so it's like, Okay, let me just turn on the radio and enjoy some great hip hop and RnB Music. Can, you know, forget about what happened in 2025 and just bring in 2026 having some fun.

Matt Cundill  20:07  
You made a trip a while back. You went to the National Black Radio Hall of Fame. Who were you most excited to meet and why?

Brion O'Brion  20:16  
Gosh, you know, I was, you know, the museum was one place I wanted to see they have an actual museum there in St Louis, which I didn't know anything about until, you know, I was there. I was like, wow, this is amazing. And pretty soon they're going to have bios in there on me and some other people, because I am a member of the National Black Radio Hall of Fame. Hopefully I get voted in this year. I'm just saying anyway. But more importantly for me, it was just to meet a lot of the people that I admire in black radio that had been doing it for so long. It was like so many people there. Man, it's like so many to name, too many to name. It was just like, Man, I grew up or, you know, listening to you, whether it be online or, you know, wherever I got the audio from, but it was just so many, so many heritage people there. There was like, Wow. I mean, like, even I have a consultant, you know, Tony Gray, he was there. And it's just so many people that, like, wow. These are, like, legends and radio. I've worked for some of these people. I probably wouldn't even be doing what I'm doing now. You know, it's just amazing to just see them and take pictures with them. It was a lot of fun just soak up some of that knowledge and get everything you can out of them so you can make yourself and your craft better.

Matt Cundill  21:26  
Best piece of advice for anybody who wants to get into radio today, don't do it. No. Funny enough. That was the same advice back when we were starting.

Brion O'Brion  21:39  
I know. I know, right, right, right. It's what you make of it. You know what? I mean, you can depending on where you are. You know, nowadays, I don't know if people are really paying their dues like we had to do back in the day. I mean, I got into radio. My parents thought I was crazy because I went to college for nursing. I used to be a nurse, and I gave up those two nursing jobs to go work my very first radio job in Greenville, South Carolina. It was 32 hours a week at $5 an hour. But this was 1992 so $5 went a lot further than it does now. And you know, times have changed. I had a two bedroom apartment for 300 bucks a month in Greenville, South Carolina, in 92 so what does that mean? But you know, it's what you make it. You know, you can still have fun in this business. I still enjoy it. I still have fun. You can make some money, obviously, you know, you gotta, in a sense, you still got to kind of pay your dues a little bit to earn your way up to that money, you know. But nowadays, a lot of people, they're getting in off social media, you know, it seems like a lot of a lot of programmers and owners and things of that nature are taking these people off social media because of their followers. However, followers don't always lead to ratings. Is what I'm finding out. You know what I mean, just because you got a big social media following doesn't mean those people are going to come follow you on the radio. So, you know, it just depends on, you know, how you work it, I think. But yeah, that's, that's my thing, you know. Just learn, you know, learn, soak up as much as you can from all the vets in the business, and you know you can get to where you want to be.

Matt Cundill  23:06  
Yeah, I find that experience is similar in podcasting. When an Instagrammer starts a podcast, the first four episodes are very popular, and then it starts to sink, and they're like, Well, what's happening? I'm like, well, most of the people that you've encouraged to come over from Instagram really just like to watch you on Instagram for up to three minutes at a time, and they really don't want to sit through 25 minutes of whatever you have to say. And I'd say, Well, you don't have to be offended by that, because what's going to happen if you keep going is that there will be people who will come on board and listen to you, and it's going to take a little while to build that audience. On the audio side, you want to listen to you in long form, and they won't even know that you have this big Instagram following, because they just like to listen to you.

Brion O'Brion  23:50  
Yeah, a lot of famous people have podcasts, but it's kind of hard for a lot of like, you know, us little guys trying to start a podcast because, you know, because you're famous, you know, people are going to come over and check out your podcast for me, if I try to do a podcast, I got to work 10 times as hard to get people to listen, you know what I mean. So I don't envy you, man, I appreciate you doing what you do, Matt, and you know, I hope you continue to have success with

Matt Cundill  24:13  
what you're doing as well. I think for a lot of people, this is like, this will keep this guy off the radio.

Brion O'Brion  24:18  
Tell some good podcasters that probably should be on the radio. You know, how do you cope with being out of work? You know, people always tell me, B, O, B, you always keep a job. But, you know, it's like for me. I always try to, you know, I never burn bridges where I've been. You know, because the same people you you know, when you're up you could fall down and instill in, you know, you never want to burn those bridges. So for me, it was like, you know, I have other skills besides radio, so that's one thing I have in my bag. You know, I was always told by my mentors like, never be pigeonholed to just being able to do one thing in your life. You know, you got to have more things on the burner. Because radio may not be forever. So one thing, I mean, I've been, I've been a manager in retail, you know, I've done nursing, I worked for the federal government as a supervisor for Medicare and Obamacare. So there's a lot of things that I've done besides radio. Even when I was doing those things, I still maybe had a part time job in radio. But you know, it's just you always got to have something to fall back on. I would never just put my eggs in one basket and just hope that this is never going to end, because obviously, things come to an end. Sometimes.

Matt Cundill  25:31  
What did you learn from your spinal surgery? Tons that I can't

Brion O'Brion  25:35  
lift up anything over 20 pounds. Oh, man, that was that was rough. I had three of those things, man. And it's amazing, because I used to be driving down the road, I remember then I would just get a sharp pain in the left hand side of my neck. It would last for a couple minutes, then it would go away. Then, yeah, it'll only happen a lot when I was driving. And then it progressively started getting worse and worse and worse. And then ultimately, I started having numbness going down my arm and my fingers, and then, you know, you go to the hospital, first thing they think is, you're having a heart attack. I'm like, I'm not having a heart attack, you know, I mean, I'm not having a heart attack. I knew I wasn't having a heart attack. But of course, that's the first thing they check out, and then they would send me back. Oh, it's just stress, blah, blah, blah, this you got a pulled muscle. So ultimately, I was driving one day, I remember, I was talking to my niece on the phone. She was like, Brian, you need to go back to the hospital again and have them do an MRI and an x ray on your neck and your spine. I was like, All right, cool. So I went to the hospital. They didn't want to do it at first, and finally they did it. And then they sent this stuff to my doctor, and come to find out, I had some thinning disc in my spine that were compressing on the nerve that was causing the numbness to go down my arm and my fingers on my left hand. And yeah, that was April of 2020, when I had my first surgery. I was in Kansas. Then I had my surgery, and I remember my doctor. She was like, yeah, when you wake up, your arm pain is going to be is going to be gone. So I come out of surgery, I wake up, first thing I do is I move my arm. I was like, man, it's gone. It was like, Yeah, we kind of, I mean, before, after I had the surgery, she's like, Wait, we kind of see something up. The first disc they did was c6 and c7 and then she was like, well, we kind of see something up around c3 and c4 but you should be good for a few more years, everything will be fine. How about October of 2020? I was back in there getting c3 and c4 done, so yeah, and then it was one thing that was crazy. I remember going in prior to the surgery. They were like, Yeah, we got to move your voice blocks over and stuff like that so you could end up being hoarse, you know, to give you the things that could possibly happen. She said you would end up talking like Clint Eastwood for the rest of your life. I'm like, I hope not, because I use my voice for a living. You know what I mean? I can't have that, you know? So ultimately, that didn't happen, thank God, and I was okay. And then I ended up having that surgery in October, and then I got a job offer. Then, no, I didn't get a job. I transferred because I was working for the federal government. So I transferred to Florida, and my best friend, he flew up from Atlanta. All my friends in Kansas helped me pack up a U haul, because I couldn't lift anything that came to my house. Packed up all my stuff, and then he flew it from Atlanta, drove me there I'm driving. I had a collar around my neck so I couldn't it was uncomfortable. My doctor didn't want me to go, but my lease was up, and I was transferring down to Florida to be a family so I could go, eventually start working for the federal government there. And I got to Tampa, and still in the neck brace, and I'd already set up, you know, new spine doctor and PCP and all that stuff before I got there. And then I just felt like I wasn't getting any better. I'm like, What is going on? So doc gave me new MRI, new X ray, all that stuff. And he said, your doctor in Kansas left a bone spur in the back of your spine. It was so close to the front of my spine, the doctor in Tampa, he was like, if you had taken a bad fall, or if you had been in an accident, if somebody would have hit you from behind, that bone would have hit the front of your spine, and I'd have been paralyzed for the rest of my life. So the last one was the worst at all. The first two were done in the front of my neck, but the last one was done in the back. Oh my gosh. That was the hardest one to recover from. It was so much pain. It was the most pain I've ever had in my life. I don't wish that pain on anybody. And then you have a collar around your neck. You had to learn how to sleep on your back. I'm not a back sleeper, so that was really hard. And he was finally starting to heal up, and he put me in a soft collar. Then I was able to go back to work, and this was during covid, so I was working from home at the time, but I had a soft collar around my neck and knock on wood, I haven't had any issues since. But come to find out, my dad had to have the surgery too. He had it because he had the numbness in his fingers and his arm. So we all thought, because my niece now has to have it, my sister has to have it. So we think it may be something that's kind of hereditary in our family that's causing. Us have to have these surgeries on our spines and stuff. So, yeah, it's it was crazy. But, you know, you don't realize how much your neck controls everything I remember the day after my surgery, you know, because they make you get up and walk right away, so you don't have any blood clots and things of that nature. And your legs and moving up your body and the hospital bed will bring you up so far. And then I had to turn and put my feet on the floor. I couldn't stand up. I'm like, Man, I can't stand up. I sat there on the edge of the bed about 30 minutes, just crying. It hurts so bad. They were like, Mr. Brian, take your time. We get it. Just take your time. You know, they had the two PT people there. They had the gator bed around me and the walker in front of me. And I finally had to muster up enough energy to get up, and then I had to stand there probably for another 15 minutes before I could take a step. That's how bad it was. The pain was just so intense, man. But knock on wood, nowadays I'm good. I just can't pick up heavy stuff anymore. And, you know, I can't ride roller coasters anymore, which sucks, because that was my thing to do. I can't do anything that's like going to jar in my neck. No bumper cars. All those days, all that stuff's done, man,

Matt Cundill  31:06  
tell me about predictions for 2026, in radio, what you've got going on at power 96.5 and what you're looking forward to?

Brion O'Brion  31:15  
Lot of great things going on here at the radio station. Obviously, you know, I like to call my station the official ticket hookup station, because we have tickets to everything. I mean, between me and the promotions director, we always get tickets, concert tickets. We giving out TVs for Christmas last year. So we got a lot of stuff that we always give away on the radio station. So I look to continue that. You know, we got some stuff coming up. We're getting ready to do tickets on Monday of next week to see Harry spears. We got some sherry Shepherd tickets coming up. We got a big gospel show coming up. We gave away so much stuff in 2025 we expect 2026 to be even bigger and better. And you know, more great things to come with us. It's just going to be a lot of fun. And you know, because of where we are in Lansing, Michigan, you know, we don't have any big venues here. So one good thing we get to do, we get to send people to Detroit and Grand Rapids and Mount Pleasant for a lot of the you know, the big shows that come to our area, which is

Matt Cundill  32:10  
really, really cool. What about Kalamazoo?

Brion O'Brion  32:13  
No, we haven't seen anybody there yet. I'm not sure how far it is from here, to be honest with you, 75 miles. Okay, all right. Well, here's a little closer going to Mount Pleasant and Grand Rapids, not like an hour a million parts of Detroit's doing an hour or two. So here's not too bad.

Matt Cundill  32:29  
Yeah, I'm embarrassed to say I used to know every capital in the US, and then I'm like, oh, Lansing is the capital of Michigan. Boy, am I glad that didn't wind up on some test. I would have messed that up, right, right?

Brion O'Brion  32:42  
I would have never knew that either. Plus, you know, and then our station, we're number three in the market. My goal is to try to make us number one, even with the mix off. Thing that I just did, you know, I sit on a press release to all the media, all the different TV stations and around and, you know, some local print. And I was able to get channel 10 to come out and do a story on us. They did it once before for Memorial Day, and they came back to do another one for the new year. Stay mixed off. So that was fun. So, you know, I try to always put the station out in a positive light and get all the press that we can. Because obviously, like I said, I want my station to be number one. Three is okay, but one's better.

Matt Cundill  33:21  
Brian, it is so good to you again, and I hope to see you by the end of the year.

Brion O'Brion  33:25  
Yes, sir man, maybe we can meet up at the Conclave this year.

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  33:28  
The sound off podcast is written and hosted by Matt Cundill, produced by Evan sir Minsky, edited by Taylor MacLean, social media by Aidan Glassey, another great creation from the sound off media company, there's always more at sound off podcast.com. You.