Kat Kountry 105 is 25 years old today

John Connor reminded me this morning that it's our 25th anniversary! April 1, 1990, KRFO-FM began offering separate programing from the AM side, offering country music on All Hit Country K105. It was about four or five years later that we went to Kat Kountry 105.

A couple of years after the launch, sports director Roy Koenig came on board, and I joined a year later. As for John, I think he's always been around. Did you know John's Social Security number is 27? Did I mention we like to tease each other?

Looking back, it's been kind of uneventful, and that's actually good. I've crossed paths with some real beauts in radio but very, very few the past 25 years. Other than a couple of part-timers falling asleep on the air, there hasn't been much.

I suppose I'd better look back at a few things that have happened over the past quarter-century at Kat Kountry 105. I've got a few memories from the Steele County Fair. One involved an attempt to interview a little kid outside the rabbit barn. It's air time and the little tyke wouldn't say a word, but he or she did wet their pants. I'm standing with the mic and we're on and here it comes, running down his or her leg into a puddle.

Another time I was talking to a person before going on the air for an interview and the lady responded with a yes several times. Then just before going on the air, I asked if there was something she wanted to highlight about her business. She shrugged and said something in Vietnamese. Oh, oh seconds to air time and I think the only English this lady knows is the word yes. Close call. I had a similar situation where I was chatting with a real nice fellow and I was thinking maybe he'd like to talk on the air. Next it was like a switch flipped. He began ranting about white power and he was really getting worked up.That could have been a fiasco if I had gone ahead and put him on the air.

This is a bit gross but it stands out in my memory. Rep. Gil Gutknecht was on our stage with a bunch of veterans. One of the elderly vets sitting on the edge of our stage in front of everyone removed his dentures and proceeded to clean them with his tongue. There he is licking his dentures off in front of everyone. A guy just can't forget something like that!

I  recall one time when we were knocked off the air because a weasel had entered through the floor and climbed up into the FM transmitter. It wasn't a pretty scene. Fried weasel.

In the early '90s one Christmas Eve we did a series of reports on Santa sightings. I recorded them right up until midnight. I felt mischievous, and in my last report, I had Santa land on the roof of the radio station downtown and then I had John Connor on the roof bugging Santa about what gifts Santa had brought him. I then had Santa push John off the roof of the building. Just having Santa land on the roof seemed like such a dull ending. I never heard anyone say anything about this.

There's a few memories of 25 years of Kat Kountry 105. No promises for what I'll remember in the next 25 years as I'll be getting old and nutty, I suppose.