Hmmm.....

In 1997, after being fired from my flying job, I jumped back into radio, my second home. I went to work for a NewsTalk station in Redding, KQMS, KQMS/Redding Radio as a board operator. I worked my way up from weekends to being a reporter to the evening then the morning news anchor slot.

I loved it.

What I really wanted to do was be a talkshow host. I wanted the 1-hour morning slot or the 2-hour afternoon drive. Heck...I'd have even taken one of the Saturday morning slots. I was engineering all of them anyways.

What I found out was that I wasn't ready for it. My wife says I had become arrogant and frankly, she didn't like me all that much in the two years I was working at the radio station.

But now...I see an opening I've been wishing for for a long time...read on!

Talk-show host Roberts says KQMS booted him
By Marc Beauchamp, Record Searchlight
August 31, 2005

Radio talk-show host Ray Roberts, a fixture of KQMS for the past seven years, was fired late Monday afternoon, the veteran broadcaster said Tuesday.

Roberts, 69, was co-host of "In Conversation" from 3:15 to 5 p.m. weekday afternoons. The show will continue with co-host Steve Gibson and Jim Bremer, who will temporarily replace Roberts, General Manager Lisa Geraci said.

The abrupt departure of Roberts, who also served as the station's program manager, doesn't presage a format change for KQMS, Geraci said. "It's a business decision," she said. "Radio is constantly evolving."

KQMS is one of six radio properties Regent Broadcasting of Redding owns.

"I was blindsided completely," said Roberts, a native of Memphis, Tenn., who has been in radio since the mid-'50s. "It floored me ... there was no warning, no argument, nothing." On Tuesday afternoon, the station's Web site still featured a photo gallery of Roberts' summer vacation to the Oregon coast.

Asked about his plans, Roberts said, "I love Redding. I'm not going anywhere."

Reporter Marc Beauchamp can be reached at 225-8221 or at mbeauchamp@redding.com.

Copyright 2005, Redding. All Rights Reserved.

Ray Roberts. My wife calls him "marble mouth". He's hearing impaired, wears hearing aids and has a tendency to talk fast and mumble. He's also from Memphis so throw in a southern dialect and you have one very interesting character. I've enjoyed him on the radio, he is opinionated, but at his age, he's allowed to be. Now it's time for new blood.

And I think I might throw my hat into the ring.

We'll see...

Eric