Christmas at WJTW - 1590 AM Ch. 02

Kimberly got her degree and became a Physician's Assistant. She works for a small medical practice in Milton. Henry, on the other hand, decided to follow me into the radio business. He has the same love of radio that I do and learned the business from the inside out. He was also quite a good salesman.

Traci and I wanted to have another child, but that wasn't possible because female problems finally forced Traci to have a hysterectomy. With more kids off the table, Traci and I poured our energies and love into the two kids we had and, of course, our radio business. Yes, Traci still worked at the station.

As for Amanda and Chad, they got married, and I have to admit that seeing them around town holding hands and cuddling was hard to take at first. But the union ended five years later when Chad was recalled to the home office because he had screwed up the company's southern expansion.

Amanda refused to move to Philadelphia, and after a bitter divorce, they parted ways. There were rumors that one or both had cheated. My money was on both, but I never learned the truth. It's funny, but I now see Amanda on a regular basis now. After she and Chad divorced, Amanda moved back into the house across the field and continued to run her business.

One day, there was a knock on my office door, and I was surprised to see Amanda standing there. She had been divorced for about three months at the time, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what she wanted.

"Can I interrupt you for a minute, Tom?" Amanda asked.

She still looked about the same, but I wasn't particularly happy to see her. I hoped she wasn't here to start some kind of argument.

"Of course," I responded, motioning toward one of the chairs in front of my desk. "What can I do for you?"

"I'd like to start advertising my business again on the radio. And don't tell me that you don't have any time slots open. I've been listening, and I know you can fit me in. I also know that Maggie's Interior Designs aren't advertising any longer."

I laughed. "Okay, Amanda, how much do you want to spend?"

After working out the financial part, I took Amanda into the production studio to cut her commercials. She, of course, wanted to voice her own spots, which was smart.

After finishing the production work, I felt awkward sitting there with former wife. She finally broke the silence with a sigh. "I know this is very late and probably doesn't mean anything to you, but I am truly very sorry for what I did to you. I have no excuse other than Chad really got in my head."

I sat stunned for a moment but finally smiled and nodded. "No, it means a lot. Thank you."

"You know," Amanda continued, "the longer I was with Chad, the more I realized that I had made a huge mistake. I came to realize that everything you said about him was true. But, by then, I had burned all the bridges that could have led me back to you. But if we could be like distant friends, I would be really happy about that."

I agreed, and Amanda remains one of our advertisers to this day. We don't socialize except at civic functions. And strangely, Traci and Amanda get along better than Amanda and I do. And since Amanda is an advertiser on the station, I meet with her whenever she wants to change her spots. Her business is going great guns, but her love life, not so much so. She was engaged twice, but both relationships fell apart, and I don't have a clue as to why, nor do I care.

I sold Henry's house and netted out about $211,000. I use a good part of that money to have a new tower erected on the ten acres. With the tower gone in Milton, I put up a new building for the station. Sadly, this one doesn't have a residential side to it. I also built a small studio on the new tower site. Everything was designed so that we could broadcast from either location. We have a designated internet line between the old studios and the new transmitter location. As soon as we were broadcasting from the new tower site, business took a huge jump.

Lew still works here at the station, and he hasn't had a drink in years. He even has a steady girlfriend now. I don't know if they'll ever get married, but they seem very happy together.

Jimmy got a job with one of the larger stations in Charlotte and does the afternoon drive slot. I got a look at the Arbitron ratings, and Jimmy is number two for his time slot. Also, Jimmy got engaged to a girl from back here in Milton. They plan to get married in August. Traci and I have already sent back that we will definitely be attending.

Jimmy would come back to Milton when he was on vacation from time to time. He would sometimes sit in with Lew or our new afternoon DJ, Todd Richards. But now that he's signed a contract with his station, he can't do that anymore. Still, Jimmy will slip in from time to time, change his name, and put on a fake voice. Everyone in Milton knows it's him.

You're probably wondering what became of Chad. Like I said earlier, he always was an arrogant, vindictive prick, but he was not nearly as smart as he thought he was. After Amanda and I were married, he had actually kept tabs on both of us. His parents had originally wanted him to set up in Charlotte, but he convinced them that Greenville would be better. But apparently, this was all part of his plan to pay me back. He really is a sick puppy.

He was so busy pursuing Amanda that he really didn't pay attention to the business. And when I started taking some of his advertisers. This so enraged him that he made a bad mistake. He convinced his family to buy an FM station in Greenville. He paid $650,000 for it, which, in my opinion, was about $200,000 more than it was worth. Needless to say, he couldn't make it profitable because he didn't know what he was doing. And by the time Chad's parents figured this out, they decided to cut their losses and sell the station.

However, by the time they put the station up for sale, it was in terrible financial shape. I decided to buy it and negotiated a price of $395,000. However, the main reason I bought it was that I learned that I could move the FM antenna to our new AM location and increase the power. Until we make that move, I have Henry running the FM station, and he already has it breaking even.

At least half of the newspapers Chad set up were closed down because they couldn't turn a profit. The one in Milton, however, is still operating. TriStar doesn't own it anymore, though. Two brothers bought it, and the first thing they did was sit down with me. We both agreed to offer an advertising package combining the newspaper and the radio station. They appear to be doing quite well and just bought another paper two towns over. We'll work the same deal for that one also.

I have heard rumors that Chad has been exiled to a newspaper in Maine, but I don't know or care if that is true. However, I know for sure that Chad will not be running TriStar. His father recently announced his retirement, and Chad's brother, Michael, will be taking over.

It's Christmas time again, and the kids are home from school. And yes, I had a fireplace built into the new home, and we continue to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" every Christmas Eve in front of a fire that I start with Henry's old lighter.

I thank God for allowing Henry to watch over my family and me. But before I end this, I have one final story I'd like to share with you. Shortly after my son Henry woke up from his Covid sickness, he told me about a dream he had. My son told me that he dreamed about walking down this road toward a bright light, but a soldier stopped him. The soldier told him that he was going the wrong way and took my son by the hand, leading him back to the other end of the road. And that was when he woke up.

"Daddy," my son said to me with a puzzled look on his face, "the soldier that he'd see us all again someday."

I've only told that story a few times, and quite naturally, no one really believes it except for my family. I don't care whether they do or not. Since shortly after my car accident, I have believed that Henry has been my guardian angel, and I thank God that I had the privilege to be his friend.

Merry Christmas, and as Tiny Tim said, "God bless us everyone."