My Wife Fired Me

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 17^th 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.