I worked at KDES, Palm Springs from fall of 1977 to spring of 1979 under Program Director Ty Stevens back when KDES was owned by Tourtelot Broadcasting. KDES was an Adult Contemporary station at that time on the AM side and Beautiful music on the FM side. The station's on-air talent over the years has included Mike Wagner, Thom Pinto, Stephen M. Smith, Mike "Music" Mason, Charlie Knox, Ryan Mitchell, Jefferson Stone, and Amy Hiatt.

When Ty Stevens hired Amy Hiatt to replace Thom Pinto and placed her ahead of me into the 7 P.M. to Midnight slot I felt passed-over and began plotting my exit. I knew I wanted to work in a top 10 market and at an FM rock station, so for two weeks straight I brought in rock albums from home and began rocking the Palm Springs desert from Midnight to 4 A.M. and would then return to the regular format for the remainder of the show. You see I knew that my boss lived in Palm Desert (30 miles south of Palm Springs) and could not receive a signal from the station at his house once the antennae power was reduced to adhere to FCC regulations for night time operations. What I later found out was that Ty had a recorder in his office and periodically would record an air-check of my show.

I still remember vividly that faithful Wednesday morning when Ty asked me to see him in his office after he had completed his morning shift at 10 A.M. I entered into Ty's office and sat down in a chair facing Ty from across his desk. Ty then reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a cassette tape which he flung across the desk at me as he stated "I air-checked your show Monday night and I don't recognize any of the songs you were playing as being on our playlist." Needless to say I was fired, but my revenge was sweet.

I strolled next store to the Record Alley, one of KDES's biggest advertisers, and informed the owner, Jim Jameson whom I had befriended while working at KDES, that I had been fired and Jim bless his heart promptly canceled all of his advertising with KDES. As I was getting ready to leave the KDES parking lot Ty Stevens stormed out the back door red-faced and livid demanding to know what I had said to Jim. That was a great feeling of power and my revenge felt so very sweet.

It was from the air-checks that I had recorded during those two weeks that I got my next job at the FM rock station in San Antonio, TX - Z100FM.