Go Sharks!

Go Sharks!

Friday 05-14-2010 9:56am PT

The Sharks open the next round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs this SUNDAY at NOON right here on KFOX, the official radio home of the SAN JOSE SHARKS!



All I can say is- GO SHARKS!



This is it!



In all the excitement earlier this week I didn't mention that NATE THE GREAT turned one year old on May 12. My grandson is one year old and I am so proud of him! He is amazing and I love him!

Have a GREAT WEEKEND EVERYBODY!

I'll see you next week!

Thursday

Thursday

Thursday 05-13-2010 10:24am PT

Thursday, day of joy, day of light, day of love... Thursday, day of potentialities... Day of dreams... Welcome to the magic that is THURSDAY!



Thursday comes on tiny footsteps through the cow field, Thursday has many suitors but one marries Thursday, because Thursday is a lonely day. A day or reflection. A day of meditation. Thursday’s not putting on any airs, it knows its place in the week. Not as glamorous as Friday and nowhere near as cool as Saturday, Thursday has it’s own style.



Thursday is often seen having lunch with mysterious Asian women at trendy restaurants that no one knows the name of. Thursday speaks several languages and is quick to point out other people’s faults. For, at its core, Thursday is a non-confrontational day, a day for Polish food, a day to pick up the dry cleaning, a day to flush the colon.

Famous people are often born on Thursday, creative people like Shel Silverstein and Ersil Hickey. It’s all in how you serve it- Thursday, it’s not just for meatloaf anymore.

Mr. T. says, "I pity the fool who disrespects Thursday..."



Thursday has its own website. It's on Facebook and MySpace too. Thursday is looking for more friends. Thursday doesn't have any roadies, but it knows who to call to get things done. Most people can afford Monday through Thursday, it's Friday, Saturday and Sunday that are too expensive.

Thursday is the Etch-A-Sketch of days.



The Thighmaster was invented on a Thursday. So was the Hula Hoop. Thursday has earned its beans and now expects them to be counted. Holding the spot between Wednesday and Friday, Thursday maintains order within the week. What would life be like without Thursday? Chaos! Wednesday would crash right into Friday, all the stuff that didn’t do Monday and Tuesday would get blown off. So, show some respect for Thursday.

To Serve Man....... What is Radio?

To Serve Man

Wednesday 05-12-2010 10:40am PT

What is Radio?

A lot of people ask me, they say, hey Greg, you’re in radio, what’s it like? How do you do it? I mean what’s involved? Well, to those individuals I say, I’m glad you asked. Radio is very simple and at the same time very complex, it involves gentle rocking motions and occasionally the formation of ideas, but lets not get ahead of ourselves here, the whole thing about radio is this: it’s free.



I play music and talk on this end, and you tune it in and listen on that end. It’s that simple. But how do the sounds get there, you may ask? Good question. The sounds get there by way of billions of tiny bugs, called micro-schlubs, who fly at supersonic speeds and carry miniature cd players on their backs. Well, not exactly. It's weirder than that.

There are 2 types of radio waves: AM and FM- Amplitude Modulation and Frequency Modulation. They are broadcast from the radio tower and travel out in all directions.



But they don't stop there. Some of those radio waves keep going, pass through the earth's atmosphere and keep going into outer space. In fact, there may be aliens out there right now listening to shows I did 10 years ago (they must be out around Jupiter by now, traveling along quite nicely, heading out of the solar system.)



Is E.T. listening? Does he dig Led Zep? Don't laugh. They could be out there. I just read where Stephen Hawking said that we shouldn't be advertising our place in the galaxy- because if there really are aliens out there, they may not be as friendly and moral as we imagine. In fact they may be into conquering and occupying, and stripping natural resources. It might be a bad scene.



Remember the Twilight Zone episode called "To Serve Man" where the aliens come and take us back their home planet. They leave a book behind, which is finally translated. The title? To Serve Man. It's a cook book. They want to eat us.

Spoken Word Geek

Spoken Word Geek

Tuesday 05-11-2010 10:46am PT

How did I come to be on the radio? It's in my blood. I grew up listening to the radio. I had hit records back in the 80's because of radio. I am a real radio junky. Oh, and by the way, I love my job. The hours are brutal but the rewards are great and I feel like we have a special relationship. Being on the radio is a privilege. It's sacred. I can't believe I've been here for over 13 years. I'm truly a lucky guy.

But what about my background? It's in music, right? Well, sort of...

When I was a kid I had a cheap little tape recorder that I got for Christmas one year and I used to make fake radio shows with my cousin. I understand those tapes still exist somewhere.





I grew up a spoken word geek. What's a spoken word geek? Well, I used to get spoken word records out of the library and take them home and pour over them. They had mostly poetry- TS Elliot, Dylan Thomas, E.E. Cummings, Carl Sandburg, and such. You had to be there...

When I got a little older I discovered a guy on the radio who used to broadcast from New York on station WOR every night. His name was Jean Shepherd and he was a monologist. He's the guy who wrote A Christmas Story. Well, Jean Shepherd was a legendary radio personality and basically invented talk radio. He told autobiographical stories. That's it. He just told stories. I loved the guy. Used to listen every night in my room.





Then a friend turned me onto Lord Buckley- the father of hip talk. There are no words to describe Lord Buckley- you just have to experience it. People tell me my own radio style is somewhat influenced by Lord Buckley. I don't know. Check out Lord Buckley.



I had a cousin who owned a Ken Nordine Word Jazzalbum and it blew my socks off. Ken Nordine had a voice for the ages and some of his classic bits- like Flibbity-Jib, and Reaching Into In- are still as fresh as the day they were recorded.



And then there was Lenny Bruce. Lenny influenced my whole generation of comics and DJ's. Lenny's voices were incredible. He was cutting edge for his day. I remember seeing him on TV once and really being impressed. Religions Incorporated and Thank You Masked Man are hall of fame quality bits. Lenny was cut from a different cloth.



So, if you want to know my major radio influences, they are: Jean Shepherd, Lord Buckley, Ken Nordine, and Lenny Bruce.

Mother's Day, Dallas Braden, The Sharks Vanquish a Vampire!

Mother's Day, Dallas Braden, The Sharks Vanquish a Vampire!

Monday 05-10-2010 10:58am PT

I missed my mom on Mother's Day this year. I miss her every year since she passed, but this year a little more than usual. Maybe it's because that for the first time, my own daughter, my little girl, is a mother herself! I called her early Sunday morning to wish her a happy Mother's Day and she was asleep! Of course she was asleep. That's what mothers do! They lose sleep, they take care of business, they change diapers, they do it all. No wonder she was pooped! So, I say, if you didn't talk to your mom yesterday, call her today. I'm sure she will love it. God bless the mothers of the world!

History in Oakland yesterday- Dallas Braden, pitcher for the Oakland A's, threw a perfect game on Mother's Day. Dallas's mom passed away when he was in High School from cancer, and he was raise by his grandmother- who happened to be there for Mother's Day and saw her grandson pitch the first perfect game for the A's in 40 years. The last time it was done here was by Catfish Hunter, and that was a while back! There have been only 19 perfect games in the entire history of baseball, and now Dallas Braden has carved his name into the Hall Of Fame.



The Sharks made some history of their own at the Shark Tank on Saturday night- beating the Red Wings and advancing to the semi finals of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They will play the winner of the Chicago-Vancouver series next. The winner of that goes to the finals. It's enough to make you think- are we the team of destiny?



Dan Rusanowsky, voice of the San Jose Sharks on KFOX, told me last week that beating Detroit was a little like killing a vampire- to do it right you have to drive a stake through its heart. The Sharks drove the stake home on Saturday, ending Detroit's season. Now that the vampire is dead- we have to kill the Wolfman and Frankenstein next!





I want to alert you guys that I have been nominated for Man Of The Year by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It's all about raising money to defeat cancer- and you know I hate cancer! Please check out my fund-raising page elsewhere on this website and make a donation! I would really appreciate it. I'm sick of losing Friends to cancer. Won't you join me in finding a cure? It's the right thing to do.

I don't know why, but it seems like just about everything can give you cancer these days. I quit smoking, started eating right and exercising since 2007. What else can a guy do? I want to see my grandson Nate grow up and graduate from college! Let's destroy cancer! Let's crush it! Let's render it useless!