AMJOCK.COM Confessions of Brian Pierce, a morning radio disc jockey.

Remember the movie with Clint Eastwood?  Clints a DJ who deals with an obsesssed fan.  This was the original Fatal Attraction.  Bad idea.  I’ve dealt with a few obsessed people over the years.  All when I was younger - and all - really lonely women who listened to radio late at night.  Going to mornings pretty much stopped the calls & visits dead in their tracks.  If you imagine that evening & all night jocks get calls from strange women, you’re right.  Some just show up at the station - and while walking to your car - they spring on you.  It always starts the same way.  You get a call.  You’re nice.  They call back the next day.  You’re nice again.  They call three days in a row.  Then twice a show, then three times, then four - then you have to decide if you want to continue to be nice.  I’ve been really stalked only two times that I can remember.  On both occasions I was nice even after the calls escalated to multiple times a night.  Then I made the nighttime DJ mistake - all nighttime DJ’s make.  I agreed to meet these women.  Let’s just say I knew within 3 seconds of meeting - it "wasn’t gonna work out."  I’ve never had my life threatened.  I’ve been threatened with, "I’ll never listen to you ever ever again for as long as I live!"  I’ll stay on the morning show thank you - where the women who call are smart, career minded and mostly married.

Mom Glass was a lady in her early 70’s. Her husband had died - and her children were of course, grown.  Mom Glass, she wanted to be called Mom, adopted 3 or 4 of us on air at KLLS.  She called, and we talked to her.  She visited the station, and we invited her into the control room.  She cooked for us - and we ate it.  This is the odd part.  As a rule, when you do what I do - you do not eat listener food (you never know.)  "Mom" seemed harmless - and she was - she just liked to "cook for her boys."  It wasn’t unusual for me to go on air at 2pm - met with a plate of hot pork chops, mashed potatos & corn.  She would carefully wrap everything to keep it warm.  My own mother at the time was 1200 miles away - and Mom Glass was more "Grandmotherly" to me - but I came to love this adorable woman.  I imagined her own kids too busy to take the time to talk with her.  I imagined this woman eating alone, for what might have been years - and somehow she latches onto this radio station.  I don’t think she listened much, I never cared.  We were giving this woman purpose, and that was reward in itself.  Mom Glass must have died - she’d be just about 100 now.  Just know - Mom Glass - that "your boys" - still think of you.

"Wierd Marvin" was a listener of mine in San Antonio at KLLS.  We aired calls from listeners often, and Marvin liked being on the radio.  Marvin had a home-spun sense of humor and spoke with a south Texas drawl.  He became a fixture on not only my show, but many of the other shows.  Marvin is the guy that put me onto "Texas-isms" like when it rains hard - it’s a "Texas turd floater" - or when it’s 110 degrees, it’ll "Take the starch out of your diapers."  More than once Marvin invited me to his home for barbecue.   I don’t do this often, but in Marvins case I made an exception.  It was there I discovered why he was called "Wierd Marvin." Once after dinner he wanted to show me his picture book of nude photos of his wife.  Marvin fancied himself a photographer.  I wouldn’t call them tasteless, he tried to make them artistic.  Yes, it was odd - especially when he offered to snap pictures of my wife.  We declined, and moved away before he could invite us over again.  As if that’s not enough reason to remember Wierd Marvin, shortly before I left San Antonio, he entered one of our station contests and won a new Camaro.  He was thrilled.  This is when I learned that if you want to make a listener for life, give them a car.  I only wish I had more cars to give away.  All the best to you Marvin, where-ever you are.