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After
four years in the Air Force I moved up the dial six times
before the
Detroit
radio station I'd listened
to as a kid was ready to hire me. But the night time Top 40 job
didn't last long. The Tigers beat the Cardinals in the
World Series and Tom Dean was
the last disc jockey ever heard on WJBK Radio 15. At the end of my show,
stroke of midnight Christmas eve, WJBK disappeared from the dial.
The Storer Broadcasting Company had quietly undertaken a year long study
to determine what Detroiters wanted to hear
-- country
music, but with a Saturday Night Live style boot in the butt! With few exceptions the entire
rock n' roll staff was fired the following
Monday. I must have been the lowest paid as I was the only jock they
kept. Station power was raised to the maximum allowed and "Big D" reached the north pole -- WJBK
became known as WDEE -- our competition joked it stood for "We've Done Everything Else". Much to
my surprise, I became one of
America's first modern country music rebels. The "Big D" was
an instant huge success; the audience got everything they wanted and a
whole lot more. The daughter of Max Fisher called me to introduce herself soon after I popped up on the air in Detroit. Because her father was the richest man in Michigan, Mary Fisher knew a lot of important people on a first name basis, including more than one President of the United States. Mary was the keynote speaker at the '92 Republican Convention. I met "Henry" (Henry Ford the 2nd) through Mary at a cocktail party and was flattered to learn The Duece listened to my show (he quoted something I'd said on the air weeks earlier), more on that later, read on.
Competition in a 5 million
person radio market is intense. Fifty stations could be heard in
Detroit.
The Big D
was extraordinarily well planned -- market study/focus groups data was
phone book thick. I was in the right place at the right time. Peter Storer, a
blind man (the secret weapon in the radio division), selected me to host a
clone of the company's red hot midday KLAC Los Angeles talk show called
Fem Forum.
Doctor Laura Schlesinger started her career listening to the Los
Angeles show, and Bill Balance (the
LA show's host) wrote a
tell all book about his
motel room
Billboard Magazine honored my work on the air, as did The Detroit News and Free Press. Those pictures of me on the cover of Sundays' Parade Magazines were taken by renowned photographer Tony Spina. Storer spared no expense. Promotion for Big D jocks was first class -- our faces were everywhere -- buses, billboards, posters, TV, newspapers, T-shirts, caricatures. Free restaurants, movies, cars, Hawaiian vacations, playing cards with Ron Kowalski (the sausage heir), a day named in my honor at Tiger Stadium. People love hanging around celebrities no matter who they are (Sanjaya Malakar invited to a White House gathering proves that). Newspaper articles and press releases told Detroiters how hot my show was. The truth? I had little idea of what I'd gotten into. Lesson #1: "Always do your homework!"
Because the Fem Forum aired human experiences, hilarious to tragic,
the show got lots of attention and gave lots of people ideas -- newspaper
columnists, psychologists, wannabe broadcasters, sideshow carneys -- an endless
stream of copy cats followed -- doctors, lawyers (Geraldo), politicans (Jerry Springer), Oprah, the Newlywed Game, Cheating
Spouses, the reality shows. They all came from a seed in the mind of a blind
man whose family happened to own a few radio and TV stations. There had never
been anything like it on radio or TV before Fem Forum. My Detroit
version dominated midday ratings during its entire 10 year run. The
idea behind it live
People tugged at me from all directions. One guy sent his wife to the station to see if I'd be
interested in swapping. She was a beauty queen brunette who
smiled with a gleam in her eye when I stammered: "I, er...my wife
would never go for it." The following night she showed up at
my nightclub appearance with her husband and sister in a motor home in
the parking lot. Storer warned me of the hazards of being a
celebrity. What else did Peter Storer know? Tom Dean, HSG (High School Graduate) -- I couldn't even pronounce sci-college-ee. Show biz. John Mazer, the WDEE program manager, guided my every move. Mazer had a master's degree in communications; I admired his savvy and miss the brainstorming with him. It was from John I received instructions on how far to go with the show. Storer wanted it titillating, which equaled ratings and revenue. Everybody made out like a bandit, 'cept you know who. A couple of lawyers approached the station wanting to package up the highlights from the show (I have thousands of hours recorded) and offered to pay me one penny (yes, one cent) for each album sold. One of them is in politics today and I'd bet every penny he's up to his old tricks...who did you say that bailout money was going to?
Not a day went by I didn't get hate mail.
But why blame me? It was the crazy callers who wouldn't
shut up. When I didn't respond to the mail (I was told not to by Storer) one writer began attacking my family: "Was that your daughter I
saw gang banging on Cass Avenue last week?" Diana was 10 years old for
god's sake. Another listener claimed she'd received orders from
"outer space" to join me and Deano (the Big D morning DJ) in heaven.
Flat Rock
Off duty
Pontiac cops
acted as part-time bouncers
when my business partner and I owned "The Widetrack Inn" a
nightclub-bar-restaurant in downtown Pontiac. The chief of police had a fit when
he found out, something about "hired guns", and was waiting on
our stoop the morning after he found out. Pontiac was where I learned my first real estate lesson about "location, location,
location." In
our excitement of opening a new business, we ove
The Wide Track Inn was a catch 22. To stay in business we were forced to hire big name
country stars to attract customers from outside the Pontiac area who knew
nothing about the neighborhood where our bar was located. They
didn't know (like Chevy Chase in the movie "Vacation") not to stop to ask
for directions.
The Fem Forum was a simple idea -- women tattling on men, and a monster of a hit because it was hyper-local and
full of surprises. On my days off WDEE would air "The Best of the
Fem Forum" and I'd drive around to see who was tuned in. Anyone
listening to it had The Big D turned up loud Not everybody liked the Fem Forum, including Gloria Steinem, and WDEE management loved the attention. Newspaper articles, pro and con, helped keep the show on top for 10 years; word of mouth pushed it along 5 years longer than anyone had predicted. Sponsors paid top dollar and Fem Forum was always sold out. I learned it doesn't matter what people say about you as long as they get your name right. Everybody wanted a piece of the action -- at one time I worked for the Harlem Globetrotters. The Fem Forum survived several ownership changes until religious broadcasters finally bought WDEE and canned everybody. The Fem Forum remained the highest rated radio program in the middle of the day in Detroit until the plug was pulled in 1980. Another country station, WWWW wanted to resurrect it a few years later. I passed. I've never liked living in the past. I'd guess that all hip country stations today hear complaints from die hard country listeners about "today's music." I tell them "country music today is as much about about real life as it always has been, but sounds so much better technically." I believe if Hank Williams Sr. were alive he'd love today's music, especially Big and Rich. I can't wait to hear the next generation of country music.
It took another year before I could bust out of Toledo. Detroit called again. This time it was WJBK Radio 15, the station I'd grown up listening to. Although I had record ratings in Ohio ("round on the ends hi in the middle") and my son was born there, I do not have fond memories of Toledo. Fast forward to 10 years later...after Big D was sold, I moved on. Big Jim Edwards, who'd made a name for himself at the Big 8 CKLW and had competed against me in Toledo got the job as program manager of WXYZ, an ABC owned and operated station. Jim hired me to help in their transition from music to music/talk at WXYZ (I had no idea the station would be going 100% talk a year later). Thanks for severance clauses as this city-slicker-turned-hayseed ended up on the wrong side of the tracks in that move. Incidentally, WXYZ was the second time Big Jim Edwards forgot to tell me something. The first I was on the air in Toledo at WOHO. Our studios had windows to the outside so that listeners could look in. One night a guy knocked on the glass yelling that he was "a disc jockey passing through town" asking if he could get "a quick tour." I wouldn't do it today, but back then I said yes and proudly explained the entire operation to him, including our future plans. The man was Big Jim Edwards, and he forgot to mention that he was moving to Toledo to become my new competition as nighttime disc jockey at the rock station across town. Big Jim never did beat me in the ratings. He moved to CKLW a year later.
WXYZ was a hornet's nest and I wasn't the only one
uncomfortable with the station dropping music in favor of wall-to-wall
issues-oriented talk. Radio Hall of fame's Dick Purtan needed music between his
phone calls, too. Most of the calls you hear on Dick's morning show
are edited for timing the day before. Like Seinfeld, Purtan leaves
nothing to chance.
Dick and his team spend hours fine tuning every bit,
word, sentence, grunt. Detroit's radio pope makes millions just
doing simple homework. Donald Trump is a billionaire for the same
reason. Trump is prepared to counter any objection long before he
ever lets a seller know he's interested in buying their property.
My Detroit midday show followed Dick Purtan twice, first at WXYZ
and three years later at WCZY. Dick could not relate to the audiences I
attracted. He had to sit in for me once at WXYZ when my old Jeep broke down and moved to
CKLW
in Canada shortly
after. Dick made Water and Oil -- I simply "did not belong" (quoting Ted Knight in Caddyshack). WXYZ was known for giving birth to real celebrities, Mike Wallace and The Lone Ranger among them. When we took a vacation our replacements would be celebrities like the Mayor, Bozo, George Hamilton, Soupy Sales. In the week he sat in the for one of us, I got to know a really terrific guy, Ted Knight, who didn't take himself too seriously. He really was the kind of a guy you'd like to have as a next door neighbor. I can watch a good comedy again and again, Caddyshack is my all time favorite. "Professionalism," "quality" and "image" were more than flashy public relations spin at ABC. My midday show enjoyed the best hands down producer in talk radio, Jack Springer. He produced the long running David Newman Show and maintained a phone book full of home numbers of movie stars, leaders of industry, presidents. I learned about being a serious broadcaster from Jack Springer, an African-American.
Fred Wolf, Mickey Shore, Dick Purtan and Lee Allen -- some of the biggest names in radio -- worked at WXYZ at one time or another. Lee Allen gave MoTown, Berry Gordy Jr. and Stevie Wonder their start. Lee Allen and Tom Clay were the influences for me becoming a disk jockey. WXYZ changed format several times through the years and was eventually sold. It is known today as WXYT, an all sports station. "Things change, time to move on" After WXYZ I moved to WOMC-FM, back to being a full time disc jockey again. Playing to a music audience is what I do best. Although Adult Contemporary was a new format for me, I clicked with both male and female listeners. It took only a year to build up the WOMC midday audience, which helped me to negotiate a better deal at WCZY. Gannett (USA Today) hired me. Unfortunately, the bigger salary came back to haunt me when Purtan was lured away from CKLW-AM to join us at WCZY-FM. Unfortunately, his AM audience didn't follow him to FM right away, and certainly not soon enough to suit Gannett (newspaper people are impatient, deadline oriented). Dick cost more than the entire rest of the WCZY staff put together, and Dick signs no cut contracts, which was a drain on the budget. He learned to do that in Maryland. As good as Purtan is he was canned soon after being hired at a Baltimore radio station. Gannett was forced to cut staff to pay Purtan's salary and the cost of promoting him. Dick's picture was on every bus inside and out, taxis, TV, magazines, postcards, billboards, newspapers. But nothing seemed to work, at least not right away. Arbitron radio ratings can be slow coming, and more than a few owners don't have patience and will change format immediately following a bad book. Gannett disposed of the last of their radio stations by 1997. Another struggling AC station, WCLS (the old WABX), was my next stop. A few months later WCLS was sold to a pharmacist. Not surprisingly, pharmacists know nothing about radio programming or staffing a station. He hired Jim Harper, a disc jockey friend, to run it. That mistake cost the druggist a pile of dough. History shows that 99.5 FM was sold again and again to low ball buyers who failed to do their homework. Life is all about luck and I'd lost the handle on my four leaf clover.
Through the years and a variety of formats
Arbitron says listeners like the way I do radio
shows. Just as I was influenced, I've been told that my radio style has also influenced a few
-- not always successfully.
Another regular caller, although I didn't believe her at the time, said she was Stevie Wonder's girlfriend and that he was jealous that she called me. Stevie Wonder picked my voice out of a crowd on two occasions years later. Listen to his song Part Time Lover (it may be about "Part Time Tom"). Hank The Deuce hooked up with Kathryn Duross
at an auto show. She was a model, and also from the other side of the
tracks. We both graduated from predominantly black high schools in
downtown Detroit. I lived in a white suburb 15 miles
west and rode to school with my best friend and his father who was a tool
and die teacher at Wilbur Wright Technical High School. I selected Wright to learn the electrical trade
and because my friend's dad would give me a ride to school everyday --
accept when I was a few seconds late and forced to ride a city bus.
It was a two mile walk to the bus stop. Word of warning: never
become friends with a kid whose father is a teacher or you may not get to
school 'til after lunch. Kathy Duross went to Cass Tech to learn how
to marry. After high school graduation I was nominated to the US Air Force Academy by Congresswoman Martha Griffiths. Flat feet kept me out of the academy, so I enlisted. Near the end of my 4 year tour of duty the FAA offered me a job fixing radar, but I opted instead to become a radio DJ making 100 bucks a week in Sturgis, Michigan. Thanks to three-hour-work-days and my commercial pilot's license I was asked by Craig Smith, a longtime friend from WXYZ, if I wanted to work with him reporting traffic tie-ups and captain an aircraft for McMahon Helicopters. Craig became part of the news in 2007 when two news choppers collided mid air covering a car chase in Phoenix: official NTSB results of the investigation. The cockpit of a traffic reporting aircraft is an unusually busy place. I had to listen and talk on four frequencies (ATC, radio stations, other aircraft) all at the same time. You may also be surprised to hear that competing radio-TV stations use the same announcers. Our Jet Ranger, as an example, carried 3 announcers using 4 different names on 5 different stations. Downsizing is happening not only to auto workers and Meijer cashiers.Melissa and I have a wedding gift, an anniversary clock, which Craig gave us in our living room. Craig loved our West Highland White Terriers so much bought one for himself. He took Molly along on his flights: "Wanna go for a ride in the chopper," he'd ask. Molly was not aboard Craig's final flight. Craig reported for channel 7 in Detroit. I flew for CBS News Radio 950 WWJ. Radio is fun, also nuts -- I helped WOWF (the old WABX, WCLS, WDTX) with still another format change in the mid 90's. "WOW-FM" became WYCD "Young Country" the 2nd in-your-face country music rebel in my life. I called it the Beavis and Butthead format. With nowhere to go but up in the ratings, to draw attention to ourselves, WYCD management encouraged disc jockeys to make fun of the competition. Easy to do, nobody's perfect. W4 had become what you call fat, dumb and happy and couldn't retaliate. Being #1 they had more to lose had they tried. Young Country disc jockeys would say things you wouldn't normally hear on the radio: "Joe Wade (morning jock competition at W4) didn't tell the truth yesterday when he said..." People tuned in just to see how far we'd go. Joe Wade was fired. Radio is crazy, which is the reason I was attracted to the stability that Midwest Broadcasting in Traverse City has long been known for. It's unheard of anywhere else in broadcasting.
"Radio is theatre-of-the mind, like a costume party
() Note: Catch Doctor Don while you can -- the
business is not what
it once was. Many talented broadcaster friends have been let go, and the list is
unforgiveable -- Ernie Harwell WJR, Alan Almond WNIC and
Jyl Forsyth WYCD Detroit and Gary Burbank WLW Cincinnati. No, Gary
Burbank did not "retire" as was claimed by Clear Channel.
Local people have never been more important to what broadcasters do. Everybody has something to say that's worth hearing -- checkout Facebook for evidence of that. Personal experiences, local sports, activities, gossip and happenings are the ammunition that will keep local media on top and worth coming back to. Every media source is looking for ways to get more input from their audience. Those that don't are falling by the wayside -- The Ann Arbor News closed it's doors in 2009. Radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, bloggers and other content providers are combining forces, partnering in the new medium -- the internet -- in exciting new ways. Because of my love for electronics tinkering, the changing technology is thrilling for me to be a part of. But we have to be careful -- I have a love-hate relationship with the internet -- the same computer screen that can save our life is also desensitizing our children. Even Bill Gates grew tired of it, giving up Microsoft, he's turned his attention to family and of course, that pile of money you and I gave him.
Knowing what I know today, I would not have agreed to do The Fem Forum. Angry and disturbed listeners attacked my family. Technology is great but allows the worldwide poor to see the seedy side of an open society. The visual media (satellite, TV, internet) makes it easy for our enemies to show and tell their children about America's greed, corruption. Seeing "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," 3rd world folks are made to believe that you and I are swimming in money and filthy in our morals. The Fem Forum put a hurt on my long term Detroit disc jockey aspirations. I was type cast, but I wouldn't leave southeast Michigan. Divorced, I stayed to be near Tom and Diana while they were growing up. Looking back, I wonder how far I might have gone had I taken one of those New York offers.
Tom Dean
connected with millions of listeners through a
variety of stations,
Big City, Red Eye Traffic Reporter -- Being a radio personality in a major market often
meant personal appearances hundreds of miles apart (our signal reached 1,000
miles into Canada) and one or two changes of clothes a day. Being a
commercial pilot gave me advantages and perspectives few people see.
I could fly from a small airport near my house to personal
appearances hundreds of miles away. On the downside, seeing rush
hour traffic tie-ups from the air I could also see the insanity of
the world we live in.
The metro Detroit area has 1,000 square miles. East-siders work on the west side. West-siders work on the east. Think about that. The money spent on an average Detroit commute (53) miles) is not staying in Michigan to help build a stronger America. It's going to another part of the world, which is using it to try to exterminate us! Our emissions are also impacting the atmosphere. Ask any pilot to describe the air big city dwellers breathe. As a pilot-reporter who flew 6 hours a day over the motor city, I can tell you the air blanketing southern Michigan is reddish-orange and hundreds of feet thick from the ground up. You don't see that in northern Michigan. The air here is as good as it gets, free of polution. On a cloudless day skies are crystal clear, and at night there are a million stars people living in pollution don't know exist. And it's not getting any better -- the extremes in our weather patterns is evidence of that -- flooding, drought, etc. The changing world is causing otherwise intelligent people to lose their minds. After WJR fired living-legend Detroit Tiger baseball announcer Ernie Harwell I'd experienced enough of Detroit radio. Melissa and I opted for a slower pace of life. Being centrally located in Michigan made sense for our statewide real estate, aerial photography and internet related businesses. I no longer needed to drive 53 miles through road rage to a downtown big city studio to reach large audiences -- the internet allows my shows to be heard worldwide. Instead of witnessing incredibly violent crime on Detroit TV seven nights a week, our home in northern Michigan is surrounded by small town parades, campgrounds, seniors riding bikes, wild turkey, water parks, spas, resorts, orchards, wineries, miles of sugar sand beaches and everything else out of towners pay handsomely to see. In rural Lake Ann Melissa and I are connected to the world via high speed cable and haven't missed a beat thanks to the internet. We have captured the best of several worlds. There are few hurricanes or tornados in northern Michigan.
(Pictured are Tom and Melissa standing beside Brad Mates of Emerson Drive) Lester and Ross Biederman successes have long benefited northern Michigan. The Munson Medical Center, as an example, is one of the 100 most successful hospitals in America thanks to the Biederman family and other generous donors. Success Tip #1: "Associate with winners" Ross Biederman still owns northern Michigan's first radio station that his father signed on the air in January of 1941. WTCM-AM transmits at 50,000 watts, the most power the FCC allows for an AM station. WTCM-FM 103.5 and 93.5 playing "Today's Country Music" has dominated northern Michigan ratings for decades. Popping in between tunes, and especially on a dominant station like WTCM, is an honor, a privilege really, and I try my best to fit in. I love playing country music on the radio because it touches every emotion, silly to serious, and I relate to the listeners.
I can also be heard on our company's newest station "92.9 The Breeze" every night. It's a hot AC format -- Coldplay, Death Cab For Cutie, Katy Perry, Aerosmith, stuff like that. Being on the Breeze at night is super fun because it allows me to explore creatively. I can get away with SNL type stuff that I couldn't possibly do during the day. And quite honestly, I surprise myself at some of the stuff I come up with. I used to work at WXYZ in Detroit when it was owned by ABC who taught: "hiring and allowing creative people to explore that creativity is worth the few mistakes they'll make." I've generally found it easy to draw attention to my show, but the Breeze is as much fun as I've ever had in radio. Satellite radio is fading fast. Few people will continue to pay $15 a month for a small (less than 200) number of choices on the dial when the internet offers tens of thousands of radio stations in cities and towns across the country and around the world which can be heard streaming online on the internet and in their car! I get requests regularly from as far away as Australia and military folks in Iraq (who are from northern Michigan). The future is here. Click the picture.
If you've ever eaten a Morel mushroom you know why I'm
smiling. They grow in my back yard, woods.Everybody knows you in a small town -- As large as my audiences were, the following rarely happened in Detroit: A grocery cashier recognized my voice: “Part Time Tom! I love it when you and Jack are on the air.” A lumber yard employee asked: "Your voice is familiar...radio? Tom Dean. I knew it.” A couple at a restaurant overheard me talking to the waitress: “We wanted to tell you how refreshing it is to hear a man talk about his relationship with his wife on the radio." This now happens routinely everywhere I go. I'm often asked why I do that -- “Stop talking about your wife on the air,” one letter writing libber demanded, “...do you think women sit around all day just waiting for a man?” A few days after airing that letter a listener responded with this call:
Turns out that caller had been a long time listener who had followed me from station to station over the years. Wanting to help (thinking I could do some match making) I asked for her name and number. A local TV announcer and friend of mine who was also divorced I thought would be a good match. They both sang in a choir. Months later I asked him how the date went. He'd forgotten and had never called the woman. Released from my WCZY contract I was kept from working in radio for months. A few days after getting back on the air at the new "WCLS," I received roses welcoming me. The card read: “I've searched up and down the dial every day because I knew you’d be back on the air. Good luck on your new job, Melissa.” My wife left me a year later and I mentioned that on the air, too. Melissa called again. It was four years before Melissa Jean and I ever met face to face. We were married July 12, 1986.
Melissa and I moved north for the laid back feeling and security, environment and beauty. I'm Marty McFly in "Back to the Future" with the flux capacitor set to 1962. Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes reminds us of all the great beaches we've ever visited rolled into one. Standing waist deep in crystal clear Lake Michigan, looking up and down the sugar sand shoreline as far as I can see, there are no houses, no hotels, no crabs, no coral, no seaweed, no hurricanes, tsunamis or sting rays, no sharks, surfers or salt water. Best of all the dunes are owned by taxpayers, not a few privileged people, which means we have-nots will always have access to the safest and most pleasant beaches in the world. As I grow older I realize what was missed not having studied. Not going to college haunts me still, and I am still trying to make up for it. I am tirelessly curious and surprise myself how easy it is to learn anything I put my mind to. Working only a few hours a day for years on the radio gave me time to learn a lot of things. I took advantage of that by going to schools to become a commercial pilot, computer programmer, webmaster, graphics designer, professional photographer and Michigan licensed real estate broker. I'm studying now to upgrade my ham radio license to the top-of-the-line "Extra Class." My businesses are interconnected -- Being on the radio and on top of the changing technology keeps me in front of the public and on a creative track. Much of what you see and hear on the air originates from my home studio.
I came up with the idea of aerial photos of neighborhoods and homes in 1986. As a real estate tool, Realtors use aerial photography to draw attention to their listings, show property lines, well, septic, out buildings, shoreline, neighboring properties, roads, parks. I've sold my aerial photo services to top Realtors for more than 20 years. Hundreds of thousands of collectable postcards have been sent to homeowners whose homes were pictured. Postcards are effective marketing tools --homeowners won't throw away a free aerial view of their home or neighborhood. My Realtor customers (other agents) have spotted their personal marketing postcards hanging on refrigerator doors in homes years later. Homeowners can buy close-ups because our Realtors guarantee to give their money back if ever they sell their property through our real estate networking companies. AirSho.com came about after our 1996 vacation in Traverse City. Ever since then AirSho.com has been the internet home to top agents representing a variety of real estate companies in Michigan. Realtors use it's database, newsletters, photography, slide shows, animations and expanding technologies for their listings and sold listings, multi-media presentations and web pages. My company provides training, support, marketing ideas and new technologies. I maintain one of the most original networking ideas in real estate, and Realtors agree. After more than 10 years most my original AirSho customers continue to pay me a monthly fee to be part of the network. Aerial photography has been a growing business for me and involves a fair amount of travel. I'm called upon by a variety of customers -- business, institutions, government, developers, real estate offices, agents and home sellers. Being centrally located in the state cuts down on travel time and allows me to be in the air and on the air sometimes in the same day.
Voted "One of the 30 best places
to live in America,"
The Traverse City
Record Eagle prints
letters from people who've moved away to find jobs and wish they could move
back.
No matter how bad the economy may be elsewhere waterfront land generally does well. When home values in Detroit dropped Traverse City's went up. Summer thongs make northern Michigan winters bearable. Movie stars live here...Tom Selleck, Demi and Michael Moore...who knows who'll meet on a beach and fall in love!? (a bit). Madonna signs bottles of wine at her parents' Ciccone vineyards. Real Estate Tip #1: "Location, Location, Location" I enjoy helping people -- A licensed real estate agent since 1983, and broker since 1989, and seeing how complicated real estate has become (environmental problems, housing price bubbles, etc) I take pride knowing that I have acquired the knowledge that helps keep people out of trouble. I'm responsible for guiding a few to highly profitable investments. Real Estate Buyer Tip #23: "The best listings sell before a sign goes in the ground" Radio listeners are fun to work with -- Take Nellie Friedman, as an example. Ms. Friedman wanted to look out the window of my airplane at the 80 acres she was thinking of splitting. She loved the experience so much that she signed up for flying lessons, and was 85 years old at the time of her first flight. Some people live like they're dying.
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