You may not have been around back in 1993 when I first started at KDWB, but it was pretty challenging for me. I was replacing a guy who got fired and everyone loved him, so right away I had that working against me. It's kind of like if your mom divorced your dad and you weren't sure you even wanted to give the new guy a chance.
But the station believed in me, so they sent me and Lee Valsvik, my co-host at the time, to San Francisco to produce what we thought would be anazing commercial. It would look like we were in the studio but everything we dropped fell up.
Lee and I spent hours hanging by our feet from harnesses and filming take after take of this commercial. We got sick from being upside down and had to lie down between takes. They put makeup on us to try to hide the fact that our faces drooped the opposite way a human face normally would. But the hours and nausea were worth it because everyone would love it!
Except, they didn't. Listeners hated it. Probably because they really didn't want to like anything the new guy did. So while we were super-proud of it, it kind of landed here in the Twin Cities with a thud and was quickly forgotten.
Fast forward a year or two and our show started to catch on. I never gave up and it taught me that even when things aren't going well, don't give up. I tell my kids abou this and I hope they remember it when they're facing a challenge they need to get through.
Remember, sometimes you need to give up. And knowing when to give up is a whole other story. We'll talk about it sometime.
But here, 26 years later, is the commercial that everyone hated. I'm so glad I didn't give up when it failed or someone else would be writing this blog right now!
-Dave