{"id":2160,"date":"2014-05-01T21:45:13","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T02:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/widbnetwork.org\/?p=2160"},"modified":"2014-05-10T21:59:22","modified_gmt":"2014-05-11T02:59:22","slug":"why-i-go-to-the-reunion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/widbnetwork.org\/?p=2160","title":{"rendered":"Why I Go to the Reunion"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Maria E. Bernardi<\/h3>\n

Oh, The WIDB years\u2026\u2026a time when we were conquering the world, evolving from
\nkids to adults.\u00a0 For some of us, it was 30 years ago. Or more!\u00a0 Much has happened since then. But in my wise \u201cold age\u201d I have come to appreciate the IDB experience as more than just a bunch of obsessed kids having fun.\u00a0 (Which we were and we did!)<\/p>\n

I now appreciate that WIDB, more than most any other experience in my early adulthood, formed the person I am today. Sure, we had our parents to show us the proper path. (We never listened to them anyway)\u00a0 And we had ethics classes, civics,\u00a0 and professors who illuminated the future with the do\u2019s and don\u2019ts of life. \u00a0But, I have come to understand the REAL learning at SIU came from my fellow WIDB comrades as we navigated our uncharted\u00a0 paths together.\u00a0 We were a rag-tag group of enthusiastic morons who came together for a common cause.\u00a0 And, like it or not, we learned FROM EACH \u00a0OTHER.\u00a0 About radio. \u00a0About business. \u00a0About life.<\/p>\n

During our treasured WIDB years, we were all passing from kids to (mostly) adults. Much of what we learned via our experiences at WIDB formed the people we are today. I do the reunions to pay respect to a time and people that molded my business persona for the rest of my life. At WIDB, I learned four important lessons:<\/p>\n

\n

\"Wall\"Just because people are different from you doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t learn from them.<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There was a guy called the Rock and Roll Troll.\u00a0\u00a0 Looked like Cousin It<\/em>..\u00a0 Never saw anything like it.\u00a0 About 4 feet tall and long black hair down to everywhere.\u00a0\u00a0 Weird!!
\nYet I learned much from him. (we all did!) He taught me lessons on loyalty, on laughter<\/span>, and on how to just keep keeping on.<\/p>\n

Then there was Slaga.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t have a first name.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He was always in the corner, quietly staring out from the hallucinations in his head.\u00a0 (\u201cDon\u2019t talk to Slaga, he\u2019s creating!\u201d)\u00a0 Strange creature, our PD.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 But put him onstage, and he would whip the room into a frenzy.\u00a0 The best Jagger Swagger I\u2019ve seen to this day. And I learned from Slaga its ok to break the rules sometimes.<\/p>\n

And lets not forget Amy Elvart, the Dancer.<\/em>\u00a0 She was always in her Danskin tights when she came to WIDB. Show-off!<\/em>\u00a0 But I found her to be an extraordinary worker with great ideas and follow through.\u00a0\u00a0 Amy developed into one of the finest radio sales and promotion people in Chicago!<\/p>\n

And what can we say about John J. Martin.\u00a0 Mr. \u201cIf you want to be somebody, look like you already are somebody\u201d.\u00a0 This man wore a 3 piece suit everywhere. EVERYWHERE.
\nIn C\u2019dale!! Did I mention is was the SAME suit? He wanted to be a radio executive
\nwhen he grew up and\u2026you know the end of the story.\u00a0 Ask to see his summary vita.<\/p>\n

\"Pool
\nBe passionate about your work, but stop to smell the roses, too.\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

and the mushrooms, etc. We ALWAYS got the job DONE at WIDB,
\nbut\u00a0we sure figured out how to have fun while doing it\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

You must embrace the changes in Technology<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"1980-2\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There was Al Linton lugging around those 4 ton boxes of computer cards\u2026 nobody understood the system\u2026.why can\u2019t we just do the damn logs by hand<\/em> ???…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

No matter what, don\u2019t ever go to a sales meeting high.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>The one time my friend Sales Manager Patty Reilly wanted to be
\nuber-serious I got narc\u2019ed on and yelled at publicly.<\/p>\n

\"Reunion<\/p>\n

And so I return to WIDB and Giant City every 5 years to pay respect
\n(such as it is) to a time that molded me and old friend who helped shape me.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The <\/strong>good and bad me. The productive and sneaky me. The optimistic and the realistic me. And if YOU think about it, I bet you received a life lesson or two from your WIDB cohorts.<\/p>\n

\"Todd<\/p>\n

Hope to see you next year…
\nAnd maybe we can also learn something from each other in the Summer of 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Maria E. Bernardi Oh, The WIDB years\u2026\u2026a time when we were conquering the world, evolving from kids to adults.\u00a0 For some of us, it was 30 years ago. Or more!\u00a0 Much has happened since then. But in my wise … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reunion-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/widbnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/widbnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/widbnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widbnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widbnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2160"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/widbnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2166,"href":"https:\/\/widbnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160\/revisions\/2166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/widbnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widbnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widbnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}