Sound Off (before) California

(Editor's Note: Trip Darvez, Pacific Gold's sole correspondent, was searching for "what [I'm] looking for, wiseass" when he found a box of old photographs. Through prompting from an assistant, Trip shared some tales of his youth and the search for gold)

"Yeah, that was a staff party at Z-93 in Amarillo. I told you I worked there, right? Yeah, that was before heading to LA. Let me look at this. Shit...OK, this was during a party, I think it was a ratings party, but it could have just been Friday and we were in the mood to drink. But that's everyone. Guy in the suit holding a glass was the sales manager...something Whitfield. Afternoon guy is holding the secretary Nancy. Phil 'the Pill'...and you want to talk about bad nicknames, did overnights. I'm in the back, totally obscured because I was on the air at the time. And someone yells 'Trip!' That was a lot of fun - that girl in the jean jacket in front of me...we had some good times together. A town like that, it doesn't take long to figure out where the hot spots are, and back then everyone knew who you were. She grew up there...what the hell is her name? Linda? No - Mary. Mary...yeah, she grew up in Bishop Hills...some small town out there. One time we took the van and...well, I don't need to go into that. It gets hot there over the summer, you know. When I moved to California, she was going to come out here, but I think her friends talked her out of it. You know how it is - they don't want them having fun without them. I think I sent her a picture of me in that hot tub giveaway a few months after I moved which was kind of 'wish you were here, but, you know, you're missing out' kind of thing."



"Holy fuck - who is this guy? Ha, no, it's me. Yeah, I'm in front...well, OK, this is right before I left. In fact, this had to be weeks before I left. Somehow, the station knew someone at United Artists who could get us a print of The Spy Who Loved Me about 3 weeks before the actual premiere. This probably wasn't legal at all, but you know...back then, in a town like that, how the fuck would they know? So, they had their 'world premiere' at a movie theater down there. Part of our contest was that you could try to win tickets, but the big winner could choose the DJ of their choice to escort them to the show, and then I think we went to Pizza Inn or some restaurant. So it was on my shift, and this girl wins and thankfully...to my ego...picks me. OK great. So, they get me in this tux because they really wanted to make this a big deal. You know, they had spotlights and a red carpet even though there was no press beyond us. I think the remote van was there or (editor's note: Trip walks into the kitchen to make another drink and is unintelligible on the recording). OK, so I'm in a Lincoln or some big car, and we're going to pick up this girl. Now, you can't go into situations like this thinking you're going to get some hot babe or anything...I couldn't tell much because when she won, she was screaming and everything. This reminds me...did you ever see the WKRP when they're going to the concert and Johnny is picking postcards, and he...OK, yeah. So, you know what can happen. I hear a voice coming from outside, so I hide my flask and look and see this girl who was still in high school...and you get enough jail bait in radio as it is...but oh man was she clingy. She had pictures of me from the survey, all this shit. When we got to the theater, one of the jocks and an engineer were giving me shit, but you have to be a pro about this.

Movie was good, and then at dinner, she's asking all these questions about the radio station. Then, we get back - after we had to wait for the car to arrive, and she was trying to take pictures of the two of us with her camera...I have no idea if it came out or not. So, we pull up to her house, and she's just staring at me, as if to say 'are we gonna...?' And I'm trying to make eye contact with the driver to say 'Trip, we have to get back to the station' or something. So I think we kissed a few times, which was all I was going to do, but I could tell she was going to talk about it all summer. Eventually the driver must have come to his senses because then he says we have to go, or return the car or something. And on my way back to the station I kept thinking that this was fun, I...no, I mean, these station things are all right but how much longer can I do this? And, I was on highway 40 out of town in a few weeks. And the reason I remember all of that - I left some really cool T shirts in that apartment, but I couldn't ship anything anywhere.