WHOoPLA: Chapters 19, 20 & 21

Chapter Nineteen: Patti.

Among the few personnel “adjustments” Lee Arnold made was to “reassign” Promotions Director, Patti Genko, to the 15th floor research phone cubicles and bring in a key long time friend, John Duncan, to replace her.

John Duncan was,

“Lee’s Boy.”

He was known to jokingly hide behind Arnold with his hands on Arnold’s shoulders and bob his head up and down and make “nah, nah, na nah nah” type comments. He was a tall, skinny, soft spoken, dark haired California kid. Even though he had followed Arnold from Gainesville to Tampa to Boston, his mid seventies dark blue Corvette still bore the blue and gold California license plates. Lee and John were nicknamed “The Bobbsey Twins” due to their childlike interactions that many times had Duncan crying out loud after a tumultuous shouting match. That intensity told you that there was great passion between them. Arnold,

“He was my best friend in the world. I trusted him with my life.”

Duncan’s job during all this was to “hold down the fort” with the everyday general station duties.

Genko took the demotion professionally- on the outside. She was really fucking pissed on the inside.

Having grown up in The Northern suburbs of Chicago, Patti Genko was a WLUP Patti Hayes groupie. WLUP was Chicago’s hardest rocker and Patti’s father couldn’t help but notice her knowledge of every single song they played. He encouraged her to pursue a radio career and, strangely enough, she took his advice. She earned a Broadcast/Mass Communication degree from Western Illinois University and had made an attempt at an internship at “The Loop” but was turned down. Thus, her first gig was a low paying one writing commercials and station promotional announcements at a local Rockford Television station. She was suffering from the blatantly male biased sexism that existed in rock radio back then and decided to just play into it by putting on a short shirt and “workin’ it” to get Brent Alberts to hire her at Rockford rocker Y95.

“He said I had great legs.”

Knowing Patti, her legs, at the time, weren’t her biggest asset. If Alberts had managed to keep his eyes on them then he must have been a very disciplined man. Patti was stacked. She didn’t, however, flaunt it. Not the cleavage type. She was very Midwest but with an east coast, nasal ring that she dampened on the air.

It was during her tenure at Y95 that she partnered up with Tim The Rock N Roll Animal and later was promised work in Milwaukee as part of Alberts inducement to The Animal to make the jump. Genko felt unappreciated and betrayed by her demotion in that her 2-3 years of promotional efforts were part and parcel of QFM’s resurgence but, at the time, she had nowhere else to go. Aside from the lowly QFM research department part time work, she continued to work on-air weekends and on miscellaneous other fill-in duties but, for a time, was reduced to fobbing off her boyfriend for financial help.

Now Arnold, who was oblivious to the impact of his actions on her, pleaded for her help. He knew she had the ability to be unstoppably tenacious (aka bossy) in whatever she was pursuing. He needed her to take Gene Mueller’s News Director position immediately and be his PR person for the event. Fortunately for Patti, things were going to be moving too fast for her to carry around any baggage about her treatment. After the wacky staff meeting she had worried about her partner Tim sleeping on the ledge and figured as News Director, with his perch being just outside the newsroom window, she’d be right next to him for the duration to make sure he wouldn’t sleep walk or drowsily tumble over the edge. Patti Genko is the best childless mama bear you will ever meet. She was fiercely loyal. At the very least, she thought, she’d know where he was. That’s something she had begun to have serious concerns about.

Chapter Twenty: The First Attempt.

Wednesday night was the day that had been set for the rant and jump out but it rained so the secret had to be muzzled for one more day. They were flying so wildly by the seat of their pants and so anxious to get Tim out there that they hadn’t even thought of the need for some kind of protection or for necessities. So first thing Thursday Arnold, Duncan, The Animal and Patti raided the Army/Navy Surplus Store across the street from the building for free supplies that included a porta potty, tarp, army cot and flashlight. OK, now even if it rains he can go out! And if he has to shit, he can do that too! (Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! Wise guy eh?)

Chapter Twenty One: The Call.

When the call from the band finally did come, it wasn’t even Bill Curbishley, it was Regis Boeff, Curbishley’s assistant. Arnold wasn’t fazed. He was ready with a well thought out presentation.

Boeff had a “wise and loyal British butler/Sir John Gielgud” demeanor. Of Arnold’s baited telegram he said,

“We’ve never been approached by a radio station in quite this manner before.”

Arnold’s record business experience gave him a cocky confidence that Boeff may not have been used to seeing come from the radio side of things. Arnold’s attack bordered on vicious.

“I’m looking in Variety Magazine and you guys are running an ad seeking a co-sponsor of your tour? You’re the greatest rock n roll band in the world and you have to run an ad to get somebody to sponsor you? It’s your “Farewell Tour!”

He was being demeaning, degrading and complimentary at the same time. It was a complicated tact that was based on his knowledge of a band’s insecurities and how they could be used against them as a motivational tool. His National Record Rep years had been spent at RCA Records. The Who was unrelated at MCA records but that didn’t matter.

“All bands are the same. They all want to make money. They all want it to work good and if you play on their insecurities, you can get them to listen to you.”

That was all Arnold needed at this point was for the band to just listen to him. To get them engaged. To begin to… well… you see it don’t you?

Back in 1982 the only competition for The Who for the title of “The Greatest Rock N Roll Band in the World” was The Rolling Stones.

“The Who bridled under that and always felt that they just didn’t get the respect The Stones had. They had done Woodstock and this and that but still The Stones mattered more.”

Arnold also knew that The Stones had responded to a petition drive led by KTI’s new PD Dallas Cole in the year before at his former Rockford radio station that had successfully resulted in their playing in the tiny Rockford Civic Center Auditorium.

Next he threw the Jovan sponsorship of The Stones recent tour up in Boeff’s face.

“They didn’t have to run an ad to get that!”

He was pushing all the right buttons, pulling their ego chain.

“I used The Stones on them because that’s who I knew they compared themselves to.”

Whatever Boeff’s impression of it was, he was listening. At the very least, the carnival barker had his attention. And if you, the reader, have been paying attention then you know what Arnold would do next right? The outrageous offer followed by the request for….

“If I can get you the kind of national publicity… the kind where everybody’s talking about The Who Tour… and you know it’s because of me…because of this radio station… Would you be willing to return the favor and bring the band to Milwaukee for a show?” Boeff:

“If you can…”

“If I can generate this great hoopla…”

There was one of those dramatic pauses that always happen when the “mark” is contemplating the outrageous offer. Then Boeff bit.

“Go for it.”

It didn’t sound British, it sounded 80’s. It wasn’t much of a commitment. Arnold’s assessment was realistic.

“He figured I was crazy and didn’t know what the fuck I was talking about and he wouldn’t have to deal with it ever again.”

But, for a gifted salesman, it was enough. Now all he had to do was… everything…again.

“If you have the confidence in yourself that you can pull off anything and if you leave yourself flexible enough to bob and weave where you have to… the goal stays the same… How you’re going to get there may change but “Here’s where the journeys gonna end”- How we’ll get there we’ll have to figure out along the way.”

Boeff was apparently much more pissed off than he appeared to Arnold because it was just after that when Randy McElrath talked with Barbara Skytell, one of The Who’s booking agents, who was just plain hostile. She screamed,

“What the fuck are you guys doing!?”

Big acts like The Who have a lot of people who insulate them from somebody trying to pressure them. McElrath:

“That’s what we were trying to do. We were definitely trying to leverage ‘em.”

McElrath’s tack was,

“… but it’s the radio station. What am I going to do to these guys?”

“You buy advertising don’t you?”

“Yes, but I don’t buy ALL their advertising…”

The bands agents were trying to get McElrath to use his influence to pressure Arnold and QFM to drop it. They were nowhere near even thinking about the idea that the show would make a Milwaukee stop.

“They were just plain mad at us.”

~ by Scott on December 5, 2007.