The DJ Rollie D Story

I, like many other people, have been prone to nightmares since a young age.  What started off as vivid dreams about scary monsters grabbing me and eating me slowly evolved into falling from high places or being shot, and now I'm having nightmares that seem to be fueled by my anxiety and the feelings I've experienced past and present.  I don't enjoy having them, and often wake up in a state of panic after some of my worst ones.  It's not a pleasant feeling, and I absolutely despise having them, as it seems like I've let my anxiety get the better of me again, and shame on me for that.  Nowadays, my nightmares are scary as can be.  Not all of them are remembered the morning after, but over the past year since my anxiety came further to the forefront and I went through some other rather unfortunate struggles I've been having more of them each and every week, and they're getting more and more vivid.  Often, it's hard to believe that they were truly...

I heavily rely on social media to get through my day.  Assuming I'm not late to get somewhere, the first thing I do each morning is respond to messages and Snapchats over my breakfast.  Later on in the day, I'm writing posts to promote my radio shows and sharing around my latest blog posts.  Finally at the end of the day, I might throw a picture up on Instagram and make sure my snap streaks aren't dying before I drift off to sleep.  My phone never leaves my side, and my social media accounts are always logged in and generating notifications. After reading that, some might think I'm online too much.  My answer to that is "Absolutely".  I have so many people that I talk to for various reasons from back home or here in town that I'm on the phone a lot, especially when they're snapping or texting back and forth constantly.  Plus doing things like writing blog posts and browsing good old Reddit takes up time as well.  And then there's musi...

I first discovered the music of Chance The Rapper back in August of 2016 during one of my first shows for KAXE/KBXE .  I saw that he did a track with rapper Kanye West  and also The Chicago Children's Choir , and instantly had to take a look and see what all the hype was.  Well, after playing the track All We Got , the lead-off track from his 2016 digital release Coloring Book , I decided it was time to check out another track from the album, as this one was wearing thin. It was February of 2017, so I was still pretty new to the whole radio thing, and didn't want to risk letting an expletive out over the airwaves during the morning hours, as I was on from 9am to Noon on this day.  So I looked through the album, and saw that I really only had a few choices.  There was D.R.A.M Sings Special , but that was only about two minutes long and I wasn't sure if I could take the risk of finding a new song and getting it ready in time.  There was also Bles...

Some of us most likely have a "home away from home".  A place where we go to escape the pressures and stresses of daily life and just feel at ease and relax.  It could be the deer camp, the radio station, the RV campground nearby, or even your friend's basement.  These types of places provide us mental rest from whatever is driving us nuts back home, and we can breathe easy knowing that we have some time to ourselves. Back when I was in MN, my home away from home was Story Book Lodge.  It was pretty much an exact copy of home - A place I loved to be on the waterfront with lots of trees and delicious smells and amazingly designed buildings.  The only major difference between home and SBL was that SBL had a lot of people around, unless it was the weekend, when a lot of counselors went home, and only those sticking around for the next week of camp stayed put.  It's always blissful and blessing to be there, and I'm going to write more about SBL at a later dat...

I have hosted radio in some way shape or form for just over three years now.  Not all of that time has been spent on the FM airwaves, but most of it has, and the memories I have made are endless.  There's been volunteer shadows, guest appearances from members of the community in positions of power, rapper interviews, and lots of high school athletes.  It seems like an endless stream of fun that's not set to end anytime soon, which I take as a good sign because I don't want to be done with radio anytime soon. Today, I'd like to take some time to talk about what got me into radio, and tell you about some of my favorite memories from my time on the airwaves.  I promise not to make this too long so that it's hard to read in one sitting.  I'll share stuff from 2015 to today, and tell you about my before and after show processes, so you better understand how what you hear on On The River and Untitled DJ Rollie D Radio Show is conceived and executed on-air...