"My Life Story" by Teri Landreth!

I've been in the radio industry ever since Marconi invented it, doing anything from on air radio personality, to production, to copywriting, to the more important jobs...making the coffee, scrubbing the commodes...(hey, somebody's got to do it!)

THE WAY I GOT INTO RADIO… A long long long time ago, I was singing along with the radio when my brother Steve said "Hey Teri, I really wish you were on the radio." And I said "Why?" And he said, "So I could turn you off!" Well, I wasn't going to take that lying down, so as soon as I grew up, I went to school, got a degree, and now I'm on the radio, and now he really does turn me off, in more ways than one! (Just kidding, we're very close.) From there I was eager to get started in the wonderful world of broadcasting and moved a thousand miles away to work at my first job in Rugby, North Dakota....RUGBY NORTH DAKOTA?????!!! Yes, it's true, and I worked on the air from 4-6pm playing country music, then from 6-6:30pm I played easy listening music (blah!) then from 6:30-7pm I was the Polka party queen...somebody give me a tuba! Then from 7pm-10pm, it was my show....I played anything from Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple to Frank Zappa. It was a wild beginning, but it started me into something that would truly be my love.

Since then I worked in several stations around the Denver area, including Q-103 (which is now the Fox) KOOL 105, K-HOW (when it was a music station) and Majic 100, who changed their name to XL-100, then back to Majic 100, then we took the old KIMN call letters and were all 70's all the time...by the time I left they changed it to Mix 100 and it's been that way ever since (hope it stays that way!) I then left the Denver market in pursuit of being a part of a morning show… and I was… in Salt Lake City Utah....SALT LAKE CITY UTAH????!!!! I worked for a station called KBEE  ("B-98.7) and was a part of the Wake Up Club with Ellis B. Feaster and Mick Mackey. That was a fun job and lasted for awhile, and then I was approached by my boss who asked me if I would ever be interested in doing my own morning show in Albuquerque, NM...ALBUQ...(don't make me spell it again! Actually, I LOVED it out there!) So off I went to NM to do my own morning show. I had to be there in 3 days, and my landlord in Salt Lake who was very understanding, gave me his blessings and I gave him my word that my new employers at Citadel Communications would send United Van Lines to pick up my belonging and move them to NM by the end of the month, since I had to leave before they moved my stuff… at least that we agreed on when they flew me out there for the interview. Well, 3 days before my stuff was to be moved, by new boss told me that the moving company they hired cancelled at the last minute, but I was in a dilemma because someone else was planning to move in the Utah rental home the day after my stuff was to be moved, so, in other words… my stuff needed to be moved! So we ended up hiring 2 young boys who's mother worked for the broadcasting Co. in Salt Lake, to move all of my belongings in a U-Haul truck. Well, they got as far as the Four Corners and the driver, who was partying until dawn, (unknown to me), fell asleep behind the wheel, and they rolled the truck 7 times and I lost everything I owned! (They were also hurt and were taken to the hospital.) So there I was, out in a strange land, not knowing a soul, and I didn't even own a Tupperware lid, but it was the best job I ever had! I made friends quickly, we had a great time on the air, I was out doing all sorts of personal appearances, hosted loads of concerts, did personal endorsements, the whole "schmear."

 So, why did I come back? Well, my mother lost her battle with cancer while I was out there, and then my dad took ill, and when he came out to see me, he ended up in the hospital in intensive care. I knew right then that I really needed to do my part and come home and take care of him, so I said goodbye to my dream job and came home to be his caretaker, and it was also the best thing I could have ever done, because GOD blessed me with that precious time that I would have regretted had I continued in my job.   My father’s now with our precious LORD, and I’m now back in radio, doing what I love, and loving every minute of working on KOLT  F.M.  It says in the Bible that GOD will give back what the worms and locusts have eaten, and HE has blessed me with this wonderful mid-day shift playing the best music in the world…”Wyoming’s Best Country!!!    I was working on the weekends at Jones Satellite Networks in Denver, Co. which you can hear all over the United States...except Denver, which I know is odd, but we're on several stations all around the country, and I worked on "Today's New Hit Country."  Although I no longer work there every weekend, (mainly because it’s waaaay too far) I fill in from time to time. 

So, in closing (if you haven't fallen asleep from boredom) I'm still doing what I love to do, in a place that I love to do it in, and with the best group of people you could ever possibly work with...CLEAR CHANNEL COMMUNICATIONS! (I put that in there because I really mean it, and I'm hoping that my boss will get a glimpse of this when it comes time for handing out pay raises!) Other interests, my loving man Steve, sleeping, shopping, watching Andy Griffith and Dick Van Dyke reruns, as well as Frasier, and really love the show Damages, (when is that coming back…I hope they didn’t cancel it!) and I love making music, I play guitar, piano, mandolin, leering the fiddle, all of these just by ear, so of course a trained musician I am not, but I played a pretty mean triangle in the Berthoud Jr. Sr. High school Band….funny how I can’t get a band gig with that!   I think I ran out of things to write (please hold your applause, or your snores!) and please drop me a line at:  terilandreth@koltfm.com.   I'm truly looking forward to hearing your life story!!!!

 : )   Teri!