Tim The Rock N Roll Animal’s step out onto the ledge wasn’t just a stunt. He tapped into the collective consciousness of a generation…

The Animal and Lee Arnold spent the day waiting for the call from Curbishley that The Who’s plane was en route…

Chapter Thirty Eight: The Boys in the Band.In the interim before the December show, famous auto designer turned automaker, John DeLorean, was entrapped in a sting by overly ambitious undercover FBI agents for selling cocaine. Another classic visual happening from that time is that of USC’s Kevin Moen completing a 57 yard touchdown kickoff return that included running into the end zone as Stanford’s marching band prematurely entered the field. Also, Barney Clarke was the first artificial heart recipient and the “evil empire” invaded Afghanistan…

Three days had passed since Arnold had teased The Animal with the story about Curbishley’s call. The Animal was getting impatient was getting hard to contain his frustration. He had abandoned filling his porta potty plastic bag with both number one and number two choosing to piss in the ledge rainwater drain about 20′ down from his encampment just outside the window of the bookkeeping office of Rhonda Stratman. Rhonda was a dishwater blonde former party girl white chick who was now married with kids and settling in to a much more normal lifestyle and body type. The Animal would poke his head through the smaller ledge window into her office to warn her of the impending yellow liquid barrage and she would escape to get a bucket of warm sudsy water to pour down the drain after he’d tucked his cold, shrunken peter back in.

Patti Genko was starting to think Arnold’s claims of talking to the band were just complete bullshit. She started thinking,

“He has no IN there…It’s all a bunch of BS! This is baloney! Lee doesn’t even have an end to this. He’s just waiting for a miracle to happen!’”

Lee Arnold had been so busy sending out all these media messages in a bottle he’d nearly forgotten to think about if or when the band would call again. Beyond that he was struggling to manage the six headed serpent that included his boss Ralph Barnes, The Animal, the media, LPX, his own ad agency (David Joseph) and now he was dangerously on the radar of the station owner Bill Lynett. So when he picked up the phone and found it was Who manager Bill Curbishley, it was a surprising relief. Curbishley:

Having simmered nicely over the weekend, the story began to blossom Monday morning as the idea of calling out to encourage coverage quickly became overshadowed by the demand to handle the calls that were coming in. Channel 6 was the local CBS affiliate and now dispatched St. Aubin to also create a piece for the CBS News network that was to air on the Evening News and on Tuesday’s CBS Morning News Show. Genko was soon over her head with people on hold wanting to talk to the “Crazy DJ on the Ledge.” At first, it was mostly newspapers and radio stations from just about everywhere in mostly rural America responding, but as the day went on some bigger names from farther away started to enter the picture and managing the onslaught was starting to become dizzying for both Arnold and Genko.

RJ Harris fired Bobbin Beam that day citing low ratings (this was two days before the actual ratings period start). She was replaced by Eddie Democelli on the air and Susie Austin dove in head first into the rock radio war as Beam’s Music Director replacement firing off a blast to the FMQB radio trade/rag saying:

“Lee Arnold, everyone knows you’re off your rocker. Why don’t you quit calling attention to the fact?… Our station blows yours off the dial right now and you know it…everyone knows you’re full of it. I’m sick of this.These people who read these trades are not our listeners—they’re professional radio people who are tired of reading all your bogus comments. Quit using this trade to badmouth us. Try talking about your own station for once. Your Who promotion is almost over, and so are you. My dad still thinks you’re an idiot.”

Even with little sleep The Animal was in better shape than the newly configured morning team who had made a mess of themselves at their weekly “After Dark” West Allis nightclub appearance. For good reason, given all the shit that was flying. Abdul was doing sports drop-ins while lying under the newsroom desk and flat on his back on the floor wrapped in the extension cord of The Animal’s ledge mic. He slept between his breaks and, like Rodeo, was still wearing his clothes from the night before that wreaked of the sweated out cheap wine coolers that were the night club special.

The next step in his thousand mile journey had Tim The Rock N Roll Animal stepping out onto the 21st story crystal palace/newsroom ledge. As encouragement, Arnold briefed Tim on Boeff’s call and the status of things. He was very careful to limit Tim’s expectations, even overcompensating by dramatically underplaying the potential for success. Tim:

“He kept telling me over and over that there’s no guarantee that the bands gonna come here and play…You’re really laying yourself out on the line for a while here…You may have to stay out there for some time …4, 5, 6 weeks.”

Arnold told The Animal this just a few hours before he was to make his leap. Tim was already committed, so whatever he thought of it, there was no backing out.

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.”