I Am Your Biggest Fan

The first time I met Ken Evans (1998) I stopped by his shift at I-96FM (whichbecame RadioX, MAX-FM, and now ESPN 96.1FM but that was a loooong time ago) and at the time I was the assistant program director and you could see on his face he was not quite sure why I was in the studio on a Sunday. Despite my awkward introduction we became fast friends, drinking together, playing hours of wrestling video games, and working together to build up that radio station until we purchased WSNX in August of 1999.

We worked together until 2006 when Ken got a chance to become a program director in Kalamazoo and while distance kept us from working together on things like the MMA podcast I would start that year (Way of the Warrior) we saw each other regularly and swapped employees who were looking to move to GR or from GR to Kalamazoo.

If you are doing the math I have been friends with this man for nearly two decades and in that time I have had the pleasure to watch him grow as a broadcaster, a leader, a father, a friend, and most recently a husband.

In 2012 I was blessed with the ability to bring Ken back to WSNX as the morning show host where he was until January of this year when he was fired.

For 8 months Ken was off the air, Can you imagine being away from what you were born to do for 8 months? However, like a shark, he never stopped moving working with charities in town, continuing to podcast, networked and interviewed. That entire time he spent every moment with meaning, purpose, and a zest for life I had not seen in quite a while and with that I knew something good was going to happen for him — because he was leaning into the discipline of creating and connecting instead of the trap of bitching and complaining.

Today Ken took the air as the new morning show host for 105.3 HOT FM and I could not be more excited. Excited because Ken is someone who deserves to be on the air and is a gift to whatever company takes a chance on him (in this case it is Cumulus Media) and excited because Rachel Grey, his co-host, is someone I have long thought was insanely talented and even tried to hire when WSNX was looking for a co-host a couple of years back.

This is a team I want to root for and a team I want to celebrate. I cannot wait to see where this next adventure takes Ken because outside of his family, I am his biggest fan.