Brooks Jefferson
To use the terse description of Earth from “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”, Brooks Jefferson was “mostly harmless”.
Brooks was enthusiastic and committed and was one of the earliest presenters to purchase then sit on the takeover button and broadcast for hours on end. He’d often ask for slots for the entire nighttime period from midnight to six. I would let him have them as I was grateful to have the schedule occupied. As a thanks for his involvement, I’d let him have other premium features for free.
Unfortunately, Brooks was someone who was very troubled by low listener numbers. He'd quit then return on numerous occasions when he felt his shows weren’t receiving the listening figures they deserved. Sound familiar?
A possible reason for Brook's low listener count was his voice. His avatar was of a butch, bearded, bandana’d, macho guy from Canada. His voice however, was that of a slightly squeaky toddler sucking on helium. When you first married his still picture with his microphone voice, you could be mistaken for thinking there had been a synchronisation error and you were listening to a different show from hours before hosted by a pre-schooler. It was only when Brooks started using a webcam that it was undeniable that the high pitched squealing was really his.
Brooks stayed with 1Radio for quite some time. His departure was unfortunate. He went on air whilst pissed up. I listened in unexpectedly and caught him sounding "tired and emotional" and ranting endlessly about the station and generally being abusive to both his listeners.
I sent BJ a few private warnings that he should switch off his mic and stick to the tunes. He continued and I invoked the moderator kick off. He then resumed the slot through the “takeover” function, which I'd forgotten I'd gifted him. I kicked myself. I then revoked takeover and kicked him off air again and said we should have a chat when he had sobered up.
Sadly, other events took over and BJ was soon on Facebook bemoaning me and the station saying he’d been permanently banned. He’d only been kicked off the air due to being drunk in control of a mic but his continued ranting became self-fulfilling. His account was duly closed and his squeaky voice silenced.
The departure of Brooks was made all the more surreal in that he’d been an award winning presenter less than 48 hours beforehand in the 1Radio Awards event. To this day, I don’t know why he got shitfaced and mouthed off. Perhaps he’d been at the celebratory champagne.
Posted by Tim on Thu 10 Feb 2022 at 13:14 and viewed 1,662 times.
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