Tom Schnabel

Music Director/host, Morning Becomes Eclectic (MBE)

My days working for Ruth were the best days of my life. I can never thank her enough for that opportunity.

Early on, I had problems with the late-night jazz DJs in the 3 to 6 a.m. shift. This was before KCRW ran NPR’s Morning Edition twice from 3to 9 a.m.

These guys thought we owed them something because of their sacrifices. Some of them started stealing jazz records from the library. I had ways of finding out—cash-out signatures at record stores, etc. I memorized everybody’s signature by checking the program and operating logs with the stats and their signatures.

I fired one guy, and he called Ruth thinking he’d get his show back by appealing to a higher power. When Ruth stood up for me, he told her “Woman, you’re cutting my balls off!” Ruth replied, “No, the problem is that you didn’t have any balls to begin with!”