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(Our hero, Bryan,
is sitting at the bottom of a staircase, looking like a bum.)
Bryan; Huh? I am not a bum, I'm a jerk. I once had wealth, power,
and the love of a beautiful woman. Now I only have two things.
My friends and... uh... my thermos. Huh? My story? O.K. It was
never for easy for me. I was born a poor black child. I remember
the days sitting on the porch with my family singing and dancing,
down in Mississippi. - Oops... wrong story.... Somewhere between
1970 and 1974, in a small backwoods town in Illinois, a manchild
was born unto the world, and the world would never be quite
the same.
Lets jump ahead, shall we.... |
Bry (pretty cute huh?) |
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Bryan Christopher
Shaw sits in a large college classroom, majoring in business
administration, biting his nails and wondering, "what the hell
am I doing here". Friends and family say: "Hey, Jed move away
from there" uh... um.. woops, nuther wrong story. They really
say, "Bryan, what an amazing radio voice you have, why don't
you change your path in life?" Hearing a commercial for the
Broadcast Center in Clayton Missouri, Bryan took the test and
entered broadcast school in the fall of 1995. Bryan went through
many teachers during his stay, but one took a shining to him.
Night jock at KSHE-95, Todd Myers, who I might add was the toughest,
most avoided (by Bryan) teacher in the whole school, and guided
him to his eventual stardom status, but I am jumping ahead of
myself here.
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Bryan Interviews Drain STH |
Bryan graduates broadcasting
school and commutes the four hours a day to land his first radio
position in Decatur, Illinois at WZNX, "The Fox Rocks" ( we
are still not sure how the hell they got fox out of those call
letters) working with his former teacher Todd Myers. Lasting
one year there, the station goes satellite, and Bryan finds
himself calling upon an old afternoon friend/jock/colleague,
to help him land his second position in radio with Solid Rock
92.7 WQLZ, thirty minutes closer in Springfield, Illinois. Bryan
was there for a whopping three weekend shifts and quit after
being informed, either quit or be terminated. A part time employee
with WYMG, a competitor of WQLZ, from 6am to 10 am on Saturday
mornings, he had absolutely no idea there was a clause in his
contract pertaining to this, and learned quickly about the radio
business and their competitive outlook. Bryan's motto after
leaving WQLZ was "It's OK to sleep with the competitor, you
just cant work for them," which makes sense only to Bryan. |
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Bryan had been trying
to get an interview at WMFS in Memphis, TN, as his old high
school buddy's lived there and he could mooch off them for a
place to live, while working in a major radio market. After
repeated attempts, Jim Fox of WMFS finally calls for the long
awaited interview, and Bryan is off in April of 1996 for another
adventurous employment position in radio. Loving the playlist
there, which was basically his personal CD collection, Bryan
honed his style and musical taste and radio ability. Meeting
new friends, with tentacles in the field, Bryan makes the connection
to Zakk Tyler who is the current night jock at KSJO. Zakk hooks
Bryan up with the program director at WROV in Roanoke, Virginia,
who is looking for a full time over night jock. Bryan, being
the wandering directionless fool that he is, jumps at the chance
to pack up all his belongings and begin again, in a fresh new
exciting environment. The appeal of moving is in your blood,
you're either born with it or your not. Lets just call Bryan
a desperado in his own rite, a wondering spirit of sorts. Bryan
sends off a demo and after much negotiation, finally settles
for a ridiculous undisclosed amount of money, (can you say "peanuts")
and heads off July 1st of 1996 to "The Noke." To this day, Bryan
still holds Buzz Casey accountable for not letting him see one
of Alice In Chains final shows, which was July 2nd. Bryan worked
the long grueling graveyard shift there for two months before
he was promoted to music director of WROV. There, Bryan remained
for the next two and a half years. I don't have to tell you
what was up next. If you know Bryan at all, you know about this
time he is bored as hell, and just looking for an excuse to
move again. He sends out perhaps one hundred demo tapes, which
in the field are like resumés, and receives a call back from
Joel Sampson at WTKX in Pensacola, Florida. After much negotiation,
with TKX and Bryan, an agreement could not be reached, and again,
apparently more instances of big breasted women sleeping with
the big shots. Bryan, antsy and ready to do his desperado thing,
turns in his one day notice of departure at WROV, especially
after being handed a memo which informed him his overnight position
had been eliminated due to excessive spendature's and the stations
good old cut backs, and being offered a menial position on staff
if he could choke down the measly six bucks an hour they were
willing to provide him, bolts the state of Virgina for new horizons. |
Bryan and Steve Vai |
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Bryan with Adara & Amanda |
Enter Steven Shaw,
and the story continues. The Shaw brothers begin research on
a hair brain, but innovative idea of an Internet radio station.
With Bryan's radio knowledge, and Steve's business background,
nothing can stop them as they enter into .... the twilight zone
of Internet Radio. Steve comes up with the complicated name
MFNRocks.com, which simply stands for music for the net, duh,
and in October of 1999, the Internet rock radio station MFNRocks.com,
makes it's debut. Over the months, with Bryan's on air zealous
radio personality, charm, finesse, not to mention his dastardly
good looks, MFN goes from three hits a day, to over 250,000
a month. Enter Bryan Christopher Shaw, the Internet mogul, and
self proclaimed guru of radio. Don't we just love him? |
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Presently, Bryan continues
to own and operate MFNRocks.com, and has begun his entrepreneurship
into the field of web design. Bryan completed and received
his certificate in web design at Glendale Career College
in California, while under the tutelage of e50's Josh Cobb.
Bryan's company, poorboywebsolutions.com, is presently accepting
and estimating contracts for Bryan's expertise in your web
design needs. With Bryans eight years of broadcasting and
programming management experience at local radio stations,
as well as internet, and with his insight in to the mind
of local youths, which recieved rave reviews during his
tenure at the radio stations, Bryan is well rounded and
versatile, open minded, but with much integrity. Those qualities
are apparent in his being credited in the liner of notes
in Lit's, A Place in the Sun and Hair of the Dog's first
two releases. Bryan's following translates into an ability
to give the listeners "what they want to hear" programming
experience, as well as his work ethics and versatilely.
He has a network of industry professionals who respect him
as well as his programming ability.
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To be continued..... A big
thanks to Stephanie for writing this.... You Rule!
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