Pacific Beach Radio

By Tom Neal
Bigfoot Trails Basecamp | Independent Adventure Media

My good buddy Rob has a house in Pacific Beach. We all call it "the cabin."

The usual suspects get together there for fun weekends — Rob, Chris, Michelle, Sara, Dave, my wife Jahanel, and me. For Dave's birthday, we reserved the cabin for a weekend together. Unfortunately, Rob, Chris and Michelle couldn't make it, so it ended up being just Sara, Dave, Jahanel and me.

We spent the weekend drinking, getting stoned, and basically trying to forget about life for a little while. The cabin gets little to no cell service, which actually made it a pretty damn good place to unplug.

The one and only gas station in town is right next door to the cabin, and that provides a surprising amount of entertainment all by itself. We'd sit outside facing the gas station and watch people come and go, making up stories about who they were and what the hell they were doing. Sometimes the entertainment was even better when somebody tried to drive through or park over there. You can only watch that shit for so long before you start wondering how some people actually got a driver's license.

The local radio station, KXPB, is based out of the Wacky Warehouse. They play whatever the hell they feel like playing, or whatever you request. There's no specific format. Jazz, rock, country — whatever.

Saturday, we were listening to the station when they started playing a whole run of marijuana songs. We were sitting around enjoying the music when they started taking requests.

Well, shit.

I jumped on their website and got to town.

I think my first request was Sublime's "Smoke 2 Joints." From there, things started getting a little more interesting.

I sent in Wheeler Walker Jr.'s "I Like Smoking Pot," and after they played it, the DJs came back with a comment that, as best as I can remember, was something along the lines of, "While we don't condone this type of behavior, we do understand and partake in it."

We laughed our asses off at that one.

Apparently, we'd found our people.

From there I just kept sending requests. There were a shitload of them, and I sure as hell don't remember them all now. Some of the ones that stuck in my head were Moonshine Bandits, "Silhouettes in the Sun," Scuzz Twiddy, "Party Like Charlie Sheen," Afroman's "Because I Got High," "Smoke 2 Joints," Sailcat's "Biker Mama," and Dr. Hook's "Freakin' at the Freakers Ball."

There were plenty more, but it was one of those nights. We were sitting around with friends, laughing our asses off, having a great time, and just fucking around with the DJs.

The more requests I sent in, the more they seemed to recognize my name.

It got to the point where we'd hear, "Here's another one from Tom. Sounds like they're having fun."

Then it became, "Uh oh, another one from Tom."

By about midnight, I was done. I couldn't handle being upright anymore, so I got naked and climbed into bed. I left the radio playing quietly because I was still enjoying the show.

I swear, it wasn't more than ten minutes later that they played my final request and invited me over to sit in on the air.

Well, sorry guys.

I wasn't walking anywhere.

And I sure as hell wasn't getting dressed for anything.

For about half a second, I did actually consider walking/ crawling over there naked.

The next morning, the girls went for coffee at the little shop kitty-corner from the back door, then wandered over to the Wacky Warehouse to browse around.

While they were there, they got invited into the radio booth.

While they were talking to the morning DJ, it came up that Jahanel was married to Tom.

He said, "Tom? THE Tom?"

Well, shit.

I guess I'd made a little bit of a reputation for myself with the station.

Jahanel got to do a radio announcement and hang out in the booth for a while. It was pretty damn cool.

We haven't been back to the cabin for a bit, but I still have a list of songs saved on my phone for the next time we're there.

Tom will be back.

This time, I may actually be on the air.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Neal is the founder of Bigfoot Trails Basecamp, an independent adventure media project built around real experiences. He’s spent most of his life around vehicles, motorcycles, racing, travel, and projects that tend to take longer and cost more than originally planned.

After decades of doing all that stuff, he’s learned that the best stories usually aren’t the ones you planned. They’re the people you meet, the places you stumble across, the things that go wrong, and the moments you never expected.

That’s what he wants to capture with BTB.

He doesn’t want to write about adventure from the outside. He wants to go experience it, then tell you what happened.

Bigfoot Trails Basecamp | Independent Adventure Media