Wall Of Voodoo – Mexican Radio
I am playing this one in memory of a friend I found who passed away Friday. I called hi, Chef, others called him Katman. Bil Gerstenberger was an amazing chef and had as much passion for creating good food as he did music. We had a kinship that way. He was a very devoted KOKZ listener and would either call or text me about the Forogtten 45 was going to be, what it was because he got busy and missed it, or even send ideas my way for the feature. He used to buy records and tell me about them after he picked them up, so we would talk about vinyl quite a bit. He always wanted me to see his record collection and show me the punk records he’d held onto since he was in California.
In Cali, he was a chef to many stars and worked on set for over 20 years. He’d tell me stories of those days and some of the actors and actress’ he’d met. He never mentioned whether they had become or stayed friends. LA celebrity-dom is kinda like that.
I remember a meal he made for my wife and I. He always said he wanted to come over and cook for us, but we were all so busy to find a time that worked. He eventually put something together in a glass baking dish and covered in foil. He gave it to me and said, “I hope you guys like this as much as I like you both.” He instructed the temperature to cook it at and how long and what to do after to eat it at it’s best. I do not remember what It was, but I do remember it was incredible and it’s about all my wife and I talked about for the next week.
Chef also had a great built-in “radio voice”. Loud, low and strong. He said he done some college radio gig and had his own punk show while at school. We met at HyVee as he was the head chef at the San Marnan HyVee location. I was asking the man about some meats in the case and he said, “Are you on thr radio?” I said yes and before I could introduce myself, he yelled out, “SHAWN FOXX – 105.7 KOKZ!!” Well, EVERYONE in the store no doubt heard him and I laughed so hard watching people’s heads turn from every isle as I imagined them all saying to themselves, “Who is that?” and going about their shopping.
He’d recognized my voice and that, to me, was awesome. It showed a REAL and TRUE fan of the station and the music and from then on, we became friends.
I was looking through my texts from him and I had gotten a new phone recently, so I hoped they would still be there. They were… but only as far back as March.
I’m going to miss those texts nearly every day talking about what a great choice I made for the Forgotten 45 was or what I shuold look for to play or what Sunday Night Vinyl was going to be that weekend….
One of the texts was a Forgotten 45 sugestion, that I never got to, but told him I’d played it before, but it’s been a few years I think now…
For my friend Chef/Katman to so many other friends and family, Wall Of Voodo – Mexican Radio.
Fly high man! Fly so high!
