{"id":11997,"date":"2024-01-18T08:53:55","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T14:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=11997"},"modified":"2024-01-18T08:53:03","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T14:53:03","slug":"mike-soileau-on-buddy-russ-conrad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2024\/01\/18\/mike-soileau-on-buddy-russ-conrad\/","title":{"rendered":"MIKE SOILEAU ON \u201cBUDDY\u201d RUSS CONRAD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My \u2018Buddy\u2019 Russ was probably the only guy I ever met who was as geeked out about radio as I am. We both sat in our bedrooms as kids playing with record players and tape recorders pretending to be radio djs. In 2011, before he ever got into radio, Russ would come and sit with me on my morning show. He was funny and had the voice for the position. When we had a part time position open up, I immediately thought of him.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>He started off working the weekends part time and about a year later was working full time in the afternoons. He was a massive part of the Gator family, and he and I made a great team.<\/p>\n<p>Russ married my wife and I. That\u2019s how close we were. We were both super passionate about radio and loved doing dumb things.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I remember one time we were broadcasting from an auto dealership and we got the bright idea to lay a tarp in the bed of the truck, fill it up with water and throw on swimsuits and record. We hadn\u2019t considered the fact that electricity and water don\u2019t mix very well. We were lucky we didn\u2019t get electrocuted.<\/p>\n<p>One of the coolest things Russ did was barbecue 400 hotdogs and pass them out to people stuck in traffic on 210. But my favorite memory, and I think our crowning achievement, was in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura. Gator was the first radio station back on air only 30 hours after the hurricane. Russ and I broadcasted live for 40 days straight. We were on-air every single day from 6 am to 7 pm, seven days a week.<\/p>\n<p>I wasn\u2019t surprised when Russ chose \u201cBuddy Russ\u201d as his radio name. He was everyone\u2019s buddy.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>He would want that to be his legacy. He was a great friend, a giving guy who loved helping people. Losing him this past year was one of the hardest things I\u2019ve ever gone through. He was my partner.&#8221;<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My \u2018Buddy\u2019 Russ was probably the only guy I ever met who was as geeked out about radio as I am. We both sat in our bedrooms as kids playing with record players and tape recorders pretending to be radio djs. In 2011, before he ever got into radio, Russ would come and sit with [&#038;hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[917],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MIKE SOILEAU ON \u201cBUDDY\u201d RUSS CONRAD - BestOfSwla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2024\/01\/18\/mike-soileau-on-buddy-russ-conrad\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MIKE SOILEAU ON \u201cBUDDY\u201d RUSS CONRAD - BestOfSwla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My \u2018Buddy\u2019 Russ was probably the only guy I ever met who was as geeked out about radio as I am. 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