TRIAL DATE SET FOR MARY LUCIA’S STALKER

 From Mary Lucia’s note to listeners, April 2015: 

My life over the last year has involved a series of restraining orders, seemingly endless calls to 911, the installation of security cameras at home, and police photo ID line-ups. I've been constantly looking over my shoulder, dead-bolting doors, and jumping when someone rings my doorbell or my motion lights go off. 

KCMP-FM – 89.3 The Current – host Mary Lucia remains on leave from the station after renewed contact from a man who has been allegedly stalking her. Lucia began her leave of absence last April after repeated incidents were reported to the police.

The alleged stalker is now in jail awaiting trial on August 31, 2015.  His bond was raised to $100,000 after he again tried to contact Lucia again in June.  If convicted of the stalking charge, he could ne sentenced for up to ten years in the slammer.

The alleged stalker’s name was published in local news reports but I will refrain from using it here.  Here is his lovely mug shot:

TIMELESS PROBLEM: RADIO HOSTS AND THEIR STALKERS

Mary Lucia is the latest in a long list of radio folks who are or have been stalked.  Radio folks like to feel the love from listeners and are encouraged to have street cred with fans.  But sometimes obsession becomes fatal:

• In April 2004 WHBQ, Memphis DJ Rebecca Glahn, who had complained about an anonymous stalker was strangled to death in her apartment.  UPDATE:
Her killer was found swiftly by the police after discovering her body. His name is Stanley Andrews. He pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence at West Tennessee State penitentiary.

Before her death, Glahn said in an e-mail to a fellow DJ:

 "He felt that I was speaking directly to him. He thought that all of the songs were talking to him, that I was playing them just for him."

• In June, 1984, talk show host Alan Berg at KOA Denver was gunned down in the driveway of his home by a member of a white supremacist group. Berg’s story became the plotline for a book (Talked to Death) and the film (Talk Radio).

• In 1982 in Tucson, Bob Cooke of AOR station KWFM has just finished a remote broadcast at a local nightclub when he was shot by a deranged fan.  Cooke was walking back to his car.

• In September 2001, Al Moss, a popular host on Miami’s Rhythm 104.7, was shot to death when he answered the door at his home. The shooter operated a pirate station and somehow got the idea Moss was he competitor.

• In March 2008 WABC, New York radio news host George Weber was stabbed to death by a younger male listener who said he thought Weber was gay.

Mary Lucia is taking ample precautions. But I miss her voice on the air.  I’ve been a fan of Mary since she hosted the program Popular Creeps on the old ZONE 105 here in the Twin Cities. These were the kind of creeps who were welcome in her world.

PLAY HONEY BY BOBBY GOLDSBORO FOR ME…NOW

In my many years on the air I’ve never knowingly had a stalker but I had something close. In 1968 I was working the graveyard shift at a Top 40 station: KISD in Sioux Falls.  It was my first job in radio.   

KISD DJs broadcast from a studio with huge plate-glass windows looking out on a seedy part of downtown. [I wrote about this showcase studio in a previous post at [link].

Around 3:20am the requested line was ringing.  I answered it and a troubled male voice said: Play Honey by Bobby Goldsboro now.

Honey was recent hit record but I had just played it.  KISD had a rule that no records could be repeated for two hours.  The PD was relentless about enforcing the format rules.  He was known to listen anytime day or night.  There was a special red phone in studio just for his calls.  This was my first job and I didn’t want to f*ck it up.

So I told him I couldn’t play Honey until after 5:00am because of the rules.   

The caller didn’t like my response.  He said:

You've gor play Honey because it was playing on the radio the moment my girlfriend died. Play it now or I'll be down to see you.

The caller hung up.  I should have called the cops but I didn’t. I closed the sheer curtain in the showcase window.

Then BANG!  Something unknown hit the showcase window with so much force I thought it would crack.  I saw the shadow a lineman sized man repeated bashing into the window screaming Play Honey.

I called the cops.  By they time they arrived the man was gone.