Mona Forystek (now Sandys) was the Carter Manor Apartments administrative secretary and also handled applicant paperwork at the subsidized building. Luckily for me, the Carter Manor had no waiting list at that moment. So I filled out the application and within a week had a move-in date. I took the apartment sight-unseen. During business hours I was at the radio station, and leaving was impossible.

When I got back to Fred's, Angie and I worked together packing our things, we'd both be leaving at pretty much the same time. There were the usual hugs and tears of the goodbyes - Ange heading to Columbus in her old Nova and me moving downtown in my Audi Fox. I was last, so after getting Angela settled-in, Austin and Fred Kuder got me moved downtown. On my three days off from GCC Communications I did much of the unpacking. Thankfully, Austin helped me fill the waterbed Angela had given me. Good thing, too! Kathy Wetzel (Zahler) would sneak downtown helping me set up the rest of the place...and yes, making very intense love! Kathy was helping me set up and get up!-)

The Audi Fox was spending a lot of time in repair shops and frankly, I was getting frustrated with the car, and going deeper in debt because of it. While the car was in the shop, I had to hoof it to work on foot. Thankfully the weather was nice. I would usually cross Prospect to Huron, in getting to Playhouse Square, and then cut through the Buckley Building to Dodge Court in back and walk to the studios using the side door entrance.

This is the WERE NewsRadio 1300 newsroom. The photo was taken in January 1981. The teletypes behind me are two old UPI (now defunct) units and the smaller more modern printer in the middle is for Associated Press headlines. You are only seeing part of the newsroom in this photo.		WERE 1300 AM and WGCL 98.5 FM housed in this building were owned by General Cinema Corporation who bought the studios from Oliva-Neuhoff Broadcasting - hence the name GCC. And yes, I would get free pairs of movie tickets from time to time! The building was at East 13th and Chester.

WERE 1300 AM was always humming with activity between five in the morning to seven in the evening during the weekdays. Initially, it was all news during the day parts with a mixture of local and national talk shows. There would be a fair amount of Cleveland icons who would pass though its doors as talk show hosts - Lynn Sheldon, Don Robertson, Liz Richards, along with feature segments by Bill Barret, Radio-TV critic, formally of the Cleveland Press.

Station staff would also go on to bigger things - Carl Monday, first to WJW TV 8 and later to WKYC TV 3, Belinda Prinz to WJW TV 8, Mike Spatura to WEWS TV 5 and beyond, Mike Olslewski would work as a producer on The Ghoul Show and later a news director at Christian Music Station, WFHS. Charley Steiner made it big at ESPN while the late Casey Coleman first landed at WJW TV 8 and later WTAM AM. Eleanor Hayes would also end up in an anchor seat at WJW TV 8 and later, Ohio News Network owned by Scripps-Howard. For most it was a jumping off point.

Then there were the other talk show hosts like Count John Manolesco who was an on-air psychic who had some interesting habits not seen behind the mike. The Count was basically a nice guy, but he was a bit of a womanizer. Often he would have a live-in girlfriend with him. John believed in goat insulin injections for health reasons. During his show, even on the air, he would pull down his pants and boxer shorts to receive injection by needle to his rump - I'm serious, he'd do it even with guests in the studio. John Manalesco worked as an intelligence officer in World War II. He usually had guests in the studio, usually other psychics who used various methods to tell fortunes - he was a real character and had a lot of guts, sometimes making jabs on-air at the news editor, later news director, Leonard Will.

John Manalesco would even make comments about me and Kathy on the air. I really don't think it was psychic, just a good ear on news room buzz that Kathy and I were considering marriage at one point. The Count initially had to use a lot of legal arm twisting to keep his show on the air - station management felt the Count's on-air antics were tarnishing the news image it was trying hard to achieve. It was a dog fight between him and management for quite awhile.

John had gone on one last long vacation, and came back a shadow of his former robust self. He was now very weak and pale - a fragile old man. Count John Manalesco died a few months later. I wanted to attend his funeral, but Rick Odeal threatened to have someone shoot me if I did, so I stayed away. In the end, management won its battle without lifting another finger, fate played its hand. Count's final contribution was promoting a method of injecting a mixture of water and gas into automotive carburetors so engines would run cleaner with fewer pollutants from the exhaust. He had been experimenting with a device he modified for an Oldsmobile he drove.

Now, to a little bit of humor. One of those things that was not humorous then, but decades away from that moment is humorous now. Jim (another renter at the mansion) played a cameo role in this one. Kathy and I were supposed to meet at the mansion that evening after I finished up a long day in the newsroom. If there was a big story going on, it was all hands on deck to cover it, no one leaves. In any case, I got out to Kathy's place after dusk. Depending on the situation, I'd either park in the driveway there, or I'd park in the church parking lot and walked through the woods in getting to the mansion. In this case, it was the church parking lot where I parked my assigned news car. At that time Kathy and George were divorced, he never really understood nor honored the meaning of that. In any case, when I rang the doorbell, Jim answered. The kids were asleep upstairs. I asked if Kathy was there, and Jim told me she was out with (uh-oh) George. Since I was driving an unmarked news car, I felt it was safe to wait, provided I was not in a place George had easy access to. It was a dangerous thing to do, no matter what the aspects were. However, when in love, one can do dumb things, and I really did want to spend time with Kathy! So, I felt, after Kathy got back, and I was sure George left, we would have some time together before I had to get back to the station to help put the morning drive package together. It was pretty late when she did return. As a safety precaution (and with Jim's understanding permission), I was laying on the floor between the bed and the wall - close to the bed - so I couldn't be seen until the coast looked clear. Kathy (unaware I was there) quietly walked in and asked Jim if I called? Hearing Kathy's voice, my hand slowly raised where it could be seen. Kathy came over (i could tell she had a few) and jumped right on top of me saying, "I Love You!!! I don't want to go back! I don't want to go back!!" this prompted me to ask where (i was starting to get a little freaked) George was? Kathy told me he was in her bedroom asleep! All I could think of was 'holy shit, I had to get out of there!' Someone is about to get hurt, obviously Jim and I and Kathy, should George wake up and wander around looking for her. She was holding on tight to me on the floor, crying and shaking, and I could only think of the danger we were all in. It was hard for me to say, but I told Kathy, she'd better get back ("Kathy, you have to go back!") to him and act as if nothing happened. It was already pretty early in the morning, and daylight was about to break. Among other things, I'd be late getting back to WERE 1300, and an easy target for George to catch once daylight broke. Kathy slowly got off of me, and headed back to her bedroom and George. I quietly asked Jim if there was an alternate route in getting out, lessening my chance of being caught in the open. Bless Jim's heart, I went down the main staircase with Jim behind me, and he let me out through the double glass doors leading to a porch off of the living room. I stayed close to the house so as not to be seen, snuck through the woods back to my car, and quickly left the parking lot with my lights off until I reached the street. My adrenalin and nerves didn't calm down until I hit the interstate. Whew, that was a close one - too close!

As for myself, I was now running the overnight board, doing production and writing and sometimes talent on spots done in-house for various sponsors. I usually wrote up to 100 spec commercials with an average of better than 90% making it to air. It was a lot of work, but I found it challenging. I really tried to be good at everything I did. Radio was not a '9 to 5' business to me, it was my life and I found it a fun challenge - one day was never like the next. Each one held promises and disappointments and surprises.

At the apartment, it was generally lonely between the times Kathy would be over. I had brought the round tube 21" (circa 1964) RCA Color TV set with me, but even with television and books, I didn't really find much joy in life. When I got out, it was generally for food shopping, other than eating or sleeping, there was not much time for anything else. Like I said, radio was not "9 to 5" for me, I ate, slept and talked radio - I really loved broadcasting!

The apartment was a one bedroom in the back of the building which faced an alley, beyond that, the brick wall of an Ohio Bell switching facility. All I could see was brick and nothing else save a sliver of sky and the alley below. It was small with the kitchen in view consisting of a sink and thirty-six inches of counter space on both sides. I did have some roommates - roaches with whom I waged a constant battle. Before that time, I'd never seen a roach face-to-face.

Kathy and I had been very close, that was obvious...but her ex-husband George proved too much of a problem. Try as I might, Kathy couldn't understand that George Frederick Zahler II was very dangerous to all, and she really needed to find some way to cut ties with him! One time Kathy was excited about going to a broadcast party with me - and I was just as excited she was coming. She had me help her pick out a dress pattern and fabric and made a beautiful low cut emerald green dress with it. Before the date, she called me to say George found out and had made the threat that he planned to crash the party and cause problems. Only two ways George would find out - Kathy or the kids. It didn't matter, with the threat from George, I couldn't afford to take Kathy with me and chance a scene that could get people hurt, including Kathy and I. So I told her she couldn't come to the party. I told her I'd take my first cousin Sheila instead - we'd try the next time around as long as George didn't find out...I just couldn't risk the best job I'd ever had over a possible face-down with her ex.

Kathy took it very bad. She was depressed that she was unable to shake George and felt our relationship simply wasn't going to go nowhere with George in the picture. So, late one evening, I got a call from her girlfriend who was to babysit for her kids...she was frantic, telling me Kathy tried committing suicide! She had swallowed a whole bottle of sleeping pills and the girlfriend finding her, called EMS who transported her to Lake County Hospital. I jumped in my car and sped on the highway into Lake County and was hauled over by police on Euclid Avenue. I explained to the officer who I was and where I was going and why - telling them they could give me a ticket at the hospital. Thankfully, Kathy's girlfriend called Willoughby police telling them where I was going and the police had heard the call on their radio. Rather than ticket, they gave me an escort to the hospital and then drove off. Kathy's mother was also informed and pulled into the lot, I was already hoofing it towards the entrance - she would park her car and meet me inside where Kathy was. When I saw Kathy, the doctor already pumped-out her stomach. I was scared - on the chance of losing her and having her children without a mother - the kids would end up going to George if Kathy died...a fate I'd wish on none of them.

I was scared, and said to Kathy that no man was worth committing suicide over...not even me! My hope was to convince her never to try something like that again. A couple days later, Kathy was out of the hospital and I went stag to the broadcast party. After that, Kathy cooled to our relationship. She couldn't understand that I loved her and I didn't want anything bad to happen to her again.

Kathy would now call me to give her a ride to her and the kids counseling appointments at a social services center on Johnny Cake Ridge Road outside of Painesville. She really wouldn't talk with me much - I was just a free ride at this point. I honestly hoped Kathy and I could repair our relationship, but it wasn't to be. After her counseling services had ended, we didn't see each other anymore and our relationship was dead. Then, she called me one more time. It was two in the morning, and she'd been partying at some bar downtown that was closing. She tried getting a ride back out to Lake County but had no takers - the best she could do was get some guys to drop her off at a parking lot where she would meet me. There she was in a car with two couples who were obviously bombed. Kathy got in my car and I drove her back out to her apartment in Wickcliffe. I tried conversing with her, but all I got out of her were one word answers and a very sour face. Again, I was just a ride. I asked if I could come up for coffee, but she told me "no", she was living with someone. So I tried kissing her goodnight, but even that wasn't going to be acceptable. I let her out and headed for home.

I was now pretty much on my own once again...well me and the roaches anyway. By now, I fully realized Kathy and I were no longer an item. I felt bad for her kids - from what I would learn from a distance, they did not have too good of times with the men who would pass through Kathy's life after our relationship had ended. Kathy's son George III was continually getting hauled into juvenile court, getting locked-up for weeks at a time. Her next youngest Karl and later her youngest Todd, ended-up living with Margaret after she gained legal age - mom's boyfriends didn't get along with the kids and they felt the same way about her boyfriends. Thankfully Margaret and hopefully the rest of her kids got their lives together. Margaret who was always good with math, went to work for a bank from what I heard.

At this point, I'd have to tell you, I don't have any pictures of Kathy from this period as of  this writing - Kenneth William DeJean destroyed them!

After a long period (about two years), I decided I needed to meet someone new. I'd tried the bar scene, but I discovered alcoholic women could get real demanding, embarrassing and generally a pain in the ass. So I'd try the singles ads. I really wanted to find someone who liked sex as much as I did. I found a publication at an adult bookstore about two blocks and around the corner from the radio station. It had a bunch of pictures showing men and women - some dressed and some, um...in a state similar to the day they were born. I decided to put a photo of myself into the publication - a bust shot fully dressed in a three-piece suit I had at the time. It ran in the publication, but I didn't get any response...when I think about it, I'm glad I didn't.

My next attempt was placing an ad in Cleveland Magazine and answering them. I subscribed to the magazine not because of the singles ads - but for the hard journalism centered around Northeast Ohio. One note, the magazine has gotten away from the investigative journalism and turned into something that seems written by feature writers who are not local but far away - more interested in soft news, you know, fashions and restaurants and stuff that doesn't require a lawyer for "freedom of speech" issues. I received a little feedback, but nothing that was a real fit. I managed to to a few dates out of it, but the chemistry wasn't there. Meanwile, I was answering ads as well. A lot went out, but had few ads back from the advertisers. However, I had perseverance and it eventually paid off. When you read the short ads in these publications, there is a lot of 'filling-in' the blanks. Words that attract me are 'sense of humor', college-educated, and the age brackets. Simply put, I'm attracted to women older than myself - they seem less plastic. Another is height - I'm only 5'2" tall, and while I don't mind someone being a few inches taller - 'six feet +' is a little out of my league. Consider it this way, if we were to have a conversation standing up, I'd be talking into her boobs...oh well, at least I'd have a nice view hopefully!-)

Finally, a woman answered my inquiry to her ad that looked promising. I had already given her my phone number and she wrote back with hers. To me it was a red letter day. Louise Morrow was a nurse at University Hospitals of Cleveland as well an instructor at Case Western Reserve University. She dealt primarily with woman's health issues. We talked on the phone to see where the other's head is at, and after a few conversations we decided to meet. After a brainstorming a few ideas, we decided to meet at the Elegant Hog on Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland. Works for me, my apartment was a hop-skip from there. The Elegant Hog was sort if a bistro that specialized in gourmet hamburgers as well wines and some international beers. It had a great art deco atmosphere with a lot of brass railings and classy elegance that was one of a kind. I had written a lot of radio spots for the restaurant. Louise gave me  some indication of what she looked like, as well telling me she had red hair. This would lower the odds of making a mistake in who to watch for. I also told her what I'd be wearing - a burgundy turtle neck sweater, blue jeans and a western hat. Hopefully we'd each standout enough to be easily recognized. We agreed to meet in the late afternoon. Being February, it gets dark early.

As I sat there at a table of the Elegant Hog, I looked up a few times as some women walked in the door wondering what Louise looked like - I have to imagine she was wondering what I looked like also. I knew I liked the letters we sent back and forth, and of course the phone calls. I especially loved her laugh - real and intelligent. When the moment arrived and we saw each other for the first time, it was magic - and a lot of relief for me. She sat down and soon the waiter was back with our menus. For me it was the specialty of the house - the Hogburger with the works, some fries and the standard rum and coke. I really don't remember what she ordered, I was just content to look into her eyes. I was enchanted. We covered different subjects on that first date and we broke the ice well. As it goes, we discussed different dating experiences and had some laughs with that and moved on to each others likes and dislikes. I found out she was divorced and had two grown children a few younger than I. The date went very well.

It was dark and we decided to go back to my apartment. We were both feeling a little loose from some of the drinks we had and talked a little more. In my respect we were feeling more comfortable together and things got a little more intimate. Okay, we'll clear the air, we made love. It was great and I was with a very intelligent woman who had a fantastic sense of humor - and that's pretty rare in my experience. As I said, I really enjoyed her laugh. It helped we were both similar heights as to communications. We agreed the next date would be at her apartment. I walked to her car and we kissed good night - a wonderful time was had by all!-) As I walked back to my apartment, I wondered how I had done and what Louise was thinking after the first time. In-between our next date were the phone conversations - I had a real crush on Louise and hoped this would develop to something more.

I really was not into apartment living downtown, or living in an apartment anywhere. I grew up in a house, and that's where I wanted to return. I greatly mourned the fact I missed out on buying my parent's house. But I was in my first year at WERE AM and WGCL FM and had convinced myself I needed to be at a good job for at least a couple of years to qualify for a home loan. I really didn't think of the aspect that the house was a two family in a very desirable location on Riverside and the rental would buffer the amount I'd pay for the mortgage - but the fact I didn't at least try would remain a large regret. Sometimes I can still see the ghost of myself in that home. But, its time to move on. My hope is that Riverside holds nothing but good memories for the people living there now. The one good thing about the Carter Manor is that it had underground parking. Perhaps that's one of the reasons it was a chosen place for the Beatles to secretly stay during their Cleveland appearances. Back then it was known as the Pick-Carter Hotel. For me, it was the safest place to park my car in downtown Cleveland.

It was the Christmas season - very lonely if you are a single person. So I'd try to find happiness where I could. Even Louise would be spending it with her family as she should. However, there was no 'getting together' with my birth family - first, I always felt like an outsider - and lets be honest, holidays with my father would simply suck. My dad could get particularly nasty at that time of year and the Woburn Avenue house had many bad memories in my mind. So, I stayed away. I spent most of my time at the Bryson Horse Stables in Medina County outside of Lodi. There, the celebrations were more relaxed, nobody fought and everyone seemed to like one another. In fact, the Kuders all gather once every summer for family reunions - you can bet that never happened with the Boggs family - at least, my dad was never invited. Then again, would you want to invite a bully to your family getogthers - I don't think so! If they were held at all, I certainly was unaware of any. And in the Boggs household, best not to say word one - that would bring nothing but arguments both from my dad and older brother Dan. I was simply tired of that shit and the silly little power plays and games that went with it. Therefore holidays were something you simply got through. Of course, I stayed away at that point for my own sanity. Is it hard to understand why so many suicides, or those attempted occur during the holiday season?

At WERE AM & WGCL FM, I was the station bachelor, so I was usually assigned the holidays - as a matter of fact, they were sticking me with them all. Just before Christmas, everyone on the staff made recorded Christmas spots, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. Then the spots were played on the air on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. One of the news anchors who had to work both days summed it up quite nicely in an outtake. "Hi I'm Ken Pruitt and I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, I'd have one too, but I have to stick around this fucking radio station! Is that good enough, is that a take?" The recording engineer pointedly informed the anchor that while he thought it was okay, management would likely beg to differ!-) I did my spot with a bit of prose. I also picked my own music bed underneath. I decided to record it myself to have more control of the end product. Then on my shift over Christmas, I made damn sure it was the only greeting that got played!-)

Louise and I got together at her apartment in Little Italy after New Years. It was a nice place and close to where she worked at University Hospitals Of Cleveland. As mentioned earlier, she worked with woman's issues. We talked some more about her relationship with her ex-husband and why she left. According to Louise, her husband could have quite a temple and threaten her. It finally got to the point where she was scared for her life and left. Naturally, her children stayed with their father. Thankfully her kids would understand the situation - preferring their mother to be safe. Lucky for Louise, she had a medical background that allowed her to fiscally survive being single again. There is actually a lesson in this - even if you are the most desirable woman on Earth, its important to get a good education (college) and get your career started with a solid footing. Its great insurance once you do get married, you'll always have a safety net if things don't quite work out...it happens!