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Dawn's Biography

A Bio??!!?? Where the heck do I start! Well, lets just roll with it and hopefully all will be answered!
 

I was born January 17, 1970 at Kaiser Hospital in Fontana, Ca. However my family and I lived in San Bernadino, Ca. Life started out normal, mom was a housewife and my dad worked his booty off to provide for his family, which not only included me, but my two older sister's Colleen and Mary. We took numerous family vacations to the various theme parks, Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, The Wax Museum, and Sea World. We also loved going to the beach, specially Balboa Beach we'd spend all day and night there, swimming, building sand castles, having bar-b-que's and enjoying each other's company around the campfire. We also would take trips to Texas, to visit my Grandpa's side of the family, this is where my love for horses and the country lifestyle started. I always looked forward to our family time, I knew something fun would be planned.
Every Sunday was church, period!! Both my parent's felt very strongly about God so there were no if's ands or but's about it, you went!


My childhood experience was normal, until that day when it all changed, somewhere in the midst of all those happy times, my parents decided to call it quits!! My sister's and I were devastated the life that we had known was coming to an end. Talk about the security blanket you have as a child being ripped from underneath you. My father sat us girls down and told us how much he loved us, and how he will continue to love us and be in our lives. He explained that we would still be living in the same house that we'd grown up in, and going to the same school's that we loved. It stayed that way for awhile, but mom remarried and we made our way to Northern Ca. Soon thereafter dad also remarried. It took awhile to adjust but dad kept his promise and we continued to be apart of his life.
 

Before I knew it I was in high school, at Casa Roble in Orangevale, Ca. and this is where the partying began!! Not something I 'm proud of but none the less, it happened and is apart of my past. It started out with alcohol although I remained involved with track/field, school newspaper, drama and photography. By the time my Junior year came around my only extra curricular activities were pot, speed, and cocaine. I was ditching school, sneaking out of the house and concerning myself only with the next "high." My Senior year I brought with me the same nasty addictions and more time to enjoy them, I was able to leave after 3rd period. Amazingly with the honor classes I had had I managed to rack up enough credits and more to graduate, however when I was in high school you had to take psychology or sociology before you could graduate regardless of the amount of credits that were on record. At this point in my life I thought I wanted to be a fashion designer, so I took fashion classes off campus after 3rd period. I was also working as a waitress which was great for someone on speed, all the moving around and chitter chatter with your customers not to mention the great tip money to spend on more partying. After graduation I started college, I had no idea what the hell I wanted to do with my life I had already lost interest in fashion design but college was the next step expected of me, so off I went. My girlfriends and I moved into our first apartment and life back then pretty much consisted of parties, work, school and more parties. By the time I was 19 I was a music major and wanted to be a music teacher. I also played piano, drums, and bass guitar. My girlfriends and I thought we were going to become famous musicians!! Unfortunately drugs were still apart of my life but thankfully one day I woke up and said enough was enough! I did not want to live my life this way, I looked around at some of the people we partied with who were in their late 20's and had not accomplished anything and I did not want to end up like them. I was one of the lucky ones, drugs for me were just for having fun and once I decided to quit all I had to do was change my surroundings and stay away from people who lived that lifestyle, it was more of an addictive personality I had to battle instead of my body being addicted.
 

I was approaching 20 and was tired of being a waitress while I went to college and I remember listening to a gal that was the night dj for 93 rock in Sacramento and thought wow, that sounds like such a fun job. My intentions were to become a dj only to help pay for my college years. I found out about a broadcasting school in Sacramento so I went and auditioned and was accepted. I fell in love with the broadcasting business and knew this is what I was meant to do.
 

I dropped out of college and concentrated on my career in radio. When I was approaching graduation from broadcasting school my teacher encouraged us to write down our goals of places we'd like to work, this is really freaky but true,my plan for action was Lake Tahoe, Reno, Sacramento, and Seattle. I drove to Lake Tahoe on a Saturday to check out the radio station and lucky for me the window of the broadcast studio faced a sidewalk that anyone could walk up to and talk to the dj. He was nice enough to chat and give me enough information so I could write a really cool cover letter that showed I had done some research on the radio station. I sent in my envelope that I decorated to look like a checker board, I figured the program director gets tons of these and I wanted mine to be noticed.
 

I hadn't heard anything from Lake Tahoe and a station in Marysville wanted to hire me, but I turned them down, I just had a feeling about Lake Tahoe. The Program Director finally called me, Rob Williams was his name, yes Rob. He wanted me to start on a Friday overnight shift, which happened to be graduation night for me, which of course I skipped my graduation, you learn real quick in this business, there is always someone waiting in line to take your job. Rob hired me to do weekend overnights and he had hired me over the phone, so when I finally met him, I was well shocked. I'll never forget it, it was a late Saturday night that he showed up at the radio station to meet me.
 

There he was 19 years old and my boss, he had blonde long hair (yes, Rob had hair back then) blood shot eyes from his night of drinking and a long black trench coat on. This was the beginning of our career together!!
 

Rob was an incredible boss and taught me so much, I wanted to work hard for him because I knew I would be rewarded. I left Sacramento and moved to Lake Tahoe even though I was only doing weekends I took a chance that something full-time would open up and I would be given the job. Sure enough full-time overnights became available and my shift, which turned into full-time evenings, then the midday shift. After 9 months of me working in Lake Tahoe, Rob took a job in Reno to work mornings on a country station there and recommended me to work the midday shift, I was hired and away I went moving to Reno.

 

After six or seven months the radio station was sold to another company, but the format remained country and Rob and I actually were able to keep our jobs.  Rob, who by this time had become our boss as well, he was Program Director, Rob that is. I was on after them from 10a-3p. During this time on the country radio station I became highly involved with various charities, Committee to Aid Abused Women, I had been through an abusive relationship, to the point I was fearful for my life and this organization helped me get away safely without involving my family or friends because I was fearful he might have done something to them, so of course after all was said and done I wanted to give back to this organization. Other charities I was involved in included Western Wishes, Special Kids Rodeo, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, to name a few. I won awards for my work with these charities, Media Represenitive of the Year, Humanitarian of the Year, recognized and given certificates from Nevada Governor's and Senator's, blah, blah, blah…..
 

A few years went by and the radio station decided to change formats from country to rock. We all managed once again to survive this and were kept on. Rob was given a promotion and was now Operations Manager. During this time of change my father passed away. It was about 5 in the morning on July 5, 1995 and one of my sisters called to tell me he was gone, I said what the hell are you talking about, he's gone?? She said he's gone, she said he had gotten up to go to the bathroom, fell to the floor and died from his 3rd heart attack. At that moment I remembered a few days before , I was answering the crisis line for the Committee to Aid Abused Women and my dad called to talk and I couldn't stay on the phone with him because a call was coming in from a woman in trouble, I told him I would call him back.. but never did and now it was too late.

I called Rob and of course he said take all the time you need. I was so numb and did not want to face what had happened. I went to the funeral and flew back to Reno four days later and went back to work. It wasn't until 6 months later, I was driving down McCarran in Reno and it finally hit me, my father was gone, I cried so hard I had to pull over to the side of the road, my eyes were filled with so many tears I couldn't see, I could barely breath and at that moment I honestly had no desire to live another day.
 

It was at this moment I delved into church, hard core, I mean on fire Christian!! I went into work and told Rob I can no longer work for this radio station, at that time I felt it was "devil rock." I gave my two weeks not knowing where the hell I was going to work. Well Rob being the brilliant guy he is, knew this faze would pass, but it was something I had to go through at the time, so he convinced the higher ups to make me his assistant, by the way, this was a position that didn't even exist in our building. This is the kind of friend and business person Rob is, he didn't want me to ruin my career in radio and he knew he had future plans for me and of course wanted to make sure that happened. Soon after I was promoted to Promotions Director, still not wanting to be an on air dj.
 

A year and a half had passed and Rob called me into his office and said he wanted to add a girl to their show and wanted me to be that girl. I hesitated at first, the thought of getting up at 3a.m will cause a person to do that. But then I became excited and accepted. The RAD Show began!! It was rough for me at first, because Reno wasn't ready for me. They thought who the hell is this women coming on their show. She's too outspoken and has an obnoxious laugh!! But I grew on people, I know some of you are thinking "darn it!" Our ratings sky rocketed in Reno and our show was a huge success. About that time there was an opening in Sacramento that would allow us to syndicate back to Reno and we thought what the hell, let's give it a try. Eventually Sacramento warmed up to us and we were a huge success in Reno and Sacramento!!!
 

Then, at almost right after that time we moved to Seattle to take on an opportunity that had presented itself for us and was a chance we had to take. We were on in Seattle, Sacramento and Reno. Seattle did not turn out how we had thought, but hell you never know unless you take the chance. Our show is still incredibly successful in Sacramento and Reno, thanks to you the listener's. I am truly thankful for all of you everyday. You allow me to do a job I love and look forward to.

 

Two years after we got back from Seattle I bumped into an old friend I had known since 1997. We started dating and then I become the luckiest girl and married my now Best Friend Gary. My life has completely changed since Gary, and for the BETTER!! It’s like, now I am truly living!! I love you so much Gary, I can’t thank you enough for marrying me!!

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