Tag Archives: ellensburg

R.I.P. Steve Swor

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I just found out that Steve Swor, one of my friends from the radio station, killed himself last week. They found him in his truck in a closed garage on May 15th. He was 38 years old.

Steve and a Sloth

I haven’t seen Steve since Annie and I left Ellensburg a few years ago, but we’d been keeping up on him through Eric and Jill. They would tell us that they’d just heard from him, stomping around in the jungles in South America, or visiting family up in Alaska. He had mentioned several times that he wanted to come through Portland to visit, and we were toying with the idea of doing another radio play with him.

I hope no one thinks this is disrespectful, but Steve will always be “Uncle Scotchy” to me. He got the nickname after splitting a bottle with me at a Robbie Burn’s night party at Eric and Jill’s one year. At the radio station, he was legendary for his deep, gravelly voice. I’m sure anyone else who heard that voice would agree that he had a truly sexy on-air persona. He always had a smile on his face and it seemed like he was constantly off to one party or another.

Here’s to you, Steve. You can be sure we’ll be tipping a glass in your memory every year.

Steve Smiling

Steve Looking Serious

Steve with Moose

Steve's Nap

Update: Steve’s sister just sent me these two extra photos of Steve. Thank you!

Tom Craven Died

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Some of you may have seen the story in the news about the four firefighters who died fighting a forest fire in Washington. I saw the story on the news this morning, and then opened my email to find this note from the general manager of the radio station Annie and I volunteered at in Ellensburg.

Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 14:48:57 -0700
From: Christopher Hull
Subject: Loss of a dear DJ and friend

Dear all,
This is to let you know, if you haven’t yet heard, that we lost Tom Craven last night (Tuesday, July 10th, 2001). Aside from being a very well-loved and respected DJ here at The ‘Burg, he was a long-time firefighter during peak fire season every year.

He was fighting a blaze that started small and erupted suddenly into a 2,500 acre nightmare. Unfortunately, Tom and 3 others were overtaken by the blaze and were killed sometime around 6pm. The fire was apparently started by an unattended campfire. I understand a national investigative task force will soon be looking further into the cause of the fire.

We at The ‘Burg are all very saddened by this news. Tom was a true friend, and many of you remember how dedicated he was to his weekly rap and hip-hop show called “Off ‘Da Hook” since he signed on board with us in the Fall of 1997.

It goes without saying that he will be greatly missed. Tom leaves behind his wife Evelyn and two young children, a daughter and a son. …The family will need time to grieve and not be overwhelmed by phone calls, which is why I am not giving out the phone number.

Thank you, and sorry for the bad news. Those of you who knew Tom, please keep the family in your thoughts and prayers.

Chris Hull
88.1 FM The ‘Burg

I wasn’t close with Tom (or Crave, as we called him at the station), but I always said hi to him, and on the occasions where we did speak, he was always very nice. Lots of people on the radio turn out to be jerks in real life, but everyone liked Crave. He was a cool guy who always seem genuinely friendly. He’ll be missed.

Radio Rats

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Annie and I just got back from the radio station awards banquet. It was a semi-formal kind of thing, and they had pretty good food. When they started giving out awards, I got one for being the News Director, and Annie and I both got one for being in Troup O’ Monkeys (the acting group who put on War of the Worlds at the station). We were kind of expecting those, because they’re just paper certificates that they gave out to everyone who was on management or in Troupe O’ Monkeys. What we weren’t expecting was to get one of the nice plaques they gave out for the DJ awards. They didn’t give these to everyone, and we’re new enough that we didn’t think we would qualify. I’m not sure if we should be proud of the category we “won” in, though. Annie and I are now the award winning “Radio Rats.” This is meant to symbolize that we’re both constantly underfoot at the radio station, although the Program Manager assured me they meant it in a good way. Corey said it was also due to how much cheese we eat.

Getting Ready to Move Back to Portland

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Progress is being made! The path is being paved for my triumphant return to Portland! Wednesday is my last day at ShirtWorks. Last Wednesday was my last day at the radio station. Friday, Annie’s folks show up and we spend the day loading the truck. Today I got us a bunch of boxes. Aw Yeah.

Countdown to Portland: 6 days.

New Jobs and Hammerspace

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Jill has asked me to watch Gavin (her 1-year old son) a couple days a week, for which she will pay me. This is cool, because we already watch Gavin frequently, so it doesn’t really feel like extra work. Also, Jill is the News Director at the radio station, and her News Producer recently graduated, so she needs someone to fill that spot on a very part-time basis (like six hours a week). But it’s a paid position, and she asked me to do it! (for those who don’t know, producer is not as impressive as it sounds in radio… it means literally the person who does the production… I’m the grunt labor). As with Gavin, I go in and help with the news now and then already, so both of these feel like a little extra money for doing something I don’t mind at all!

Also, I finally got off my ass and posted a new hammerspace comic. The way Annie and I looked in the comic has been bugging me for awhile, so I fixed them. Well, I fixed Annie. I found out that there’s no good way to draw a beard on a hammerspace character so I quit trying and just redid my character without it, which I think works better than the freakishly overextended jaw it had before. But the reason this is exciting is because, as dumb as it sounds, I wasn’t into doing hammerspace because those two characters were bugging me. Now that I got their appearance nailed, I’m hoping to start doing new comics much more regularly… at least once a week, and hopefully more frequently than that. So keep an eye on it!