|
Could you believe how many people would show up at KIMN remotes? The Chicken window stickers every where you would look. The KIMN Chicken Dolls (not only did KIMN give the dolls away, but Joslins sold over 300,000 of them!)
The KIMN Chicken phenomenon was also far reaching. TWA Airlines had a national poll on who their travelers liked better - the San Diego Chicken or the KIMN Chicken.
When the whole thing started, no one ever dreamed that the thing would grow to such levels of popularity. Jim used to see KIMN Chicken window stickers all around town and think, "God, I am one lucky some-bitch". He got to do exactly what he enjoyed to do most and he got paid to do it. And he could not have asked to work with better people.
In particular, Jim really enjoyed working for Steve Keeney. Jim thought he was a great boss. In Jim's opinion, he was very instrumental in the success of the station. He was a smart man who knew how to put it all together. And for the most part, Jim had the latitude to just go out and have fun doing his job. Steve's only direction to Jim was "just don't do anything to get us in trouble!"
Steve ended up reprimanding Jim only 4 times in eight years of working together. One of those reprimands came from an unplanned stunt on Colfax Avenue. An engineer who was driving the Chicken Coop (the VW Bug with coop cage on the back of it) and Jim - in the Chicken suit - took the Bug through a drive-through car wash. They ended up getting the brakes all wet on the car. Jim was riding in the back of the Coop back to the station. They had decided that they had better dry the brakes out before taking the car back, so they were taking a drive down Colfax. So here goes the KIMN Chicken Coop down Colfax with Jim in the back in full costume. At first, they were lucky to even be able to stop at stoplights. The driving was pretty erratic and Jim was in the back and really hamming it up. Jim was dramatically rocking back and forth and having a great time. The spectacle of it all caused MANY concerned phone calls into the station. Upon their return to the station, Jim was called into Steve Keeney's office and Steve was wanting an immediate explanation. So Jim told the story of what happened and Steve asked, "What do you have to say for yourself?" And Jim said, "I f---ed up."
Steve admitted it was a pretty funny story.
|
