“I’m also known as Johnny Midnight, Johnny Cool, Johnny Duke, Johnny Style and Johnny Sunshine,”

It takes a lot of work to look like you're not doing anything.

And so it was with WKRP's Johnny Fever. We loved that he was barely awake for his sets. That a coffee cup became a permanent part of his anatomy (an affliction, I too suffer from).

As a kid, I loved his cavalier attitude toward work & norms; as an adult, I aspire to it.

Jennifer and Bailey were beautiful (#teamBailey), Venus was fly, and Herb was well, Herb.

But Fever was something else; he was relatable. The other people at WKRP made me laugh. Johnny Fever made me want to be a DJ.

I first tried in my early 20s. To say those interviews went poorly would be putting it kindly. Trying again in my late 30s (for a low-powered city-owned station) went much better but ultimately fell through due to work & parenting commitments. Not sure how Johnny would've felt about either of those.

At least I didn't get fired for saying "booger" on the air.

Behind those shades and that mustache was Howard Hesseman, an accomplished actor. He had built a solid body of work long before Johnny stumbled into the Queen City by way of Amarillo, Denver, Boise, Fargo, and more.

We lost Hesseman yesterday at age 81. A dark spot in an otherwise blindingly great day for Cincinnati. Fever probably would've never imagined himself living to such a ripe old age, let alone see the Bengals again punch their ticket to the Super Bowl.

And so we say goodbye to Howard Hesseman, but not to Johnny Fever, who lives on people's memories (and on the air).

After all, rock-and-roll never dies.