Kissin' in the Country

Sitting outside of the KIZN 92 Station, I didn't know what to expect.

Kevin and Brenda Mee, DJ's at the station, invited me to spend thirty minutes with them at their place of employment, after I asked them for an interview about country music.

I wanted the immersion of the Western cultural experience to be complete, beginning with a trip to D and B (exploring Western 'artifacts', products, and attire), a visit to the F Bar and Pierce Park Arenas (barrel racing and the Ride For Joy program) and interviews with people that have been around horses and the rodeo all of their lives (Dennis Parry, Jimmie Hurley, Katie Leonard, and others). There were only two facets left. The food (which I'll get to, I assure you) and the music. Kizn 92 was going to fill that niche for me this morning.

I was not sure what they meant when they said they wanted me to 'hang out' with them in the station for about thirty minutes. I'm a decent interviewer, but my talent does not lie in public speaking. I'm a writer, not a talker. This is what I told my husband in the morning, as I was stressing out. I kept telling myself that I did not have to say anything clever; I just had to ask questions. That I could do.

I got to the station early and did some deep breathing exercises in my car. I am an extroverted writer, trapped inside of a rather introverted person....so.... I pictured the early morning walk I'd taken a few days ago on Pit Lane, where all of the peaceful country places were. I could feel the muscles behind my eyes releasing and I was getting pretty mellow. Suddenly my cell phone rang. I already knew who it was; my husband, calling to encourage me. After a few moments of talking, he said:

"....Just don't say anything that stereotypes country people at all. People HATE that." And then he went on to elaborate. I began to worry...what if I 'stereotyped' and didn't even know it? Between that and the fact that I hated to be censored....my head began to swim again.

Up went my heart rate. Pit Lane was long gone.

"You're NOT helping," I told him, and we quickly hung up. He called back five minutes later to offer a little prayer of peace for me, and that actually was pretty effective. Great do-over.


It was time to bite the bullet and go into the office building that housed more than just KIZN 92. There were several stations that called it home, judging from the windowfront logos. I climbed the steps and approached the reception desk. And at that very moment, I could not for the life of me remember the name of the radio station; although I've listened to it for years and years.

"Could you tell me where the....frog....station.....is?" I croaked out.

The receptionist laughed to herself.

"The 'frog' station?"

"Yeah," I stammered, "I'm supposed to meet with Kevin and Brenda Mee this morning." I squeaked out again, hating the fact that my voice sometimes goes away when I'm nervous.

"She'll come out here to get you." I was told.

I found a seat in the waiting area and opened my notebook to the notes I'd taken of my walk at Pit Lane, trying to regain the vibes of that morning last week. Deep breaths. I took out my camera and reviewed the Pit Lane pictures. Horse mailboxes. Sweet peas growing themselves to oblivion. The farm fresh eggs sign. It was working. Pit Lane is definitely my happy place.

Important, radio-personality looking people were walking back and forth past the reception area. They were all very friendly to me; not one of them went by without at least a nod. It occurred to me that in the media world, you never really know who is who all the time. It's somewhat anonymous, at least in the writing arena, and even as a talk-show persona, many people would not know your face. I made a mental note that this was a good way to be, media or no media. You just never know who you're dealing with, so respect should be the word of the day.

I was no sooner back in my 'happy place' mentally, when Brenda came around the corner. Everything about her was relaxed and open; again back to what I call the 'country' look. I have the theory that wide open spaces and horses do this to a person. They all have the same look. 'Contented', maybe? I'm not sure that there are words to completely describe it...but I'll tell you this; I sure wish I had it.

She turned around and mentioned that the receptionist had told her there was a lady up front looking for the 'frog' station. Oh, great.

As I followed her down the hall to where she and her husband did their morning show, I was immediately relaxed. This was just another visit with country people...and I'd never had a bad experience yet. If that was stereotyping; so be it.

I hardly had to ask questions. Brenda and then Kevin took turns telling snippets of their country living experiences. It's unfair to ask someone to do this; it is difficult to condense a lifetime of doing what you love into thirty minutes. But they did a fine job of it, even with the time restriction. And truth be told; we went a little over.

The first story I heard was of Buddy, a 23-year-old horse of theirs. It seems he took part in a rodeo where Kevin was riding him and throwing KISSIN' 92 t-shirts to the crowd. People were applauding and Buddy was loving it. Kevin and Brenda said that he was 'different' afterward, that Buddy seemed to view himself as the 'rodeo stud'. It had inflated his ego quite a bit, they claimed...all of that adoration and attention. Perhaps horses are more like people than we'd like to think.

They balked at the idea of rodeo livestock ever being treated poorly. As they put it, "You can't force a 1600 lb. animal to do what it doesn't want to do." An excellent point. They stressed that country and rodeo people have a certain 'ethic' when it comes to their animals. Over and over again, the people I've dealt with have all said the same thing. In essence, it's this: If there were such a thing as reincarnation, you should pray that you come back as a rodeo livestock animal. You'd be treated like royalty. Massages, primo grooming and sometimes your own private quarters and the best food, treatment, and pasture you could imagine.

The Mee's said that horses are a lot like dogs; you can even call them by name and they'll respond. Like dogs, they may have one special person that's the 'boss' in their mind...so even if there is someone else on their back, when the 'boss' shows up, that will be the one they're tuning in on.

Brenda says her early country education stemmed from being an 'Air Force Brat'. She was in Italy with her family and had nothing but Italian TV to watch...but the radio had those old-fashioned serials... what she called the 'theater of the mind'. That was her early introduction to the talk-radio world. Evenings there was bingo that she attended, and there would be bands there that played country music. She was introduced to the music of Loretta Lynn, Charlie Pride, and Tom T. Hall. As she got older, she got away from country music for a while. But then, there was a point in her life where the rock music just wasn't impressing her anymore.

With what one might call a faraway look, she said that she still remembers the song that brought her back to country music. It was Tim McGraw's "Don't Take The Girl". It stirred something in her that the other types of music hadn't....the substance and the emotion of the words and the music....and she's been country ever since.

I thought to myself what a turn this must have been. Here was Brenda, in ball cap and ponytail, owner of a small ranch with horses and kids and part of a country-western station DJ duo, loving this life. It's what she does, and it's what she is. I think it's safe to say that the moment she heard that heartfelt Tim McGraw song was a pivotal one.

Kevin grew up around music of all kinds. Gospel, church, Big Band....you name it. He came from a very musical family. He said his first record was Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire". He recounted a time when his Sunday School teacher asked him if he knew any songs. He did. He knew "Dark Town Strutter's Ball", and began to sing it for the teacher and the class. This did not go over well, and he was promptly escorted out of the classroom as the teacher took him to join his parents. He was grinning broadly as he told that last part.

Kevin has had extensive experience in the music business, an accomplished musician himself, he's rubbed shoulders with some of Nashville's finest. Various circumstances (and and injury or two) have led him to this place and time. I asked him if he thought they all happened for a reason, so that he could be living the sort of life he's living now. He answered me a bit later on that question.

Going back through a little history, he talked about working at a Denver radio station. Rock music. He didn't like it. Then he and Brenda went to Cheyenne, where they would be able to work together. Then he said they had a stint in South Dakota. When they got the position at Kissin' 92 in 1998, they were told to never expect to be anything more than the fifth or sixth placed radio station in the area. They assumed they'd only stay just over a year.

I smiled to myself as I thought of the enormous Kissin' 92 inflatable frog I'd seen at the Northwest Motorfest this weekend, that had been placed alongside the enormous Kissin' 92 semitrailer. Twelve years after the arrival of the Mee's... this was no fifth or sixth place local radio station anymore. They were big.

They've managed to draw all walks of life into their Kissin' community. They do a Krispy Kreme donut giveaway each morning, and laughed about how the attorneys in an office building on the eighth floor get excited, hoping they'll be the lucky winners. Once they had winners in the Idaho Supreme Court Justice's office, and since they personally deliver the goods, they had to go through all sorts of security just to be able to do so. Even in the act of good-natured competition over a few dozen donuts, the locals are bonding over this. That morning, the lucky winner of four dozen Krispy Kreme donuts...was myself, and the folks at the Idaho Press Tribune. They got three dozen; I kept a dozen. How many I ate out of that dozen is classified information.

We had to interrupt our discussion every so often for that funny little thing called a job. When the two were on the air, they took turns speaking in a seamless manner. I suppose that's what working with your spouse for a few years will do. At one point, they mentioned that I was interviewing them in the studio and I froze. "Please don't make me talk," I thought. And then Kevin mercifully said, "She's a writer, not a talker" (MY words, exactly!) and Brenda shot back, "That's because you're doing all the talking!"

Their style was friendly, at times humorous, and inviting...going right along with my 'stereotype' of country people. Hey, I can't help it if it's fact.

Kevin stated, in thinking about his life at this point, that they've got their acreage, and two of their children get to work with them. I was under the impression that he thought life was pretty good, and that whatever it had taken to get them there had, in retrospect, not been 'bad' events after all. I read no regrets in his expression.

He wanted to talk about some of the children that he'd helped get onto a horse. One of them had been a young autistic girl, a friend's child. When they'd first brought her around the paint horse that she'd be riding, the girl's hands turned white as she clung to the gate and began to have what Kevin said looked to be a tantrum of sorts. However, when the girl's mother said, "Use your words," the child with autism looked at her mother and said, "May I ride the horse please, Mommy?"

That had been the first sentence ever strung together by this child. They all felt that they had witnessed a miracle that day. Horses heal.

The Mees got very animated as they talked about their friend, Brad Ford, that owns the 4-D Longhorn Guest Ranch. (BeACowboy.com), and how he teaches people to ride. It is a working ranch, and the guests are required not only to ride, but to do such things as brand calves, which Brenda apparently wasn't too keen on. Kevin teased her about apologizing to the calf before she had to do the dirty work of branding....only to find out that she'd branded it on the wrong side, and it had to be re-done. I immediately sensed from the story that our friend Brenda has a tender heart.

They said that Brad Ford mentioned that his chief clients are from Germany, and sometimes Italy. I wondered about this...why would that be? Brenda surmised that in Europe, so many people love the American ideal of the freedom to be a 'rebel' and the idea of the wide open spaces and the countryside. Things are somewhat structured and organized where they come from; these tourists are those that are yearning to cut loose in the wide open spaces for a while. One twelve-year-old German girl they'd met was perplexed with some of the western lingo they'd been trying to teach her. Especially the phrase, "Git 'er done". She wondered just who this woman was that needed to get so many things done...?

They also told laughingly of an Australian fellow who was struggling to ride, and finally got going on a horse, exclaiming in his thick accent, "The blokes at home would never believe this!"

Germans and Italians aren't the only ones that love Idaho. The country western stars love our state, too. When Ty Murray and Jewel come to Idaho, they go camping. A lot of celebs hit the greenbelt on mountain bikes. Kenny Chesney floated the Boise River while he was here. JoDee Messina and her trainer also hit the greenbelt, the scenic paved pathway that goes along the Boise River for miles and miles, looping through parks, neighborhoods and desert.

Brenda told me that years ago when Patti Loveless was in town, she was treated to a bona fide Idaho ice cream Potato. I made a confused look, and gave myself away. I had no idea such a thing existed. I got an enthusiastic description...ice cream rolled in cocoa and topped with whipped cream, made to look like a baked potato. "Quite delicious", Brenda stated. Apparently Chef Lou at the Westside Drive in on State Street in Boise can get me fixed up with one. Kevin and Brenda seemed rather shocked that I would not know of such things. I felt duly chastised and will remedy that as soon as humanly possible. I, like Patti, will be hiding mine in the freezer to make sure that I get to enjoy it all to myself. The Mees suggested that I bring a friend to devour it with, it being of a large proportion. I smiled politely at them as if to imply that I would...but I won't.

George Strait, they told me, also often visits Idaho. He has considered buying property here. His son, Bubba, is a roper and has actually competed at the Snake River Stampede before. His dad just grabs an RV and blends right into the crowd, making sure to be there to watch his son as he ropes. The weather is another factor for being in our great state... George loves Texas, but there is relief from the Texas heat, here in Idaho.


I realized right about then that so much of our interview had been spent talking about the Idaho country life...because it's completely intertwined with the music. Without understanding the country, you may not understand the...'art'. Our conversation had been a very thorough lead-in to the icing on the cake; the music.

"What do you love about it?" I asked them. Their answers came pouring out:

"The rich harmonies."

"The instrumentals."

"The notion that what the artists sing about is so 'real," were just a few of their replies.


The music speaks for itself. Values. Family. The one you love. Wide open spaces. The pickup truck. The horse and rider. The rodeo. Friday nights. Meeting in the Middle. Losing her. Getting her back. Finding a new 'her' or 'him'. Deep, deep patriotism. Weekends.

It's the soundtrack to the lifestyle that Kevin and Brenda Mee and so many Americans hold dear. It is, in essence, what we fight for and what we are putting forth no small effort to preserve. The country way is a good way to be.

Switch on Kissin' 92 and you'll see what I mean. You just might get swept up in the words, emotion, and the catchy tunes. And, you just might win some donuts.





Thank You, Kissin' 92, for a very memorable visit.



Copyright (c) Amy Larson 2010. All Rights Reserved.