Chapter Two

There was no doubt in Jenny’s mind that Brian and she were through. Jenny could use the recent re-scheduling events as a convenient excuse to end the relationship, but the truth was, she was tired of Brian. Their love making, which had in the beginning been so explosive, had become more like a deflated balloon. It didn’t help matters any that Brian himself had begun to resemble the said balloon where it mattered most.

 Jenny wasn’t quite sure when she first noticed the change. It might have been just after his fortieth birthday. Soon after that milestone, Brian had begun losing his erection in the middle of sex. At first, Jenny thought it was the pressure of the business or the stress of his birthday, but whatever the reason, after six months of frustration, she had enough. Actually, she hadn’t had any, which was why she had decided to end it.

Unfortunately, Brian Allen was the owner of the station and her boss, and unless she handled it very carefully, she might find herself suddenly without more than an occasional orgasm. It was a shame the body couldn’t survive on physical pleasure alone, but the facts were she had to eat and to pay for that luxury, she needed the job.

Money wasn’t the only reason Jenny didn’t want to leave KKTM. She loved the station, the people she worked with and her faceless audience who sent personal letters to someone they had never met. Jenny enjoyed being a quiet celebrity. For four hours every day she was the famous Jenny Reed, yet when she went to the grocery store, she could blend into any crowd and not be recognized until someone heard her speak.

Her voice was a dead giveaway and had been ever since her first on air radio job over ten years ago. It was then, through the imagination of the airwaves, that overweight, mousey Doris Levine was transformed into the sexy, magnetic Jenny Reed.

When she graduated from High School, Doris entered the local community college with no particular interest or ambition. She took several liberal arts classes to appease her parents, who had given up on her finding a man to take her off their hands. They knew their daughter wasn’t thrilled with the idea of continuing her education, but when you didn’t have beauty, brains were always something to fall back on.

It was no secret to Doris that her parents felt as they did. She knew she would never be able to do anything about her height. At five feet four and a half, Doris felt small all her life. She tried to compensate her shortness with her weight, which tipped the scales at one hundred and fifty pounds when she entered her first year of continuing education.

Doris wasn’t lonely or particularly depressed at her roundness. She had dates and a busy social life. She had managed to give up her virginity to another freshman three days after leaving home. It was more of a relief than an event; more of a curiosity than an emotional attraction. Once she had experienced sex and found it to be no great deal, she could concentrate on other things, like what she was going to do with the rest of her life.

Quite by accident, the decision was made for her. She had been studying for an exam one night while listening to her favorite radio station and her favorite disk jockey, Russ McDonald. His voice was mesmerizing. Doris would sit and listen to his entire four hour show. One night, she heard Russ announce that the station was holding auditions for DJ’s, and after a friend suggested she try out, she called and set up an interview for the next day.

At that audition, the station manager told her she had a beautiful voice. The only thing she needed to get the job was a license from the FCC, but, in the meantime, she could start training with her late-night fantasy Russ McDonald. Doris couldn’t wait to meet him, but when she finally did, she was shocked.

Russ was short, fat, and had a face full of zits. His voice in no way resembled his features, and Doris knew she had finally found the perfect job for herself. After her initial embarrassment, they had gone out on a date. Doris noticed how everyone around them was talking about the wonderful, sexy Russ McDonald but no one associated the voice with the man seated opposite her.

“This is wild,” she had told him. “No one knows who you are!”

“Great, isn’t it? It’s like Clark Kent hiding his Superman identity. You do have a fantastic voice, Doris. I’m glad we’re going to be working together. We’ll make a great team.”

“As long as no one knows what we really look like!” she joked.

That was the beginning of the end of Doris Levine. Soon afterwards, Doris passed her license test and, with a First Class FCC paper in hand, began working full time at the station. She started out filling in for vacationing announcers, but it wasn’t long before she had her own nightly spot, calling herself Jenny (a name she had taken from a soap opera character) Reed.

Russ taught her everything about the radio business. She learned the techniques of changing and cuing up records, editing tapes, running network feed and reading the many power meters that kept the station alive. The best job of all was when Doris became Jenny Reed. The very first time her microphone went live, phone calls lit up the station’s switchboard. Everyone wanted to know who this dynamite new female voice belonged to. Jenny received proposals and propositions and Doris was having the time of her life. She quit school, found an apartment, and, for the first time in her life, was totally happy. Jenny enjoyed the illusion she created through the air waves and had resolved herself that she would be at her job forever.

It was soon after that resolution that Doris found out that forever lasts just about seven years. She was on-air one afternoon when Brian Allen walked into the studio. He introduced himself and told her he had heard wonderful things about her. After listening to her on the air, he told her he thought her work was just what he needed at his station in Los Angeles. She immediately accepted Brian’s offer on the condition that she would have a probation period of two months for both of them. Doris wasn’t quite ready to burn all her bridges.

She was ready, however to make another major change in her life. A move to sunny California meant revealing clothes. She could no longer cover up her extra pounds with heavy sweaters and overcoats. Doris put herself on a strict diet and strenuous exercise program. She said goodbye to Russ, the station, fifty-seven unwanted pounds, and her birth name.

That was five years ago. Now, Jenny was faced with the decision of whether to stay with the security of KKTM or try to find a new wall to hang her FCC License. At thirty four, she had paid her dues with her years of experience, so maybe it was time to move on. Whatever her future decision was going to be, the one fact that remained foremost in her mind was that there was nothing to hold her back, and no man holding her, either. Not now, not tonight, and maybe, not ever. It was a thought Jenny quickly put out of her mind as she opened the massive soundproof doors that led to the heart and soul of KKTM-FM.