Shawn Patrick Lives a Dream Becoming a ‘Good Morning Guy’ (For a Week)

Every kid has an idol or someone they at least really looked up to as they are growing up. For some it was a famous singer like Elvis or Garth Brooks, others went the sports route with someone like Michael Jordan or John Elway, there were smart the smart kids who dreamed about being an astronaut or the President of the United States, and then there was me. I wanted to be a radio DJ! Growing up in Northern Colorado through the 90’s there were only two voices that came through my dad’s car speakers every morning on our way to school. It didn’t take me long to pick Brian Gary as my idol, and I knew someday I wanted to be doing what Brian was doing.

Fast forward a few years with me for a second. Brian and Todd have been the “Good Morning Guys” for 23 years now, and to put it into prospective, I am only 24 years old. I first got to work with them almost four years ago when I became an intern at K99, and Monday marks my first time as a “Good Morning Guy”!

I can’t tell you for sure when it was the first time the Good Morning Guys caught my ear, but I know I was in Elementary School, so probably sometime in the very early 90’s. Although I probably did not understand all of their jokes, and I didn’t care for the news back then, there was just something about the show that kept even a 7 or 8 year old engaged. Every once in awhile I would get a treat and my dad would take me out to a K99 remote and I would get to meet Brian, and I even think I have a Brian Gary autograph on a bumper sticker stuffed away in a box somewhere. I remember how nervous I always was when I would see him in person. There was a time when he was coaching a youth baseball team who my team was playing, and I am almost positive I struck out every at bat that game! I would then go home and get my boom box out and play radio all night long. I have to admit I got too cool for country music for a few years in there somewhere and lost touch with my idol and cheated with someone like stupid like Snoop Dogg or something haha!

That phase faded quickly and I went right on back to loving the “Good Morning Guys” and after doing a few other things after High School I decided it was time to chase my dream of being on the radio like Brian. The broadcasting school I went to required that students do an internship, and there was no question in my mind where I would go looking for mine. After I was hired as an intern, my first day on the job I was sent on a remote with guess who? That’s right, and Brian even let me announce a winner’s name on the radio, to this day probably the most nervous I have ever been on the air. I eventually got to sit in on a “Good Morning Guys” show, helped with the “28 Hours of Hope”, and got to know Brian. The whole time I was just in awe like a kid who was on the court with Jordan, or in the space ship with Neil Armstrong.

To make an even longer story shorter, I eventually got hired to be a co-worker of idol on K99. Filling in and doing shows on the weekend I got fell in love more and more with the profession and got my own morning show on K99’s sister station, 94.3 MAX-FM. Now it was like playing against John Elway, and being in the same building as Brian at 4:30am is an experience in itself, so I lost a little love. Ok, I am just kidding about that part! After almost 4 years on the same team I have gained more respect and desire to be like my role model than I had ever had before.

Now for one week only I get to go be my idol. Brian asked that I would fill in for him for a week, and I may have peed my pants a little. Now it’s like Garth decided to take a night off and asked me to do the show for him, hopefully people still come to the show!  Todd is in for quite a journey this week, but I couldn’t be more proud to be doing the show that made me want to get into the business when I was in single digits heading to school.