Interesting People With Bob Brill

Covering four fires is an unusual day for any reporter in any market, but when one is a giant marijuana burn followed by a double fatal involving a pioneering couple, it can be overwhelming.

Some of the funniest moments on TV turn out to be funny moments in real life and on the radio. Bob talks about covering Hollywood funerals, funny moments at those funerals as well as touching and an incident where Arsenio Hall went off on a reporter with audio of that interaction.

President Gerald R. Ford was the last remaining member of  the Warren Commission which investiated the John F. Kennedy assassiantion. Bob was doing a radio documentry on the 30th anniversary and pushed hard and finally got an interview with President Ford at his office near Palm Springs.

I've always wanted to fly but the next best thing was jumping out of an airplane in a tandem jump while recording the jump and flight for radio. It happened in Cal City.

Not many peopel get to meet their hero but my time in radio allowed Bob to do exactly that, meeting and interviewing and just spending time having drinks with Bill Mazeroski.

Bob broke new ground (lol) with a surprise by bursting into song on CNN radio doing a sportscast as MLB Players were preparing to strike -- with apologies to Terry Cashman and "Talkin' Baseball."

While working in Bakersfield at KUZZ in the early 1980's Bob got the chance to do some real investigative journalism working on a bizarre story of Elder Abuse.

During the height of the AIDS crisis in 1988, Bob's coverage of the Seoul Olympics searches for a good story and ends up at the top of "Hooker Hill." Followed by an incident of "table throwing" at an Olympic Village eatery. Which was not his proudest moment.                    

Hank Aaron, Bart Start and Wilt Chamberlain but throw in Bobby Bonds and Nolan Ryan as major contrasts when it came to treating reporters. Bob interviewed each one in a unique circumstance and they are all featured in this episode.

Bob tells of one of the worst disasters of his radio career. The 1986 Aero Mexico plane crash when a small airplane collided with a jet liner on it's approach to Los Angeles International Airport.

In this episode Bob sat down with former Major League pitcher George Culver who lived in Bakersfield. They played a fun game of Strat-O-Matic baseball with George selecting his all time team with players he played with. They played the 1962 Mets. A really fun time which won an award for Best Sports Feature.

Bob was in Seoul for the Summer Olympics and watched Ben Johnson dominate and then flee the country after a failed drug test. This and the solemn moments at the border with North Korea and crossing the line into the North.

Falling asleep while on the air at a radio station is not something you should ever do, let alone more than once. We all have done it. I think

In this episode Bob was assigned to cover the funeral of Congressman Mickey Leland in Houston, and he ends up at the Texas Prison Museum where things really go strange.

The first and only time Bob walked out while still on the air came at a small radio station in Raton, New Mexico, and while not his brightest moment, it was a lesson learned.

Bob tells the story of being on the air when a caller left a bomb threat in Palm Springs at the hotel where presidential candidate Ronald Reagan was set to speak.

In this episode Bob tells about a special trip while covering the western White House during the Reagan years in 1987. Bob flew with the press corps to Kansas where the president met with the man ran and lost to FDR in 1936 and celebrated his 100th birthday.