Reflecting on My Times with Bob Mason By: Rob Smittix

Bob Mason (Roy Moon) was a Capital District radio legend who just passed away. Bob was most notably known for his morning show Mason and Sheehan on Pyx 106 but my personal experience with Mason began somewhere around 1998 when Mason & Sheehan jumped to Classic Rock 102.3 WXCR.

Kevin Baker was the show’s producer at the time and whenever Baker was on vacation I (Rob Smittix) would fill in as acting producer. I’ve produced many shows over the years but this show in particular was not easy. There were so many elements and the show was very structured even when it sounded like it wasn’t, it was all strategically planned out. Bob Mason was a perfectionist when it came to the production of his show and it paid off.

I’ll never forget the first time I was supposed to produce the morning show for Mason and Sheehan and my alarm clock failed, or I failed to wake up to it. At the time I was 19 years old and I was so nervous and excited about producing the “BIG” show that I just couldn’t  fall sleep that night, until I did. Just because the morning show starts at 6am didn’t mean that I needed to get to the station at 5:30am, nope, try 4:30am. Well, that morning when I woke up in the 8am hour I thought my ass was cooked. Goodbye radio career! Fortunately Baker was still in town and he rushed in to save the day. I still thought I was going to be asked to empty out my desk but to my surprise Mason and Sheehan brushed it off and gave me a second chance. I went on to produce their show many times moving forward.

Fast forward to 2002 when I parted ways with WGY, Mason reached out to me to celebrate and shoot the shit over some beers. I was like sure when did you want to meet up? I forgot his schedule was different from the rest of the world and I found myself at a college bar at 11am in the morning on a weekday. Back then you could still smoke in bars so I asked Bob for a cigarette, he proceeded over to the vending machine and bought me my own pack of Marlboro reds. These are the memories I will keep forever working and hanging out with Bob Mason a true radio legend that I’ve listened to since I was still in grade school.

Thank you Bob Mason for allowing me to be a small part of your show and for being a big part of my experience in this business.