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| Looking for UFOs in the night Colorado skies |
When I lived in Colorado in the '70s, there were stories in the news about UFO sightings in the mountains of Colorado. My friends Tim, Ron, John and I would journey deep into the mountains on clear nights on the lookout for UFOs and lights in the sky. As hard as we tried, the most we ever saw was some shooting stars. No UFO sightings. But, my experience with UFOs happened when I was least expecting it.
Before deregulation in the late '90s, the radio business was filled with many colorful characters. Radio stations were owned mostly by individuals and small companies. The maximum number of radio stations any one owner or group could own was 14 stations in no more than seven markets. This allowed for much diversity in the ownership of radio stations. I had a consulting business that dealt with many interesting radio stations around the country. One of those diverse radio owners was Mr. M.
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| Magical waters |
Mr. M owned an FM station in a small market in the West. His genetic makeup allowed him to be a card-carrying Native American. He made his fortune selling his water bottling company to a large soft drink company. He had been selling pure healing water from a natural spring on an Indian Reservation. The large conglomerate paid him handsomely for his successful water business, only to find out that the rights to the water were reserved for use only by Native Americans. Under the new corporate owners, the water inside the bottle was reformulated and became nothing more than filtered city tap water under the same label name. Consumers were never told about the change.
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| FM Radio towers |
With his bank account bulging from the sale, Mr. M decided to invest it by buying a radio station. Not being in the business, he contacted me to give him guidance on the programming of the station. We hired a staff and put the station on the air with an eclectic music format that fit the tone of the community. It became a huge success and he was able to spin his investment several years later by selling the station to a big conglomerate.
You might be wondering what all of this has to do with a trip to outer space. One day at dinner in a busy restaurant, I was having dinner with Mr. M and two other executives from the radio station. At some point over appetizers, Mr. M began telling us the story of how he and his wife had been abducted by aliens and taken aboard a spaceship and taken into outer space.
At this point in my life, I was on my health kick. I was eating an organic vegan diet. Alcohol didn't touch my lips. I was completely clean and sober with a sharp mind. I mention this because what proceeded from this point forward felt like some kind of drug-induced acid trip. As Mr. M told us of his UFO adventure, the hubbub and activity of the busy restaurant slowly faded into the background. I have a vivid memory of only seeing the four of us sitting at the table, and instead of servers and patrons buzzing around the table, what I saw instead was a universe of stars and galaxies. It was as if Mr. M was taking us on a space trip as we sat at the table.
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| Mr . M takes off |
The story of his encounter at this point was insignificant. He told us that he and his wife were out driving one night and they were beamed up into the ship and taken deep into space. What was fascinating about the conversation was that he recalled it in such a way that we actually experienced what it was like. There was an experience behind the words. Time disappeared. It seemed like we were on this trip with him for a long time - hours possibly. There was no rush, but after this extended trip in space, we came back to our table and only a few minutes passed and we were served our dinner.
I haven't had any repeat trips to space, at least that I'm aware of. However, this event hasn't stopped me from being a space case.
Far out.
