96.9 WXBQ | Twenty-Four Carrot Country

The Relay for Life of Bristol!

WXBQ — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:08:17 +0000

The American Cancer Society presents the 2012 Relay for Life of Bristol!

It happens May 18-19 at Avoca Christian Church, Bristol, TN

The WXBQ Rabbit will be at the Avoca Church on Friday May 18th beginning at 4:30

and we’re asking you to register to be on the team

and be a part of the 12 hour Relay For Life.

The Opening Ceremony begins at 6:00pm on the 18th with the survivor lap.

CLICK HERE to sign up!

Win Tickets to the CMA Music Festival!!

WXBQ — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:27:55 +0000

brought to you by

You can win a pair of tickets to 4 nights of concerts at the

CMA Festival in Nashville!

That’s right…win a pair of tickets to Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday’s concerts featuring…

Carrie Underwood

Rascal Flatts

Brad Paisley

Jason Aldean

Luke Bryan

Eric Church

Faith Hill

The Band Perry

Lady Antebellum

Zac Brown Band

…and more!

The Pepsi/IGA 2012 Ford Fiesta Sweepstakes

WXBQ — Sat, 12 May 2012 14:24:45 +0000

Join us for fireworks and winning! Win a 2012 Ford Fiesta! It’s as easy as registering and picking the winning Pepsi can!

WXBQ will broadcast live from each location below where you can register to win. If you are one of the 15 finalists, you will join us at Freedom Hall on the 4th of July for the 27th Annual Independence Day Celebration, where you will choose a can of Pepsi. If you pick the winning Pepsi, you will win the car!!! It’s that simple.

May 12, Saturday 11a-1p West Sullivan St, Kingsport, TN
May 17, Thursday 4-6p North John B Dennis Hwy, Kingsport, TN
May 23, Wednesday 12n-2p Weber City, TN
May 30, Wednesday 4-6p 1328 South John B Dennis Hwy, Kingsport, TN
June 2, Saturday 11a-1p North Main Ave, Erwin, TN
June 7, Thursday 4-6p Erwin Motors, Erwin TN
June 13, Wednesday 12n-2p 19 East Bypass, Elizabethton, TN
June 19, Tuesday 4-6p Jackson Love Hwy, Erwin, TN
June 22, Friday 12n-2p North Roan St, Johnson City, TN
June 27, Wednesday 1950 South Roan St, Johnson City, TN
July 4, Wednesday 5p-10pish Freedom Hall, Johnson City, TN

Good Luck! From the Rabbit Station!

Click Here for official rules

Kingsport Idol Returns To FunFest

WXBQ — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:13:38 +0000

Auditions begin soon so make sure you have all the info for your chance to win cash and prizes.

For more info click here.

Sara Evans In Studio

WXBQ — Tue, 08 May 2012 21:14:41 +0000

We invited random 24 Carrot Club Members in for lunch with Sara Evans.

Click here to see Sara Evans in the studio!

Sara Evans in Studio

WXBQ — Tue, 08 May 2012 21:11:11 +0000

Fallen Soldiers in April

WXBQ — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:55:14 +0000

While we lost some famous people recently including Dick Clark, Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes, artist Thomas Kinkead, Earl Scruggs, and Davie Jones, we here at the Morning Air Show think it’s important to remember some people who recently lost their lives:

1. Marine Master Sgt. Scott E. Pruitt

2. Army Private first class Christian R. Sannicolas

3. Army Spc. Jason K. Edens

4. Army Staff Sgt. Brandon F. Eggleston

5. Army Sgt. Dick A. Lee Jr.

6. Navy Lt. Christopher E. Mosko

7. Army Staff Sgt. Andrew T. Britton-Mihalo

8. Army Spc. Moises J. Gonzalez

9. Army Spc. Benjamin H. Neal

10. Army Spc. Manuel J. Vasquez

11. Marine Staff Sgt. Joseph H. Fankhauser

12. Army Pfc. Michael J. Metcalf

13. Army 1st Lt. Jonathan P. Walsh

14. Army Chief Warrant Officer Nicholas S. Johnson

15. Army Sgt. Dean R. Shaffer

16. Army Chief Warrant Officer Don C. Viray

17. Army Sgt. Chris J. Workman

18. Army Capt. Michael C. Braden

19. Marine Cpl. Aaron M. Faust

20. Army Staff Sgt. David P. Nowaczyk

21. Army Sgt. Tanner S. Higgins

22. Marine Lance Cpl. Abraham Tarwoe

23. Marine Lance Cpl. Ramon T. Kaipat

24. Army Spc. Philip C.S. Schiller

25. Navy Constructionman Trevor J. Stanley

26. Army Spc. Antonio C. Burnside

27. Marine Corps Cpl. AlexMartinez

28. Army Sgt. 1st Class Shawn T. Hannon

29. Army Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey J. Rieck

30. Army Capt. Nicholas J. Rozanski

31. Marine Cpl. Christopher D. Bordoni

32. Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Brown

33. Army Staff Sgt. Tyler J. Smith

34. Army Spc. Jeffrey L. White Jr.

These are the American soldiers who lost their lives in the line of duty in April. 6360 soldiers have died in Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn as confirmed by the U.S. Central Command. They will never be forgotten. And that’s the Morning Air Shows American Spirit.

We Have Two Choices

WXBQ — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:48:21 +0000

Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!” He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator.
If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, “I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?”
Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, ‘Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.’ I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.”
“Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,” I protested.
“Yes, it is,” Jerry said. “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live life.”
I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.
Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center.
After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.
I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him
how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Wanna see my scars?”
I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his
mind as the robbery took place. “The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door,” Jerry replied. “Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live.”
“Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?” I asked.
Jerry continued, “The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, ‘He’s a dead man.’ I knew I needed to take action.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
“Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me,” said Jerry. “She asked if I was allergic to anything. ‘Yes,’ I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Bullets!’ Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.’”
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

Nails In The Fence

WXBQ — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:43:39 +0000

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there.”

The little boy then understood how powerful his words were. He looked

up at his father and said “I hope you can forgive me father for the holes I put in you.”

“Of course I can,” said the father

I Wish You Could Know

WXBQ — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:32:53 +0000

I wish you could know what it’s like to search a bedroom for a trapped child with flames rolling above your head, your palms and knees searing as you crawl, while the floor sags under your weight as the kitchen below you burns.

I wish you could comprehend a wife’s horror, at 3 in the morning, as I check her husband of 40 years for a pulse and find none. I start CPR anyway, hoping to bring him back, knowing intuitively it is too late, but wanting his wife and family to know that everything possible was done to try to save his life.

I wish you knew the unique smell of burning insulation, the taste of soot-filled mucus, the feeling of intense heat through your turnout gear, the sound of flames crackling, the eeriness of being able to see absolutely nothing in the dense smoke-conditions with which I’ve become too familiar.

I wish you could understand how it feels to go to work in the morning after having spent most of the night, hot and soaking wet, at a multiple alarm.

I wish you could read my thoughts as I respond to a building fire; “Is this a false alarm or a working fire? How is the building constructed? What hazards await me? Is anyone trapped?”

Or as I respond to a medical call; “What is wrong with the patient? Is it minor or life-threatening? Is the caller really in distress or is he waiting for us with a two-by-four or a gun?”

I wish you could be in the emergency room as the doctor pronounces dead the beautiful five-year-old girl that I have been trying to save for the past 25 minutes, who will never go on her first date or again say the words, “I love you, Mommy.”

I wish you could know the frustration I feel in the cab of the engine, squad, or my personal vehicle, with my foot pressing down hard on the pedal, my arm tugging, again and again, at the air horn chain as you fail to yield the right-of-way at an intersection or in traffic. However, when you need us, your first comment upon our arrival will be, “It took you forever to get here!”

I wish you could know my thoughts as I help extricate a teenage girl from the remains of her automobile. “What if this were my daughter, sister, my girlfriend, or a friend? What would her parents’ reaction be when they open the door to find a police officer with hat in hand?”

I wish you could know how it feels to walk through the door and greet

my parents and family, not having the heart to tell them that I nearly did not come back from the last call.

I wish you could know how it feels to dispatch officers, firemen, and

EMTs, how our heart drops when we call for them and no one answers back, or to hear a bone-chilling 9-1-1 call from a child or a wife in need of assistance.

I wish you could feel the hurt when people verbally, and sometimes physically, abuse us or belittle what we do, or when they express their attitude of “It will never happen to me.”

I wish you could realize the physical, emotional, and mental drain of

missed meals, lost sleep, and forgone social activities, in addition to all the tragedy my eyes have seen.

I wish you could know the bonds of brotherhood, the self-satisfaction

of saving a life, preserving someone’s property, being able to be there in times of crisis, or restoring order from chaos.

I wish you could understand what it feels like to have a little boy tugging at your arm and asking, “Is Mommy okay?” …and to understand how it feels not to be able to look into his eyes without tears in your own, not knowing what to say…or to hold back a long-time friend who watches as CPR is being performed on his buddy while they take him away in an ambulance. You knew all along he did not have his seat belt on…this is a sensation I have become all too familiar with. Unless you have lived this kind of life, you will never truly understand or appreciate who I am, who we are, or what our job really means to us…

We wish you could though.