Pinball wizard, radio and childhood

PARIS — Born in Norway, Jeff Parsons has lived in the area most of his life. Now he works as a DJ at a radio station in Portland.

He recently took time to tell us about his life.

Q: When were you born and where were you brought up?

A: I was born at Stephens Memorial in Norway in 1971. I grew up most of my life in South Paris. Toward the end of high school I moved to Norway, but I've been right here in town until college.

Q: Did you have many siblings?

A: I have one brother, Joel; he's two years younger than I am.

Q: What did your parents do?

A: My mom was a LPN, nurse, over at Stephens. Also at Norway Nursing Home. My dad, for years, was assistant principal over at the high school. He also was the athletic director there for a little while. He's semi-retired now and writes grants for the school district. He wrote the grant that got the wood chip boiler at the high school.

Q: What was it like growing up?

A: I lived up on Nichol Street in South Paris, in a three-bedroom house. I loved it. It was the '70s, you didn't have to lock your doors. People would come in and out. Kids played out in the street all the time. We'd stay out late at night playing kick the can or tag, all kinds of different things.

There was a giant hill out by Paris Manufacturing out behind my house. We used to go sliding down that in the winter. We'd literally go down the hill, over a rock, across Western Avenue into the parking lot of Paris Manufacturing and never got hit by a car once. I don't know how we lived! On Nichol Street, just about everybody living there had kids that were our age.

My family was very close, too. I've just got closer to them since I moved back to town. I was diagnosed with cancer about six months ago, and my mom died from cancer and my uncle died from cancer.

My cousins have been huge supporters of mine through this whole thing. I don't know where I'd be without them, because they've experienced it, I've experienced it and now I'm going through it again myself and they've been there every step of the way. We've become even closer now.

Q: Was there anything you wanted to be when you grew up?

A: I wanted to be a game show host. I always idolized Bob Barker. I wanted to be the next host of the Price is Right, but when he retired they hired Drew Carry. When I was a kid, on the street, I'd get people to come up on the porch and I'd play host of Price is Right and Family Feud.

I ended up becoming a radio DJ. When I was a kid I used to record things off the radio. I had two turn tables and I would go over to Woolworth's and I would buy 45s and I would go between the living room and the dining room segueing songs and then playing commercials that I'd recorded off the radio on an eight track tape and playing DJ.

At the time, I was 13, and I never really took it seriously but someone said I had the voice for it, so I thought I'd try it.

In high school I did the morning announcements over the PA for a little while. I was at one of the girls' basketball games and they needed someone to announce the starting line-up. I can't remember who it was, but one of the teachers came up to me and said, “Wow, you did a really good job.”

I was maybe a sophomore in high school, still didn't know what I wanted to do. He said, “You should try radio, you'd be perfect for it.” I thought, well, that sounds like a good idea. And that's what I ended up going to school for.

Q: Where did you go to school?

A: After high school I went to the University of Maine at Orono for a year, in the Mass Communication department and I hated it, because I wanted to do radio and they wanted me to take biology, physics and algebra. I knew I didn't need that to be a radio DJ.

So I went to another school up in Bangor called the New England School of Broadcasting. It has since become the New England School of Communications and has become part of Husson College. Literally in the first two weeks I was there, I was on the air and I knew that's what I wanted to do.

The best thing about that school is, sure they taught you the basics of radio and everything, but the instructors. They were the ones that were the most important to me.

Two of them got me my first job. One of them got me my first part-time job while I was still in school. Fresh out of school, one of the other instructors hired me for my first full time job.

After that, I lived up in Bangor for three or four years doing radio up there, and then slowly made my way back down here to Portland. I worked at a station in Saco for a few years and then was hired at WJBQ in 1996, and I've been there ever since.

Q: Did you get into mischief or play pranks?

A: I wasn't a trouble-making kid, but plenty of other kids on my street were. For the most part we had fun.

Q: What have you had for jobs?

A: My very first job was, while I was still in school here in town, “office boy,” if you want to call it there. I was over at CN Brown. I emptied the trash, I ran the postage machine, I drove and dropped things off around town, took the mail to the post office.

The president over there, Ginger, she was one of the sales people then. I wonder if they even remember me; it's cool to see the people still there. It really wasn't that difficult, it was just doing some simple stuff, I enjoyed it. After that I worked for quite a few years at Shop 'N' Save, when it was where Flagship is now.

Q: What's your job like?

A: It's fun. I'm a radio DJ. I've been doing mornings at WJBQ for 11 or 12 years. Originally I was doing afternoons in 1996. We're one of the most popular morning shows in the Portland area.

It's daunting to realize, especially when I come back to this town, people will see me and people that don't know me find out who I am – I just don't realize how popular we are until we actually meet people that appreciate the show. It's humbling, I think is the best way to put it.

I wouldn't say it's easy, but it beats a lot of other jobs, and it's fun. That's the best thing. A lot of people probably can't go to their job and say that they're having a blast, but I can.

The hours are terrible, I have to get up at 2:30am to get to Portland. You never get used to it, I've been doing it for 20 years. I'm in bed by 8:30 p.m. and that's later than I even should be. But once I'm there and things get going it's a lot of fun.

I've been able to meet a lot of celebrities through my job. I've met Sting, Aerosmith. I've done a lot of celebrity interviews on the phone. It puts you in the public eye. Especially when my cancer came about I was very public about it. That was the biggest thing about the job, how many people have responded to me.

The outpouring of well wishes was overwhelming. All these people that I don't even know feel like they know me because they listen to the show every day. People look at us almost like family. They wake up, we're there, they listen to us. It's a good feeling to know that you're a part of people's lives like that.

Q: Did you do much traveling?

A: Some. Most of the traveling I do is nearby. I've been to Florida a couple times. I try to go to Pittsburgh every year to compete in a pinball tournament, I've been the last two years. I haven't left the country except to Canada, once, when I was a kid.

Q: Which place was the most fascinating and why?

A: The pinball tournament. For me, being a huge pinball fan, I just love it, and to walk into this place where they have this tournament and see 500 pinball machines in a warehouse, all ready to play, it's like heaven for me. It's a world championship so I didn't have even a chance of even placing, it was just fun to be there and play.

I have two machines that a friend is storing at my house. I've got a friend in Auburn who has four or five machines and a friend in Gorham who has probably 100.

Q: Did anyone influence you to the point of changing your direction in life?

A: The instructors that I had that actually pointed me in the right direction of where to get a job, and they offered it to me. They recognized talent in me and said, “Hey, you need to contact this guy because he's got a job for you and you're perfect for it.”

The second person that hired me called me and said there was an opening for me in Lincoln, Maine. I was there for six months, they were shut down, and that same day I was hired in Saco and then onto Portland. I was almost set to try another career path and these guys got me to stick with it.

Q: Do you collect anything or have a hobby?

A: Pinball. I don't collect the machines; if I could, I would.  ... I've played ever since I was a kid, since I was old enough to stand on a chair, right down in Market Square at Minnie's. She was like a grandmother to me; she used to give me quarters to play Flash Gordon. My friend has that exact same machine and I feel like I'm right back there at Minnie's again.

Q: What is the last book you read?

A: Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer. They made a TV show out of it for a while. I just thought the concept was great. The world passes out and they wake up and they've all gone ahead in time to see what's going to happen and they all try to figure out how to prevent it from happening. It's a different spin on it. Different characters and premise; they tweaked it a little for the TV show.

Q: What subject do you wish you knew more about?

A: I guess science. I'm kind of a sci-fi geek. I never did well in science in school and I kind feel like if I'd paid attention I'd probably know a lot more of it than I do. Our chemistry teacher always liked to ramble on about other things so I never seemed to ever learn anything in that class.

Biology I was terrible at. But if I could go back and do it again I'd actually pay attention because I”m interested in it. That and history. Especially local and American history, I'm fascinated by it. It fascinates me to see how things have changed in this town. I was away from this town for 20 years, and even in 20 years it's changed a lot.

Q: What is the one thing you could not give up?

A: Pinball. I love it so much.

Q: What is the one thing you would happily do over again?

A: I would live my childhood over again. I had the best childhood. I had so much fun growing up. Not a care in the world. I had great parents who were wonderful to me. I had great friends. I constantly look back on my childhood and think, “Wow!” I would love to go back and relive that.

Q: Do you have any children?

A: I have one son. Jake; he prefers to be called Jacob. He's five.

Q: What was the best memory that this interview brought back?

A: Growing up on Nichol Street. The people that lived there were incredible. It was a fun time when I was a kid.

Q: What would you like people to know about you?

A: I'd like people to know that I'm one of the most sarcastic people that you could meet, but it's all in good fun and I don't actually mean it. Some people kind of take me as being a little upfront and forward, but it's for the sake of humor.

Q: Last day on earth; what would you do and who with?

A: Probably spend it with my family. I don't know what we'd do, but they're the ones I'd want to be with, all of them together. It doesn't matter what we're doing.

Q: If anyone could walk in right now, who would you most want to see?

A: My mother. In a heartbeat. Not a day goes by that I don't think about her. Just to be able to see her and talk to her and say all the things that I wanted to say but didn't get a chance to, she just went so fast. When they diagnosed her, at that point, it was terminal. I'd like for her to meet her grandson.