For the past few months, I have consciously avoided reading about Jeff Styles. So many things get said about people and rarely, if ever, is it entirely true.
What I do know is I've known Jeff Styles for 30 years and I genuinely like him - I like him very much. I don't have the first clue about what happened but Jeff Styles is a good guy with a good heart.
Like me, and everyone else I know, Jeff isn't perfect and has made mistakes. And like everyone else I know (and hopefully me), I feel certain every mistake he has made is, without question or exception, forgivable.
So, before we start throwing rocks in his direction, I hope we all realize how capable we are, at any given moment, to say and/or do darn near anything. This is a big glass house we live in and it's fragile.
As a friend of mine loves to say, stay calm, Mr. Styles. Stay calm.
George Parker
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I want to add my best wishes and appreciation to Jeff Styles. I don't know what happened in the recent incident, but I know whatever it was should not invalidate or detract from the immeasurable service that Jeff has done this town over the years.
I, like many other listeners, didn't always agree with Jeff, but I believe his intentions are good and he has tried to be fair. I've learned things from Jeff, and I have gained a broader understanding of many issues because of his shows and guests. He has been instrumental in casting light on many local concerns, sometimes to the consternation of those who would like to keep backroom dealings in back rooms.
There is a lot that could be said, but I will just say Jeff deserves the benefit of the doubt as much as anybody else, and more than many. He also deserves credit for trying to help in countless situations and for giving many a place to speak who would otherwise not have had one.
I would be lying if I said the station had not been slipping in recent years, with less time devoted to important topics and more to advertisements and mindless talk; but when it was good, it was unmatched.
So, thanks to you, Jeff, and to your coworkers who contributed their hard work and humor. You'll land on your feet. I hope to hear you on air again.
Darlene Kilgore
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Last week I got ambushed. Stabbed three times. Twice in the front of my right shoulder and once in the back of it. The attackers were all highly educated and they all dressed the same and they, particularly the gang leader, knew exactly how deep to thrust their sharp weapons and how to brutally twist and manipulate them once they'd penetrated me to the bone. Seriously. I'm told it hurt but I was all blacked out.
I like drama. It was at Erlanger East. David Bruce, the gang kingpin, repaired some flat out stupidity that I foisted on myself trying to lift 40 gallons of frozen water with one arm during that incredible hard freeze we had last winter. It's been two weeks since I was "stabbed" but I can already tell after therapy with great ATI folks and ice, that he did a hell of a job. Miraculously, I will throw a baseball again. I will.
My lesson to all is to not be stupid and do something you'd do in your sleep at 20 with a 59 year old body.
Having spoke thussly, please know that this is all left handed at 1:00 because I can't sleep because I was appropriately violated and I refuse to participate in the opiate carnage unless I golly dang absolutely have to.
So yes, Brutha George, Jeff is a good guy and we all do stupid things. This shoulder deal with me holds no candle to some of the silent doozies I've pulled that I won't share. Allow me to plagiarize and manipulate what the great chief of the Nez Pierce said: "Where the sun now stands, I will point no finger forever."
I'll also say that one time I was driving down the road listening to Jeff and his guest was a guy who did a study on folks who believe you can re-educate gay people to be straight just like God would have them be. I pulled over. Jeff asked "How, exactly, is that done?" The man explained the techniques and there was palpable silence and if you did not shed a tear you are a weird one. It changed the way I, a straight southern white boy, think.
That's Jeff Styles. I like him.
Savage Glascock