Ted and I "met," over an ISDN line, when he auditioned to become my morning show partner.
We hit it off, immediately. Sometimes you get lucky that way, and we certainly won the lottery.
When you work with a team in radio, you get to know that team intimately. No, I don't mean that. I mean, you get a real feel for who they are, and what they are about.
You very quickly find out if they are a good person.
I, very quickly found out that Ted Garcia is a genuinely decent human being, with as skewed a sense of humor as me. And that is tough to do...my brain doesn't work like normal people's brains, lol.
And neither does Ted's.
We give each other a hard time, both on and off the air, and it never comes from a bad place. I can count the times we have been truly mad at each other on one hand. And neither of us can keep a mad-on for long.
Ted makes my job worth doing. He makes my day better, every day. He is supportive, and loving, but most importantly, he is a comic genius. He has left me gasping for air, with his well-timed, brilliance.
He is so smart, it's breathtaking. And he is a professional down to his bones.
I am truly blessed to spend hours upon hours with him, in our own private padded cell, the studio. Some morning shows are not like that at all. I have seen people cooped up together who truly despise one another. Not recently, mind you, but I have seen it happen. It ain't pretty.
When Ted is not on the air with me, I miss him something awful. I just don't feel complete without him.
If I had one criticism, it would be concentrated around his hideous taste in music. Yacht Rock. Truly awful, horrible, no good stuff, and he tortures me with it every day. I would love to turn him to the dark side, but I fear he is too far gone for that.