Bill collector=Attack
You know Sean, your comment reminds me that I've been meaning to say something here around the speculation that HW may have had difficulty paying her Telos bill, as there is no reasonable explanation for a big company like that not fixing a problem for a "broadcast" studio for over 3 days. I just can't imagine that could be true. I'll bet there are lots of instances where she is not paying bills on time.
I was able to listen to some of the evening soiree that PBS, DynamoHum, and wr250 did last night, and it was GREAT! and very interesting. Dynamo said she had some information that she couldn't really share openly that sounded like HW is having problems paying bills on time. She said she didn't have enough subscribers to stay on the air right at the end of the month, as Dynamo pointed out, right when bills would be due at the first of the month. Then magically after the subscriptions renewed on the first, all was well again... except supposedly there was a Telos server outage... then there wasn't, it was her phone provider... then she was waiting for Telos to fix it... then the Telos technician told her to do open lines instead of a show (her temporary new producer?). The whole thing is a jumbled mess, and I suspect none of it is true. And Dynamo did research and got it confirmed that there was no Telos outage when HW said there was. Feh!
Dynamo also mentioned Tony the producer told her HW was lying about blaming the producer and not having known a guest was scheduled for the night she did open lines unannounced (Thursday into Friday). He could tell by the patterns in her tone of voice and pitch, it was a familiar pattern to him when she was lying. That was very interesting to hear! and confirmation of what we have been speculating about here.
So I want to point something out that's been staring me in the face, and I almost missed it. First I want to say I have no direct knowledge anything I am about to write, never had contact with HW other than one very short call-in the first April Fool's day she was doing MITD (she didn't get the joke, which I related in a totally straight tone of voice), don't have any proof, and this is pure speculation based on her observable behavior and patterns of lying.
She appears to be living a false-self, split life. Her outer self which the public sees is (in her mind) a radio personality, got lots of fans, dedicated to high quality "radio," very cool, a witch, a rocker, an "honest" person only trying to honor her "mentor," very humble, and has had many provocative experiences, etc. Her fans buy into someone who doesn't really exist because it's a totally surface, constructed personality, just like the public personalities movie stars in the '40's and '50's had to create for the public. Think of how many of those stars' real lives were totally different than what the public was told they were!
Her real self is most likely erratic, undisciplined, streetsmart and retaliatory, not able to make a longterm plan and stick to it, has disturbed sleep patterns, is avoidant of other people, has alternating highs and lows,is very self-focused and self-involved, is a fuzzy thinker, and is possibly a wee bit paranoid that others are out to get her (which some may in fact be in reaction to how she has treated them). She seems to have a poor track record in her professional relationships, ghosts people, disappears from her show with no explanations or obvious lies as excuses, and contradictorily reveals personal things about herself but doesn't want her fans to be personal with her.
So it appears that she lives with a major split in her personalty and life (I am not saying split personality, let me be clear on that). There are, imho, two main and likely reasons for that split, and I am speculating that either or both are in play here.
First, her actions and behaviors appear to fit the patterns of someone with a consistent substance abuse problem, to the degree that it may be affecting her health (her voice), her ability to think clearly and to function in a professional, healthy way. It may also be interfering in her ability to pay her bills, as in a situation like that, if true, the reflex choice will always allocate available cash to the preferred substance over paying a bill that can (maybe) be delayed. If the phone breakdown was indeed because she didn't pay the Telos bill, I'm sure she thinks we all believe her and she enjoyed a few days off.
Second, based on her erratic behavior, sudden mood shifts, and frequent lying, etc. there might possibly be an unmanaged or improperly managed mental health issue going on as well. Manic-depression comes to mind as a strong possibility among others. This is quite separate from any personality disorder stuff that might be going on as well.
If either and especially if both of these speculations are true, they make for an unholy mess and an (eventually) unsustainable lifestyle.
I wish her no harm. If any of this is true, it's a very hard and painful way to live. But if it IS true, I hope she finds her way to clean up her act and at the very least stop lying to everyone. She'd do better to get real and not try to live out a false persona... inevitably that false public face will crumble, and it won't be a pretty sight.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to put this out there in response to the bits I heard of the soiree last night.
Btw, when and if PBS, Dynamo, and wr250 do it again, I plan to do whatever I can to hear it. What I did hear was really delicious! Good going, you three!
