This is the story of Kayonne Riley’s life since 1980…

After high school graduation I went to Texas A&M as I had miraculously gotten in
somehow. I started in architecture, but changed at the beginning of my junior year to
liberal arts: sociology with a history minor. Money was not my object for some reason.

I graduated in May 1984 and came back to Burkburnett for a summer, then decided to go
back to Texas A&M the next fall and get my teaching certificate. My motivation for
doing so was the idea that I’d get summers off for the rest of my life. While back at A&M
I also started working at the student radio station KANM, doing a music show. Soon I
became the station’s music director.

For money, I was lifeguarding and teaching swimming lessons at Bryan Aquatic Center.
The only time a kid drowned was on a weekend I was off, no kidding. Oh, and one other
time an older guy died of a heart attack in the locker room, but again, that was my
weekend off. I often wonder what would’ve happened if I’d been there on those days.

I finished my teaching certificate and began half-heartedly looking for teaching jobs. I
also spent a few harrowing weeks as a substitute teacher in the Bryan school district.

Luckily, one of my friends from student radio KANM, who had been working evening
shifts at the public radio/tv station KAMU-FM/TV told me about a full-time job they had,
and that I should apply. I did, and got hired by Station Manager Larry Jackson as the
Traffic Director for KAMU-FM. I think this was late 1985 or early 1986. A couple years
later, Ruth Wedergren moved on to another job, and I applied for and got her Program
Director position.

I also got involved in live music events as there was lots of outdoor festivals going on.
Also the radio station I worked at produced on-air concerts from local clubs.

Side story: I’ve always loved motorcycles, and I’d had a series of dirt bikes from high
school thru college. In 1985 I bought my first street bike, and the only brand new m/c I've
ever owned: a two-stroke Yamaha RZ 350. It was the Kenny Roberts yellow&black
edition. Paid $2500. I loved that bike. Once I blew it up b/c I ran it out of oil. It's the
reason I bought my Dodge Dakota, which is what I left Texas in a few years later. I ended
up selling that 350 (wish I hadn’t) and buying my 1982 Harley Low Rider. I think the
trade was almost even money.

Sometime in early September 1989, can't recall exact date, I was riding my Harley up
Jersey Drive in College Station, and all of a sudden a guy was cutting a U-turn in a big
Chevy truck right in front of me, about 100 yards ahead. I slammed on both brakes and
almost got around the front of him, but his front license plate got me, and sliced my right
heel almost off.

I was laid up for six months and had a real scare with my foot, as it didn't want to heal for
a while and the crazy doctor said, well we may just have to cut it off!
A person I worked with at KAMU-FM/TV told me about a doctor at A&M that had a
Hyperbaric Chamber lab and that I should go see him. I ended up doing multiple sessions
in the Hyperbaric Chamber for weeks and my foot started healing. It truly was
miraculous, although my surgeon doctor didn't believe that the treatments had caused my
healing. However, I had truly felt the blood move in the bottom of my foot for the first
time when I went in the Hyperbaric Chamber, so I know it was instrumental in my
healing.

Remember the San Francisco earthquake in 1989? I was laid up with my foot and I was
actually watching the World Series when it hit. This was the first major earthquake in
America to be broadcast on live television, and I saw it happen! Crazy.

I was laid up so long I started playing one of my girlfriend's guitars. I started learning
blues, and jazz chords and writing little songs. My friend Beth Weissinger who was
working for me part-time at KAMU hooked me up with a girl she knew who was a
singer, Laura Freeman. Laura was crazy great and I showed her the songs I had, and we
had some fun with Hank Williams & Patsy Kline covers. Wrote some songs that she had
lyrics for. Beth played bongos so she started playing with us also.

We ended up playing a lot of places as The Implications. We had some really funny
songs. I was on acoustic guitar, and so we were two singers with me & Laura, and Beth
on bongos. Pretty groovy.

Once I finally got back on my feet in beginning of 1990, I realized that I'd been at Texas
A&M for 10 years. So I decided I needed to figure out how to get out of there.

I had gotten more into producing live sound events. I'd even started my own company
(Big Sound Productions), and had equipment to run festival stages, and small clubs. I’d
heard about Full Sail University for the Recording Arts in Winter Park Florida somehow,
so I decided to visit Florida and check it out.

Laura Freeman and I drove out to Florida and visited Winter Park and Orlando, and then
went up thru St. Augustine and on to Jacksonville where we saw some of the Jazz
Festival. Then for some reason we drove up to Nashville, across to Memphis, past Elvis'
house and then straight down to Clarksdale, Mississippi where the Delta Blues Museum
is. In Clarksdale, the Riverside Hotel, next to the Sunflower River, is where Bessie Smith
died, from injuries in a car crash she suffered on Hwy 61 on the way home from a gig.
Supposedly she was refused treatment at the local hospital. Nearby is the mythical
"crossroads" of Hwy 61 & 49, where Robert Johnson sold his soul & became a wizard of
a guitar player. I had dirt from the crossroads in an envelope in my guitar case for a long
time.

Upon returning I decided to make preparations to attend Full Sail, and move to Florida.
Laura Freeman decided to come along as well, as she had recently graduated from Texas
A&M and was only working in a restaurant.
We got to Florida in early 1992 and immediately started playing at the open mic sessions
in clubs around town, of which there were many. There was a real cool music scene in
Orlando at the time, downtown mainly.

We met Kevin Bruner, a bass player and programmer who worked at Full Sail. Kevin was
interested in our getting music recorded. He hooked us up with Pat Hughes, another cool
Full Sail guy, on drums. Meanwhile, we had met a new bongo player, Bongo Dave
Dibona who was playing trio performances with me & Laura, and he was part of the
recording as well. Ultimately we added Beth Shaefer on electric guitar - and we started
recording an album at Full Sail, in the free recording sessions they have. We released The
Implications album at the end of 1992, and we played a lot of gigs during that whole year
also.

My friend John Marsden, who I was in school at Full Sail with, was hugely instrumental
in getting our album recorded. He worked with us a lot, and played some keyboards on
the record as well.

I graduated from Full Sail in February 1993, and took a job doing Desktop Publishing at
Kinko's. I'd picked up the skills at Full Sail in a class we had. I learned a lot at Kinko’s &
the job was conducive to playing music at night.

After the album release, Kevin, Beth, Pat and Bongo Dave didn't want to continue with
the live gigs, so in late 1993 I met drummer Fred Domulot, who had answered an ad that
Laura and I had put in a local music magazine. Fred was a pro drummer, but he was
interested in our jazzy original style, so he said he'd work with us. He brought in another
pro - guitarist extraordinaire Tommy Calton. We had a variety of bass players, including
the great Pat Gallo, until we settled on Fred's young brother, Jason Domulot.

This band could definately rock and we started playing more covers, and also playing
more professional club dates as entertainers, rather than as original acts. Laura Freeman
didn't really like the direction, and she ended up moving back to Texas at the end of 1994.

I took over as front person for the band and we kicked up the rock a few more notches.
We were now a four piece with me on acoustic & electric & vocals, a lead guitarist, bass
and drums. Jason Domulot was always the constant which was great because he sang a
bunch of cool and dancy songs.

Besides Tommy Calton, some of my great lead guitar players over the years included
Frank Feranda, and Greg Pakstis - both awesome players.

Meanwhile, in March of 1994 I got hired as the Program Director of WUCF. It was a
small public radio station at the University of Central Florida that had just gotten their
CPB qualification and they needed to hire another staff member to meet criteria. It was a
grungy place in the basement of the library, but I was told that a new Communications
Building was being built and we wouldn't be in the basement much longer. So when they
offered the job, I took it.

I bought a house in downtown Orlando in March 1994 also, and I'm still there. It's been a
wonderful location.

WUCF's Station Manager Dr. Jose Maunez was returned to the classroom sometime in
1995, so in early 1996 I was hired as the WUCF Station Manager, and immediately had
to begin work on building the new radio station in the new Communications Building.
What a job that was, but our new facility is beautiful.

I started playing a lot of solo acoustic gigs in 1997 and 98. It was hard at first since I'd
always had other people around me making noise. Magda Hiller from Miami was a big
influence on my solo playing. She, and I and a girl named Shana did trio appearances all
over Florida as "Goat Milk Fudge." We would all be on stage together, and we'd take
turns doing our tunes. Goat Milk Fudge is the sign you see all over Florida, it’s
something you can buy at Stucky’s.

Magda always sounded so huge, so I wanted to sound huge too. I saw she had a big body
guitar, so I bought a big new Taylor guitar. Then I got more confidence in my sound. It
takes strength, good strings, and a good box to really make a nice big acoustic sound.

After that, I really didn't want to play with the band anymore. My last great band gigs
were the 4-nighters at Ragtime in Atlantic Beach. Man, that place always rocked. Plus
staying 3 nights on the beach was always fun.

I remember 9-11 as being a turning point for music. Lots of gigs went away, band gigs
that is.

So I played hundreds of solo gigs from ‘97 until around 2003. From Thursday thru
Monday every weekend. It was wild. I used to laugh that if I'd had a kid, I would've had
to just prop him up behind the speakers.

I always took my dog Boo with me on the road, and when he died in 2000, he was
replaced by Sammy who did a lot of traveling as well. I expect that dogs travel better than
babies.

I recorded another album with John Marsden in 1998 and 1999. It was released in early
2000. It was called Kayonne Riley, The Prophet Said to Boo. It was twelve of my songs
written since Laura Freeman had left in 1994. I did all the guitars, electric and acoustic.
Liberty Devitto (of Billy Joel’s band) recorded the drums. Larry Jacoby on bass. John
Marsden did all the keyboards and some vocal harmonies. Steve Walters on trumpet on
one song. It was a blast to make, although maybe John and his family might not agree
with that sentiment! John kicked me out on more than one occasion due to my difficult
nature during the project.
In 2001-2 we started the WUCF new broadcast tower construction project and I was able
to hire an engineer for the station. What a job that was. Andy Hulsey of UCF Telecomm
refers to it as "the tower of terror" which is a fittingly appropriate name.

Sometime in 2003 I decided to quit playing music, as I was 41, and it was no longer as
much fun to be in clubs all weekend long. I didn't need the money, and I didn’t need the
practice either. Maybe I’ll return as a piano bar entertainer someday, I’m working on my
Vince Guaraldi.

Thru all of this the radio station job has been my constant. I've been there 15 year as of
March of this year. Crazy.

You may notice that this story lacks any sort of "love interest" updates. That's the subject
of another book I'm working on. ;)

Suffice to say, I've enjoyed being blissfully single, and, I've been relationship entwined
on and off forever. I know that I'm definately not the marrying type. I don’t think I ever
will be unless some sort of unforeseen cataclysm occurs.

I love Florida and can’t imagine living anywhere else, except maybe Hawaii, or some
other exotic locale. I expect I’ll be back in Texas in a few years as my folks get older, but
we’ll take that as it comes.