No longer being 'whipped,' WXDX announcer seeing brighter side

Correction: Russell Karl Rose's name appeared incorrectly on the TV/Radio page in Saturday's edition. This story was updated on September 2, 2003.

Russell Karl Rose, 35, essentially was driving blind in his Volkswagen in the middle of a Michigan moose country winter, racing 50 miles per hour, downhill. On an unfamiliar and unpaved country road. A slalom of snow, ice and no margin for error.

Rose, the WXDX (105.9 FM) announcer who calls himself "Whipping Boy," races performance rally cars for fun.

Robin, his wife, co-driver and navigator, was beside him, shouting directions through the helmet intercom.

She was barely audible giving him the countdown to the instant he had to give the hand brake a quick yank, while simultaneously keeping one foot on the gas pedal and the other on the foot brake, and with his other hand whip the steering wheel to the right to slide into a 90-degree turn on the white ice.

Rose was trying to control the VW Golf through a car-size crater that he suddenly noticed just beyond the hood. "I was trying not to kill us," Rose says.

The drivers race against the clock to get the lowest time. In one-minute intervals, one car at a time goes through intricate no-man's-land courses, usually a few gearshifts from nothingness on the road to nowhere.

Picture a two-man bobsled on well-oiled wheels imbedding itself into a snow bank with such velocity that it takes a truck with a winch to deposit it back on the course -- after the occupants wait a half-hour in 7-degree weather before the last contestant slides by. Wind-chill factor• Don't ask.

Driving for the thrill of victory became the agony of defeat.

At least the race team's spirits were not flagging. "It was so icy that we could not stand," Rose says. "It was comical."

Rose hosts the 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. alternative rock music show Monday through Saturday on "The X." He also records his voice to host the "Prehistoric X" show, from 7:30 to 11 a.m. Sundays, featuring older alternative tunes.

Rose had a history of believing that life was no fun.

He was doing the overnight shift shortly after the station flipped to that format in 1995. Moreover, because he was at the bottom of the station's food chain, Rose usually was the one going in to relieve the daytime announcers when there was an office meeting or party. He also was in the process of a marital breakup.

"I was miserable," he says. "I did not like my job and my personal life. A new music director was driving in from Harrisburg. The very first thing he heard on the station was me pleading for someone to come up and kill me. I was so miserable."

There is a certain amount of indignities an announcer must endure, no matter how much he makes, Rose says. Rodney Dangerfield gets more respect.

"I had to come in at 10 a.m. to cover for a staff party luncheon in 1997," Rose says. "Everyone else was at the party. I was honest on the air about how miserable I was."

That is when he started calling himself the whipping boy of the station.

"The listeners were pretty supportive. They called in. The hook worked. It stuck." Even when he got a more desirable shift, such as his current one.

"Then this kid comes along," Rose says.

A young boy with a brain tumor helped Rose understand what fun meant.

It was spring 1998. A nonprofit organization was aware of a child, undergoing chemotherapy, who wished to be on the air with "Whip." X marks the spot.

For two hours one afternoon in The X's studio, they talked on the air and picked music to play.

"What I do for a living was what someone dreamed to do. He wanted to do the thing I was complaining about.

"I started not to let every little thing bug me. It was a complete attitude change. That has helped with my longevity at The X. I was miserable to be around in the early days. Now it's different."

That 180-degree attitude turnaround is what drivers call "a hairpin turn."

Attitude changes can be habit forming.

Rose and his wife were driving during a blizzard this January to the telethon for a humane society. They went to tell the viewers about the dog they had adopted from there last year.

When they went to a Pleasant Hills restaurant afterward, they noticed several large garbage bags filled with food for homeless shelters. However, it was going to be tossed because the delivery driver, after looking at the eight inches paving Route 51, felt snowbound.

"My wife and I volunteered to drive in the snow and drop them off for the restaurant," Rose says. "We felt like we got a good mark for that. We did good for the animals and the people in the same day."

And probably had fun doing it.

Jerry's kids

The 38th annual Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon, to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, will air at 11:35 p.m. Sunday until 6:30 p.m. Monday on WPXI (Channel 11). Local parts of the broadcast will include live segments hosted by Bill Cardille from the west court of Monroeville Mall.

Bright kids

Five local students are among the 400 semifinalists for the Discovery Channel Youth Science Challenge to highlight and encourage interest in science. Forty will make the next cut Sept. 17 to advance to the finals Oct. 19 to 22 in Washington, D.C.

The five are Lorren Kezmoh, Brentwood Middle School; Chuck Moyes, Kiski Area Intermediate School; Philip Dulac, St. Maurice School in Forest Hills; Nathan Sudie, St. Joseph Regional in McKeesport; and Rauhit Ashar, Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School.

'Forget About the Boy ...'

... is one of the songs in the soundtrack recording of "Thoroughly Modern Millie," airing at 2 p.m. Sunday on "The Best of Broadway" on WJAS (1320 AM), hosted by weekday afternoon announcer Mike McGann.

The boys are back

"Dave & Dave's Excellent Adventures," featuring "OnQ Magazine" correspondents Dave Hallewell and Dave Rhodes looking at the 'Burgh's soft underbelly, will air at 11:30 p.m. Saturday on WQED (Channel 13).