Hey, it's Kevin back with another episode of the video blog. I didn't have a lot of time yesterday to spend on the internet, which is basically how I live my life.
I had a bunch of meetings back and forth, trying to put some stuff together for the weekend, trying to put together a special, I don't know if I call it a video, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it.
I'll explain that later on. But a little piece of news that came through the email box that just kind of, well, it made me laugh.
It made me scratch my head in wonderment. I don't know if you saw it or if you heard about it, but pop soul singer Beyonce Knowles, or Beyonce as she goes by these days, has decided she's going to go buy a new name.
It's going to be the title of her new album. It's Sasha Fierce.
How exactly do you come up with that name?
I mean, I guess it was like that 15 minutes that Garth Brooks went by Chris Gaines. Of course, you know, Prince, well, didn't actually go by a name.
He actually went by a symbol that nobody could pronounce, so therefore they called him the artist formerly known as Prince, or Taft Cap, or Symbol, or, you know, that was funny.
Sean Combs, the famous rap mogul. Sean Puffy Combs, which became Puff Daddy, which became P Diddy, which became Diddy.
Okay, why not?
It's one thing when Calvin Broadus or Broadus, however you pronounce his last name, to this day I don't know, becomes Snoop Doggy Dog, takes that as a rap name, and then shortens it to Snoop Dogg.
Makes sense. You know, most of the people in radio, of course, as you know, usually don't use their own name.
We'd give people names. Sometimes they wouldn't want to use their name. Pseudonyms run rampant.
What's funny is, in all my years, I was born Kevin Robert Mason. A lot of people thought it was a good radio name, so it was pretty much my radio name most of my career.
27 years on the radio, I actually only had three pseudonyms, and I used them for maybe a total of about six months max, and I don't think it was that.
And then actually one pseudonym that I didn't use on the radio.
As a young man, I worked at a station in Chesapeake, Virginia, WQZQ, 2Q92.
It was country, one of my first country stations, and everybody there had water-oriented names. Country water.
Rusty Rivers was our afternoon guy. Stony Brooks was our, was Stony doing mid-days? I think he did mid-days and was our PD.
I was Mason Creek as a part-timer, which there is a creek in my adopted hometown of Hampton Roads, Virginia, actually on the north side of Norfolk,
as you're heading towards the Hampton Bridge Tunnel, called Mason Creek, and I took my name from there.
And the big, huge sign I got from 18th birthday from the interstate that says Mason Creek on it.
Then for a short time, and I think it was only actually for about a month or so, I used the name Kevin King.
And I don't even remember why.
Then in another place, for just about a week or two filling in, I used Sky King when I was an on-air traffic reporter.
Again, I think it was just in the mood. I wanted a pseudonym.
But the one pseudonym I've used throughout my life, and it's actually more just a comedic pseudonym, if you will.
Well, it's Biff Dingle.
I kid you not.
It was actually something that, as I was a small kid, I heard my dad say a lot of times.
In fact, I've asked my dad about it, and he doesn't even remember it to this day.
But when my dad would try to be remembering somebody's name, he says, you know what I'm talking about, that Biff Dingle.
And I guess as a kid, it stuck in my head, and somewhere along the lines, I became Biff Dingle.
And I usually used it when I would call a place, and I didn't feel like giving my name, or the receptionist would always say,
you know, when you're calling a friend at work, and you would think if you called them three times a day, or they would know your voice,
and they'd say, well, I'm Askew's calling, I would just say Biff Dingle.
Usually got a pause from the receptionist, and they'd hold on a second.
It was always funny when they said, hold on a second, Mr. Dingle.
There were some places where if I called up and said I was Biff Dingle, I would get put right through.
But if I called back and said I was Kevin Mason, they would have to check and see if the boss was available, which always just made us laugh.
And again, don't know why we did it. Not like I ever had a real nickname, I never had a nickname as a kid.
And I'm wondering if maybe it's time for me to change my name.
If maybe Kevin Mason is in the past, and now it's time for a new identity.
And no, asshole is not an acceptable name, I don't think I can get away with that.
Maybe I need your help in finding me a new name.
Maybe, well, since Sasha Fierce is now taken, maybe I have to come up with a new one.
Do I become Biff Dingle for life? Or should I just get over it?
I don't, I just got Sasha Fierce. That makes me chuckle.
