No More Phone Calls For Mike Langford
Of all the people I have met and worked with in my nearly 40 years of radio. I have never met the likes of Mike Langford. Around the halls of Results Radio, most of us called him Mikey. Mikey was Chief Engineer, Head of Building Maintenance, Hall Monitor and Enforcer were just a few of his titles that he held here at the station.
Mikey could be the most difficult cus to get along with. It was usually his way or no way. Once you got past the part where he was usually right, you got along fine.
Mikey was more than just radio though. He owned Robo Carwash [33rd and Minnesota] as well as Robo Towing. Many around town knew him, dealt with him and I would venture to say enjoyed their encounters with him.
Listen to any radio frequency, on almost any station in the area, you can bet that 'Mikey' had a hand in it one way or another. He either built it from the ground up, helped over the phone or assisted other engineers to get towers up and studios built. He was quite a networker. He seemed to know everyone in the business, everywhere.
Mikey didn't throw stuff out. He fixed it. He would save bits and pieces of equipment and in most cases, even years down the road, know where it was at and how to cobble it in and make transmitters and other things work again. It drove most of us nuts. But his saving and knowing how to reuse saved the companies he worked for hundreds and thousands of dollars.
All of this came with a price. Mikey worked 9 and a half days a week. Summer thunderstorms or winter blizzards were part of that everyday grind. His phone would ring all hours of the day. For years he answered. For decades he crawled out of bed or off the couch to head to a transmitter site to fix and repair. Mikey kept a schedule that would make a Dairy Farmer blush and look away.
The most important thing about Mikey was, on the way to fix a problem, he probably had it figured out and a solution. If you had a crisis at home, you didn't google it up, you 'googled or called Mikey.' If he didn't know how, he knew who to call.
Over the years I road tripped with Mikey quite a bit. There is something adventurous about heading to a transmitter site in a South Dakota blizzard or thunderstorm. There's something that knots your gut when you think about heading to a site where you KNOW something bad happened, like a tower falling due to too much ice and high winds. This is when Mikey shined. You could see it in his one good eye and hear it in his voice. He loved what he did with all his fiber.
I've heard stories of horses that won't stop pulling in the harness. for anything or anyone. That was Mikey, he pulled till he couldn't pull anymore. We lost him sometime Saturday night, June 22, 2019. He survived a heart attack years ago. He survived, dealing with diabetes and other near misses, but pancreatic cancer won in the end.
I'm going to miss Mikey. Hell, we all are. Especially John who rode shotgun with Mikey MOST of the miles he traveled. Everyone in this building that houses 8 radio stations need to thank his wife Becky, Ashley, Christopher and Mike Jr. and his grandchildren. His work schedule, workload, and inability to say no came at a huge cost and sacrifice to his family, a price we will never fully understand. All we can offer is a word of thanks.
We'll gather later this week to say our goodbyes. 'Shout out' to Mikey. Mike Langford our Chief Engineer at Results Radio. Your work here is complete and until we meet again we promise, no phone calls.
Family Visitation, Miller Funeral Home
507 S. Main Avenue
Thursday, June 27, 2019, from 5:00 PM-7:00 PM
Funeral Friday, June 28, 2019, at Christ The King Catholic Church at 11:00 AM