The Last Dose Of Reality

“Everything you do affects someone else.”
“Clean hands.”
— Raymond H. Parks

I can only imagine what my father would be saying to me if he were alive today.

As many of you may know, the radio show “Outside The Wire” is no more, and its producer Rick “Wright” Senninger is in a Florida jail awaiting extradition to Michigan.

I met Rick last summer when he asked me to appear weekly as a guest on his “Troop Talk” radio show. After many subsequent discussions, he offered me the hosting gig on his Outside The Wire program starting up in the fall. While there were many red flags that went up along the way, I was full of the traditional conservative optimism and trust.

To help make this successful, I introduced Rick to several of my personal friends who are talents in their own right. Little did I know the adverse effect he would now have on their lives. When, after a few months, they contacted me asking me why he hadn’t paid them, I could only reply that I’d talk with Rick, as I too was one of the unpaid.

“Everything you do affects someone else.”

As it turned out, over the last nine or so weeks, none of us had been paid while doing our jobs for the Intel Radio Network. I personally had written close to 100 columns, produced and edited 10 television programs, and appeared almost every night on the OTW program. What made matters worse was not that we weren’t being paid, but the numerous lies Rick told us just to keep the product coming.

There were numerous phantom electronic funds transfers never sent, special delivery checks never sent, and according to some, checks that did arrive, bounced. Mortgage payments were missed, utilities were shut off and on, and to add insult to injury, we were being strung along by someone who it turns out was living large in the “Land of Good Living.”

It also turns out Rick “Mr. Family Values” Senninger is a deadbeat dad.

What made matters even more worse, is that some of the people who’ve read my columns over the years, and viewed my videos, contacted Rick to advertise on the radio show. They were misled about the dozens of radio stations around the nation where and when OTW would be aired. It was only after their investments, did they find out just whom they were dealing with.

Personally, the last straw was the promises of payment last week that never came. It was apparent, we were being strung along and as I began to outlive my usefulness to Rick, we would never be paid unless drastic measures were taken.

Here’s one of those life’s quandaries.

Rick was essentially ripping off his advertisers, some personal acquaintances of mine. If I continue to allow this to go on there was a chance, albeit remote, that we would all be made whole. But if I warn them and they pull back or out, Rick loses revenue and then he’ll really have payroll issues.

“Clean hands.”

Last Saturday, I began contacting his advertisers and Monday, Florida law enforcement authorities. When they told me of just whom my boss was, I felt like one of those astonished housewives in a bad Lifetime movie, where the husband’s double life was revealed.

When I began to share this information with associates and advertisers, that was the beginning of the end of Outside The Wire. The ironic part was that if he had paid his employees and not pissed us off, who knows how long this would have continued.

You can only imagine my surprise when I got a phone call from Florida Wednesday afternoon saying that Rick had been arrested and was going to be heading back to Michigan.

Rick Senninger has hurt many people. The people he took money from, and the people he will probably never repay. Many of us, who were previously trusting people, may be more cynical in our future dealings. It’s unfortunate that one person can so adversely change so many people.

Obviously, there are many details that I just don’t need to rehash in this format. An explanation is in order. When a company’s head goes down, the motives and involvement of those around him or her are also usually suspect. I can assure you that everyone who Rick enlisted for involvement with Outside The Wire is a good conservative. We just didn’t expect to get screwed over by one of our own.