“I did the next best thing,” Ferris said. He was terrified to talk to his parents about it. The real delimma was how he was going to attend college in Oklahoma and work in Dallas at the same time. I had no idea what a role he would play in my life.”ĭespite attending college in Norman, he was offered a DJ position on the new station, joining radio heroes like George Gimarc. We talked about the Clash, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys. I told him I’d be there in three hours,” Ferris said. The two hit it off they spoke over three hours on the phone before Nielson wanted Ferris to meet with him in person. “I kept thinking about it though, so a couple weeks later, I called her and asked what I needed to do.”Ī new radio station was opening in Dallas, and Ferris was connected to Larry Neilson, the program director for the new 94.5 The Edge station. “She said, ‘You should think about radio.’ I had never thought about it before,” said Ferris. His best friend was dating a DJ from Y95 radio in Dallas, and when the two returned home for Christmas break, the girl planted the seed. His family had moved from Los Angeles to Dallas, and Ferris eventually chose to attend the University of Oklahoma. Like many other kids graduating high school, Ferris had no idea what he wanted to do. Then she said, ‘I see your son doing something in the public eye, a celebrity of sorts, either in media or politics.’ I think that stuck with me.” She knew I was a Scorpio and that I was creative – eerie little things like that. She said, ‘Excuse me ma’am, but I’m a psychic and I’m getting some strong readings from your son,’” Ferris said. “She finally got up and walked over to us. The only other person in the room, the old woman was watching him. When Ferris was a child living in Los Angeles, he and his mother were in the waiting room of a car dealership when the old lady changed his life. There are no rules on the web, no commercials.”Īnd The Spy, which has haunted in and out of Oklahoma City airwaves for years, is here to stay. “We get 8,000 to 10,000 listeners, from the fanatics to the casual. “We moved into our current building two years ago, and once we figured out that the web Spy was the plan, the city rallied behind us,” Ferris said. Starting late 2012, KOSU’s schedule began featuring the original shows and wide array of independent music to its listeners. Just when corporate radio pushed the Spy into the Internet – which ended up being a blessing for the station – KOSU, the NPR station serving Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Stillwater, entered into a content partnership with The Spy. Each time, like some music shaman, Ferris has managed to bring it from the brink and back into the light. Over and over, The Spy radio, with its signature peering and slightly sinister eyes, has faced demise. And there’s nothing worse than dead air, especially for a guy who has single-handedly reincarnated Oklahoma’s alternative rock show over and over and over from the dead.įerris has managed to escape the word dead more times than Rasputin. He needs to make sure one of the programs gets finished or he’ll have dead air. It’s the anniversary of The Spy radio station’s special programming, the VDub Sessions, and there’s a party in the city.īut Ferris has to get back to his radio station. Ferris O’Brien: The Spy teams up with KOSU and reigns supreme againįerris O’Brien is brimming with nervous energy as he stands next to the lime green old VW van at Oklahoma City’s Plaza District.
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