OXNARD : Disc Jockey Perches on High to Solicit Food Donations

Living on a platform 31 feet off the ground might strike some as a crazy way to spend Thanksgiving Day, but to radio disc jockey Mike Reynolds, his annual two-week vigil to solicit canned food is just another part of his job.

“I am the nut in the morning known for doing all the stunts,” a seemingly rational Reynolds explained Wednesday from his 81-square-foot perch atop an industrial lift at the Oxnard Auto Center.

High-level camping may seem a little tame to someone who once sang the national anthem on top of a billboard after stripping down to red, white and blue bikini briefs. That stunt raised $12,000 for victims of last year’s Santa Barbara fire.

The parking lot camp-out marks the sixth time that Oxnard-based KCAQ-FM (Q-105) has helped raise donations of canned food during the holiday season for Food Share of Ventura County. Last year, county residents contributed 23,000 cans of food during the drive.

For the past three years, Reynolds has stayed for two weeks in a makeshift shelter fashioned from plywood sheets and plastic tarp.

Reynolds has furnished the cramped quarters with a telephone, a facsimile machine, two chairs (including one that folds out to form a mattress) and a small electric heater.

He passes his time by reading and waving at passing motorists. Reynolds also calls area companies to solicit donations of food. Listeners usually drop by in the evening to donate canned food to the “food tree” maintained by Food Share volunteers.

Every two hours, the 29-year-old deejay takes a five-minute break on the ground.

Inclement weather gives Reynolds his greatest challenge, he said. At night, he pulls two plywood sheets across the top of the enclosure. But “when it rains, I get drenched anyway,” he said.

The first year on the lift, Reynolds fashioned a roof from a piece of plastic tarp. But the tarp proved to be of little value.

“I woke up at 3 a.m. with the entire tarp drooped down to a foot above my head, with about 50 gallons of water collected inside,” he said. Unable to lift the tarp and empty it before a cord that held the structure together snapped, Reynolds was soon soaked along with his electronic equipment.

Discomfort aside, Reynolds said the thing he misses most during the two weeks is his on-air time in the studio.

“I hate being away from the microphone for even an hour,” said the disc jockey.

The silly stunts actually serve a purpose, he said.

“If I was sitting in the studio and asking for canned goods, I might have one or two people throw a can (into a collection box),” Reynolds said. “But if you do something to capture attention, to say ‘I’m suffering too,’ people get involved.”

The food drive continues through Dec. 6 at 1500 Ventura Blvd.