Well, around these parts anyway. It's not like Bob "The Blade" Robinson hung up his rock 'n' roll shoes after the longtime WRDU 106.1 FM rock jock abruptly and legendarily walked out during his radio show in November 2006. He felt out of place after the Clear Channel station's switch from rock to country music.

But his Feb. 4 return to the Raleigh-Durham market as co-host of the 2-6 p.m. afternoon drive show on WBBB 96.1 FM "96 Rock" feels just right to him, after about a year spent as assistant program director and radio personality at classic rock station WSFL in Greenville-New Bern.

"I had the greatest time down there," he says of that job, "but after like a year, there's only so much you can do, I guess. I was looking at a job in Kansas City [Mo.], and came real close to doing that. I went back and forth and back and forth and ended up deciding just to come here, because it's the two-guy deal in the afternoon, and nobody does that."

He says the atmosphere at the locally owned Curtis Media Group station he'll be working for reminds him a bit of the old days, when jocks played songs they liked, rather than songs that were completely mandated by focus group data.

"Dude -- when was the last time I played a new rock song? I couldn't tell ya," he says, adding that at 96 Rock, "they sit around like the old days -- it's great -- and they listen to the new stuff that comes in. 'Cool, that's good,' and, 'I don't know if I like that,' and they still play the old stuff that's good too. I like the fact that it's not handed down from above."

And he's confident the chemistry between him and co-host Jay "Foster" Nachlis will come across.

"Foster is really a smart guy, and I'm not," he says, and chuckles. "I'm the weird guy, or whatever, so that's a good mix."

It remains to be seen how the 48-year-old radio vet will be able to keep up with the partying ways of the mostly 30-somethings who make up the 96 Rock staff.

"You see girls dancing on the bar now, and you think, 'Young lady, get down from there -- you'll hurt yourself,'" he admits. "If [staff members] want me to go out with them, I will, but I'll tell you what, my curfew is like, 10 o'clock. I'm serious."

That's because he gets up early, which brings us to the one important lifestyle issue that brought him back to Raleigh -- golf.

His afternoon work schedule at WBBB gives him a shot at getting his early morning game back up to snuff, something the demands of his assistant program director's job at WSFL didn't quite allow.

"When I left, my handicap was a 5, and now it's up to a 9," he admits with some shame. "Let that tell you something."

Raleigh teen on 'Montel'

A Raleigh teen who benefited from the teachings of a nonprofit training program for disadvantaged youths is scheduled to appear on an upcoming episode of "Montel," to discuss his life since he graduated from Millionaires in Training.

Green Hope High School junior Mario Butler, 17, who lives in Raleigh's Heritage Park neighborhood, will fly to New York with his mother Thursday for a Friday taping of the syndicated show hosted by Montel Williams. The show airs in the Triangle at 2 p.m. weekdays on WNCN NBC-17.

Mario's appearance stems from a Dec. 19 appearance on the "Montel" show by the program's founder, Valerie K. Fields, who accepted a $250,000 pledge for MiT from 25-year-old Raleigh entrepreneur Ephren Taylor, CEO of City Capital Corp.

When Williams decided to do a follow-up impact segment about MiT, Fields thought Mario, who graduated from the program in 2005 (its first year), would present a perfect example of its success.

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