Recovering???? Sorry - wrong surgery for that. Once done, you can't go and have an addadicktomy to go back.
Transsexual disc jockey ``Aunt Fran'' Bennett -- long known on San Jose radio as ``Weird Old Uncle Frank'' Bennett -- will make her on-air debut next week as a substitute DJ on rock station KUFX-FM (98.5), starting Monday at 2 p.m.
Bennett had begun living as a woman but still was working on air as Uncle Frank until being dropped by KUFX (``KFOX'') last year as part of nationwide personnel cuts by owner Clear Channel Radio. A Mercury News story this week about Bennett's desire to return to radio as Aunt Fran generated national reaction.
``Ever since we had to part ways,'' KUFX Operations Manager Gary Schoenwetter said Friday, ``I've been thinking about the fact that we were forced to part company with someone who was a great team player and a great performer. The story helped reconnect us.''
Bennett, 48, will fill in throughout the week for vacationing DJ Chris Jackson from 2 to 7 p.m. -- the afternoon slot that Uncle Frank occupied for years.
Bennett, who will complete her transition to being a woman by undergoing extensive surgery next month, said she hasn't decided what her first words will be Monday.
``But I can tell you that they're going to center on expressing my thanks and gratitude to the support I've been receiving from people,'' she added.
Bennett, who has been interviewed by a wide range of publications, radio stations and TV shows over the past three days, is scheduled to appear on cable TV network MSNBC between 8:30 and 9 a.m. Sunday.