"It's funny. Several months ago I was sitting in jail looking at I-4. Now I'm sitting here looking at I-4 from a different perspective."
Rayon "Junior" Payne is resting in a spacious office with one of the most spectacular views of Orlando, 14 stories above the city he is expecting to re-conquer with his pirate radio station, 95Live (95.9-FM).
"I can put my ass out the window and shit on people," Payne declares. "From where I'm sitting, I'm looking down on you."
Forgive Payne if he sounds more like his alter ego, the brash shock jock NSX, whose outrageous antics have made him Public Enemy Number One on many occasions and landed him on the cover of Orlando Weekly last year ("Rebel without a pause," Aug. 24).
After four months of laying low, worrying over an April rape charge stemming from an incident at the Club at Firestone, he's finally back to his old self. Last week he re-launched 95Live, Orlando's most successful pirate-radio station, from the downtown high-rise Payne is now calling his office.
"I seriously think I am the king of pirate radio," he says, warming to the subject. "If anyone wants to contest me, let him try.
"I'll never fall off," he continues. "You'll never stop me. I'll write the future of what goes on here."
Details of the rape charge are sketchy because the court system allows only limited access to cases involving sexual battery.
According to a source close to the case, however, Payne was working at Firestone when he allegedly had sex in the upstairs V.I.P. bathroom with an intoxicated woman who later told police she was coerced.
Payne refused to discuss the case but has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Most of his fellow disc jockeys decided to work with Payne's former business partner, Copafeel, who took over two stations, 93.5 and 93.9, after falling out with NSX shortly after the sexual-battery charge surfaced. While the influx of non-mainstream music is very good for audiophiles, Payne feels betrayed that no one stuck with him. "What wrong with them," Payne asks. "I don't understand trying to overthrow my throne." Since its launch on Aug. 31, a computer has been playing the station's music. That should change by next week, when Payne's station expects to roll out its new personalities. No word yet on whether Payne will bring back his Afternoon Crash talk show. But chances are NSX won't be far from a mike. "I'm already having problems with my alter ego," he says.
