In article ,
John Higdon wrote:
In article ,
(David Kaye) wrote:
Meanwhile, there have been stations (even back in the glory days of radio)
when they wouldn't let you come in. I got this rude shock when I tried to
visit the then KBRG (now KITS). The DJ welcomed me but the op mgr was there
and she booted me out the door. "We are a business. We're not an amusement
park" (or words to that effect). I was devastated. It took me a long time
to
work up the nerve to visit another station.
I cannot imagine anyone being that odious. When I was in high school and
still headed for the world of academe (as least as far as my parents
were concerned), I used to visit radio stations for the simple reason
that I was fascinated by broadcasting. After explaining my passion for
the industry, no ever denied me admission to examine any part of the
radio station I wished to see. I was welcome with open arms at every
station from San Jose to San Francisco. For instance, I visited KIOI
when it was owned by Jim Gabbert (which is when I met him) during most
of the time the station was at the Whitcomb Hotel and at 1001 California
St.
I never found radio stations to be unfriendly places. But my
real introduction to them came from the inside. We had a neighbor who
had a job as morning man at a station 30 miles away, who lost his
driver's license for a while, and I ended up taking him to work, and
back home afterward for a while. Which meant that I was on the
station premises from sign-on, and in the studio, with a pretty
seasoned old-timer, for several hours each morning before driving back
to go to school. In short, a warm body who asked so many questions
that he got put to work.
After a few months of this, the general manager, who had a couple of
other stations and a TV station, called me in and told me that enough
was enough of doubling for the morning man---if I could get an RT
license, he could use what I'd learned at his other stations. So I
did, and he did.
This is going back sixty years, when keeping a transmitter modulated
meant either spinning platters (all 78's) or talking into a
microphone. The world was full of 250, 500, and 1KW daytimers who
needed someone who could walk into an empty building, flip the
switches on the transmitter, take the readings, and start modulating
the carrier. Of course, they expected you to do a half-decent job of
keeping things alive, following "the book" with spot ads, and the
like. But nobody really cared if you looked like a geeky kid, or
could get around physically. I knew a couple of pros who were in
wheelchairs.
Probably aren't many opportunities like this any more, between the
large ownership groups, satellite feeds, carts and other automation,
etc. etc. But I had any number of friends over the years who "did
radio" at one point or another for a while, but who never really tried
to make careers as radio personalities. But I think there was some
good learning in all of that, that carried forward to being able to
get up at a podium elsewhere, and do something a bit more cogent than
mumble "uh, err, well, like, I mean, you know....".
Hank