In article ,
(Scott Dorsey) wrote:

Go to a radio station and ask for a tour and a job. That's how everyone
starts out....

Indeed! If you bring ANY technical skills to the party, by all means
give me a call when I'm back in the office on 4/26! Engineering types
have pretty much all jumped ship, but there ARE still stations that
appreciate good technical talent.

--
John Higdon
+1 408 ANdrews 6-4400
AT&T-Free At Last

John Higdon wrote:

Indeed! If you bring ANY technical skills to the party, by all means
give me a call when I'm back in the office on 4/26! Engineering types
have pretty much all jumped ship, but there ARE still stations that
appreciate good technical talent.

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 was working on some computers over at KDIA/KDYA a couple years ago when a
guy came in and wanted The Tour. Well, two stations, you'd think there was a
lot to see. But, being an automated gospel music station on the one hand and
an automated block program station on the other, the guy was basically shown
what might be radio if only there were DJs around. He was shown the two empty
control rooms, the tech area where I was wiping the dirt and grime off a
computer's innards, and the the equipment rack.

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.

Needless to say, I have dutifully "paid it forward" whenever I've had
the opportunity.

--
John Higdon
+1 408 ANdrews 6-4400
AT&T-Free At Last

John Higdon wrote:

I cannot imagine anyone being that odious.

It has happened.

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.

I was welcomed to most stations as well. The first was KEEN on Old Oakland.
Then KDAC in Fort Bragg, then KFMR in Fremont. I spent many times at the KFAX
daytime transmitter on the service road next to the San Mateo bridge, watching
the board op play back religious programs and time things out with pre-carted
promos, and the occasional live news feed from the SF studio. I visited KYA,
KFRC, KDFM, KJAY, KJOY, KSTN, KRON, KPIX, KTVU, KNTV, and I'm sure I'm leaving
out a couple here or there.

However, I was not allowed to visit KNBR, KCBS, KGO, KBRG, KLIV, or KLOK.

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

David Kaye wrote:

I was working on some computers over at KDIA/KDYA a couple years ago when a
guy came in and wanted The Tour. Well, two stations, you'd think there was a
lot to see. But, being an automated gospel music station on the one hand and
an automated block program station on the other, the guy was basically shown
what might be radio if only there were DJs around. He was shown the two empty
control rooms, the tech area where I was wiping the dirt and grime off a
computer's innards, and the the equipment rack.

See, you could make that into a fun tour, talking about the history of the
station and what used to be in this room and what used to be in that room,
and how technology has changed things both for the better and the worse.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

* Scott Dorsey wrote, On 4/16/2010 8:05 AM:
David wrote:

the guy was basically shown
what might be radio if only there were DJs around. He was shown the two empty
control rooms, the tech area where I was wiping the dirt and grime off a
computer's innards, and the the equipment rack.

See, you could make that into a fun tour, talking about the history of the
station and what used to be in this room and what used to be in that room,
and how technology has changed things both for the better and the worse.
--scott

When I was a student at the Ron Bailie School of Broadcast in the old
420 Taylor KBHK building we trained in some of the original 1930s NBC
control rooms. It was kind of exciting for a broadcast geek to know
the history and speculate what those rooms had looked like with
equipment from the building's historical NBC era.

JT
--

John T wrote:

When I was a student at the Ron Bailie School of Broadcast in the old
420 Taylor KBHK building we trained in some of the original 1930s NBC
control rooms.

And did working with record cutting lathes and the NBC chimes help you in your
broadcasting career? Fun though it may have been if I'd paid a bundle to go
to a private broadcasting school I'd have wanted to be trained on equipment
that I would typically deal with.

The only station I found that had old ET equipment from the 30s was KCHJ in
Delano, largely because after Charles H. Johnes died in 1968 the family wanted
to run the place like a museum. KCHJ wasn't a typical radio station.

I was rather upset when I was at CSM that we had to deal with antiquated black
and white equipment and just one camera with a zoom lens at KCSM-TV.

While we learned about equipment that was fairly state of the art on the radio
side (KCSM-FM), we learned zilch about programming because Dan Odum was so
fond of his block programming. Such training prepared us for...uh...KFAX,
KEST, and other also-rans, but didn't prepare us for KFRC or any other station
that was going anywhere in the market.

Of course, the concept of broadcasting schools is moot today, given that there
is simply no need for them anymore, but the equivalent might be going to a
computer school and learning how to program on punch cards.

In article ,
David Kaye wrote:

I was rather upset when I was at CSM that we had to deal with antiquated black
and white equipment and just one camera with a zoom lens at KCSM-TV.

While we learned about equipment that was fairly state of the art on the radio
side (KCSM-FM)

It was just the opposite at SF State. Other than being B&W, the TV
studio was one of the best in the state. (And I don't mean just at
educational institutions.) But the radio station wasn't real like
KCSM; it only went to the dorms. So that equipment was much more
modest.


Patty

In article ,
(David Kaye) wrote:

Of course, the concept of broadcasting schools is moot today, given that
there
is simply no need for them anymore, but the equivalent might be going to a
computer school and learning how to program on punch cards.

I'm sorry to say it is that thinking that is pretty much what is wrong
with radio today. We have different tools (for the better, mostly) but
what is now lacking is the spark of creativity in local stations. It
isn't the equipment that is responsible for the lack of new music on
radio. It isn't the lack of tape recorders or turntables that have
"forced" stations to use syndication rather than do things of interest
on their own.

Is there some reason a broadcast school can't teach things like
community involvement, or music programming, or even specialized sales
tactics that involve clients in improving their own businesses? Now THAT
would be a broadcast school. However, as with many others involved with
local broadcasting, the schools refused to move on with the times,
seeing as their sole responsibility the training of people to cue
records and splice tape. Broadcasting schools should have all failed;
they were run by people who lacked any kind of vision whatsoever.

We need broadcasting schools today more than ever, but I'm willing to
admit that there may be a serious lack of people who are up to the task
of running them.

--
John Higdon
+1 408 ANdrews 6-4400
AT&T-Free At Last