Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
|
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Disabilities and jobs in broadcasting
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 |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|