(following up on K.M.'s post)
Luck? Yeah. Damn near all of it:
KIBS in Bishop (my first job) happened because I was out in the street throwing a football around at age 14 with some friends when a neighbor's sister came to visit. That sister was Virginia Holmes, a substitute schoolteacher and host of a daily "women's program". She knew me from subbing in my classes since fifth grade, knew I could read well, and came out to ask me if I wanted a job at the radio station.
KSLY in San Luis Obispo happened because Sandy Horn from ABC Records walked into KIBS one night for a surprise visit (bringing KMET's Ace Young with him), took one look at KIBS, said "Jesus, what a toilet.", and helped himself to the production room, where, unbeknownst to me, he recorded my show, retrieved the reel before he left and sent it to KSLY, which hired me. I was still 17.
KIOQ happened because a guy I had worked with at KIBS had the construction permit for a new FM in Bishop and asked me if I wanted to come home and literally build a station.
KUKI in Ukiah happened because they guy they really wanted to hire (who I had worked with at KIBS) wasn't available, saw my name in Claude Hall's column in Billboard and recommended they hire me (which is how I met my wife, who I married 36 years later). I was 19.
I applied for KOLO in Reno cold from an ad in R&R. Didn't know a soul there. They liked tape number one, asked for a second and I was in.
TV? KTVN in Reno was because a guy who I had worked with at KOLO was there and told the boss he should hire me. I got a phone call from my friend telling me I had an interview with the news director that afternoon and that I should wear a tie.
KTNV in Las Vegas happened because I was brutally honest with the new general manager at KTVN in front of the entire staff on his first day and our consultant (who the new GM had fired that morning) thought I might need a gig and had a plane ticket, hotel room and interview the next day booked 15 minutes after the incident (word travelled fast). Incredibly, the new GM tried to keep me, but I liked the Vegas deal.
KTVK in Phoenix was a total accident. I was trying to get some friends who were photogs at KTNV hired in a bigger market and I had a friend at KTSP. I used stories they'd shot for me, the executive producer walked by, watched over his shoulder, took the tape to the big bosses and they flew me in and offered me the job. I couldn't get out of my contract to take it, but in the six months remaining, they crossed the street to KTVK and sweetened the offer just as I became free.
Back to radio---mornings in Phoenix at KGLQ was sheer luck. They wanted Charlie Van Dyke, Charlie and I had been batting about an idea for a morning show for a couple of years (never thinking we'd be the ones to do it) and he told them it was a package deal.
KTAR was the same basic thing. I left KTVK to care for my terminally ill mother-in-law and start my own production business for the car reviews, a guy named Charles Goyette left KTAR for KFYI on no notice, KTAR called me and asked if Charlie and I would fill in that weekend. We did, they offered us weekends and fill-ins and Charlie didn't want to do it. I figured that was that, because of course they really wanted Charlie, but they offered it to me solo. I was there for four years.
KAZT-TV was the late Ron Bergamo, who liked my automotive stuff pitching me on a weekly half-hour. Voice talent for the station got thrown in, and within a year or so, I was Director of Programming and Promotion.
KNXV-TV (ABC15) was a call from the ND out of the blue asking if I'd like to build on my automotive credentials doing traffic reports on the morning news and transportation and transit-related stories for the evening shows.
Back to radio (again and finally)---iHeart (then Clear Channel) was me needing a gig after ABC15 figured out how to split my salary between three kids straight out of school. My friend Mark Jeffries didn't have anything until two days later. That's when a young woman was recording a traffic report for Salt Lake City. She blew the take, yelled the 12-letter word for unnatural relations with one's mother, did the take over again and fed the report to Salt Lake.
Without editing out the blown take and obscenity.
That's not a word you hear a lot on the radio----especially in Salt Lake City. And suddenly, Mark had something for me.
I guess you could argue that I earned the seven promotions in the next five years at iHeart (traffic to the wire service national desk, to the iHeart app newscasts, to morning producer at KFBK, to executive producer, to managing editor, to news director, to afternoon co-anchor), but it was luck that got me in the door.
And on the day they laid me off, they also laid off a production guy whose stepson was Managing Editor of News at Capital Public Radio. He had an opening for Senior Editor. I applied, they were going through the process and then COVID hit and all hiring was frozen. About four months go by, and the host of Insight at the time, Beth Ruyak, leaves. They move Randol White, the afternoon news anchor to Insight on an interim basis and I get a call from Nick saying "Hey, Mike---it's not what you applied for, but would you be interested in anchoring the afternoon news here?"
That was two weeks before my iHeart severance would have run out.
So---really---it was ALL luck. The only cold pitch I made was KOLO in Reno in 1977.
