Some of the good things about working for Clear Channel in it's hey day (WOAI)..EVERYone who was ANYone visiting the city HAD to appear on one of our talk shows. Talking baseball with Hank Aaron, Boxing with Joe Louis, Making "Citizen Kane" with John Houseman, "Giant" and knockin' around with James Dean thanks to Earl Holliman and the stars he brought in for his Fiesta Dinner Theatre..the people he worked with and the classic films boggled my mind.. and hearing it first hand made it so much more the better. Like myself he was an animal lover-activist..a lunch with him and Forest Tucker was a gas..the 2nd time in 22 years I came back from lunch drunk as a hoot owl! The other was a send off for Kevin Geiger at La Fogata and everyone is familiar with their everclear margarita's. Kevin went to NBC in D.C. and got tickets for Joanie and me to one of Clinton's inaugural balls. Tucker remembered a lot of his visits to Corpus Christi and the old White Plaza Hotel!
Some of the bad..god, there were so many it's hard to remember! But my reason for quitting was an excellent example: in the early 90's every Clear Channel Production Director received a very terse memo from the corporate legal honcho... Essentially it stated that no spot or promo could contain audio lifted from a TV series, licensed themes..you get the idea...without the written authorization from the publisher of said material.
The attorney was adamant concerning the placement of the memo in all production rooms at every CCU station. One day a reel (love that analog, baby!) arrived Special Delivery from one of our outlets in Florida. There were several spots for a certain auto repair-body shop that we were all too familiar with. One of the Managers at the time happened to be married to the owner of the garages...so when I told the sales manager and ACTING GM that the Production Manager in Florida had NOT contacted the owner of the audio clips of "Beverly Hillbillies", used in each spot, (Viacom was known for it's aggressive legal department) and would not be aired..they blew a gasket! I showed them the memo from legal and explained that it would be ME tossed to the dogs should, say, a competing talk station air check them and zip said air checks to Viacom. That's really mute as I was following direct corporate instructions.
It was near the end of the month..we might miss quota! What's more important? Money or a long time, very hardworking employee's well being? This was CCU..the answer was obvious..air the spots..get the geet and step over the employee's body if Viacom came looking for why those commercials, containing material they owned, had aired in direct conflict with orders given the Production Director ?!
Seeing what was coming, I dropped my Kaepa Tennis Shoes at the paper mache GM,s feet, told him to "fill these" and left in a brand new black Corvette with the top down, on a hot August day with Steely Dan serving as the soundtrack to my departure.
Some of the bad..god, there were so many it's hard to remember! But my reason for quitting was an excellent example: in the early 90's every Clear Channel Production Director received a very terse memo from the corporate legal honcho... Essentially it stated that no spot or promo could contain audio lifted from a TV series, licensed themes..you get the idea...without the written authorization from the publisher of said material.
The attorney was adamant concerning the placement of the memo in all production rooms at every CCU station. One day a reel (love that analog, baby!) arrived Special Delivery from one of our outlets in Florida. There were several spots for a certain auto repair-body shop that we were all too familiar with. One of the Managers at the time happened to be married to the owner of the garages...so when I told the sales manager and ACTING GM that the Production Manager in Florida had NOT contacted the owner of the audio clips of "Beverly Hillbillies", used in each spot, (Viacom was known for it's aggressive legal department) and would not be aired..they blew a gasket! I showed them the memo from legal and explained that it would be ME tossed to the dogs should, say, a competing talk station air check them and zip said air checks to Viacom. That's really mute as I was following direct corporate instructions.
It was near the end of the month..we might miss quota! What's more important? Money or a long time, very hardworking employee's well being? This was CCU..the answer was obvious..air the spots..get the geet and step over the employee's body if Viacom came looking for why those commercials, containing material they owned, had aired in direct conflict with orders given the Production Director ?!
Seeing what was coming, I dropped my Kaepa Tennis Shoes at the paper mache GM,s feet, told him to "fill these" and left in a brand new black Corvette with the top down, on a hot August day with Steely Dan serving as the soundtrack to my departure.