From a very young age I was always interested in radio. TV was an emerging technology at the time (early 50's) but it was radio that always had that special magic and I wanted to be a part of it. In those days there were only two forms of teenage "culture" - cruising the main drag Saturday nights if you owned a car or listening to the DJ's who seemed to understand what was going on with teens and could tie them together over the air.
My big chance came in 1959 when I was a high school sophomore and won a tryout with a local station in Tucson. There were two of us there that night and the other guy was several years older and in college. Predictably, I lost out to him but was still enchanted. Throughout the remainder of high school I continued to be impressed with the people I heard on radio and, quite by accident, when joining the navy right after graduation became a radioman myself.
Four years later and following two years in the Vietnam theater I returned to the States still interested in a career in radio....just in time to hear one of my favorite stations (KEWB) being flipped from Top 40 to news/talk. I enrolled in college and continued to watch the industry quickly becoming aware that on-air people never seemed to last long and were relocated frequently. This didn't impress me too much, especially since they tended to disappear suddenly and without notice. Since there weren't any stations located in my immediate area I plunged into what is now called Information Technology as kind of a back up until I could decide what to do.
Computers in business were new and exciting in those days and most of the people were on the young side. It paid well and job security was good. Although my first love was still radio I couldn't see tossing my education for a try at the big time and so abandoned my dreams of a radio career. I always wondered though what could have been.....
After watching the industry for these past 40-odd years and reading this entire forum in the past few weeks I have come to the conclusion that, although it was very painful at the time, my decision to go another route was best for me. It seems from all that has happened in my home town of Phoenix recently coupled with topics on these boards that one would have to be an idiot to want to work on-air in this industry presently.
It appears 'radio' has been scientifically broken down into speciality markets so small that the individual DJ's can select from a very small sample of their chosen segment and have very little originality or personality to offer. Except for those very few big-market morning drive jocks money is not there nor is stability. Stations have become commodities which are bought and sold like used cars, transforming themselves from one format to another so no lasting following can be built. The business model seems to be build an improvement over the former format then dump the station for a few bucks and move on. Then you have the big syndicates which make one market pretty much like the next. Add hate....I mean, talk radio to the mix and it all becomes pretty worthless. There are of course exceptions to the above but it sure isn't the same business it once was.
I'm retired now but still sort of a techno-geek and have all manner of computer and radio equipment to fool around with. I have recorded virtually every favorite piece of music onto multiple players for use at home and mobile but I still, when given the chance, get a kick out of listening to real people on real radios, including DXing faraway AM stations from exotic little towns a thousand miles away. I fear however it is all fading away and at a faster and faster rate each day.
Of course, every industry changes and technology industries faster than most others. I do miss the human element in radio more than anything else though. And I fear it will never return to what it once was.
My big chance came in 1959 when I was a high school sophomore and won a tryout with a local station in Tucson. There were two of us there that night and the other guy was several years older and in college. Predictably, I lost out to him but was still enchanted. Throughout the remainder of high school I continued to be impressed with the people I heard on radio and, quite by accident, when joining the navy right after graduation became a radioman myself.
Four years later and following two years in the Vietnam theater I returned to the States still interested in a career in radio....just in time to hear one of my favorite stations (KEWB) being flipped from Top 40 to news/talk. I enrolled in college and continued to watch the industry quickly becoming aware that on-air people never seemed to last long and were relocated frequently. This didn't impress me too much, especially since they tended to disappear suddenly and without notice. Since there weren't any stations located in my immediate area I plunged into what is now called Information Technology as kind of a back up until I could decide what to do.
Computers in business were new and exciting in those days and most of the people were on the young side. It paid well and job security was good. Although my first love was still radio I couldn't see tossing my education for a try at the big time and so abandoned my dreams of a radio career. I always wondered though what could have been.....
After watching the industry for these past 40-odd years and reading this entire forum in the past few weeks I have come to the conclusion that, although it was very painful at the time, my decision to go another route was best for me. It seems from all that has happened in my home town of Phoenix recently coupled with topics on these boards that one would have to be an idiot to want to work on-air in this industry presently.
It appears 'radio' has been scientifically broken down into speciality markets so small that the individual DJ's can select from a very small sample of their chosen segment and have very little originality or personality to offer. Except for those very few big-market morning drive jocks money is not there nor is stability. Stations have become commodities which are bought and sold like used cars, transforming themselves from one format to another so no lasting following can be built. The business model seems to be build an improvement over the former format then dump the station for a few bucks and move on. Then you have the big syndicates which make one market pretty much like the next. Add hate....I mean, talk radio to the mix and it all becomes pretty worthless. There are of course exceptions to the above but it sure isn't the same business it once was.
I'm retired now but still sort of a techno-geek and have all manner of computer and radio equipment to fool around with. I have recorded virtually every favorite piece of music onto multiple players for use at home and mobile but I still, when given the chance, get a kick out of listening to real people on real radios, including DXing faraway AM stations from exotic little towns a thousand miles away. I fear however it is all fading away and at a faster and faster rate each day.
Of course, every industry changes and technology industries faster than most others. I do miss the human element in radio more than anything else though. And I fear it will never return to what it once was.
