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Inquiring minds want to know.

E

ericakane

Okay Ladies and Gents of Radio....If you had to do it all over...would you still choose Radio (the media) as a career? Two questions....why did you get into this businesses in the first place....I always say its in the blood...let's face it...I don't think we would fit in other "normal" business places (could you see yourself working in a bank for example...I believe people in this business see and think differently and that's a good thing).
And I know we didn't do for the money...the bonuses, the great vacation schedules....So why did you get into the business?
 
I have been interested in radio as long as I can remember -- right back to my earliest memories. I played radio as a young kid, knowing that I could not just be in my bedroom, but would probably need a soundproof room ... like my bedroom closet. Even then, I had a sense of what radio was like.

I get excited when I see an AM tower, anywhere, anytime. I could pull over and sit there looking at it, remembering my first days in radio. I'd rather see a photo of an old Gates board than a photo of a Victoria's Secret model. I know they lack much of what the modern slider boards have, but there's something about running a Dualux that no new board has. Those Ampex r-r machines were where it was at and the ability to panic-thread a Maggie (Magnecord) tape deck in less than five seconds was a life saver.

Leave radio? I could not imagine it. I've worked in a couple of real horrid places and loved it. There is a bond among dj's, an immediate bond, when we meet and say, "I worked at a place where the board smoked," and the other person said, "We had turntables with lousy switches and had to hot-cue the records."

How can you give up all that?
 
Mixed feelings... there's nothing else I really want to do and good radio is great fun.

But, with automation, voice tracking, huge companies owning hundreds of radio stations, a lack of local commitment, I don't see a bright future.
 
I was always facinated by radio. I remember sitting in my room listening to the Ali-Frazer round-by-round recap in the 60's/70's and imagining what was going on. In college, I was a math major and didn't know what I wanted to do in life, until I took a radio drama course... BINGO!!!!! I was hooked, the people, creativity, and oppurtunity to express myself hooked me from day one. I lived at the college radio station, my parents thought I had moved to another state, I never went home. Finding a job, though, in NYC was a challenge and I was advised to "go somewhere smaller and start out.. If you're good, you won't have to apply for a job here, we'll find you!" I came back to NE PA, where I was born, and spent 20+ years in the business, and as the last poster indicated, the state of the business deteriorated greatly. Also after years in the business, I noted many of my collegues had something in common.... they were married to their careers and not devoted to their Wife and/or Children. Not all mind you, but many of the people I worked with had been divorced (multiple times) as thir jobs demanded more of them. Also, radio demands sometimes you move... as the opportunities dried up in this area, I wasn't into the "ME" thing....You know, hey gang, we've all got to move to keep my career/ego alive. All-in-all, it was a great ride and I applaud those of you who can still make a career out of it and keep your family life if balance. I've moved on though, and I'm glad I did. I'm ashamed of what potential radio had and what has happened to it over the years. With all the advances in technology, how many people actually believe radio is better now today.. it's no longer the "theater of the mind", just the obscene and absurd.
 
I've heard people in radio say they love it so much they'd do it for free. Not sure if I believe them, particularly since you can't really believe too much from people in radio...or TV for that matter.

Live to work? Nope. Work to live. It's been fun most of the time and I've managed to manuever myself into some really decent paying radio opportunities but if I had to do it over I would have chosen a field that would have provided me with the ability to retire by my early 50's. Military, teaching, civil service.

A classic example of "if I knew then what I know now". Retiring in my early 50's, not going to happen and it is my only regret.
 
I would not have had it any other way. My 15 years in the business left me with some happy memories, good stories to tell, and a wealth of experience that has helped me along my career path. Were there bumps in the road? Sure. Some of my not-so-favorites:

-- Having everyone in the building taken out for a "celebration" lunch, during which the owners of the station changed the locks and fired everyone

-- Being hired FT on a Friday at noon, having the PD fired at 5 PM, and showing up for work on Monday with nobody knowing I was supposed to be working

-- A major computer system crash that had me sleeping at the station and working 19 hour days playing liners and IDs for a week

However, the life lessons and good times definitely outweigh the bad times. I'd do it again in a heartbeat (but I'd be smarter with my money).
 
Great topic - only problem is, where to start, and where to end. Do I miss it? Yes, no, sometimes, not at all, never, hate it, despise it; all of the aforementioned are somewhat true.

My sizzling "By God, I'd do this for free..." attitude vaporized within a month on my first job. A couple of weekends of 8-9 hour airshifts, including zero time off during the big Memorial Day Weekend, really had me wondering just what it was I had done with my life. By the 4th of July my 'tude was combative. When the GM told me to do a remote from a parade early on the holiday, THEN come back at 2:00 PM and pull a six hour+ airshift, I told him to kiss my foot. He could've fired me - he didn't, and why I'll never know.

The money sucked, the hours sucked, the people were great. Management largely sucked, the exceptions were fewer than the fingers on one hand. I worked for PDs who were great advocates for their jocks, I worked for some who'd hang there guys out to dry in a millisecond, and often did.

All in all, yeah, it was fun, and it's not something everyone can do, which makes it some small accomplishment, right? Well, sort of, I guess. In some odd way, many of us thought being on the radio would buy instant respectability, and it just might be that it did.

Great stories? Yeah, I do have a few.
 
I'm 17 sitting on our large front porch with my dad. It is a warm august day. I am entering my senior year of high school soon. A friend of my father walks by after visiting his mother and says to my father, "Jake, with me being the postmaster and all, do you think David would like to get in at the Post Office?" My father tells me to take the ear plugs out (i'm tuning to WARM) and his friend repeats the question. "Naw, I wanna work for $95.00 a week at WPTS".
I'm 22, just finishing up my degree in Government and Politics and Communications from King's. My uncle who is on an area school board and has placed numerous relatives with different last names in key positions in the district (my mother had 13 brothers and sisters) tells me he will most likely lose his next election and never get another chance to grease the skids for another relative. He was wondering if I'd be interested in a teaching position? Nope, I'm starting out as an all night classical jock on WVIA FM for a pretty cool $6500.00 a year.
Like Tom Carten, I believe there's nothing like an AM tower, a big fat board as opposed to those slender ones. I cherish the characters I met along the way. They gave me a novel and with what I have in my mind can give me three more books. The dedication, frivolity, pure personality of everyone I worked with in radio has shaped and formed my very being. It has made me a more substantial, interesting, exciting person. People sought me out once they'd hear of my former career.
For my soul, it was the very best thing I could've done.
For my bottom line, not so much.
If I had to do it over again, I might've followed the path of the late Jim Nicholas. Teach during the day, have a radio show at night.
Mind you, no regrets. I have a good and grand life. And thank God all the women I encountered along the way weren't gold diggers, but an early retirement might've been nice.
Yonkstur
 
For those of us who aren't in the diaper set, go over to Sniffen's board and check out the "You know you are an aging newsperson" and "you know you are an aging dj" threads. The younger set won't get it.
 
I knew I wanted to be part of radio/tv/media from a very early age. I do agree...however...that many people in this business are married to their job....I do see alot of divorced people...and lot of single people in our business. If we just married each other...we would get along get...our husband/wife would understand why we are paid so little... have to work holidays...why we have to work overnight...do on-locations...work crazy hours....hang out and talk to others we work with way after we have to be home....that's the solution...unless you have a very understanding spouse....and that's a blessing.
 
Surprised you don't know about it. Allan Sniffen runs it, rather tightly.
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks, great board. The aging news/jock threads are a hoot, I can see myself in just about every one of those posts. I also came across a name I hadn't heard in years - Bill Jorgensen, one time very popular news anchor on WNEW-TV. Anyone else remember him?
 
Without even giving it a nano-second thought...the answer is absolutely. Although I only work in radio part-time now I love those few hours I get to be "on air." I don't regret one second of my career choice...my radio years (23) have been some of the best in my life...from the people I worked with to the listeners who followed my career to the events I got to cover. It was a hoot.
I'm not a fan of automation either, but for most of us, that is what we have to work with. I miss the "feel" of doing a live show. I too miss the old boards with the big pot knobs, the cart machines and the AMPEX reel to reels. During the good old days if a spot was missed it was because I forgot to hit the cart button or the tape got chewed up...not that the system didn't recognize the tone or that it wasn't loaded into the system.
Would I give up my current full time job to get back into radio? If I was single yes...but I have a family, a mortgage and a college education to pay for. I'll take the few hours I get to "do radio" and just be happy for that.
 
Allen Sniffen worked for the people that owned WBQW - WSCR at their Poughkeepise, NY stations WBNR - WSPK. Paul Trama and I talk alot about the stations.
 
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