this is a small part of an "on the beach" interview from www.allaccess.com with dave hamilton (a.k.a EZ STREET)formerly of power 96 in miami...
2) Some people get discouraged or enlightened with the business when they actually step out of it for a while. Tell us your observations from the outside.
Hmmm, well, I am not perfect by any means, but I did learn a life long lesson from a 6 year old girl. Life is a shadow of how we affect one another on our journey. I learned something that was priceless while listening back to some airchecks from Miami that really gave me a chance to reflect on life. One afternoon during the Christmas holidays, a woman randomly called in explaining how worried she was about her children not getting a thing for Christmas, but worse than that, all three lived in a one bedroom apartment with absolutely nothing in the apartment but a leaky faucet. After airing the caller, Kid ( PD ) overheard the callers who called in to offer this woman everything imaginable, and he agreed to have our promotions assistant help get this woman hooked up. Having (PD) on the air gave credibility to the call. As it turned out, one of our reps (Mobile Mike) donated 200 toys, listeners gave her furniture, and we even found her a job from an employer listening to the radio. To me at the time, it was just a fun air shift filled with warm fuzzy emotion and the ideology behind how Christmas should sound. Two months later I received a card in the mail from a 6 year old girl who scribbled a small thank you Mr. DJ for the toys and the bed, along with a cute little synopsis of Christmas.
Now that I have taken a break from radio…
My observation and relation to this question is that we as broadcasters hold so much power when we talk, entertain, preach, laugh, and communicate life. It doesn't need it to be Christmas to help our community or do something good for our listeners just because of the season we're in. Making small differences is something we can do daily. I look back at it now and realized that I made a difference. Affecting someone and helping make a difference to the people who listen to you, whether it is making them laugh, or react, come out to a party, or help with a community event, we as broadcasters really do make a difference if we try to. It is so true that no matter what part you play in this business, you are that special person someone met from their favorite radio station, and that local… hear and now, live and local magic you can create, can NEVER be duplicated by safelight, cable, iPods…
that's what i call hitting the nail on the head. i could only hope every broadcaster in the worls felt that way.
2) Some people get discouraged or enlightened with the business when they actually step out of it for a while. Tell us your observations from the outside.
Hmmm, well, I am not perfect by any means, but I did learn a life long lesson from a 6 year old girl. Life is a shadow of how we affect one another on our journey. I learned something that was priceless while listening back to some airchecks from Miami that really gave me a chance to reflect on life. One afternoon during the Christmas holidays, a woman randomly called in explaining how worried she was about her children not getting a thing for Christmas, but worse than that, all three lived in a one bedroom apartment with absolutely nothing in the apartment but a leaky faucet. After airing the caller, Kid ( PD ) overheard the callers who called in to offer this woman everything imaginable, and he agreed to have our promotions assistant help get this woman hooked up. Having (PD) on the air gave credibility to the call. As it turned out, one of our reps (Mobile Mike) donated 200 toys, listeners gave her furniture, and we even found her a job from an employer listening to the radio. To me at the time, it was just a fun air shift filled with warm fuzzy emotion and the ideology behind how Christmas should sound. Two months later I received a card in the mail from a 6 year old girl who scribbled a small thank you Mr. DJ for the toys and the bed, along with a cute little synopsis of Christmas.
Now that I have taken a break from radio…
My observation and relation to this question is that we as broadcasters hold so much power when we talk, entertain, preach, laugh, and communicate life. It doesn't need it to be Christmas to help our community or do something good for our listeners just because of the season we're in. Making small differences is something we can do daily. I look back at it now and realized that I made a difference. Affecting someone and helping make a difference to the people who listen to you, whether it is making them laugh, or react, come out to a party, or help with a community event, we as broadcasters really do make a difference if we try to. It is so true that no matter what part you play in this business, you are that special person someone met from their favorite radio station, and that local… hear and now, live and local magic you can create, can NEVER be duplicated by safelight, cable, iPods…
that's what i call hitting the nail on the head. i could only hope every broadcaster in the worls felt that way.