WECQ (Geneva NY) is a legend. No really. You may not have heard of the station, but trust me, a ton of very talented people came out of WECQ to go on to much success in radio. It was the ultimate farm team station. Program directors in large markets kept an eye on the station and would often swoop in and grab on air people and news people for large market gigs. I don't want to give the impression that it was some kind of revolving door situation. Folks that got the chance to work at CQ got some coaching, some encouragement, a nice work environment and when the time came, a helping hand out the door. What I mean by that is, that David Weinfeld who was part owner and General manager would gladly help you find that next great gig when the time was right. It was ok to tell him you wanted to move on. You didn't have to sneak around making air checks and typing resume's. No, David was fine with you moving on to something better when it was time. In fact he was happy to make some calls on your behalf. He used this to his advantage in attracting talent.
How does a revolving door help your station? Well, on David's wall in his office he kept a page of yellow legal pad paper with a list of all the names of people who had worked at CQ and then moved on to a larger market. Most of the names had a city and station name listed. When interviewing someone David would
pull the sheet down from the wall and hand it to the prospect. He would say, well here is a list of the last few people who left CQ and where they went.
It was an impressive list and this was usually enough to seal the deal. Using this technique plus his astute nose for talent CQ 102 was always staffed by a very talented group.
This was the first time I had encountered this kind of open-ness around a radio station. After leaving CQ I rarely have encountered it, but when given the chance I attempted to emulate David's approach. It was one of the many lessons I learned while working with David, but maybe the most important.
Radio only has one resource. People. The tower and building and transmitter and studio equipment mean nothing without talented people to create great programming. So it's not much of a leap to say, you really need to take care of your people and get the most out of them if you want to be successful.
You'd think everyone would understand that, but alas the Radio industry is full of C students. Most of them in managment through some accident, or inheritance or just plain dumb luck. In the spirit of full disclosure I must credit the "C student theory" to Gary Burns. Gary will show up later in the story.
Anyway, it was rare that radio stations had an atmosphere of openess and encourgment. There were lots of closed door meetings and sneaking around to make air checks. Plus lots of late night copy machine usage in the sales area when it came time to make resume's
Radio, until the mid '90's was very Mom and Pop. The FCC limited the number of stations you could own. There were no mega companies that owned stations. No stock, no stockholders, no IPO's. Just stations run by small companies. Many times family companies. We didn't have many benefits, no human resource department, no legal department and not much training on how to manage people. Oh sure we taught people how to be on the air and write copy and do news and so forth. But most companies did not spend much time teaching managers how to actually manage people.
Given that, a lot of stations were really very poorly run in terms of how their people were treated and that was generally accepted by folks who wanted to work in radio.
That's one of the reasons why CQ was such breath of fresh air.
I arrived in September of 82 to take over as PD at CQ 102. Pat Gillen the current PD was adding his name to David's list on the wall. He was going to program a station in Trenton NJ WPST.
It was sort of a reunion at CQ. John Hogan was the sales manager and we shared an office. He of course had been my partner in crime in the unfortunate Oneonta episode.
Once again I settled into a motel for a while, with Vicky and Erin remaining in Rushford. Shortly I found a small house to rent in nearby Waterloo and once again Mom and Dad helped us move our stuff and get settled.
I took over a station that was well staffed and focused and really one of the best sounding small market stations I had ever heard. It was a little intimadating.
But soon I was setting about putting my mark on CQ like all the previous PD's had done and having a great time.
During my time at CQ 102 I encountered a collection of characters that influenced me and made my experience one of the richest in my career.
Next time some of those characters and some of the amazing things we did at CQ.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
OK IS THIS RADIO THING WORTH IT?
As I look back on the events that have unfolded so far in my radio randy history, it makes me wonder why I didn't just decide to do something else. I don't remember thinking that at all at the time. As I write this story I'm wondering why I wasn't more bummed out. Young and stupid might be the answer. But clearly I did have a passion for radio that just wasn't going to be extinguised.
After the fiasco in Oneonta we moved back home again. Once again my mom and dad to the rescue. My grandmother had just died around the same time and she was living in a house in downtown Rushford that my folks still owned. So it was proposed that we stay with them thru the Holidays and then move into my gramma's house after the first of the year. One positive we have experienced in Oneonta, in the trailer, was that Erin had started walking. She was only about 11 months which is pretty early. But if you know Erin, not surprising.
What to do about a job? Clearly there were no radio opportunities in Rushford, or the surrounding area. Once again my brother lent a helping hand. He and my cousin had just started a new venture that involved a new technology. This new system helped large consumers of electricty lower their electric bills. Mostly designed for Restaurants and other businesses of that size. It was a computer unit that was installed and connected to all the cooling units and walk in freezers. This computer controlled how many of the units could switch on at any given time, there bye limiting the demand charges that businesses have to deal with.
They had sold the system to a chain of restaurants in Buffalo and they offered me the chance to work with the install crew to put these systems in. So we drove to Buffalo each day and spent time in the kitchen area of these fine eating establishments. What we all learned about what goes in kitchens has given us all pause ever since. One day while installing a thermostat inside a walk in freezer, we notice a stack of what looked like fluorescent lights stacked up. They were about 2 feet long and when we enquired about what they were doing in the freezer, one of the cooks explained. Synthetic eggs he said. What? Yeah we thaw them out and then slice them up for use in salads. So whenever you see one of those perfectly sliced hard boiled eggs don't assume it was the work of some contentious chicken.
This work continued throughout the winter and when the weather got better I started working with my brothers other business. I became a truck driver. Hauling sand and gravel for small construction projects. This appeared to be the direction my career was going for the time being. I had had little chance to prepare tapes and resumes from Oneonta and hadn't sent out any. I was continuing to look at the trade magazines for openings, but it seemed pretty bleak. That's the way it feels now, but again I don't remember feeling that way at the time. We were basically happy. Erin was a great kid and fun to play with and growing and learning all the time. We were close to family and I actually enjoyed the work with my brother.
Often during this period I would find myself listening to the radio. Critiquing, questioning, wondering and most of all wishing.
Even after the bad situation in Kentucky and the unfortunate turn of events in Oneonta my folks never once said anything about me choosing a different type of profession. They encouraged and helped us and I think that is pretty amazing. At least as I think back about it now.
I often recall those events when talking to young people who say they want to get into the business. I counsel
them about the importance of being ready to move and how important support from your family can be. I know many people in this business who did not have that kind of support from family and in many cases spouses. That's tough. I'm lucky, even with all the ups and downs Vicky has always treated each mishap and move as just another adventure and that is one of the reasons we are going on 33 years.
Character building. That's what I call these early years. Lasalle- Peru, Manchester, Oneonta. Tough, yes, but I wouldn't change them. They helped make me who I am. They helped shape my radio IQ and taught me that how you treat people really matters. People are the only resource radio has. Radio stations exist only on the air, in people's radio's. The building, transmitter and equipment are not really worth much without people to make it go.
The people who fired John and I in Oneonta, just a week before Thanksgiving gave no thought to our welfare. We had moved our families, worked incredible hours and taken a piece of crap radio station and set it on the right course. What did we get for it?
More than you think as it turns out. We got a lesson in character and doing the right thing. And both John and I got the opportunity to work with a guy who would become a mentor and friend.
Dave Weinfeld never forgot what happened to us. In early August of that year Dave called me and said. Hey, my PD just got a job in Trenton NJ, how would you like to come and program CQ 102 for me?
Once again I heard that little voice in my head. My mom saying "things have a way of working out for the best". The older I get the smarter my parents are. Isn't it the truth?
Of course I accepted and arrived in Geneva on Labor Day weekend to start. Dave showed me into my office and said, you have to share with the sales manager. I said, that's fine who is it?
I saw for myself as John Hogan stood up to shake my hand. No beer glasses this time he said and I can assure you we have plenty of cart machines, reel to reel machines and commercials.
No, Dave didn't forget what happened to us.
That day was the beginning of a four year run that would shape and influence the rest of my career.
Next time: How many people in the country actually do a Dave Weinfeld impression?
After the fiasco in Oneonta we moved back home again. Once again my mom and dad to the rescue. My grandmother had just died around the same time and she was living in a house in downtown Rushford that my folks still owned. So it was proposed that we stay with them thru the Holidays and then move into my gramma's house after the first of the year. One positive we have experienced in Oneonta, in the trailer, was that Erin had started walking. She was only about 11 months which is pretty early. But if you know Erin, not surprising.
What to do about a job? Clearly there were no radio opportunities in Rushford, or the surrounding area. Once again my brother lent a helping hand. He and my cousin had just started a new venture that involved a new technology. This new system helped large consumers of electricty lower their electric bills. Mostly designed for Restaurants and other businesses of that size. It was a computer unit that was installed and connected to all the cooling units and walk in freezers. This computer controlled how many of the units could switch on at any given time, there bye limiting the demand charges that businesses have to deal with.
They had sold the system to a chain of restaurants in Buffalo and they offered me the chance to work with the install crew to put these systems in. So we drove to Buffalo each day and spent time in the kitchen area of these fine eating establishments. What we all learned about what goes in kitchens has given us all pause ever since. One day while installing a thermostat inside a walk in freezer, we notice a stack of what looked like fluorescent lights stacked up. They were about 2 feet long and when we enquired about what they were doing in the freezer, one of the cooks explained. Synthetic eggs he said. What? Yeah we thaw them out and then slice them up for use in salads. So whenever you see one of those perfectly sliced hard boiled eggs don't assume it was the work of some contentious chicken.
This work continued throughout the winter and when the weather got better I started working with my brothers other business. I became a truck driver. Hauling sand and gravel for small construction projects. This appeared to be the direction my career was going for the time being. I had had little chance to prepare tapes and resumes from Oneonta and hadn't sent out any. I was continuing to look at the trade magazines for openings, but it seemed pretty bleak. That's the way it feels now, but again I don't remember feeling that way at the time. We were basically happy. Erin was a great kid and fun to play with and growing and learning all the time. We were close to family and I actually enjoyed the work with my brother.
Often during this period I would find myself listening to the radio. Critiquing, questioning, wondering and most of all wishing.
Even after the bad situation in Kentucky and the unfortunate turn of events in Oneonta my folks never once said anything about me choosing a different type of profession. They encouraged and helped us and I think that is pretty amazing. At least as I think back about it now.
I often recall those events when talking to young people who say they want to get into the business. I counsel
them about the importance of being ready to move and how important support from your family can be. I know many people in this business who did not have that kind of support from family and in many cases spouses. That's tough. I'm lucky, even with all the ups and downs Vicky has always treated each mishap and move as just another adventure and that is one of the reasons we are going on 33 years.
Character building. That's what I call these early years. Lasalle- Peru, Manchester, Oneonta. Tough, yes, but I wouldn't change them. They helped make me who I am. They helped shape my radio IQ and taught me that how you treat people really matters. People are the only resource radio has. Radio stations exist only on the air, in people's radio's. The building, transmitter and equipment are not really worth much without people to make it go.
The people who fired John and I in Oneonta, just a week before Thanksgiving gave no thought to our welfare. We had moved our families, worked incredible hours and taken a piece of crap radio station and set it on the right course. What did we get for it?
More than you think as it turns out. We got a lesson in character and doing the right thing. And both John and I got the opportunity to work with a guy who would become a mentor and friend.
Dave Weinfeld never forgot what happened to us. In early August of that year Dave called me and said. Hey, my PD just got a job in Trenton NJ, how would you like to come and program CQ 102 for me?
Once again I heard that little voice in my head. My mom saying "things have a way of working out for the best". The older I get the smarter my parents are. Isn't it the truth?
Of course I accepted and arrived in Geneva on Labor Day weekend to start. Dave showed me into my office and said, you have to share with the sales manager. I said, that's fine who is it?
I saw for myself as John Hogan stood up to shake my hand. No beer glasses this time he said and I can assure you we have plenty of cart machines, reel to reel machines and commercials.
No, Dave didn't forget what happened to us.
That day was the beginning of a four year run that would shape and influence the rest of my career.
Next time: How many people in the country actually do a Dave Weinfeld impression?
Monday, March 14, 2011
WE DIDN'T KNOW YOU GUYS WERE LIVING ON GREEN BEAN AND POTATO SOUP
After leaving Kentucky under a hail of gunfire, we returned to Rushford and moved in with my folks. Throughout my bumpy ride in radio my folks have always been there to help and support us. Plus they have always encourage me and reminded me many times that "things have a way of working out for the best:". Of course they are right, but it doesn't always feel that way when bad things happen.
Anyway we licked our wounds in Rushford for the summer, played with Erin, who was just a few months old, and waited for the phone to ring with another radio opportunity. I had spent the final month in Kentucky furiously sending out resumes and air check tapes hoping that the nightmare in Appalachia wouldn't be the end of my radio career.
I spent the summer working for my brother and his contracting business and I'll always be grateful for the job. It wouldn't be the last time he offered my work in between radio jobs.
In mid August I got a phone call from David Weinfeld. He said he got my package, liked my stuff and wanted to meet and talk about a potential Program Director job.
Vicky and I drove to Geneva NY a couple days later, on a Sunday, and meet with David at his radio station. WECQ was located in a Quonset hut building in Geneva. We listened to the station on the drive in and I was very impressed. It was a great sounding station for such a small market and I began to get a real good feeling about our meeting.
David greeted us and took us into the station and into his office. It was cluttered and small. Stacks of papers littered his desk. The walls were cork board and were covered with papers held in place by stick pins. We sat on a small love seat just inches from the front of his desk and he began telling us about a radio station he was planning to buy. WIEZ was in Oneonta NY, a small college town about midway between Binghampton and Albany. David said the station was in bad shape and the owners wanted him to recommend some people who could run the station while the sale was completed.
David told me he had already recommended a man named John Hogan to be the General manager and after a couple of hours of discussion he offered me the job, pending approval of the actual owners.
Vicky and I drove back to Rushford with the happy news and began preparing for another radio adventure. I left for Oneonta in the last week of September with a plan to get set up, find us a place to live and then get Vicky and Erin to join me as soon as possible.
What I found in Oneonta is hard to describe. WIEZ was a FM station at 103 and was truly in bad shape. The facility was located on the second floor of a building in downtown. There was a college bar on the first floor and apartments on the third floor. I met the new General Manger and he began the tour. There was an on air control room with a console and two turntables. No cart machines or reel to reel tape machines, no production room. How to we play commercials I asked John? We don't have any he said.
John then explained that the station had been a wedding present to the daughter of the family that owned the station. She and her new husband were going to move to Oneonta from NY City and run it. Quickly the daughter realized she didn't want to live in Oneonta, or be married to her new husband. His name was Oscar and he decided to station and run the station. He did. He ran it into the ground. Oscar new nothing about radio except that you could get pretty good money for a lot of the equipment in the station. So he began selling off equipment and letting employees go. Soon is was down to Oscar and three part time announcers and that was it. No commercial were sold, Oscar maintained by selling equipment off.
Oscar also discovered that college co eds were intrigued by the line "would you like to go upstairs and see my radio station". Delivered of course on the ground floor in the college hang out. We knew this because there were at least one hundred beer glasses from the bar sitting on every table, window sill and level surface in the station when we walked in.
Oscar had taken up residence in apartment directly above the station. The apartment was part of the station's lease. The power had been shut off, so Oscar had knocked a hole in the wall into the adjacent apartment and run extension cords into his room so he would have electricity. Thankfully the next door apartment was vacant. This apartment was of course the final desination for the radio station tour's Oscar was running.
At some point the family had caught on and booted Oscar. They were in the process of selling the station to David, but wanted to get the station back up and running in the interim.
So, John and I rode to the rescue. As we sat in his office trying to formulate a plan, one of the college students came into the office and notified us that he and his two co workers were starting class on Monday and would no longer be available to work. Our entire air staff gone, just like that. They had each been working 6 hour shifts seven days a week. 6am to Noon, Noon to 6pm and 6 to midnight.
This was on a Wednesday, which meant we needed to get something together by Monday or we would be off the air.
John and I had both come into town without our families and decided we would move into the apartment above the station, sleep on the floor and get to work.
Our initial plan went like this.
John would get up each morning and sign the station on at 5:30. He would work on air until 9. Then he would go upstairs, take a shower put on a shirt and tie and hit the streets to sell commercials. I would take over and work 9 to 4pm. John would then work 4 to 7 and I came back and worked 7pm to 2 am. We wanted to keep the station on until 2am because the other FM station in town stayed on as well.
The format was Top 40 and we immediately got some attention in town. Hey we were commercial free and playing a lot better music selection that Oscar had put together. John was getting some interest and began selling some commercials, which we had to do live of course since we had no way to record anything.
We worked this unbelievable schedule for the first month. Eventually we got some old equipment in and could record and play back commercials and as John began to put some money on the books we got permission to hire one more person. We hired a guy from the other FM station and added him to the on air line up. John still signed the station on, the new guy worked 9-3, I worked 3-8 and he came back to work 8 to 2am. We also added a receptionist slash sales person along the way. The four of us worked our butts off
to make this station happen.
At this point I had found a trailer to rent just outside of town and Vicky and Erin joined me. We moved our meager collection of furniture into the single wide and began to settle into life in Oneonta. It was nice to sleep in a real bed, rather than a sleeping bag on the floor above the station.
Johns was having some real success putting money on the station. Let's face it, it was generating zero dollars when we took over. Within about six weeks we were actually making a few thousand dollars and things began to look up.
I certainly wasn't making much money, but we got by. We met some nice folks in the trailer park who invited us to dinner often and that helped. It was a very lean time however and I remember digging through the car seats to find enough change to by milk for Erin a few times.
In October my folks came to visit and brought us some items out of the garden including fresh green beans and potatoes. After they left Vicky made a big batch of soup out of this stuff and we lived on it for a couple of weeks. Years later I told my mom and dad that story and my mom almost started crying. She said, we never knew things were that bad.
Despite the scrimping to get along I felt like John and I made a good team and that once the sale was done and David was in charge we were going to make a go of the station and perhaps be able to sell it in a few years for a lot of money.
By the time November rolled along we were actually selling a reasonable number of spots and it was beginning to feel like a real radio station. I was having a blast and things were improving almost daily.
I guess that was our fatal mistake.
Our quick turnaround of the station caused the owners to decide that maybe they would keep the station instead of selling. They further decided that John and I couldn't be trusted, since David had recommend us and one week before Thanksgiving they fired us both.
Welcome to the world of idiot radio station owners. High and dry again. At least no gunfire was involved this time.
Next time, The Job that changed my career forever, in a good way.
Anyway we licked our wounds in Rushford for the summer, played with Erin, who was just a few months old, and waited for the phone to ring with another radio opportunity. I had spent the final month in Kentucky furiously sending out resumes and air check tapes hoping that the nightmare in Appalachia wouldn't be the end of my radio career.
I spent the summer working for my brother and his contracting business and I'll always be grateful for the job. It wouldn't be the last time he offered my work in between radio jobs.
In mid August I got a phone call from David Weinfeld. He said he got my package, liked my stuff and wanted to meet and talk about a potential Program Director job.
Vicky and I drove to Geneva NY a couple days later, on a Sunday, and meet with David at his radio station. WECQ was located in a Quonset hut building in Geneva. We listened to the station on the drive in and I was very impressed. It was a great sounding station for such a small market and I began to get a real good feeling about our meeting.
David greeted us and took us into the station and into his office. It was cluttered and small. Stacks of papers littered his desk. The walls were cork board and were covered with papers held in place by stick pins. We sat on a small love seat just inches from the front of his desk and he began telling us about a radio station he was planning to buy. WIEZ was in Oneonta NY, a small college town about midway between Binghampton and Albany. David said the station was in bad shape and the owners wanted him to recommend some people who could run the station while the sale was completed.
David told me he had already recommended a man named John Hogan to be the General manager and after a couple of hours of discussion he offered me the job, pending approval of the actual owners.
Vicky and I drove back to Rushford with the happy news and began preparing for another radio adventure. I left for Oneonta in the last week of September with a plan to get set up, find us a place to live and then get Vicky and Erin to join me as soon as possible.
What I found in Oneonta is hard to describe. WIEZ was a FM station at 103 and was truly in bad shape. The facility was located on the second floor of a building in downtown. There was a college bar on the first floor and apartments on the third floor. I met the new General Manger and he began the tour. There was an on air control room with a console and two turntables. No cart machines or reel to reel tape machines, no production room. How to we play commercials I asked John? We don't have any he said.
John then explained that the station had been a wedding present to the daughter of the family that owned the station. She and her new husband were going to move to Oneonta from NY City and run it. Quickly the daughter realized she didn't want to live in Oneonta, or be married to her new husband. His name was Oscar and he decided to station and run the station. He did. He ran it into the ground. Oscar new nothing about radio except that you could get pretty good money for a lot of the equipment in the station. So he began selling off equipment and letting employees go. Soon is was down to Oscar and three part time announcers and that was it. No commercial were sold, Oscar maintained by selling equipment off.
Oscar also discovered that college co eds were intrigued by the line "would you like to go upstairs and see my radio station". Delivered of course on the ground floor in the college hang out. We knew this because there were at least one hundred beer glasses from the bar sitting on every table, window sill and level surface in the station when we walked in.
Oscar had taken up residence in apartment directly above the station. The apartment was part of the station's lease. The power had been shut off, so Oscar had knocked a hole in the wall into the adjacent apartment and run extension cords into his room so he would have electricity. Thankfully the next door apartment was vacant. This apartment was of course the final desination for the radio station tour's Oscar was running.
At some point the family had caught on and booted Oscar. They were in the process of selling the station to David, but wanted to get the station back up and running in the interim.
So, John and I rode to the rescue. As we sat in his office trying to formulate a plan, one of the college students came into the office and notified us that he and his two co workers were starting class on Monday and would no longer be available to work. Our entire air staff gone, just like that. They had each been working 6 hour shifts seven days a week. 6am to Noon, Noon to 6pm and 6 to midnight.
This was on a Wednesday, which meant we needed to get something together by Monday or we would be off the air.
John and I had both come into town without our families and decided we would move into the apartment above the station, sleep on the floor and get to work.
Our initial plan went like this.
John would get up each morning and sign the station on at 5:30. He would work on air until 9. Then he would go upstairs, take a shower put on a shirt and tie and hit the streets to sell commercials. I would take over and work 9 to 4pm. John would then work 4 to 7 and I came back and worked 7pm to 2 am. We wanted to keep the station on until 2am because the other FM station in town stayed on as well.
The format was Top 40 and we immediately got some attention in town. Hey we were commercial free and playing a lot better music selection that Oscar had put together. John was getting some interest and began selling some commercials, which we had to do live of course since we had no way to record anything.
We worked this unbelievable schedule for the first month. Eventually we got some old equipment in and could record and play back commercials and as John began to put some money on the books we got permission to hire one more person. We hired a guy from the other FM station and added him to the on air line up. John still signed the station on, the new guy worked 9-3, I worked 3-8 and he came back to work 8 to 2am. We also added a receptionist slash sales person along the way. The four of us worked our butts off
to make this station happen.
At this point I had found a trailer to rent just outside of town and Vicky and Erin joined me. We moved our meager collection of furniture into the single wide and began to settle into life in Oneonta. It was nice to sleep in a real bed, rather than a sleeping bag on the floor above the station.
Johns was having some real success putting money on the station. Let's face it, it was generating zero dollars when we took over. Within about six weeks we were actually making a few thousand dollars and things began to look up.
I certainly wasn't making much money, but we got by. We met some nice folks in the trailer park who invited us to dinner often and that helped. It was a very lean time however and I remember digging through the car seats to find enough change to by milk for Erin a few times.
In October my folks came to visit and brought us some items out of the garden including fresh green beans and potatoes. After they left Vicky made a big batch of soup out of this stuff and we lived on it for a couple of weeks. Years later I told my mom and dad that story and my mom almost started crying. She said, we never knew things were that bad.
Despite the scrimping to get along I felt like John and I made a good team and that once the sale was done and David was in charge we were going to make a go of the station and perhaps be able to sell it in a few years for a lot of money.
By the time November rolled along we were actually selling a reasonable number of spots and it was beginning to feel like a real radio station. I was having a blast and things were improving almost daily.
I guess that was our fatal mistake.
Our quick turnaround of the station caused the owners to decide that maybe they would keep the station instead of selling. They further decided that John and I couldn't be trusted, since David had recommend us and one week before Thanksgiving they fired us both.
Welcome to the world of idiot radio station owners. High and dry again. At least no gunfire was involved this time.
Next time, The Job that changed my career forever, in a good way.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
No way in hell am I spending the night here...
Manchester Ky turned out to be a tough place to live. Nice people for the most part, but very isolated and backwards in many ways. I hired quite a few "outsiders" to work at the radio station and we all had a tough time getting used to the way things were. A very poor place, with not much middle class. Lots of poor people and plenty of quite well off folks who had made money in coal or oil. Manchester was the only
real population center for Clay county so everyone in the county came to town to shop and take care of all their business. I guess when you live in an isolated place you come to accept some things that others mind find hard. There was lots of open corruption in the local government, sheriff's department, school system and elections.
Vicky had also told me about a get together she had with some women she met through one of our neighbors. At some point all these ladies began comparing their handguns they had in their purses. They kept asking Vicky, what kind of gun she had. Of course Vicky had no gun to show these ladies and they were quite upset and surprised. They advised her that in Kentucky, a woman needed a gun, cause if you caught your man cheating, you could kill him and it was legal!!
Uh, Vicky is still un-armed. As far as I know.
Election night 1980. We were all excited because we had prepared what we thought was going to be an outstanding night of coverage. All hands on deck. Sales folks, office workers, everybody was working
either in the station answering phones or stationed at a local precinct ready to call in reports.
I have always loved putting together election coverage on the radio, but it's a wonder based on how things went in 1980 in Manchester.
We began the evening, covering all the local races with reports from the field. Very detailed reports that included vote counts from each precinct for all the local races. As the night wore on I asked one
of my guys about something I had seen on the way into the station that evening. I told him that I saw
an RV camper parked near the high school and their was a long line of coal miners standing in line by the front door of the camper. At the rear door a steady stream of miners coming out. What was up with that?'
He smiled and said, look, the high school is a polling place and that's just Jimmy (remember Jimmy) paying for votes. I said what! Yeah, he went on, the go in the front door, get a twenty and he tells them who to vote for and they come out the back. Then they go in and vote. That's just the way it works 'round here.
I was floored. Meantime things were heating up with our coverage. More reports coming in, plus national action on the presidential race. So we made the decision to cut back a little on the vote totals from each precinct to allow more time for other matters. This went on for about an hour when one of
our phone folks found me and said, Uh, Jimmy is on the phone for you. Of course I said, you mean that Jimmy? yup.
I went into my office and picked up the phone and said Hello. Jimmy said, you the manager up there? I said yes sir I am, what can I do for you? I'll tell you what you can do, you can put those precinct totals back
on the G.D. radio!! I paid good money for those votes and I want to hear the totals in every single precinct or I'm gonna be paying your and your family a visit.
After all these years when I think about this, sometimes I wish I had told him to go F*** himself. But I didn't. We put the reports back on the air, but it was very discouraging for my staff for sure.
In addition to these scrapes with the local gun toting crooks, I had other negative experiences in Manchester, due mostly to my in-experience. I was determine to make both radio stations sound great and do good work in the community and I had the full backing of the two Williams.
But a lot of the changes we made upset some people. Like changing the times we aired the obituaries. Seems ironic I know. They went crazy about that.
Then I had to have a meeting with a local baptist minister to try and get him to tone down his remarks during his sermon, that we carried live each Sunday morning. He was always attacking the Catholics during his sermon and the local Priest got pretty upset. So I met with the good Reverend. He did not take kindly to
my suggestions that maybe he could ease up on the brothers and sisters down the road.
Once news of my visit with the man of the cloth got out we encountered an advertiser boycott, organized by you know who of course. Plus I was starting to get personal threats, both on the phone and mail.
Then one morning a found a note on my car as I got ready to leave for work. The note said :
gee wouldn't it be too bad if something happened to that new baby of yours
Erin was just a few months old at that point and of course this infuriated me and scared the heck out of Vicky. I went to the owners with this and their solution was to rush through a conceal/carry permit and give me a .32 revolver with a really nice holster that I wore in the small of my back.
I'm very passionate about what I do, but I am not a crusader. It was clear that Manchester was not a fit for me or my family. Most of the folks I had hired from the outside to come and work had already left because they couldn't deal with the culture shock of Manchester.
I talked to my folks back in Rushford and I remember my dad saying : you need to get the hell out of there.
He said, move back home, don't worry that you don't have a job, we'll figure something out.
I began updating my resume, making tapes and sending them out furiously before I resigned, hoping that
this wasn't going to be the end of my radio career.
Meanwhile my dad, my brother Denny and his wife Pam were on their way to Manchester with a pickup truck and U haul trailer so we could get the hell out of dodge.
We had manged to last just a year and although it was not a great personal experience, professionally it was. I made a lot mistakes, learned from them and got to do a lot of things as a General manger that would
give me excellent perspective in years to come.
On the day of our departure it was hot and our second floor apartment presented a challenge with the furniture and all our stuff. By early evening we were loaded up and ready to go and resting in the apartment, drinking water.
I looked around and said, well guys, we're all really tired do you want to get the air mattress out and spend the night and get a fresh start in the morning?
My brother who had been quiet the whole time looked me square in the eye and said, no way in hell am I spending the night here! I've had the creeps ever since we rolled into town.
We got into our vehicles and headed for home.
Next time: You guys were actually living on Potato and green bean soup?
real population center for Clay county so everyone in the county came to town to shop and take care of all their business. I guess when you live in an isolated place you come to accept some things that others mind find hard. There was lots of open corruption in the local government, sheriff's department, school system and elections.
Vicky had also told me about a get together she had with some women she met through one of our neighbors. At some point all these ladies began comparing their handguns they had in their purses. They kept asking Vicky, what kind of gun she had. Of course Vicky had no gun to show these ladies and they were quite upset and surprised. They advised her that in Kentucky, a woman needed a gun, cause if you caught your man cheating, you could kill him and it was legal!!
Uh, Vicky is still un-armed. As far as I know.
Election night 1980. We were all excited because we had prepared what we thought was going to be an outstanding night of coverage. All hands on deck. Sales folks, office workers, everybody was working
either in the station answering phones or stationed at a local precinct ready to call in reports.
I have always loved putting together election coverage on the radio, but it's a wonder based on how things went in 1980 in Manchester.
We began the evening, covering all the local races with reports from the field. Very detailed reports that included vote counts from each precinct for all the local races. As the night wore on I asked one
of my guys about something I had seen on the way into the station that evening. I told him that I saw
an RV camper parked near the high school and their was a long line of coal miners standing in line by the front door of the camper. At the rear door a steady stream of miners coming out. What was up with that?'
He smiled and said, look, the high school is a polling place and that's just Jimmy (remember Jimmy) paying for votes. I said what! Yeah, he went on, the go in the front door, get a twenty and he tells them who to vote for and they come out the back. Then they go in and vote. That's just the way it works 'round here.
I was floored. Meantime things were heating up with our coverage. More reports coming in, plus national action on the presidential race. So we made the decision to cut back a little on the vote totals from each precinct to allow more time for other matters. This went on for about an hour when one of
our phone folks found me and said, Uh, Jimmy is on the phone for you. Of course I said, you mean that Jimmy? yup.
I went into my office and picked up the phone and said Hello. Jimmy said, you the manager up there? I said yes sir I am, what can I do for you? I'll tell you what you can do, you can put those precinct totals back
on the G.D. radio!! I paid good money for those votes and I want to hear the totals in every single precinct or I'm gonna be paying your and your family a visit.
After all these years when I think about this, sometimes I wish I had told him to go F*** himself. But I didn't. We put the reports back on the air, but it was very discouraging for my staff for sure.
In addition to these scrapes with the local gun toting crooks, I had other negative experiences in Manchester, due mostly to my in-experience. I was determine to make both radio stations sound great and do good work in the community and I had the full backing of the two Williams.
But a lot of the changes we made upset some people. Like changing the times we aired the obituaries. Seems ironic I know. They went crazy about that.
Then I had to have a meeting with a local baptist minister to try and get him to tone down his remarks during his sermon, that we carried live each Sunday morning. He was always attacking the Catholics during his sermon and the local Priest got pretty upset. So I met with the good Reverend. He did not take kindly to
my suggestions that maybe he could ease up on the brothers and sisters down the road.
Once news of my visit with the man of the cloth got out we encountered an advertiser boycott, organized by you know who of course. Plus I was starting to get personal threats, both on the phone and mail.
Then one morning a found a note on my car as I got ready to leave for work. The note said :
gee wouldn't it be too bad if something happened to that new baby of yours
Erin was just a few months old at that point and of course this infuriated me and scared the heck out of Vicky. I went to the owners with this and their solution was to rush through a conceal/carry permit and give me a .32 revolver with a really nice holster that I wore in the small of my back.
I'm very passionate about what I do, but I am not a crusader. It was clear that Manchester was not a fit for me or my family. Most of the folks I had hired from the outside to come and work had already left because they couldn't deal with the culture shock of Manchester.
I talked to my folks back in Rushford and I remember my dad saying : you need to get the hell out of there.
He said, move back home, don't worry that you don't have a job, we'll figure something out.
I began updating my resume, making tapes and sending them out furiously before I resigned, hoping that
this wasn't going to be the end of my radio career.
Meanwhile my dad, my brother Denny and his wife Pam were on their way to Manchester with a pickup truck and U haul trailer so we could get the hell out of dodge.
We had manged to last just a year and although it was not a great personal experience, professionally it was. I made a lot mistakes, learned from them and got to do a lot of things as a General manger that would
give me excellent perspective in years to come.
On the day of our departure it was hot and our second floor apartment presented a challenge with the furniture and all our stuff. By early evening we were loaded up and ready to go and resting in the apartment, drinking water.
I looked around and said, well guys, we're all really tired do you want to get the air mattress out and spend the night and get a fresh start in the morning?
My brother who had been quiet the whole time looked me square in the eye and said, no way in hell am I spending the night here! I've had the creeps ever since we rolled into town.
We got into our vehicles and headed for home.
Next time: You guys were actually living on Potato and green bean soup?
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
If you air that story one more time, I'm gonna fire bomb your radio station!
So my engineer friend hooked me up with the new owners of WWXL AM/FM in Manchester Kentucky. They didn't know much about radio and wanted a young manager to get the station up and operating like a
real radio station. William Allen Hensley and William Hugh Bishop both local businessmen bought the station mainly because they wanted one problem fixed immediately. William Allen had built a new house up on the side of the same mountain that the station's studio's were located. His new house had all the bells and whistles including a fancy intercom system that allowed conversations room to room throughout the entire house. But since the house was fairly close to the radio station and the AM ground system was old and in need of repair, the only thing you could hear on the intercom system was WWXL AM, blasting in every room. He was upset and after numerous calls to the station owners, he determined the best way to fix the problem was to simply buy the station. So he and his buddy William Hugh did just that.
My job, was to modernize the station. While William Hugh and William Allen didn't know a lot about radio, they did know that the station didn't sound good, was a mess and needed a lot of work. They were willing to invest in new equipment and construction to improve the place and I got to do some cool stuff. I bought a new FM transmitter, an automation system for the AM, designed and built a new FM studio and totally revamped the production rooms. It was a blast. Here I was 23 years old, writing checks to equipment suppliers for $30,000.
WWXL was basically a simulcast situation, sort of. They broadcast live on the AM a mix country and pop music with live DJ"s working shifts from 5am to midnight. The FM consisted of two Auto Reversing Reel to Reel tape decks. They had two 12 hour tapes featuring elevator music. Each day they would start one of the tapes at 6am, it would play to the end and auto reverse playing another 12 hours of Montavani and the Twin Piano's of Ferrante and Tiesher. They the next day they would use the other tape and so on and so on. There was NO FM studio and no way to play commercials, so they simply rigged up the AM studio so that anytime they played commercials on the AM, it would also play them on the FM, even though it would be in the middle of a song. This way they could charge advertisers more for getting the FM coverage. I've never run across another scheme as dumb as this.
So after fixing the ground system and making William Allen happy with his WWXL free intercom system, we built a new FM studio, hired some folks and put on a Top 40 station. We automated the AM and did country plus local news and of course the all important Obituaries. Sponsored by one of the 9 local funeral homes. God forbid you leave out any kin when reading the obituaries.
Lots of folks in area listened to a Knoxville Tn. station WOKI which featured a very popular night time DJ who called himself Brother John. Everyone in town seemed to know about him, so what did William Allen and William Hugh do? They hired him. The promised he would be the morning man and PD of the FM station and promised him the world plus a piece of the station. I didn't find out about this until after the deal was done. One Monday morning Brother John showed up at the radio station wearing dirty jeans, a t shirt and sandals. He had a sleazy looking girl with him who he introduced as his girlfriend/co host. I was dumbfounded. I guess the 2 Williams thought they had pulled a real big time play, but after meeting with this guy for about an hour I think we mutually decided that we would not be working together.
So, Brother John and has co host headed back for Knoxville. I called William Allen and told him the meeting didn't go well, and to his credit he supported me and said it was my call. That night Brother John went back on the air at WOKI like nothing ever happened.
Oops, he had signed a contract with us that included a non compete, meaning he couldn't work in radio in a 100 mile radius for one year if he left WWXL. So even though he quit after only one day, the non compete was in full effect. We ended up in Federal court in Knoxville and we won the case and Brother John had to leave WOKI and sit out working int he market for one year. While on the stand in Federal court I got the worst case of dry mouth of my life. It's very intimidating.
I assembled a staff that included some local folks but also some folks from outside Ky. To say that living there was a culture shock is a understatement. My news director was a young guy right out of college who was eager to make a name for himself. He worked hard to cover local news and was doing a good job. Everything seems to be fine until one day we got wind of a murder in town. Some local truck drivers had organized a strike for better wagers from a local Coal company. They had parked their trucks in a sort of blockade in from of the company headquarters. The guys who ran the company, I'll call him Jimmy (since I'm now sure if he is still alive) came out the main gate to confront the truckers. He never said a word, he simply walked up the first drive standing by his truck and shot him in the head. According to witnesses he them calmly walked back in to his office. The rest of the truckers got into their trucks and left. The strike was over.
I learned shortly after this that this guy had been up on murder charges a couple times before, but a jury never convicted him. The word was that he would either buy the jury or intimidate them and that, that was likely to happen this time. We had a young prosecutor in town who decided he was finally going to "get" Jimmy. He petitioned the court for a change of venue to another city. My news director came to my office to let me know he had just gotten the word on change of venue story and that he was going to break into programming on both stations with the bulletin. I told him to go ahead.
Within minutes the phone rang, the receptionist buzzed me and said "Jimmy" is on the phone for you.
That Jimmy? I said. She confirmed and put him through. It was a short conversation. He simply said
"If you air that change of venue story one more time, I'm gonna fire bomb your radio station"
And with that our days as crusading news reporters came to a screeching halt. I was assured by everyone in the building that he would indeed make good on his threat. I decided I would do everything in my power to avoid any more phone calls from "Jimmy".
That was not to be the case, details in my next time.
real radio station. William Allen Hensley and William Hugh Bishop both local businessmen bought the station mainly because they wanted one problem fixed immediately. William Allen had built a new house up on the side of the same mountain that the station's studio's were located. His new house had all the bells and whistles including a fancy intercom system that allowed conversations room to room throughout the entire house. But since the house was fairly close to the radio station and the AM ground system was old and in need of repair, the only thing you could hear on the intercom system was WWXL AM, blasting in every room. He was upset and after numerous calls to the station owners, he determined the best way to fix the problem was to simply buy the station. So he and his buddy William Hugh did just that.
My job, was to modernize the station. While William Hugh and William Allen didn't know a lot about radio, they did know that the station didn't sound good, was a mess and needed a lot of work. They were willing to invest in new equipment and construction to improve the place and I got to do some cool stuff. I bought a new FM transmitter, an automation system for the AM, designed and built a new FM studio and totally revamped the production rooms. It was a blast. Here I was 23 years old, writing checks to equipment suppliers for $30,000.
WWXL was basically a simulcast situation, sort of. They broadcast live on the AM a mix country and pop music with live DJ"s working shifts from 5am to midnight. The FM consisted of two Auto Reversing Reel to Reel tape decks. They had two 12 hour tapes featuring elevator music. Each day they would start one of the tapes at 6am, it would play to the end and auto reverse playing another 12 hours of Montavani and the Twin Piano's of Ferrante and Tiesher. They the next day they would use the other tape and so on and so on. There was NO FM studio and no way to play commercials, so they simply rigged up the AM studio so that anytime they played commercials on the AM, it would also play them on the FM, even though it would be in the middle of a song. This way they could charge advertisers more for getting the FM coverage. I've never run across another scheme as dumb as this.
So after fixing the ground system and making William Allen happy with his WWXL free intercom system, we built a new FM studio, hired some folks and put on a Top 40 station. We automated the AM and did country plus local news and of course the all important Obituaries. Sponsored by one of the 9 local funeral homes. God forbid you leave out any kin when reading the obituaries.
Lots of folks in area listened to a Knoxville Tn. station WOKI which featured a very popular night time DJ who called himself Brother John. Everyone in town seemed to know about him, so what did William Allen and William Hugh do? They hired him. The promised he would be the morning man and PD of the FM station and promised him the world plus a piece of the station. I didn't find out about this until after the deal was done. One Monday morning Brother John showed up at the radio station wearing dirty jeans, a t shirt and sandals. He had a sleazy looking girl with him who he introduced as his girlfriend/co host. I was dumbfounded. I guess the 2 Williams thought they had pulled a real big time play, but after meeting with this guy for about an hour I think we mutually decided that we would not be working together.
So, Brother John and has co host headed back for Knoxville. I called William Allen and told him the meeting didn't go well, and to his credit he supported me and said it was my call. That night Brother John went back on the air at WOKI like nothing ever happened.
Oops, he had signed a contract with us that included a non compete, meaning he couldn't work in radio in a 100 mile radius for one year if he left WWXL. So even though he quit after only one day, the non compete was in full effect. We ended up in Federal court in Knoxville and we won the case and Brother John had to leave WOKI and sit out working int he market for one year. While on the stand in Federal court I got the worst case of dry mouth of my life. It's very intimidating.
I assembled a staff that included some local folks but also some folks from outside Ky. To say that living there was a culture shock is a understatement. My news director was a young guy right out of college who was eager to make a name for himself. He worked hard to cover local news and was doing a good job. Everything seems to be fine until one day we got wind of a murder in town. Some local truck drivers had organized a strike for better wagers from a local Coal company. They had parked their trucks in a sort of blockade in from of the company headquarters. The guys who ran the company, I'll call him Jimmy (since I'm now sure if he is still alive) came out the main gate to confront the truckers. He never said a word, he simply walked up the first drive standing by his truck and shot him in the head. According to witnesses he them calmly walked back in to his office. The rest of the truckers got into their trucks and left. The strike was over.
I learned shortly after this that this guy had been up on murder charges a couple times before, but a jury never convicted him. The word was that he would either buy the jury or intimidate them and that, that was likely to happen this time. We had a young prosecutor in town who decided he was finally going to "get" Jimmy. He petitioned the court for a change of venue to another city. My news director came to my office to let me know he had just gotten the word on change of venue story and that he was going to break into programming on both stations with the bulletin. I told him to go ahead.
Within minutes the phone rang, the receptionist buzzed me and said "Jimmy" is on the phone for you.
That Jimmy? I said. She confirmed and put him through. It was a short conversation. He simply said
"If you air that change of venue story one more time, I'm gonna fire bomb your radio station"
And with that our days as crusading news reporters came to a screeching halt. I was assured by everyone in the building that he would indeed make good on his threat. I decided I would do everything in my power to avoid any more phone calls from "Jimmy".
That was not to be the case, details in my next time.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
What do you mean your second job in radio was as a GM?
WIVQ Peru Illinois. My destination. After the phone interview and subsequent hiring I packed everything I owned into my Red Grand Torino (yeah like Starsky and Hutch) and headed for central Illinois. As I made the 12 hour drive I thought about all the things I wanted to do with the radio station. I had lots of ideas and hey, they hired me to program the station, so naturally they believed in my programming prowess. Ha, right.
I arrived in Peru in the evening and found the station. On main street in Peru, located above a drug store, the station had taken over a dentist office and stuck a radio station in there. The on air control room was huge, seems like it had been the main examination room for the dentist. He must have been from Texas. Anyway it was setup in a traditional sort of way with a dj position, with console, two turntables, two cart machines etc. You faced the guest position thru a sort of makeshift wooden rack. On the other side was a table, chair and a guest microphone on a mic stand.
The General Manger, Ben Granger meet me enthusiastically and offered to let me stay in his guest room
in his apartment until I could find a place to live. I gladly accepted the offer.
Ben was a young guy, just a few years older than me and had started as a jock and then moved into
sales. This was his first GM job as far as I know. He had a booming voice, but was quite small, maybe 5'8" or something like that. I learned later that he loved it when he was called upon to fill in for someone on air. you could tell he missed it.
Soon I had located an apartment. It was actually a small studio apartment attached to the landlords house. Ty and Irene Ruva became my first landlords. We shared the two car garage and got along famously.
I set about learning what a program director was supposed to do and handled the noon to 6pm airshift every day. The station was quite typical for that sized market. News and public service, adult contemporty music, local sports play by play, Tradio and on Saturday morning a three hour polka show. -Yikes.
My morning guy was Mark Kohring, from St. Louis. Great guy, we hit it off right away. We shared responsibility for the Polka show. Meaning we alternated working the Saturday morning show 6am to noon, so at least every other weekend, you got the full weekend off. The Polka show began at 9am, so you would
go in, sign on the station and do a normal show from 6 to 9 and then....
Cousin Eddy Nowatarski would stride into the control room, with a stack of polka albums under his arm. He would also have a spiral notebook filled with live copy ( he did his own commercials, live in Polish). Most of
his Polka albums were K tel best of collections and would feature as many as 15 polkas on each side of the
album. Problem was that with that many songs on each side it was really hard to set the needle down in the right place. Invariably Eddie would hand over the album to you and say, cut number 13 please. They you would have to stand on your head with your nose inches from the record to try and count the bands and get it on cut 13. During the show Eddie was totally immersed and practically ignored who ever was running the board for him. He read announcements from the Polish community, did his own news and of course played a lot of polkas. He didn't wear headphones though and wanted the speakers kept low int he studio, so he never actually heard any of the polka music. After a Tim Mark and I agreed that it was much easier to
simply put one polka album on...and then start at the beginning of the side and just play the songs in order, rather than Eddies particular selections. Since he couldn't see into the jock position this seem like a great solution. I know, its gotta be wrong to fool an 80 year old Polish guy, but the bottom line was, nobody listened to this nonsense and Eddie would soon be gone. No not dead, cancelled.
In January of 1979, after a few months of working at WIVQ Vicky and I got married. She moved out
to Peru with me got a job in a nursing home and began building a home for us. She was totally cool with the move. It was a good thing because it was the first of about 13 more moves.
Things were humming along nicely until June of 79 when our radio tower (which was on the roof of our building)took a lightning hit and it was destroyed. We were informed that we would be off the air for 60 days! I gotta give credit tot he little company that owned the station. They kept us on pay role during this period. The problem was that we needed to move our antenna to a larger tower outside of town, but needed some very special balanced phone lines to get the stations signal from the studio to the tower. The local phone company did not have this equipment and it was going to take all that time to get everything in place.
So while we waited I did what any beginner PD would do. I convinced them to change the format to Album Oriented Rock. I said, look let's get rid of Tradio and Cousin Eddie and all that crap and be a hip cool Rock station. Lasalle-Peru is a cool place, lets' give them a cool radio station. They went for it. So during our extended off air time I set about getting records, designing format clocks and dry running
the air staff. We would practice in the on air control room as if we were really on the air. By this time they had purchased new equipment for the studio, repainted and had a carpenter build new cabinets. It was cool.
We decided to rename the station Q-101 and were set to debut on the air as soon as the equipment was in place. The tower site we were using was in huge cornfield just a few miles outside town and as we went out to see it, someone had a brainstorm. Why do we have to wait 60 days....lets just hook up at the base of the tower and broadcast in the cornfield. And that's exactly what we did. We rented one of those construction offices on wheels you see at job sites. We built the studio in the trailer, moved all the equipment out thereand Q-101 went on t he air ahead of schedule...lots of ears tuned in every day. (cornfield, get it).
WIVQ was a great experience, because I was able to treat the station as a laboratory. I experimented and tried new things all with Ben's approval. He seemed to like my ideas and once we made the change to Q-101 that station did really well.
I worked with some wonderful people at IVQ, the amazing Gene Delisio would could do a 15 minute sportscast off the top of his head, with just a quarter sheet of paper with notes. J.C.Hall, who was a production wiz, Bob Grove a local kid who was great on the radio, Ben Granger my first GM, Mark Kohring and of course Cousin Eddie.(He never knew).
During out technical problems I got to know two contract engineers, Gary and Jim who handled all of our technical stuff. I had been at IVQ for about two years and one day Jim told me that he was just back
from Kentucky, where he had picked up a new engineering client. These two guys, who knew nothing about radio had bought the local AM/FM station and were looking for a young guy to run the stations for them. He told me he had recommend me. What! Are you nuts. Run their stations?
He said, look they wanted me to come down for an interview, so why not check it out.
Yup, they hired me. Look out Appalachia here I come.
I arrived in Peru in the evening and found the station. On main street in Peru, located above a drug store, the station had taken over a dentist office and stuck a radio station in there. The on air control room was huge, seems like it had been the main examination room for the dentist. He must have been from Texas. Anyway it was setup in a traditional sort of way with a dj position, with console, two turntables, two cart machines etc. You faced the guest position thru a sort of makeshift wooden rack. On the other side was a table, chair and a guest microphone on a mic stand.
The General Manger, Ben Granger meet me enthusiastically and offered to let me stay in his guest room
in his apartment until I could find a place to live. I gladly accepted the offer.
Ben was a young guy, just a few years older than me and had started as a jock and then moved into
sales. This was his first GM job as far as I know. He had a booming voice, but was quite small, maybe 5'8" or something like that. I learned later that he loved it when he was called upon to fill in for someone on air. you could tell he missed it.
Soon I had located an apartment. It was actually a small studio apartment attached to the landlords house. Ty and Irene Ruva became my first landlords. We shared the two car garage and got along famously.
I set about learning what a program director was supposed to do and handled the noon to 6pm airshift every day. The station was quite typical for that sized market. News and public service, adult contemporty music, local sports play by play, Tradio and on Saturday morning a three hour polka show. -Yikes.
My morning guy was Mark Kohring, from St. Louis. Great guy, we hit it off right away. We shared responsibility for the Polka show. Meaning we alternated working the Saturday morning show 6am to noon, so at least every other weekend, you got the full weekend off. The Polka show began at 9am, so you would
go in, sign on the station and do a normal show from 6 to 9 and then....
Cousin Eddy Nowatarski would stride into the control room, with a stack of polka albums under his arm. He would also have a spiral notebook filled with live copy ( he did his own commercials, live in Polish). Most of
his Polka albums were K tel best of collections and would feature as many as 15 polkas on each side of the
album. Problem was that with that many songs on each side it was really hard to set the needle down in the right place. Invariably Eddie would hand over the album to you and say, cut number 13 please. They you would have to stand on your head with your nose inches from the record to try and count the bands and get it on cut 13. During the show Eddie was totally immersed and practically ignored who ever was running the board for him. He read announcements from the Polish community, did his own news and of course played a lot of polkas. He didn't wear headphones though and wanted the speakers kept low int he studio, so he never actually heard any of the polka music. After a Tim Mark and I agreed that it was much easier to
simply put one polka album on...and then start at the beginning of the side and just play the songs in order, rather than Eddies particular selections. Since he couldn't see into the jock position this seem like a great solution. I know, its gotta be wrong to fool an 80 year old Polish guy, but the bottom line was, nobody listened to this nonsense and Eddie would soon be gone. No not dead, cancelled.
In January of 1979, after a few months of working at WIVQ Vicky and I got married. She moved out
to Peru with me got a job in a nursing home and began building a home for us. She was totally cool with the move. It was a good thing because it was the first of about 13 more moves.
Things were humming along nicely until June of 79 when our radio tower (which was on the roof of our building)took a lightning hit and it was destroyed. We were informed that we would be off the air for 60 days! I gotta give credit tot he little company that owned the station. They kept us on pay role during this period. The problem was that we needed to move our antenna to a larger tower outside of town, but needed some very special balanced phone lines to get the stations signal from the studio to the tower. The local phone company did not have this equipment and it was going to take all that time to get everything in place.
So while we waited I did what any beginner PD would do. I convinced them to change the format to Album Oriented Rock. I said, look let's get rid of Tradio and Cousin Eddie and all that crap and be a hip cool Rock station. Lasalle-Peru is a cool place, lets' give them a cool radio station. They went for it. So during our extended off air time I set about getting records, designing format clocks and dry running
the air staff. We would practice in the on air control room as if we were really on the air. By this time they had purchased new equipment for the studio, repainted and had a carpenter build new cabinets. It was cool.
We decided to rename the station Q-101 and were set to debut on the air as soon as the equipment was in place. The tower site we were using was in huge cornfield just a few miles outside town and as we went out to see it, someone had a brainstorm. Why do we have to wait 60 days....lets just hook up at the base of the tower and broadcast in the cornfield. And that's exactly what we did. We rented one of those construction offices on wheels you see at job sites. We built the studio in the trailer, moved all the equipment out thereand Q-101 went on t he air ahead of schedule...lots of ears tuned in every day. (cornfield, get it).
WIVQ was a great experience, because I was able to treat the station as a laboratory. I experimented and tried new things all with Ben's approval. He seemed to like my ideas and once we made the change to Q-101 that station did really well.
I worked with some wonderful people at IVQ, the amazing Gene Delisio would could do a 15 minute sportscast off the top of his head, with just a quarter sheet of paper with notes. J.C.Hall, who was a production wiz, Bob Grove a local kid who was great on the radio, Ben Granger my first GM, Mark Kohring and of course Cousin Eddie.(He never knew).
During out technical problems I got to know two contract engineers, Gary and Jim who handled all of our technical stuff. I had been at IVQ for about two years and one day Jim told me that he was just back
from Kentucky, where he had picked up a new engineering client. These two guys, who knew nothing about radio had bought the local AM/FM station and were looking for a young guy to run the stations for them. He told me he had recommend me. What! Are you nuts. Run their stations?
He said, look they wanted me to come down for an interview, so why not check it out.
Yup, they hired me. Look out Appalachia here I come.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Really? Your first job in radio was as a program director?
I often get a surprised reaction when I tell people that yes, my very first job was as a program director. How did that happen? Seems like it was meant to be. Even as I continued my teenage dream of being in radio, I was more focused on the behind the scenes. I wanted to know how things happened on the radio. Why did they play the songs when they played them? Who told the disc jockeys what to say?
Who made the decision on the contests and station promotions?
Yes, I had fun making tapes and pretending to be on the air. I could also see how it would be cool
to be thought of as someone on the radio. I did not however really crave attention or want to be out in public with this. I just thought it was cool to play records and talk on the radio.
So with Mr. Shaners help, I selected SUNY Geneseo as a destination for college. They had a good communications department, plus as a teachers college I learned the female to male ratio was about
5 to 1.
Upon arrival at Geneseo I sought out the college radio station to see if I could get on the air. There were actually two stations. An FM non commercial station that featured NPR programming and played jazz music and an unruly animal house type AM carrier current station (could only be heard on campus) that played Top 40 music. The FM folks were snobs and I immediately tried to get on the AM station WGBS. While hanging around the station I saw the on air schedule posted on the control room door. There were at least 40 names and a long waiting list of people who wanted to be on the air. The station manger was a guy named Steve Rondinero, who was famous on campus because he already had some commercial experience working on several stations in Buffalo including my dream station WKBW. He had just completed a summer of working part time overnights on KB and often held us in rapture while telling stories of what it was like. Of course since he worked overnights he was able to get to know legendary KB morning guy Danny Nevereth. Steve was also a bit of a prick and listened with distaste to one of my home made radio station tapes, which I was hoping to use as an audition for the station. He told me to get lost, and talk to him next year when I was a sophomore. Unfortunately there are still lots of PD"s in the business who act that way, but that's another story.
I was disappointed, but still determined. So as the fall wore on and I became disillusioned with the whole college experience and the seemingly useless courses I was taking I came up with an idea. What if I when to Rondinero and proposed to work the overnight shift on the station. No one wanted to do that, in fact the station signed off at midnight most nights during the week because no one would work. Plus most everyone was sleeping and not paying any attention to the station.
When I hit him with the idea Rondinero simple said, sure knock yourself out. It was a stroke of genius, except for the fact that it make making class the next day very tough and while I got lots of on air time that first semester, my heart was just not into any of the classes I was taking. My grades were not good and after on semester of burning up the overnight airwaves on the college station and struggling with class, it was clear to me that college was just going to take too long. I wanted to be in radio now and I was not learning anything that would help me get on the radio. In fact the most profound thing I can remember was from my class called Interpersonal communication. Professor Goetzinger lead the class and often remarked about how he got food and snot in his beard and it was a pain but he couldn't bring himself to shave it.
Nope, college was not for me and I had a plan. I remember my dad saying to me, OK your not going back next semester, what do you figure you'll do? Join the Air Force I gulped. And that's what I did. I tried to get into Armed Forces radio but they had not openings at the time, so I enlisted and became an Air Force Security Specialists.(Air Force version of MP).
During my time in the service I still dreamed of radio and spent lots of time listening to radio wherever I was and when I came home from the service, once again my dad said, what do you figure you'll do? My mom sort of came to the rescue. She had seen ads on TV for a Vocational school in Buffalo that had a course in radio. We looked up the school and made an appointment to go up for a tour.
The Advanced Training Center, on Sheridan drive in Buffalo was mainly a welding and auto body repair kind of school. Buy a guy named Bill Desing, convinced them to offer radio and he put the course together. It was six month, six hours a day from noon to six of combined classroom and in studio training. The goal of the course was for each student to emerge with a professional resume, a three minute air check, three commercials written and produced by the student and a nice well rounded understanding of how radio worked. Plus in those days you had to pass an FCC test and get a license to be on the air, so there was prep for that test as well.
Sign me up I said. My GI benefits paid for school, and I could draw unemployment while going to school so I started making the 60 mile drive to Buffalo every day, just in time for the Oil crisis of 1977. Gas prices jumped from about 55 cents a gallon to over a dollar, but hey, I was gonna be on the radio.
The school had two fully equipped studios. One was styled after an FM station and the other an AM Top 40 station and we got to spend time in each studio almost every day. We had about three hours of classroom time and three hours working on air and writing and producing commercials. Mr. Desing had a well rounded background and he really taught us a lot. He had copies of old radio shows like Gunsmoke, Fred Allen and The Shadow. We spent hours listening to these old radio dramas and learned about the golden age of radio. It was frustrating sometimes thought because we would get hooked on one of the shows and then find out that he didn't have the next show in the series and we got left hanging.
Bill Desing was my first mentor and he gave me great advice. I had told him of my make believe radio station and my failed college experience. He said to me, I predict you will be programming radio station in big markets someday. He said you're a natural and while working on the air is fun, you seem to want to be in charge and that's rare. He also told me something very important: Do not limit yourself by Geography. what he meant was : go where the jobs are. Radio is tough to break into and you have to willing to go to wherever to get that first job. Plus remember there are only a few radio stations in each town. So when you want to advance, be ready to move. I know this was great advice because my 11 classmates, all from Buffalo thought they could get a break, and get their first job in a large market. Didn't happen. None of them every got a job in radio as far as I know.
At the end of six months I passed the course with flying colors. I had a well done resume'. I had a decent three minute on air check tape and three commercials that I wrote and produced. The next step was
to place an ad in Broadcasting magazine. Don't remember exactly what it said, but in any event it was telling the radio world that I was ready for that first challenge.
I can't say I was full of confidence as I waited for the phone to ring, but I was somewhat optimistic. I had managed to get a part time job at a station in Olean (20 miles away). So while going to school during the week I got to do the Sunday morning god squad shift on WMNS AM 1360. God squad is what we call that shift because it was mostly airing religious programs on tape. I did get to be on the air from 6 AM to 7 AM before all the religion started. After that it was mostly getting the tapes ready to go and baby sitting the station, but hey it was a start. One of the shows I had to run each Sunday was the Lutheran Hour. The first time I ran the show I panicked! It lasted only 15 minutes. I couldn't figure out where the other 45 minutes went. Turns out the show was only supposed to be 15 minutes. Don't ask me why they still called it the Lutheran HOUR.
My first time actually on WMNS was a nightmare. I was going to ATC during the week and contacted the program director of the station to offer my services on a part time basis. He said sure come in for an interview. I had one of my college shows for an audition tape and he listened for a minute and then said follow me. We walked through- the station to the on air control room. The midday guys was playing a tune and had his feet up on the console, reading the newspaper. I glanced at the big clock on the wall and saw that it was about five minutes before noon. Oh, he is letting me see the control room I thought. Must be he is going to hire me. As I began the self congratulation in my mind I heard the PD say to the midday guy: hey take a break, go get some lunch. He's taking over and he gestured to me.
What! OK the PD said you've got a five minute newscast at the top of the hour, then you'll play tunes until 1, here are the commercials for the hour, the script for the newscast, a pair of headphones and up on the wall is the format clock. Follow it..and have some fun, I'm going to lunch.
My face got so hot I felt like I was on the sun. Somehow I muddled through the hour and wasn't horrible because he did in fact hire me for the god squad. I do remember driving home that day thinking why in the world do I want to do this?
Then something cool happened. The phone did ring. Ben Granger, the General manager of a station
in Peru Illinois wanted to talk to me about coming to work. He had seen my add and requested I send a resume and tape, so I did.
He called back a week later and said, how would you like to be our program director? What! I thought this was for an on air position. No he said, we want you to come out and be our program director. I thought to myself I have no idea how to do that. So of course I accepted the job, we agreed that my pay would be
105 dollars a week and I loaded up my car and headed for Illinois.
I'm a program director, now what do I do?
Next time: What do you mean your second job in radio was as a General Manager?
Who made the decision on the contests and station promotions?
Yes, I had fun making tapes and pretending to be on the air. I could also see how it would be cool
to be thought of as someone on the radio. I did not however really crave attention or want to be out in public with this. I just thought it was cool to play records and talk on the radio.
So with Mr. Shaners help, I selected SUNY Geneseo as a destination for college. They had a good communications department, plus as a teachers college I learned the female to male ratio was about
5 to 1.
Upon arrival at Geneseo I sought out the college radio station to see if I could get on the air. There were actually two stations. An FM non commercial station that featured NPR programming and played jazz music and an unruly animal house type AM carrier current station (could only be heard on campus) that played Top 40 music. The FM folks were snobs and I immediately tried to get on the AM station WGBS. While hanging around the station I saw the on air schedule posted on the control room door. There were at least 40 names and a long waiting list of people who wanted to be on the air. The station manger was a guy named Steve Rondinero, who was famous on campus because he already had some commercial experience working on several stations in Buffalo including my dream station WKBW. He had just completed a summer of working part time overnights on KB and often held us in rapture while telling stories of what it was like. Of course since he worked overnights he was able to get to know legendary KB morning guy Danny Nevereth. Steve was also a bit of a prick and listened with distaste to one of my home made radio station tapes, which I was hoping to use as an audition for the station. He told me to get lost, and talk to him next year when I was a sophomore. Unfortunately there are still lots of PD"s in the business who act that way, but that's another story.
I was disappointed, but still determined. So as the fall wore on and I became disillusioned with the whole college experience and the seemingly useless courses I was taking I came up with an idea. What if I when to Rondinero and proposed to work the overnight shift on the station. No one wanted to do that, in fact the station signed off at midnight most nights during the week because no one would work. Plus most everyone was sleeping and not paying any attention to the station.
When I hit him with the idea Rondinero simple said, sure knock yourself out. It was a stroke of genius, except for the fact that it make making class the next day very tough and while I got lots of on air time that first semester, my heart was just not into any of the classes I was taking. My grades were not good and after on semester of burning up the overnight airwaves on the college station and struggling with class, it was clear to me that college was just going to take too long. I wanted to be in radio now and I was not learning anything that would help me get on the radio. In fact the most profound thing I can remember was from my class called Interpersonal communication. Professor Goetzinger lead the class and often remarked about how he got food and snot in his beard and it was a pain but he couldn't bring himself to shave it.
Nope, college was not for me and I had a plan. I remember my dad saying to me, OK your not going back next semester, what do you figure you'll do? Join the Air Force I gulped. And that's what I did. I tried to get into Armed Forces radio but they had not openings at the time, so I enlisted and became an Air Force Security Specialists.(Air Force version of MP).
During my time in the service I still dreamed of radio and spent lots of time listening to radio wherever I was and when I came home from the service, once again my dad said, what do you figure you'll do? My mom sort of came to the rescue. She had seen ads on TV for a Vocational school in Buffalo that had a course in radio. We looked up the school and made an appointment to go up for a tour.
The Advanced Training Center, on Sheridan drive in Buffalo was mainly a welding and auto body repair kind of school. Buy a guy named Bill Desing, convinced them to offer radio and he put the course together. It was six month, six hours a day from noon to six of combined classroom and in studio training. The goal of the course was for each student to emerge with a professional resume, a three minute air check, three commercials written and produced by the student and a nice well rounded understanding of how radio worked. Plus in those days you had to pass an FCC test and get a license to be on the air, so there was prep for that test as well.
Sign me up I said. My GI benefits paid for school, and I could draw unemployment while going to school so I started making the 60 mile drive to Buffalo every day, just in time for the Oil crisis of 1977. Gas prices jumped from about 55 cents a gallon to over a dollar, but hey, I was gonna be on the radio.
The school had two fully equipped studios. One was styled after an FM station and the other an AM Top 40 station and we got to spend time in each studio almost every day. We had about three hours of classroom time and three hours working on air and writing and producing commercials. Mr. Desing had a well rounded background and he really taught us a lot. He had copies of old radio shows like Gunsmoke, Fred Allen and The Shadow. We spent hours listening to these old radio dramas and learned about the golden age of radio. It was frustrating sometimes thought because we would get hooked on one of the shows and then find out that he didn't have the next show in the series and we got left hanging.
Bill Desing was my first mentor and he gave me great advice. I had told him of my make believe radio station and my failed college experience. He said to me, I predict you will be programming radio station in big markets someday. He said you're a natural and while working on the air is fun, you seem to want to be in charge and that's rare. He also told me something very important: Do not limit yourself by Geography. what he meant was : go where the jobs are. Radio is tough to break into and you have to willing to go to wherever to get that first job. Plus remember there are only a few radio stations in each town. So when you want to advance, be ready to move. I know this was great advice because my 11 classmates, all from Buffalo thought they could get a break, and get their first job in a large market. Didn't happen. None of them every got a job in radio as far as I know.
At the end of six months I passed the course with flying colors. I had a well done resume'. I had a decent three minute on air check tape and three commercials that I wrote and produced. The next step was
to place an ad in Broadcasting magazine. Don't remember exactly what it said, but in any event it was telling the radio world that I was ready for that first challenge.
I can't say I was full of confidence as I waited for the phone to ring, but I was somewhat optimistic. I had managed to get a part time job at a station in Olean (20 miles away). So while going to school during the week I got to do the Sunday morning god squad shift on WMNS AM 1360. God squad is what we call that shift because it was mostly airing religious programs on tape. I did get to be on the air from 6 AM to 7 AM before all the religion started. After that it was mostly getting the tapes ready to go and baby sitting the station, but hey it was a start. One of the shows I had to run each Sunday was the Lutheran Hour. The first time I ran the show I panicked! It lasted only 15 minutes. I couldn't figure out where the other 45 minutes went. Turns out the show was only supposed to be 15 minutes. Don't ask me why they still called it the Lutheran HOUR.
My first time actually on WMNS was a nightmare. I was going to ATC during the week and contacted the program director of the station to offer my services on a part time basis. He said sure come in for an interview. I had one of my college shows for an audition tape and he listened for a minute and then said follow me. We walked through- the station to the on air control room. The midday guys was playing a tune and had his feet up on the console, reading the newspaper. I glanced at the big clock on the wall and saw that it was about five minutes before noon. Oh, he is letting me see the control room I thought. Must be he is going to hire me. As I began the self congratulation in my mind I heard the PD say to the midday guy: hey take a break, go get some lunch. He's taking over and he gestured to me.
What! OK the PD said you've got a five minute newscast at the top of the hour, then you'll play tunes until 1, here are the commercials for the hour, the script for the newscast, a pair of headphones and up on the wall is the format clock. Follow it..and have some fun, I'm going to lunch.
My face got so hot I felt like I was on the sun. Somehow I muddled through the hour and wasn't horrible because he did in fact hire me for the god squad. I do remember driving home that day thinking why in the world do I want to do this?
Then something cool happened. The phone did ring. Ben Granger, the General manager of a station
in Peru Illinois wanted to talk to me about coming to work. He had seen my add and requested I send a resume and tape, so I did.
He called back a week later and said, how would you like to be our program director? What! I thought this was for an on air position. No he said, we want you to come out and be our program director. I thought to myself I have no idea how to do that. So of course I accepted the job, we agreed that my pay would be
105 dollars a week and I loaded up my car and headed for Illinois.
I'm a program director, now what do I do?
Next time: What do you mean your second job in radio was as a General Manager?
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